It’s the first Saturday of the month which means a new round of #6degrees and this month’s starting book is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
You can find the details and rules of the #6degrees meme at bookaremyfavouriteandbest, but in a nutshell, everyone has the same starting book and from there, you connect to other books. Some of the connections made are so impressive, it’s a lot of fun to follow.
I bought A Gentleman in Moscow wholly with the intention of reading it for this month’s six degrees but true to form, it’s still on my #tbr. It’s at the top of the pile though, I promise! I thought I might have been able to squeeze it in this past week but that turned out to be overly ambitious. As an alternative, I used the page 69 test:
Marshall McLuhan, prophet of the modern media age, recommends that the reader turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book.
Well I’d already bought the book, but would reading page 69 give me something to work with in terms of steering me towards a link? Yes, it did. On page 69, there seems to be a discussion going on around the precision of words, which immediately brought to mind The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen. The character of Augusta loves learning and in her younger years, this manifested itself in an obsession with words and knowledge that she would bombard her family with. Running alongside Augusta’s story is that of Parfait, an African refugee who has lost most of his family to civil war. Next link! When Elephants Fight by Majok Tulba, set in South Sudan and following the life of Juba as he flees his village and treks across the desert to a refuge camp. I’m just going to jump right across to Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen now, the link being, of course, the word elephant in the title. Fun fact: Water for Elephants was the very first e-book I ever purchased, back in 2011 when I became the thrilled owner of an iRiver eReader. The last e-book I bought? Last week, and it was This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, after reading a glowing review on one of the many blogs I follow (sorry, genuinely can’t remember who raved about this novel, but if it was you, thank you!). I’m very partial to birds on book covers, being a bird lover. They always catch my eye enough to get me to at least read the blurb. The last book I read with a bird on the cover was The Breeding Season by Amanda Niehaus, just last week. It was a real blend of sex and science themes, but if we’re going to start talking about science, I’m always going to bring it back to The Second Cure by Margaret Morgan, which is my favourite science fiction novel ever.
Next month (October 5, 2019), we’ll begin with a book that Kate says everyone’s talking about – Three Women by Lisa Taddeo. I’ve never heard about it, but I have a month to find out. Watch me look it up on the Friday before! Until then…
I love the idea of checking out page 69. I’m going to try it. As for A Gentleman in Moscow, I’m looking forward to reading your review. I adored it and think you will to.
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Lots of people are saying this so I’m prioritising it sooner rather than later. Curiosity has gotten the better of me.
I’m going to try page 69 out on a few other books too. Maybe some random picks from my tbr, see if it makes me want to keep reading. By the way, I did want to keep reading in this case!
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I hope your expectations are exceeded with this one.
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🤞
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I’ve been hearing The Other Half of Augusta Hope mentioned a few times recently, and think I may need to add it to my TBR pile – sounds like something I’d enjoy.
My chain is here: https://www.melindatognini.com.au/6-degrees-of-separation-from-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to-on-the-brink-of-everything/
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I appreciated The Other Half of Augusta Hope but I’ll be honest, Augusta herself was rather tiresome – for me anyway. But I still found it to be a very good book.
Your chain is very intriguing, where you wandered! I didn’t know The Ruin was going to be adapted. I better hurry up and read it!
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I loved this starter book… but I’m not so sure about next month’s!
https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/09/07/six-degrees-of-separation-a-gentleman-in-moscow-to/
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No, I can’t see myself reading next month’s title. That topic/theme holds little interest for me.
I very much enjoyed your chain!
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I’m so glad Theresa that a prolific reader like you hadn’t read the book everyone is talking about either!
I haven’t read any of your books but my daughter loved Water for elephants.
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Sometimes I don’t get to the books everyone is talking about until long after everyone has stopped talking about them!
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I hope you get to read A Gentleman in Moscow soon, it is such a great story!
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I’m going to prioritise it within the next fortnight!
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I read Beneath a Darkening Sky from Majok Tulba, it was very affecting and I’m sure I gave it 5 stars. I’ll have to look at When Elephants Fight.
Thanks for sharing your chain.
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Thanks for the p. 69 tip. I hadn’t heard it before and know I’ll be using it in the future, as I often have not read the opening book for these 6 Degrees exercises. Still, I love them, and I love reading everyone’s chains.
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I’ll be keen to hear if page 69 works for you!
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I very much admire your dedication to the meme… and glad to give you reasons to add to the TBR stack 🙂
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It’s a lot of fun. And I suffer from an affliction that prevents me from ever doing anything by halves… 😁
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You made an amazing chain from Gentleman to Elephants. Wow! My Six Degrees
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Thank you! It was a good mental exercise. 😁
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Ooooh, the page 69 test!! I’d never heard of that before, that’s gold!! I’ve not read A Gentlemen In Moscow either (are we the last readers not to have picked it up?), but someone whose recommendations I put much store in said that his earlier one, Rules of Civility, is better. That makes me think of Jazz Age, which is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. That makes me think of underappreciated women writers, which makes me think of Stella Gibbons’s Cold Comfort Farm. That makes me think of the snarky letter Virginia Woolf wrote about Gibbons winning a prize, so Mrs Dalloway… is this how the game works?? 😅 It’s good fun!
And btw, if it helps I read and reviewed Three Women a little while back for a different website (https://primer.com.au/three-women-reveal-their-sex-lives-book-review/) – I’m not sure the book would be quite your cup of tea, from what I know of your tastes, BUT it should definitely get the thought cogs spinning for this degrees of separation game!
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