Six Degrees of Separation: From Postcards from the Edge to Queen of the Road

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

This month the starting point is Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher. I actually had a number of different ideas about how to start this chain, from using the names Carrie or Fisher to something about postcards or stars, but in the end I have gone in another direction. Carrie Fisher's most famous role is undoubtedly that of Princess Leia in Star Wars, and so my chain this month is about princesses and queens. 

Another famous movie princess is Princess Buttercup from The Princess Bride by William Goldman. As I was preparing this post I searched for some key words on my blog and found that I participated in a readalong for this book more than 10 years ago which I had completely forgotten about.

Whereas I intended to go to a fantasy book about a queen, now I find myself wondering about other readalongs that I have participated in, but wait, I think I can get this back on track.  Many of the readalongs I have participated in over the years have been for blog events such Once Upon a Time that Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings used to host which was about reading fantasy, myth, folklore and fairy tale.

Now it's a generalisation but if we work on the basis that fantasy is a genre that starts with the words "once upon a time" and the fact my next book, Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner is a fantasy novel which is part of a great series there's my link. There was a really long gap between books 4 and 5 in this series, and I still haven't read the latest books.

Speaking of series where there has been a big gap between books and I still haven't read the final book, my next choice is Queen of the Darkness by Anne Bishop. This is the third book in the Black Jewels series and looking back at my review, I loved it!

In my mind, if The Princess Bride is fantasy light, then Queen of Attolia is fantasy medium whereas the Black Jewel books are pretty dark fantasy. I therefore need to dial it back a little so my next queen book is more magical realism style of fantasy.  I have enjoyed a lot of Sarah Addison Allen's books, and The Sugar Queen ties in nicely with my next book.

I reviewed The Jam Queens by Australian author Josephine Moon yesterday. You definitely need sugar of some kind to make jam right?

My final choice is by another Australian author, Tricia Stringer, with one her earlier books, Queen of the Road. This book is about a female truck driver who finds love and was one of the earliest rural romance novels I read

This month we started with a princess and then graduated to fantasy queens and ending up with two Australian authors.

Where has your string taken you this month?

Next month we start with Second Place by Rachel Cusk.