Friday, December 7, 2012

Six Degrees

Usually our Friday posts include a list of books or authors with similar writing styles, characters, genres, or tones. But where's the fun in always doing the expected?

Have you ever played the six degrees of Kevin Bacon? A Madison librarian, Sarah Statz Cords, came up with a variation for those of us better at naming authors than actors. That said, we won't limit you to just books, if a movie or television show helps you connect the dots between your six items, go for it! Post your list here, or on our Facebook Page.

I'll start us off:

1) The Nine: inside the secret world of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin has been on my To Read list ever since my father, brother, and sister all told me that they loved it.


2) True Believers by Kurt Andersen is a book that I did read this year. The main character, Karen Hollander, has just turned down the opportunity to become a member of the Supreme Court because of a dark secret in her past.

3) Less of a secret was her youthful love for all things James Bond. While Karen and her friends preferred the books, today most of us are more familiar with the movies, including Judi Dench in the role of M.

4) Judi Dench's career has included a number of parts in movie adaptations, including Mrs. Fairfax in the 2011 film of Jane Eyre, my all time favorite book.

5) I can't bring myself to watch any of the movie versions of Jane Eyre, but I did read The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey. A retelling of Jane Eyre set in the 1950s and '60s.


6) The narrator of the audiobook for The Flight of Gemma Hardy is one of my favorites: Davina Porter. She's also the voice behind Diana Gabaldon's wonderful Outlander.



Think it's too easy? Try to find the connections between your favorite book and favorite movie (no points if your favorite movie was based off of your favorite book), have a friend pick the two titles you have to connect, or see how many lists you can make that include your favorite author.

5 comments:

  1. 1. The Hobbit starring Martin Freeman
    2. Martin Freeman plays Watson in Sherlock
    3. Hound of the Baskervilles episode includes a werewolf
    4. The Twilight series has a sexy werewolf
    5. Stephenie Meyer's novel The Host about aliens who steal human bodies is going to be a movie soon.
    6. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1956 was based on a novel by Jack Finney.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
    2. Eowyn is a Half-Elven character in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
    3. Viggo Mortensen, who plays Aragorn in the movie versions of TLotR, is also in the movie The Road based on the book by Cormac McCarthy
    4. The Road is part of our display of books about the end of the world
    5. Two copies of Judy Blume’s It’s not the end of the world are on the shelf in the jFiction area of Youth Services.
    6. Five of Blume’s books (Fovever, Blubber, Deenie, Are you there God, it’s me Margaret and Tiger Eyes) are on the ALA Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999.
    http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_1999
    ~chel

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1. The Iron Duke by Meljean Brooks, a steampunk novel of romance, is the latest book I read for a review.
    2. The movie Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. has steampunk elements.
    3. Robert Downey Jr. also starred in The Avengers with Chris Hemsworth3.
    4. Chris Hemsworth has a brother named Liam Hemsworth who starred in the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games as Gale Hawthorne.
    5. In the Hunger Games movie, Katniss Everdeen is played by Jennifer Lawrence
    6. Jennifer Lawrence is starring in the movie the Silver Linings Playbook based on the novel of the same name by Matthew Quick.

    ~Amy

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1. In his new graphic novel about Abraham Lincoln's depression, The Hypo, author Noah Van Sciver thanks Julia Wertz in his acknowledgements.

    2. Julia Wertz was recently interviewed by Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin about her new graphic novel, The Infinite Wait.

    3. David L. Ulin contributed captions to the 2009 photography book, Los Angeles, Portrait of a City.

    4. The list of "Recommended Reading" in  Los Angeles, Portrait of a City includes The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

    5. The fictional parents of a murder victim in The Big Sleep are from Dubuque, Iowa.

    6. Author Joshua Wolf Shenk came to Dubuque in 2006 to speak to the Mental Health Association of Dubuque County about Abraham Lincoln's depression.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 1.The Confession by John Grisham - main character a Lutheran Minister.
    2. Journey to a Far Country by Ron Korfmacher (Lutheran minister & veteran) - about life in No. Dakota & his time in Viet Nam.
    3. Until Tuesday by Luis Carlos Montalvan (veteran) - about his service dog & his time in Iraq.
    4. Old Yeller by Fred Gipson - about a dog with rabies.
    5. Cujo by Stephen King - another dog with rabies who traps people in a car.
    6. My Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck - a road trip with a poodle.

    ReplyDelete