It’s the first Saturday of the month so that means it’s #6degrees of separation time! This month’s starting book is Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner.
You can find the details and rules of the #6degrees meme at booksaremyfavouriteandbest, but in a nutshell, on the first Saturday of every month, everyone has the same starting book and from there, you connect in a variety of ways to other books. Some of the connections made are so impressive, it’s a lot of fun to follow.
Fleishman is in Trouble is a New York story so I’m going to use that as my first link. The last New York story I read was City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. This can be linked thematically and by setting with Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, another story (that I really loved) about a young girl starting a new life in New York. It’s an easy jump from here to The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman, which is set in Brooklyn. Can I make this whole chain about New York stories? I can give it a red-hot go. Next up is The Godfather by Mario Puzo, and from here I’m jumping to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. While The Goldfinch does have multiple settings, it is predominantly a New York story. Everything that happens to Theo began in New York. My last New York story I’m going to link to is Chasing Windmills by Catherine Ryan Hyde. I wonder how different this chain might have been had I actually read the starting book like I intended? I guess we’ll never know!
Next month we’ll begin with Lucy Treloar’s Wolfe Island.
Theresa Smith Writes 
Gosh, I actually managed to get this done on the right day! https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/02/01/six-degrees-of-separation-from-fleishman-is-in-trouble-to/
PS I loved Brooklyn!!
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Brooklyn is one novel that I can happily revisit. I enjoyed the film too.
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I’ve read other Toibin but not Brooklyn, mostly because my husband said it wasn’t as good as some of his other books. They made a screen version of it, but we didn’t see it.
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It’s the only Toibin I’ve read! The film is also very good.
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Several books here that interest me. I recently read a 50th anniversary edition of The Godfather, it was something that had never appealed to me before.
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I remember really loving The Godfather when I read it 30 years ago. I was a big fan of the films too. I’m not sure how well they date though. Did you enjoy The Godfather?
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I’ve never seen the films, but the book felt like it was one of those that needed to be read, a classic crime and betrayal, it’s not a genre I particularly read, but the book was a gift; I gave it 4 stars.
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Yes, that’s a good way to describe it: classic crime and betrayal.
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I really need to read City of Girls!
Enjoyed your chain!
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City Of Girls really worked for me. A couple of friends, not so much, but I loved it.
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I’m a sucker for New York stories and could have filled a chain with them as well. Although I was disappointed by the Gilbert, I loved Brooklyn and The Goldfinch.
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I’m a bit the same with New York on the screen. It’s one place I’d love to visit one day.
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I’m a fan of New York set novels so this chain is right up my alley.
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It’s a city that has a lot of appeal when it comes to material for stories.
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Oooohhh, New York stories! THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES by Tom Wolfe, ROSEMARY’S BABY by Ira Levin, LILLIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK by Kathleen (i think) Rooney. What a well done chain!
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I haven’t heard of those ones! There must be so many! Even now I can think of a few more that I didn’t think of yesterday.
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I hadn’t read the starting book either (I usually haven’t).
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I enjoyed the movie Brooklyn, but I’m not usually a fan of Tobin’s works.
Great chain!
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Ah, New York, the city that never sleeps! I liked your chain. I read The Godfather back in the 1970s and have seen all three films. Enjoyed them at the time, but not sure if I would ever watch them again.
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Yes, I’m not sure how they would stand up today!
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I used to live in New York and love reading books set there (although have not read the Fleishman book yet), so particularly enjoyed this chain!
I am usually a ‘read the book first’ person but have seen and enjoyed the movie of Brooklyn and the first Godfather movie but not the books. Most of the men I know just love all the Godfather movies and can quote from them endlessly! I find this very funny, especially because it seems so American and one of the detectives in the most recent Elly Griffiths mystery (set in UK) which I was reading today also likes to quote from the Godfather. I haven’t read Goldfinch yet but mean to and bought a used copy recently, thinking it would be a good airplane book.
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It would be a good airplane book, come to think of it. I actually read Brooklyn after I’d watched it, which still worked well for me. I find myself doing that more and more of late, watching first, reading after.
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I love the idea of making the setting the link between all of the books. I’ve read two of these – The Summer of Impossible Things and The Godfather. I liked them both.
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It was a fun exercise, thinking about the setting above all else.
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