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.
The starting point this month is the 2023 Booker Prize winner, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch.
For my first link I am going to use two connections. I am choosing The Bee Sting by Paul Murray because of the name Paul but also because this book was listed for the 2023 Booker Prize.
Last year, I saw Paul Murray at the Melbourne Writers Festival. Another writer I saw on the same day was Japanese author Toshikazu Kawaguchi (I posted about that here). He has a number of books but I am going to choose his latest book Before We Forget Kindness, and not just because I can play off the sound Bee!
If I think of the word Kind, there is a famous quote from both the book and the movie The Help by Kathryn Stockett which goes "You is kind. You is smart. You is important."
Originally I was thinking that I would look for another book to movie that Octavia Butler starred in but she wasn't in the movie I was thinking of. Then I realised that Jessica Chastain was in the movie of The Help and she was also in one of my favourite movies based on a book, The Martian by Andy Weir.
It probably isn't a spoiler to say that The Martian is set on Mars, which leads me to the book The Iron Hand of Mars by Lindsey Davis. This is part of the Marcus Didius Falco series set in ancient Rome
Another mystery series set in Rome is the Rome Escape Line series. The first book in the series is My Father's House and the author is Joseph O'Connor, who I only recently learned is the brother of the famous singer Sinead O'Connor. The second book has just been released and is on my TBR pile.
Paul Lynch, Paul Murray and Joseph O'Connor are all Irish authors so I have managed to go full circle which I don't normally manage!
Next month, the starting point is Salman Rushdie’s memoir, Knife.
Will you be joining us?
I love Joseph O'Connor's books, but I had no idea he was Sinead O'Connor's brother! Your 'kind' link is very clever. I really enjoyed The Help.
ReplyDeleteOhh wow I did not know that about Joseph O'Connor
ReplyDeleteI do love the Lindsey Davis Falco series, and I liked your comment that it's not a spoiler to say that The Martian is set on Mars!
ReplyDeleteOh, very nicely done!
ReplyDeleteI thought Prophet Song was as eerie and frightening as a thriller. I enjoyed hearing the author speak at Inprint in Houston last year. I like how you brought things around full circle this time.
ReplyDeleteLovely chain! I just started The Prophet but think doing it as an audiobook was a mistake (too many evocative bits as I am driving and want to write them down) so I also grabbed a hardcover from the library. I did enjoy The Help but don't think I saw the movie. I have read one book by Lindsey Davis but not part of her Rome series.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed recently that Japanese publishers are very bold and quirky with their covers. I enjoy seeing them!