Six Degrees of Separation — from Beezus and Ramona to My Own Two Feet

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place, add six books, and see where we end up. This month’s starting point is Beezus and Ramona, the first book in the Ramona series, by Beverly Cleary, who died on March 25, 2021 at 104.

Six Degrees of Separation — from Shuggie Bain to Down the Rabbit Hole

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place, add six books, and see where we end up.   This month’s starting point is Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, which won the 2020 Booker Prize.

First Degree

Shuggie Bain is about a boy and his alcoholic mother, living in poverty in public housing in Scotland. 

My Year in Books - 2020

Inspired by Margaret at Books Please, I used titles from some of the books I have read this year to complete the following sentences. The links take you to my reviews.

My Year in Books 2020

In high school I was: Fifteen       

People might be surprised by: Fighting Words

#1956Club - Fifteen, an iconic teen novel of the 1950s by Beverly Cleary

The 1956 Club is a meme created by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings to showcase books published in a specific year.  

Title: Fifteen

Author: Beverly Cleary

Publication: 1956, William Morrow hardcover (2007 paperback edition)

Genre: Young Adult

Description: Jane Purdy is fifteen and yearns for the glamorous life of a magazine teenager – a boyfriend and dates and the perfect outfit for every occasion.  Instead, she is stuck babysitting for spoiled children and watching smug Marcy Stokes drive by in convertibles with whatever boy she wants.  Then Jane meets cute Stan Crandall when he is delivering dog food where she is babysitting and he asks her out!  Jane is thrilled but isn’t sure how to behave, what to wear, or even if her parents will give permission – or even worse, embarrass her when in front of him!  More importantly to the reader, Jane needs to develop enough self-confidence that she doesn’t hide her real feelings and self.  

Today's Game

List ten famous people you've met, encountered, and/or interacted with.

ONE is a lie.

Here's mine:      

Mr. Rogers

Julie Andrews

Jimmy Carter

Madeleine L’Engle

Ric Ocasek

Beverly Cleary

Kenny Loggins

Charles Barkley

Tip O’Neill

Jacqueline Onassis

What's your guess?

Six Degrees of Separation: From Masha to Hungry Monkey

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

Kate chose A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles as the starting book for September. I read this in 2018 with my book group and liked it even more than his first book (despite the use of the present tense which I dislike).  Our mothers were actually college classmates at Radcliffe.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Life After Life to The Luckiest Girl

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month it’s a wild card – the chain begins with the book that ended our July reading, which means that my starting book is Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (2013).

The Luckiest Girl

I knew when my classmate Nick Kristof wrote a NYT piece called The Luckiest Girl that he was not talking about my favorite book by Beverly Cleary.  Although he is from Yamhill like Beverly Cleary . . .

However, I think Shelly herself would be moved by not only by his story of Beatrice and her accomplishments but the chilling description of all the things that could have gone wrong, preventing her from reaching this goal. And perhaps she ate a donut hole or two once she reached Massachusetts and Connecticut!