Six Degrees of Separation, from A Comedy to A Mystery

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme, now hosted by Kate @ books are my favorite and best.

On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

This month we start from:

0. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Summary from Goodreads:
"Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life. Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder whether there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her...right?"


As was with most of Six Degrees of Separation I've worked so far, this is yet a book I have not read. For my first chain I'll pick a phrase from above Goodreads summary: a pop music sensation, which instantly reminds me of a book I have read this year...

1. Pigeon Pie by Nancy Mitford

The music sensation is a unique character from this book, godfather of the heroine, a famous singer with terrific voice.

"The unique quality of his voice was the fact that it could reach higher and also lower notes than have ever been reached before by any human being, some of which were so high only bats, others so low that only horses, could hear them. When he was a very young man studying in Germany, his music teacher said to him, 'Herr King, you shall make, with that voice of  yours, musical history. I hope I may live to hear you at your zenith.'"

My review of this highly entertaining book.

The pigeon in the title, reminds me of Pigeonsford village, the setting of this golden age mystery:

2. Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand

Excerpt from my review:
"On that fatal day, after tea, Fran is showing a hat she's just bought. In her jealousy, Grace, after witnessing Pendock having been smitten by Fran, blurted out that she hates the hat, and that "I wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch in a hat like that!" Indeed, that night, Grace is found dead, inside a ditch in Pendock's garden, with decapitated head, and Fran's new hat on it!"

Here's the complete review.

From one hat of a girl, to another of a president:

3. The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain

This wonderful book begins when a man found a hat belongs to President François Mitterand, who incidentally left it at a restaurant. The man then took and wore it, and to his surprise, the hat lifted his spirit and gave him courage.

You can read more from my review.

The story on my next chain also begins with a hat. More precisely, when a girl found a hole in her hat. She assumes it was caused by pebbles, but Hercule Poirot knows better - it's left by a bullet! Yes, it's an Agatha Christie's book:

4. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

Excerpt from my review:
"Nick Buckley, a young girl who lives in a house nearby, called End House, walked in and joined them, and found that there's a hole in her hat. You would, no doubt, guess what has really occurred - that the pebble is in fact a bullet, and that someone has shot Nick, but missed only an inch of her head. And so, this case was opened, quite unusually, without a corpse."

Here's the complete review.

Nick is the center of this story, and she reminds me of another Nick who is a narrator of this classic:

5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I don't think you'll need any summary/introduction of this book. But, do you remember how much metaphors Fitzgerald had thrown throughout the book? My post would refresh your memory. One of these metaphors is... (quoting from the post)

"Yellowish color—in Gatsby’s car, Wilson’s garage, Myrtle dress, etc—symbolizes moral corruption. The accident is caused by the yellow car, Myrtle’s manner changes completely after she changed to cream-colored dress."

For my last chain, I picked a book, where the color yellow made it to the title:

6. The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux

Excerpt from my review:
"The titular yellow room is Mademoiselle Mathilde Stangerson's bedroom at the Chateau Glandier, where she was assisting her father, Professor Joseph Stangerson in his scientific works, that night. At midnight Mademoiselle resigned to her bedroom, locking the door that opens to the laboratory, where her father was still working, and their loyal old servant "Father" Jacques was sitting quietly.

Then the strangest thing happened - it happened so suddenly that the two men were astonished. Loud voices came from inside the room: people struggling, furniture tumbling, Mademoiselle's yelling 'help!', and there's even gun shots. The two men frantically tried to open the window from outside (it's locked), then force-opened the locked door. When they were able to enter, what they found was too impossible. No one was in the room, except Mathilde, lying unconsciously on the floor, bloody hand marks on the wall. Who had attacked her? Why? But most importantly, how did he escape (the door opens to the laboratory is the only door to the bedroom, and there's no chimney)? Even the Police couldn't come to any suggestion."

And here is the complete review.


Have you read those books? If you do #sixdegree, how it worked out for you this time?