#6 Degrees – Three Women To…

I’ve decided that since I plan on doing this #6Degrees series of posts on a semi-regular basis that I should have an image that warns you all. I’m as much a visual person when it comes to online stuff, so a picture gets associated with a person or a particular line of posts just as easily for me as reading the title.  I plan on using the above image as my stock photo for this series from now on. So It Is Written, So It Shall Be!

If you’d like to participate in the #6degrees series of posts, head over to #6Degrees Meme to find out the starting point for each month.

 

 

This month’s chain begins with Three Women by Lisa Taddeo. I made the mistake of reading what this non-fiction book was about and that colored my choice of covers. The other 2 readily available covers were bland, blase pieces of pablum with some colored circles on the cover. NOT representative at all of what was inside. This tells the story of 3 women and their very broken sex lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Blood Mirror is the first book that sprang to mind when I thought about broken sex lives in the realm of books I read. The author explores a little known sexual disorder with one of the main female characters.  I found it handled as best as could be, but honestly, could have done without it altogether. I can handle decapitations, disembowelings, maimings, burnings, etc, but gross biological things about women? Not so much.

 

 

 

 

Another book with “mirror” in the title is Mirror of Opposition.  This was one of the first books where I dealt with an Indie author. I paid him about $10 for 2 of his books and generously gave them both 3 stars, I think.  Today, I’d be much harsher in my critique.

 

 

 

 

 

And yet ANOTHER mirror book is The Mirror of Worlds.  This was book 8 in a 9 book fantasy series by David Drake. Just about the only books by him that I liked. He deliberately wrote tropish’ly and I liked it.  Not a series that is going to stick around for the ages though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And apparently I’m stuck on the Mirror theme here. I just can’t avoid it. The False Mirror is a SF book about humanity in the far future. As one of the few races that is warlike, Humanity is trained and treated like an attack dog. But never trusted.

 

 

 

 

 

A mirror shows us a reflection of something. A snapshot of a moment in time.  Such a book was the Kinta Years.  Autobiography of Janice Giles showed a time much different than the one we live in now.

 

 

 

 

 

And thus the circle is complete. From 3 broken women, through the realms of fantasy, to a young girl growing up around 1900.  Strange the paths I wander as I do these posts 🙂

 

 

 

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#6degrees – A Gentleman in Moscow To…

This month’s #6 Degrees of Separation chain kicks off with A Gentleman in Moscow.

 

I have not read this book, nor to be honest, even heard of it. I don’t know a thing about it. I’m guessing it is some sappy piece of crap about a bloke who is feeling lost with his life and goes to Moscow and gets drunk, has numerous affairs and suddenly his life has meaning. Or more likely, he’s french and has already done all that before and realizes his life has no meaning and kills himself. My goodness, glad I never read THAT book 😉

 

 

 

 

The word “Moscow” makes me think Russia, like I hope it would all good educated people of the world. A jolly good Russian book is Oblomov.  Happy go lucky, full of spirit and pluck, Oblomov is everything you’d expect from a Russian novelist.

 

 

 

 

Ok, so while I might have been joking just a teeny bit about a Russian novelist writing an inspirational and happy character, this next selection makes even Pollyanna look like a sad sack of glumness. Gandhi. Now there was a man who knew how to party and have a good time! If anyone was going to Rock the Casbah, Gandhi was that man.  He wasn’t going to let The Man get him down.

 

 

 

Now, I live in the United States. Back in Gandhi’s day you couldn’t travel from the United States to India on airplanes because they didn’t exist. You had to sail, on a boat, like The Coronet.  Shockingly enough, this book was also non-fiction. Two non-fiction books in a row? Sounds like a conspiracy to me! (almost like those “facts” I made up about airplanes!)

 

 

 

 

 

A book filled with conspiracies is the Sound and the Furry.  Little alien teddy bears that think our literature is real and act out our books, all the while possessing greater intelligence than humanity? It takes every ounce of conspiratorial’ness that the main character has to sidetrack the Hoka from going on some galactic jihad, like in Dune.

 

 

 

 

When I think of jihads, I think of the Last Jihad. A political thriller about Saddam Hussein getting a hold of some nukes. It was a fun read even while not aging well.

 

 

 

 

 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you go from an (imaginary french) gentleman to Saddam Hussein.  Talk about worlds apart! If you’d like to participate in the #6degrees series of posts, head over to #6Degrees Meme to find out the starting point for each month. They’re not always punctual, so sometimes you have to wait until a week into the month.

 

 

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ps,

on a side note, I can’t use the #6degree tag, it automatically just goes to 6degrees. Anyone have any ideas why that might be?

