Six degrees of separation from the French man’s wife to the Australian convict

Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by booksaremyfavouriteandbest,  and gets you to take one title, and link through five other titles to see where you end up.

January’s starting point is The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles. I was randomly gifted this book at our annual bookclub Christmas bookswap however never finished it.

 

Another older book I recieved at this annual event was Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert. It appears unread in my Goodreads account but I’m sure I finished this thanks to it also being a bookclub read. I seem to remember an interesting feminist discussion was had.

Madame Bovary’s title characters first name was Emma which takes me to another more classical book Emma by Jane Austen. I don’t believe I’ve read this book nor seen the complete movie however I do know I have watched the complete series of Pride And Prejudice along with reading the book which I seem to remember enjoying.

Another classic I’m sure I’ve read and enjoyed was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte when I was a teenager living at home. It sounds like I need to re-read a few of these to refresh my memory. Another book I read from the shelves at home was For the Term of his Natural Life by Marcus Clarke which for a long time I’ve wanted to re-read to see if it still as good as I remember.

Well I didn’t mean to take a classical theme but there you have it.

Do you have any thoughts on these links/books? Happy Reading 🙂

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6 degrees of separation – from Atonement to …the Light Between Oceans

Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by booksaremyfavouriteandbest,  and gets you to take one title, and link through five other titles to see where you end up. August’s starting point is Atonement by Ian McEwan. Although I’ve heard about this book and it is generally highly rated I’m not compelled to read it because….

…the only Ian McEwan book I’ve read is The Children Act which I won at a joint bookclub meeting. I only gave it 2/5 and it won’t entice me to read any more of his books in a hurry. Although I did enjoy learning about the antagonist’s perspective as a judge.  This novel reminds me of another book with children in the title…

…The Children of Men by P.D James. This was a fairly unsuccessful bookclub pick although again generally highly regarded. It was a suspenseful science-fiction novel with the one lasting image for me of prams with dolls. Goodreads synopsis sets the scene as ‘the human race has become infertile, and the last generation to be born is now adult. Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair become commonplace.’Again the theme of children reminds me of another thriller science-fiction book I read and unfortunately rated lowly, Perfect People by Peter James, again only 2/5.  John and Naomi lose a child and then get the chance to have another baby  guaranteed to have none of the genetic illnesses  passed from the parents. It doesn’t quite go to plan when they end up expecting twins who very quickly show signs of extreme intelligence.

I think I read all of these books around the same time, one of life’s funny coincidences, however to get away from my bad reviews lets move to…

…Claiming Noah by Amanda Ortlepp again covering the issue of infertility except this one I liked :p I guess I’m just not a sci-fi girl (even if I do find the plot-lines very interesting). This book was much more focused on the stories of two mothers whose lives become intertwined.

This leads me to my to-read list with The Light Between Oceans by M.L Stedman which I keep reading great reviews about. Again based on consequences from decisions surrounding fertility, I can’t wait to read it and think I will make it my next choice!

This link certainly stuck to a theme! Hope you all enjoy your August reading 🙂           What books have you been reading lately, heard of any of these?

June: Six degrees of WWW

I’ve been wondering how to bring myself back into the blogging world after somewhat of a hiatus (just one post since end of March). There are a few drafts sitting around, most of which would take a lot of effort to get back to where I was when I started them.

Today though I finished a great book (not the first since March!) and it may just be my Tipping Point – this months chosen starting title for the meme, Six Degrees of Separation  hosted by booksaremyfavouriteandbest. The meme gets you to take one title, and link through six other titles to see where you end up.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell sounds like my kind of book. I’m a big believer in small acts of kindness and my big ambition in life is to make a difference. His focus however it seems is in how products sell so perhaps not so much my thing.

My most recent depressive experience has turned into quite a tipping point for me – I’ve quite my job, not completed one uni subject and extended another. These are pretty big changes and I wouldn’t normally advocate for making such decisions as a result of depression but after good discussions with my hubby, various friends and lots of prayer I’m feeling pretty comfortable.

Alright, now how I am going to link this to my next book….

Yeah I’m not, instead here’s the list of awesome books I’ve recently read:

• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• The Kite Runner by Hosseini, Khaled
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
• The Very Grumpy Day by Stella Jones

Also for your enjoyment here’s a bit of a review from a WWW Wednesday I attempted rather awhile back

What did you recently finish reading: Tell Me Your Here by Anne Deveson this last (haha) weekend. I really like Deveson’s writing style which in this autobiography (much like her book Resilience)  shares a lot of information and personal story. It showed a harrowing image of mental health care particularly for schizophrenia and around homelessness which thankfully in her Afterword suggested improvement although I’m sure not enough.

