“Real life” has been a little bit hectic so I’m late to the party on this one.

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 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 (via Kate’s post) 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: No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

I haven’t read the book but you can find out more about it here. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s description:

“Fragmentary and omniscient, incisive and sincere, No One Is Talking About This is at once a love letter to the endless scroll and a profound, modern meditation on love, language, and human connection from a singular voice in American literature.” 

For this month’s link, I am sticking with the Internet and it’s role in human connections to link my books.

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1. To Sir, With Love (My review) is an adaptation of You’ve Got Mail and the connection between the leads Gracie and Sebastian is first made online. They share and give one another advice on a dating app but remain anonymous even as feelings grow. Unknown to each other, they make the opposite connection in person–they don’t like one another very much.

2. Connections do not always start off with anonymity. In Dear Aaron, Aaron and Ruby begin as pen pals, exchanging letters and emails sharing tidbits about their lives and with each exchange, their feelings for each other become something more than just friendship. Like Gracie and Sebastian, it’s a connection that turns into love.

3. The Internet has had an effect on how people meet one another. Similarly, it’s also created new occupations. Continuing with human connection but adding an additional layer with content creation, I turn to Love, Comment, and Subscribe (My review). While the first two connections are about connecting strangers, sometimes it can bridge the gaps between those who already know one another. The book brings together former high school friends Lily and Tobin who collaborate on a series of videos to increase viewership and subscribers on their channels. While work initially forces them together, the more time they spend together, the more their feelings for one another grows.

4. Like Lily and Tobin, Hollyn is a content creator. She’s made a life for herself blogging, but her boss gives her an ultimatum: add videos or lose her job. Yes & I Love You (My review) focuses on Hollyn’s journey to becoming more comfortable with showing other’s who she is and pushing through her anxiety to step outside of her comfort zone.

5. Girl Gone Viral (My review) touches on a subject I think a lot about, social media and privacy. Similar to Hollyn, Katrina has anxiety. A former model, she’s worked hard to keep out of the public eye. While in a busy café, Katrina allows a stranger to share her booth. Being polite leads to infringements on privacy as an influencer live tweets what they believe is a meet cute and the public tries to figure out Katrina’s identity.

6. The rise of social media has positives and negatives. While Katrina dealt with an invasion of privacy, Sunny Song is sent to a camp that’s supposed to help her unplug from electronics and being online. I end with Suzanne Park’s Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous (My review) as a reminder that it’s necessary to find a balance between being online and “real life.” It’s okay if I put my phone down. I don’t always need to reply immediately to emails and DMs. Heh…

ENDING BOOK: Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous by Suzanne Park

With this chain, I had the chance to look at the effect of the Internet on human connection from meeting romantic partners to sharing content with the world, with a reminder to myself to also unplug from time to time.

What does your chain look like?