#6degrees – In Siege of Daylight to…

Wow, it’s been a while since I did one of those #6degree posts. I really need to setup a reminder or something so I do it more often as I enjoy writing these out.   This was a wildcard and we were to start with the book we ended our last chain with.

 

 

Last time I ended my chain with In Siege of Daylight. I was drawn to this book by the cover and the story inside did not disappoint (aside from the fact that it ended on a cliffhanger and the author never wrote any more I mean).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Valor. That book also had a beautiful cover but what was on the inside led me to DNF it instead of enjoying it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another book that I DNF’d was Blowback. The main character, Scott Harvath,  was just a jerk and I can’t stand main characters who aren’t cast in the Heroic Mold. I need my Heroes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, Erevis Cale IS a hero.  In Midnight’s Mask he helps prevent the world of Forgotten Realms from being destroyed. And he doesn’t whine about it or complain about how hard everything is for him, boohoo. No, he mans up and does his job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another book with “mask” in the cover is Death Masks, starring that darling of millions, Harry Dresden. I didn’t like Dresden from the get-go but I TRIED to like him because everybody else liked him. This was at a time in my life before I was the self-confident, swaggering man of mystery that I am today. I read up through Book 11 and even watched the rather pathetic, short lived, tv show/mini-series.

 

 

 

 

 

Another book that was turned into a mini-series was Childhood’s End.  The mini-series and book were different enough that it wasn’t like watching a clone, but the hopeless despair from the book shone through the mini-series like an evil, malevolent dark star.

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s a wrap! From In Siege of Daylight to Childhood’s End.

I’ve said it before, but doing this tag/meme/whatever is a lot of fun. I get to go through my old reviews and see things I haven’t even thought about for years, sometimes decades.  This Blogger chooses the book each month so feel free to bookmark that page.

 

 

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#6degrees – from How to be Both to…

Well, let’s see what rabbit trails we can go down this month!

 

 

I have never heard of this book or its author and I know exactly nothing about it. From the amazon page I gather it has won or placed in for a bunch of awards. Probably means it is a piece of trash.

 

 

 

 

A book that I read AND enjoyed which also won some awards was Connie Willis’ s To Say Nothing of the Dog. A good fun romp that wasn’t trying to “Send a Message”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A book that was trying to “Send a Message” was this one. House by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. Christian fiction trying not to be Christian fiction. Bordered on the horror and I didn’t really care for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A book that has a weird House on the cover is definitely The Road to Oz. A pumpkin head living in a pumpkin. Yep, definitely a children’s book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A book about a child that might appeal to children but definitely appeals to adults is the manga series Yotsuba&!. Ahhh, total cuteness overload. Too bad the manga-ka seems to have let the series slide into oblivion. Thankfully, there was never an overarching plot so we’re not left with a cliffhanger.

 

 

 

 

Finally, the ultimate cliffhanger is when a series isn’t completed, or doesn’t even makes it to Book Two. In Siege of Daylight was a great book that I read back in ’15 but while the author claimed he had the next 3 books all named and almost ready to go, I haven’t heard or seen a thing since. Too bad to, as I enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

Thus ends our little journey from  How to be Both to In Siege of Daylight. 

 

 

 

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#6degrees – from Fight Club to ….

I’m sick of reading after having 3 books in a row really let me down. I’m taking a break.

After spoiling my last #6degree post (and you all know how much I HATE spoiling things for anyone who reads a post or review of mine), I realized that I wouldn’t put the Final Destination (ha!) into the post title. Just to keep things interesting.  Of course, if a mob forms and demands my head for such a course of action, I will gladly hand over the lackey who thought up such a terrible idea and let him take his justly deserved punishment.

 

 

 

Fight Club. I’ve only ever seen the movie but when I googled for the book cover, there were a bajillion different ones and this one stuck out to me.  That cubist representation look is just so odd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kim, on the other hand, has that old time classic look. I chose this version for my calibre library because I just love how it looks. Now, if you didn’t know,  Kim takes place in India when the British Empire was at its height.

 

 

 

 

Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia takes place in a Fantasy India-like place. This is a start of a new series by Correia and book 2 is coming out and book 3 is in production, so no chance of this series not being finished. However, so that I don’t forget the storyline, I’ll be waiting until it is finished to continue on.

 

 

 

 

A whole series of books that I started but didn’t finish because I forgot about them while waiting for new books, was the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. These books were a fictional account based on what some Protestants believe the Book of Revelation means in regards to the End of the World. The writing was just ok and while I disagree with some of the theology/speculation, I know enough about both men to know they have mapped out why they believe the way they do directly from the Bible.