 

What do you think you’ll read next:

I have Anthony Lehman’s (an Australian comedian) book This Shirt Won’t Iron Itself which I’m looking forward to having a read of – in fact I finished it last week. There was a bit about country living and families I could relate to, especially the bar man brother but the author and I are very different people so majority of the book was really not my thing.

Thanks for having me back WP, hope you readers are all doing well, I’d love to hear about some of your recent reads or maybe a tipping point in your life.

God bless

GJ

 

March: Six Degrees of Separation

Getting this one in at the last minute – feminism, bookclub and a bit of religion!

Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by booksaremyfavouriteandbest,  and gets you to take one title, and link through six other titles to see where you end up.

The book for March was The Beauty Myth by Naomi Watts. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump, adding lots to my TBR but not making much progress with my current book. I checked this title out on Goodreads, and while the plot summary had me interested the mixed reviews turned me off. In some ways I believe reading books about beauty buys into the cultural myth.

One book I added to my TBR this month was Alias Grace by Margaret Attwood, another author who writes feminist texts. Fran L wrote a great review for this book in her Top Ten Tuesday: Best Dual Timeline Novels. Having read Margaret Attwood before I was more than happy to add another of her titles to my reading list.

Her other title I’ve read is A Handmaids Tale for bookclub a few years ago. I gave it 4/5 at the time and it was a big winner in our group, even with the member who hadn’t read the postlude/notes at the end! Last month I hosted bookclub and my choice wasn’t such a hit.

I chose Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom and had to do a post about my totally awesome hosting skills (ha!) but doubt it will happen. I did cook a few Jewish dishes though which were a hit. The idea of faith and the blurb put a few readers off but they then found the book ok. We talked about how you don’t have to be a Christian to be a good person which of course is totally true. The big difference to me then is where you end up in the afterlife? (or your beliefs of is there an after life or not). Unfortunately believing in God doesn’t make Christians better people (bugger), but despite our imperfections in this life we are forgiven.

One day I would like to get my bookclub to read my all time favourite Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, but although we agree a benefit of bookclub is reading books we wouldn’t normally read I don’t think a specifically Christian novel would go down well.

This months bookclub read was The Bells by Richard Harvel but unfortunately I couldn’t attend (school mum duties drew priority) and I didn’t get a chance to have a look at it. Have you read it, or any of these other reads? Do you choose books for a bookclub?

Hope March has been a good month of reading (or whatever your preferred leisure acitvity is) for you.

Six degrees of separation: a new meme!

Special thanks to Luvtoread for choosing to follow me this week and introducing me to this meme – Six Degrees of Separation hosted by booksaremyfavouriteandbest, where you take one title, and link through six other titles to see where you end up.

The book for February is Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. I haven’t read this book or even a full synopsis. In fact the main reason I’m doing this meme today is to talk about a book I’ve almost finished, so I was super glad to read Amazon describe it as ‘a moving and original father-son story’ because the book I want to discuss is a mother-daughter(s) story which is a good enough connection for me!

Between Sisters by Cathy Kelly caught me by surprise. I picked it up from the library without thinking too much about it, just to have an audiobook available for some long drives. I wasn’t overly drawn into the first half, enjoying the characters but finding some details (clothing descriptions) and writing styles (so many character perspectives) not up my alley but the second half proved to be much more than fluff listening with deeper emotional issues addressed which really impacted me. One of the topics was schizophrenia which is making me especially keen to start reading a library book I already have out –

Tell Me I’m Here by Anne Deveson. Anne writes this as mother of a son with schizophrenia and having already read her book,

Resilience (again by Anne Deveson) I trust it will be an interesting and informative read. A book I saw on another of Luvtoread posts was

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl which from my understanding also addresses resilience and which I’m also very keen to read, particularly having had studied a bit about Frankl in my counselling studies. Another book on my tbr list which came to my attention through study is

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks which conicidentally was again in one of luvtoreads posts on an Amazon ‘100 books to read in a lifetime’ list no. 78.

Man that was quick, six books already – I really do love this concept! From Lincoln to a hat….well fancy that :p

I would like to include another special thanks and shout out to Luvtoread. She’s likely to think I’m a stalker after this post, so Ami, I’d love to direct you back to my blogging resolutions from earlier this  year here and here and welcome you to your spotlight!

Ami lives in California and loves to read and enjoy life. She’s part of a bookclub and as a fellow bookclubber that automatically means she’s amazing! Not to mention she listed one of my favourite authors series in her top ten list 🙂

In her about section she writes – ‘That is what reading is about – discovering something new…Books always teach me something new. ‘ So very very true not only of books but blogs and any reading. She’s a great reviewer so be sure to check her out.

Ami, if I havn’t scared you for life with my stalkerish ways I’d love to know how you found me…I have a theory but I would love to hear from you or anyone, if you/they can remember! Thank you for visiting my blog ❤