#6degrees is a monthly meme hosted by Kate @Books Are My Favourite and Best.
Oftentimes I haven't read the starting book for this meme, but I can assure you that I only play the next 6 books with ones I have actually read.
If I've read the book during this blogging life, then I include my review, otherwise, you just have to take my word for it!
This month the starting book is Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.
Are you game?
I haven't been a very good player lately.
Each month seems to roll around faster than the last.
In my head I was still thinking of links for Room, until I realised last night that it had been and gone.
Apparently it's April already and our starting book is Memoirs of a Geisha!
Which is about as perfect as life gets right now!
I have not read Memoirs of a Geisha, but it is THE VERY book sitting on top of my TBR pile ready to come to Japan with me in just a few short weeks!
I could now simply pick 6 more books set in Japan and be done with it....but that would too easy!
I little research revealed that Golden was sued for breach of contract and defamation by one of the retired geisha's he interviewed for the book.
Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help faced a similar problem when her brother's maid sued for "an unpermitted appropriation of her name and image."
One of the reasons I took The Help on holidays with me (way back in my pre-blogging when) was for the pretty birds on the cover.
A shiny, pretty bird cover was also part of the attraction for picking Robyn Cadwallader's The Anchoress.
Blurring the line between fact and fiction is something that Jeanette Winterson does so magnificently in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
My actually cover is the one in the middle of the bottom row, but I loved this montage of covers and I rather wish that my book was more like the one on the bottom right instead.
Cover love brings me to a more recent favourite.
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar.
The cover is a collage of three of Azar's own paintings called The Poetry Night, Two Birds and Red Bird & Moon (more birds!)
Red bird and moon was all the prompt I needed to make my final link this month.
Okay, it's not exactly a moon, but the mockingjay is definitely red.
Well, red with a bit of orange, but oranges are not the only fruit, or colour, so let's leave it at that shall we!
And let's see what May brings us.
#6degrees
 |
Old image alert - Kate
|
I haven't been a very good player lately.
Each month seems to roll around faster than the last.
In my head I was still thinking of links for Room, until I realised last night that it had been and gone.
Apparently it's April already and our starting book is Memoirs of a Geisha!
I have not read Memoirs of a Geisha, but it is THE VERY book sitting on top of my TBR pile ready to come to Japan with me in just a few short weeks!
I could now simply pick 6 more books set in Japan and be done with it....but that would too easy!
I little research revealed that Golden was sued for breach of contract and defamation by one of the retired geisha's he interviewed for the book.
Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help faced a similar problem when her brother's maid sued for "an unpermitted appropriation of her name and image."
One of the reasons I took The Help on holidays with me (way back in my pre-blogging when) was for the pretty birds on the cover.
A shiny, pretty bird cover was also part of the attraction for picking Robyn Cadwallader's The Anchoress.
But the main reason I wanted to read The Anchoress was Cadwallader herself.
I saw her talk at the Sydney Writer's Festival a few years ago and came away from it determined to read her book ASAP.
Another author that I was inspired to read thanks to her participation in the SWF, was Canadian author, Kim Thuy.
Ru was a beautiful, poetic story that was a delicious mix of fact and fiction.
My actually cover is the one in the middle of the bottom row, but I loved this montage of covers and I rather wish that my book was more like the one on the bottom right instead.
Cover love brings me to a more recent favourite.
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar.
The cover is a collage of three of Azar's own paintings called The Poetry Night, Two Birds and Red Bird & Moon (more birds!)
Red bird and moon was all the prompt I needed to make my final link this month.
Okay, it's not exactly a moon, but the mockingjay is definitely red.
Well, red with a bit of orange, but oranges are not the only fruit, or colour, so let's leave it at that shall we!
And let's see what May brings us.
#6degrees
Love the way you kept the bird theme coming back through! And these are some gorgeous covers - I love the one for The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree.
ReplyDeleteThe birds were my added bonus this month :-)
DeleteI want to read all the books on your chain! The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar is already on my list of 18 books to read in 2018, but I think I will have to add The Anchoress as well, because it keeps coming up on my radar. I loved The Help, but was so interested to hear about the issue of appropriation, as I had already been wondering about this when it came to Memoirs of a Geisha.
ReplyDeleteHere's my chain: https://www.melindatognini.com.au/6-degrees-of-separation-from-memoirs-of-a-geisha-to/
The Anchoress was a great read & I'm really looking forward to her new book due out this month I believe.
DeleteWell, for once I've read the books in your chain (not Catching Fire but have read Hunger Games, so close enough!).
ReplyDeleteClever link to The Help - I was aware of the lawsuits but would never have thought to make that a link.
I really enjoyed Oranges, Ru and The Anchoress (I knew nothing of this role in the church and this book prompted me to do further reading - fascinating).
Enjoy Memoirs of a Geisha and your trip to Japan!
Cadwalleder's new book is called The Book of Colours - it sounds just as fascinating Kate - a deeply profound and moving novel of the importance of creativity and the power of connection, told through the story of the commissioning of a gorgeously decorated medieval manuscript, a Book of Hours.
DeleteLondon, 1321: In a small shop in Paternoster Row, three people are drawn together around the creation of a magnificent book, an illuminated manuscript of prayers, a book of hours. Even though the commission seems to answer the aspirations of each one of them, their own desires and ambitions threaten its completion. As each struggles to see the book come into being, it will change everything they have understood about their place in the world. In many ways, this is a story about power - it is also a novel about the place of women in the roiling and turbulent world of the early fourteenth century; what power they have, how they wield it, and just how temporary and conditional it is.
Enjoy your trip to Japan! I don't think I knew about the lawsuits, but that was a clever link. I've read the Geisha book and The Help and Catching Fire - not the others. Interesting chain and loved the birds. Always fun to see how others take the first prompt and then link...
ReplyDeleteHow great that Geisha is on the top of your pile! I have also been remiss in playing along with this but am going to try harder this month as Memoirs of a Geisha immediately brought back memories. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteGeisha was recommended to me by a colleague as something that would be easy to read whilst travelling, yet still be engaging and interesting. All the fond memory talk that has popped up in the comments today make me feel confident that it will turn out to be a very good choice indeed.
DeleteLove your links, Brona, particularly the birds. I'd forgotten that story about The help. Good link. And I loved your array of Oranges covers. I had that book in my link last month (or a recent one anyhow) and was spoiled for choice for covers. I chose mine which is the top right one of yours (the upside down black figure).
ReplyDeleteAnd publishing that comment was easy!
ReplyDeleteYou are VERY good at this!
ReplyDeleteGreat set of links, particularly the juicy one to The Help - I hadn't heard that before. I loved Man so already have Ru on my list, and enjoyed The Anchoress very much, too. Have a lovely time in Japan.
ReplyDeleteApparently Thuy has a new book out very soon (Vi) and Cadwallader has a new one out this month (set in the same time period as her previous one, so I'm really looking forward to it...once I get over my Japanese phase that is!)
DeleteWhat a great - and very beautiful - chain! Love the links you've made between the books. (Also love the birds!) I've read enjoyed Geisha, The Help and Oranges and the Anchoress is on my tbr. I could happily add the remaining books you've chosen too. Enjoy Japan!
ReplyDelete