 

 

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing for The New Age Movement and the Illuminati: 666. This was tinfoil hat, conspiracy theory,  “turn a letter sidewise and it means this…” kind of book. It would have been hilarious except for the fact that a new christian I knew had been given it and she thought it was all as true as the Bible. She came to church in tears one Sabbath, so I borrowed it from her and wrote out about 2 pages of issues just from the intro to help her understand what a piece of garbage this was and how it had nothing to do with the Bible.  It made me pretty angry!

 

 

 

Another piece of trash book, that DIDN’T make me angry was Carlton Mellick III’s Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland. I knew I was getting into trash territory just because of the cover, but my goodness, it was bad. Never was tempted to even LOOK at another book by the author.

 

 

 

 

 

So there we go. From Fight Club to Warrior Wolf Women of the Wastelands. No that crazy really, if you think about it.

Cheers!

 

 

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#6degrees – from A Christmas Carol to The Terminator

Bookwyrm did another 6Degree Post and it reminded me I should do one too.

Starting with this book, lets see where we end up! (obviously, you know beforehand because of the title. I didn’t know where I was going to end up, so pretend you didn’t see the title and act completely surprised, please.)

 

 

A Christmas Carol.   The edition I read has a cover composed primarily of the colors Green and Red, appropriate for a Christmas book don’t you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A series that is ALL ABOUT colors is the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks. I’ve been waiting for the final book since The Blood Mirror came out in ’16.  The Burning White, the fifth and final book, is supposed to come next year. May it be so!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A book that I have read that I was waiting for was Sergei Lukyanenko’s Sixth Watch.  Thankfully, I didn’t start the Night Watch series until 2015, so I only had a year to wait. My goodness, what great Russian Urban Fantasy.

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t like Urban Fantasy. Most of the time. Mainly because I’ve had more run-ins with books like Bitter Night than the types of UF that I end up liking.  Totally not cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A “cool” book that I did read was Dr. Zhivago. And we’re talking Siberian Exile cold here, not just your every day Snoopy in Joe Cool sunglasses!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, when I think of “Sunglasses” only ONE thing comes to mind. Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator!!! While the book wasn’t as awesome as the movie, it still was decent enough.

 

 

 

 

 

My goodness, from A Christmas Carol to The Terminator sounds like a title of a Dr. Who Christmas special. You know, back when Dr. Who was awesome with David Tennant? 😉

I’m beginning to think that I like this whole 6th Degree tag thing. I foresee it becoming a semi-regular feature here. Easy peasy and lets me talk nonsense without appearing like a complete idiot. Cheers!

 

 

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#6degrees – from The Outsiders to His Sombre Rivals

Bookwyrm Knits did this association thing this month and I figured I’d try my hand at it. It was pretty fun making the connections.

 

 

I read the Outsiders, along with Rumblefish, back in my middleschool days. I don’t remember much about the books except thinking what a bunch of sad people the stories revolved around.  The local library, where I volunteered in highschool had several of her books.

The local library was where I found Way-Farer, one of my favorite books of all time and one I still rave about today. That cover, with that sword, that was just pure teen boy magnet. I’ve written quite a few posts on Way-Farer, so no need to go on here.

A sword on the cover leads to the next book, King’s Dragon by Kate Elliott. That was the first of seven in her Crown of Stars series. A 7  books series was not the longest series I had read, nor would it be the last, but it was the one that I realized that a long series isn’t always a good series. I finished it but ended up selling the hardcovers soon afterwards.

The opposite of a long series is not a short series. No, the opposite is the Standalone. A standalone that I really enjoyed in 2006 was Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates.  Dealing with time travel, history and time paradoxes that aren’t time paradoxes, The Anubis Gates was fun, interesting  and had just enough history to show that Powers was a fan of history but not afraid to play around behind the scenes. He’s writing like history isn’t real.

What is real though, is war. What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes was one of the few non-fiction books I read in 2011, if not the ONLY non-fiction book of that year.  Getting a soldier’s perspective is a good thing for civilians, as we just don’t know jack-squat about what they are dealing with. Marlantes being a Rhodes scholar as well as a Vietnam vet upped his credibility in my eyes.

The American Civil War was vastly different from the Vietnam War. His Sombre Rivals by Edward Payson Roe is set during that time.  A bromance where 2 guys both love the same woman but the unsuccessful one doesn’t whine or allow his feelings to destroy the friendship he has with both his friend and the woman. True Manliness. Probably the best book I read in 2015.

 

 

There you have it, 6 book associations from the early 90’s up until 2015.  You can see all the rules and blabberywhatnot the creators/hosters of this association thing put up (seems like almost everyone who starts something like this can’t resist making everyone else goosestep to their tune). I’ll probably check in at the original place every couple of months and see what another starting book is. It is fun to make these links 🙂