HOW IT WORKS:
Six Degrees of Separation is a meme that began with Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman and has been hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best since 2016. Each month a new book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Links can be formed in any way you want, including authors, themes, keywords, and pretty much anything.

Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the Linky section (or comments) of each month’s post. If you don’t have a blog, you can share your chain in the comments section. You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees

STARTING BOOK: Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss is again a book I have not read but it sounds interesting and quite witty. I especially loved the comma placed between “eats” and “shoots” and the pandas. A missing or misplaced comma can do a lot to a sentence!

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1. While the book brought to mind a couple of different ways to go, I thought I would go with a particular author who co-authored a writing book but might be better known for a book featuring a pig, a spider, and the spider’s web. If you guessed E.B. White, you’d be correct! E.B. White not only co-authored The Elements of Style but wrote Charlotte’s Web. Charlotte wrote some witty things about Wilbur the pig.

2. Another book with a spider that plays a pivotal role is Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. This was a favorite growing up and while it’s been a while since I’ve read the book and watched the movie, I remember Miss Spider was always one of my favorite characters. She tells James about how spiders are often hated despite all the good they do.

3. While a bit of magic and a peach transports James, Miss Spider, and others to New York, in another novel a wardrobe transports four children to a very different place in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Where do they end up? In Narnia, a land that is under the spell of the White Witch. Aslan was always the most memorable character in the book for me. Also, look! The Oxford comma is missing here. What would Truss say about this title that should maybe have a comma between “Witch” and “and”?

4. The Jungle Book also features a talking feline, although Shere Khan could not be mistaken as on the same side as Aslan. A Bengal tiger, Shere Khan is the main antagonist and is out to kill Mowgli, a human boy adopted by wolves. While I’ve never read the book, I’ve seen multiple movies based Rudyard Kipling’s classic novel including the Disney movies and the more recent one from Netflix. Along with Shere Khan there is also a memorable bear named Baloo.

5. Baloo and Shere Khan are different from their brethren in Winnie-the-Pooh. I guess we could say they’re less stuffy. Heh. Pooh Bear is a teddy bear. Tigger the bouncy toy tiger doesn’t show up until the sequel. While I didn’t read the book, I did grow up with the cartoon and loved it. I always wanted to like Rabbit, but he was so grumpy.

6. Unlike the grumpy Rabbit, the white rabbit plays a smaller role in Alice in Wonderland and inadvertently leads Alice down a hole because, according to the Disney version,”he’s late, he’s late, he’s late for a very important date.” I was fascinated with Alice in Wonderland when I was in elementary school and read the book from beginning to end.

ENDING BOOK: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I don’t know about you all but June passed by so fast I nearly forgot to prepare for this meme! For this month’s #6Degrees, I focused on books with not just any animals or insects on the covers but those that talked. This was another trip down memory lane as well with books and shows that made constant appearances when I was growing up. What books are part of your chain this month? I’d love to know!

Next month: Postcards From the Edge by Carrie Fisher