#6degrees October

#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 Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquival.

Are you game?

Old image alert - Kate @Books Are My Favourite & Best now hosts #6Degrees but this is a good refresh of the rules.

Like Water For Chocolate was a huge favourite of mine in 1992. Like many other fans, it was no doubt thanks to the film that came out that year. The book was actually first published in 1989 and became a runaway bestseller in Mexico and the States. The 1992 movie then introduced this delicious story to the rest of the world.

After seeing the movie, I quickly purchased the book and devoured it several times in greedy, compulsive sittings. Mexico and magic realism was suddenly my thing.

I wanted more.

Not long after my binge reading of LWFC, I discovered The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols in my local bookstore.

I was rather taken with the cover and with Robert Redford's name on the cover. 

In my twenties I had a slight obsession with Robert Redford movies and watched most of his backlist as well as those he was now directing and producing himself. My ignorance of the lower states of America at that time, also meant that I thought that New Mexico was actually, you know, in Mexico.

I loved the beginning of this book, it was quirky and fun, but I remember getting tired of it's rambling nature by the halfway mark. 

Back then I always finished books that I started - especially if I had paid good money for it - but it was a struggle. And I never bothered to watch the movie version either.

In a reverse link, Robert Redford's wonderful movie version of Out of Africa was a movie that I wished I hadn't bothered with the book.

The movie pulled together stories and information about Blixen's life from various sources, not just the book. The book was no where near as cohesive or satisfying.

Another book that I found unsatisfying and lacking in cohesion was Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Even though I read this during my blogging years, I failed to write a review for it. 

After loving The Buried Giant and The Remains of the Day so much, my disappointment left me speechless! However, that doesn't stop me from being delighted that Ishiguro won this year's Nobel Prize for Literature.

Ishiguro's nomination boosted my stats for Reading the Nobels. Until last night, I had only read 19 Nobel Prize winners; now I have read 20!

The earliest Nobel winner that I've read to date is Rabindranath Tagore from the 1913 awards.

I read his most well-known book The Home and the World during a fabulous readalong last year.

It reminded me why I love Indian literature so much, but also revealed how much I still don't know about the history and culture of this ancient country.

In an attempt to rectify this situation, I have started Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Shashi Tharoor.

It coincides with my recent readings about early Australian history from the Aboriginal perspective.

History is usually written by the victors to explain how this came about. 

Assumptions, prejudices and justifications get in the way of the so-called facts.

It's not easy for other voices or other perspectives to be heard.

Naturally, these other voices also have their own assumptions, prejudices and justifications, but it is important that the dominant narrative is challenged by these other stories and versions of history.

Dark Emu Black Seeds: agriculture or accident? by Bruce Pascoe is one such challenge.

This ended up being quite a well-travelled #6degrees, taking us from Mexico, to New Mexico, Kenya, a dystopian English boarding school, India and finally home again to Australia.

Where did you end up this month?