Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.
The featured book is Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. I’ve never heard of this book (I have a feeling this might be a theme for me with this meme since there aren’t many YA or children’s books featured), so I just went with the first thing that caught my eye on the cover and used that as my jumping off point: the skyscrapers.
The city skyline on the cover of Fleishman made me think of a book with the ultimate skyscraper: The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee. This book is full of soap-opera worthy drama and a creepy sibling relationship. That creepy sibling relationship made me think of my next book:
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma goes deep into creepy sibling relationship territory … and then it just keeps going. This book is incredibly disturbing and also heart-wrenching, and it made me sob uncontrollably while reading it.
Another book that made me cry hysterically was All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. I read this book, which delves into some serious mental health issues, on my birthday in 2015. Happy birthday to me? (In the book’s defense, I knew what I was getting into when I picked it up.)
And now that I’ve mentioned my birthday, I immediately made the connection with … Birthday by Meredith Russo. This story of a transgender girl’s journey to self-acceptance made me cry too—boy this list is getting depressing!
Okay, so let’s go a little lighter. George by Alex Gino is a sweet middle-grade story about a transgender girl who just wants to play Charlotte the spider in the school play—and have the world see her for who she truly is. The single-name title of this book brought me to my next book…
Another book I’ve read with a single-word title that’s the main character’s name is Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Actually, now that I think of it, all of the full-length books in The Lunar Chronicles would fit this description. I’m using an image of the new Cinder cover because I know lots of you just want more reasons to feast your eyes on it. 🙂
And there you have it! I made my way from Fleishman Is in Trouble to The Lunar Chronicles, with a few detours along the way. I ended up with mostly YA in the list this time, which is interesting. I enjoy these meanderings through my (virtual) bookshelves!
What book comes to your mind when you think of Fleishman Is in Trouble? I want to know!
I haven’t heard of Fleishman Is In Trouble. The first book it reminds me of is The Trouble With Goats And Sheep, which I also haven’t read but has a great title.
That is a great title!!
Forbidden is one that has been sitting on my shelf for years… still unread. I really do want to read it but for some reason keep putting it off. Birthday truly broke my heart. Morgan’s pain was a visceral thing and was like a gut punch.
Forbidden is one of those books that can easily break you—you have to be in the right frame of mind for it!
I’ve heard of the first book, but it’s not one that I’ve read. However, I DO want to read Forbidden and I HAVE read George and the Lunar Chronicles. This is a fun little ‘game.’
-Lauren
It is fun! It’s interesting to see where your brain will take you.
Liked following your thought process with this one!
It’s interesting how these connections get made. I enjoy this meme!
I love your quirky connections, though a lot of tears today yes! Mine is here: https://wordsandpeace.com/2020/02/01/six-degrees-of-separation-from-trouble-to-wedding/
Yes, lots of tears indeed!
what a fun meme. i thought of sex and the city because i watch the reruns on cable. 🙂
That connection makes perfect sense.
I also rarely know anything about the books chosen for the #6degrees starting points, but there’s still always something I can pick as a jumping off point. I do like that you can play along even without having read the starting book!
Also, those new Lunar Chronicles covers are STUNNING. I’ve been drooling over them for a while now.
Yes, it hasn’t been an issue if I don’t know the first book. You can always come up with SOME connection to make.
And I actually just won a signed copy of the new Cinder from Jessica @ aGREATread! So excited!!
At an other blog you wrote about this self-hosted WordPress site, where it did not seem to work to place a “Like” button. Your web searching gave you an option in your Jetpack plugin. which seems to work. You asked at the other blog to come over here and like a post for you so you could make sure it works. What it does!
Your “Like” button seems to work now (after you had figgered it out)
Yes, thank you! I did figure it out. 🙂
This is such a fun concept! I love how it’s a mix of word and picture association! My friend and I used to do something similar where one of us would draw a picture and the other would draw something we associated with the picture and on and on. It was a lot of fun!
Also, having read Forbidden, I definitely agree that book is very disturbing but also amazing an heart wrenching. I couldn’t understand why people found this book so incredible until I read it for myself.
That does sound like a fun game!!
Yes, Forbidden has stayed in my mind for years. It’s definitely disturbing, but I loved it!
You do have some deep books on this list, but they were wonderful books. Sometimes, I love a good crying book, and those tend to stay with me for a long time too
Books that hit me this emotionally definitely stay with me for the long term.
I haven’t heard of the first book either. But I love how you connected one book to the next. Especially since it involved tears, I’m always amazed at how many books can pull that emotion from me. What a fun post and idea!
Yes, these books had me especially tearful!!
I’ve read the Thousandth Floor and it was very dramatic and yet I loved it. It shocked me! I have been wanting to read Forbidden since forever… and I love the Lunar Chronicles. 😉 I always love seeing these posts and thinking of what I would’ve come up with too.
The connections are really fun to come up with!
I need to do this meme again. But like you said, a lot of the books they start with are ones I haven’t heard of. But I like how you used the cover to help you move it on. Fun list!
Yeah, I have a feeling most of the starting books will be ones I don’t know. But I can still find SOME connection, so that’s okay.
I love this meme! I’ve always had fun with it when I’ve done it. I love the links you made. I’ve wanted to read Forbidden for a while and leave it on my TBR when I’ve purged other books. And the Cinder cover is really so adorable!
It’s a really fun way to look at your books. I’ve just jumped in with this during the last couple of months, but I enjoy it!