Six Degrees Of Separation (The Goldfinch; Donna Tartt)

Goodness, is it the first Saturday of July already? That can only mean one thing! Time for another round of Six Degrees Of Separation! I say this every time but I'll say it again, this ultra fun challenge is hosted by Emma Chapman and Annabel Smith and I strongly urge everyone to get involved! The picture above will take you to the rules, if you are a little curious.

So this month's chosen book is Donna Tartt's 'The Goldfinch'. I confess (again) I have not read this book. In fact I know very little about it so I had to do some research before writing this post. That is the beauty of this challenge, you don't have to have read the book to take part!

My first pick is Simon Ing's 'Wolves'. My understanding of Donna Tartt's book is that it tells the story of a young boy growing up, haunted by the mysterious death of his Mother and there are some pretty similar themes in 'Wolves'. Both contain mysteries and delve into isolation and love as the plot goes on. As well as this, both cover a long time frame of one boy's life into adulthood.

I won 'Wolves' in a Goodreads Giveaway, and I also won Sophie Hannah's 'The Telling Error' in the same way. the two are pretty similar in the sense that they revolve around a deep mystery while the Main Character is having a few issues in their own lives that makes them deeply unhappy. Both books are full of secrets and we meet many different characters who have their own agendas.

'The Bees' by Laline Paull is another book that I won in a giveaway. The two books don't have a whole lot in common other than that, as they are completely different concepts. The main character of both books are female and are secretly doing things that are considered bad by the people (or bees in the case of 'The Bees') that surround them.

As I have included a book that is solely told from the viewpoint of Bees, I thought I would include 'Watership Down' by Richard Adams as it is told from the viewpoint of animals too. Rabbits! Both books include animal characters that disobey the way of their respective animal beliefs in order to survive and protect themselves and those they love. Both are written beautifully too!

So next on the list, 'Lionboy' by Zizou Corder. I read this book around the time that I read 'Watership Down' and really enjoyed it! Both involve animals in their plot-line and in both stories, those animals are trying to find their way home. This used to be a favourite book of mine, I'm so glad I got to include it!

My last pick for this post is James Patterson's 'Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment'. I thought it was fairly similar to 'Lionboy' actually. There are a lot of references to genetics and experimentation, both groups of characters are being chased and the main characters have special powers too. There's also more than one in the series in both cases.

This challenge never stops being fun! Next month's pick will be Gillian Flynn's 'Gone Girl', which I'm looking forward to writing up!