It’s the first Saturday of the month and that means that it’s #6Degrees of bookish separation time!
Here’s a recap of the rules:
I hope the January blues haven’t hit you too hard: we’ve just moved house and are yet to set up the internet, so I’ve been living like an eighteenth century hermit and it’s actually been quite fun! I’ve had to journey out to the neighbouring town to post this, so I very much hope you enjoy it!
This month, we’re starting with…
This Book Will Save Your Life/ A. M. Homes
Although it’s been out for some time, this book caused quite a splash when it first came out, and it sticks in my mind partly because of it’s beautifully garish cover, festooned with pop-artish donuts.
The Lemon Grove/ Helen Walsh
Another book which has a beautiful bright cover (just what we need in chilly England at this time of year) is Helen Walsh’s The Lemon Grove. I read this book last summer and loved the languid prose and the holiday setting. Although it had a strong central idea, I felt it rather petered out towards the end and didn’t quite live up to what it could have been.
Elizabeth is Missing/ Emma Healey
The Lemon Grove was a book I picked up on my Indie Book Crawl this summer. Visiting so many bookshops, it was inevitable that I would spend a small fortune, and another book I bought and read on the journey was Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey, which has just won the Costa First Novel Award. I loved how this book dealt with dementia as well as the strength of the protagonist’s voice.
The End of Everything/ Megan Abbott
Elizabeth is Missing’s main character is trying to piece together the clues to solve a fifty year old mystery. In Megan Abbott’s The End of Everything, the protagonist is also trying to get to the bottom of a missing person case: that of her best friend.
Lolita/ Vladimir Nabokov
At times painfully dark and difficult to read, Abbott’s book but me in mind of Lolita: both books dealing with older men praying on young girls. Despite its shadowy core, Lolita is as compelling as it is horrifying.
The Lovely Bones/ Alice Sebold
Another book dealing with similar themes is Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, which was a huge success and was also made into a blockbuster film. For me, the supernatural aspects of the ending became a little far-fetched, but again, I loved the concept behind the book.
Life of Pi/ Yann Martel
If I’m not wrong, this book came out in the same year as The Lovely Bones. Also made into a successful film, I preferred the book, which played with the unreliable narrator motif and the reader’s imagination to great narrative effect.
So, from This Book Will Save Your Life, to Life of Pi, even the titles of my first and last books link back to each other this week!
Annabel Smith ended up with Willy Vlautin’s The Free, a book I’ve never heard of. I wonder how she got there…
What does your chain look like? Please post it or a link to your blog post in the comments below.
Our next #6Degrees post will be up on Saturday 7th March and we’ll be starting with Cheryl Strayed’s Wild. See you
Emma Chapman 
Apart from the starting point in this month’s chain, I’ve read all the books in your chain! So many thoughts… I actually couldn’t stand The Lemon Grove – agree that the idea was good but the main character – urgh. And the sex scenes? Double urgh. BUT I loved all the other books in your chain, particularly The Lovely Bones which although I read years ago, still haunts me.
I also have Elizabeth is Missing in my chain but arrived at it in a different way 🙂
Here’s my chain: https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wordpress.com/2015/02/07/six-degrees-of-separation-from-this-book-will-save-your-life-to-the-blazing-world/
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What a coincidence I have just been talking to my mam about Elizabeth Is Missing which is what her book club have been reading.
Not a fan of the Lovely Bones. Reading it I couldn’t help but feel the author had gone out of her way to shock at the cost of the story.
http://pettywitter.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/6-degrees-of-separation-9-this-book.html
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Great links. I can definitely see the connection between The End of Everything and Lolita – that ‘nymphette’ thing. I love Life of Pi – and how it took you in a circle. I also preferred the book (which is no surprise – I nearly always do).
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Nice list! See mine at https://bookishtendencieskatie.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/6-degrees-of-separation-this-book-will-save-your-life/
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I loved Elizabeth is Missing. It is a novel I can thank twitter and the blogsphere for introducing to me.
I’ve never read any Megan Abbott but am curious, particularly about her recent novel The Fever.
Here’s my chain: http://wp.me/p3dB1g-p8
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I was AWOL last month and late this month. Perhaps next month I will actually be on time! http://melindatognini.com/2015/02/21/6-degrees-of-separation-this-book-will-save-your-life/
I really want to read Elizabeth is Missing – looks like such an interesting book. I wonder how it compares to Still Alice. Have you read them both? If so, were they quite different treatments of dementia and memory loss?
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