30.5 (PJ Reads' Task - As Suggested By Tanja - Six Degrees of Separation)

[Pollyanna]

Would this be okay, I am planning on reading Beautiful Creatures for the first part, David Caplan did the cover art for this book and he also did the cover art for Hate List. If not would it be okay to read City of Ashes as Cassandra Clare wrote a review for this book?

[Bridgit]

Also for Fitzgerald, He was second cousins with Francis Scott Key, who was inducted into the Song Writers Hall of Fame in 1970, along with George Gershwin. Julie Andrews won the The George and Ira Gershwin Lifetime Musical Achievement Award. Julie Andrews would link to Meg Cabot and Princess Diaries - or anything else she has written.

You can also link from Fitzgerald to his wife Zelda Fitzgerald, an author. Zelda was best friends with Tallula Bankhead an actress/screenwriter who was romantically linked with Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich,
and Billie Holiday. She also screen tested for Gone with the Wind (so you could read that) and appeared in Antony and CLeopatra (so you can read any Shakespeare), A Street Car Named Desire (any Tennessee Williams), Lifeboat (any Hitchcock)

To get even weirder, Zelda was the inspiration behind the Legend of Zelda, creatied by Shigeru Miyamoto, also the created of Mario Brothers, which was made into a movie starring Dennis Hopper, John Leguizamo and Bob Hoskas (who link to) the novelists Donn Pearce (Cool Hand Luke), to Paul Newman and 1984, to Apocalypse Now which was based on Conrad's Heart of Darkness, to Carlito's Way based on the book After Hours, Love in teh Time of Cholera (Garcia - Marquez), David Copperfield (any Dickens).

There were tons of links, but i had to stop somewhere!

[Manday]

Thanks for the help, I totally could not for the life of me figure out what connections counted and which did not.

I think I will use Cry the Beloved Country, its been on my list for a while.

[Usako]

Amanda - That's neat! Approved.

Rebecca - Yup! That works! Just be sure to cite that reference.

[Usako]

Pollyanna - Beautiful Creatures to Hate List works!

[Rebecca NJ]

Great - thanks Tanja.

[Sarah (Mood Reader)]

Can I just say that I am addicted to this challenge?

[Amy]

Ashley wrote: "I'm sorry -- I didn't mean I meant to use the theme as the degree of separation, but that I need degrees of separation to get TO another post-apocolyptic themed book. If that makes sense. It seem..."
Ashley - In my humble opinion, every Law-Drafting-Congressman is a mystery writer. Your options are WIDE open !!

[Jennifer]

Sandra wrote: "Here's another one...I had originally thought of doing just one degree of separation with co-authors but now I'm into finding a more convoluted connection!

Part A Shopaholic and Baby..."

You can actually reduce your degrees of seperation because Dustin Hoffman starred in the movie Sphere, which was based on the book written by Michael Crichton.

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner)]

Anybody else need help? I like doing this research! lol

[Usako]

Sarah - The Six Degrees of Separation Anom Group meets every sixth month on the sixth day ;)

Jamie - Sure! I'm trying to link Memories of the Future - Volume 1 by Wil Wheaton to something on my TBR (which isn't on another task), something different but a 3.7 rating or higher or to a bestseller. I've yet to find something I like. I'm sooooo picky :P But I did pick a good author. Wil Wheaton is connected to so many people including THE GUILD!

[Bridgit]

Tanja - tried looking at your TBR, but your profile is set to private. Do you have a list of books/authors you want to try for?

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner)]

I can't see your TBR list. :(

But at first glance..he was in Stand By Me..which was based on The Body by Stephen King (who is the father of Joe Hill as an aside). Stephen King wrote a nonfiction book with Stewart O'Nan. Snow Angels was made into a movie with Kate Beckinsale in it who was also in Pearl Harbor with Alec Baldwin who was in My Sister's Keeper.

Starting again at the Stephen King thing..King played guitar for the rock band Rock-Bottom Remainders with Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Mitch Albom,

[Usako]

D'oh! Forgot I was set private.

Cleopatra's Daughter, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, just about any fairy tale-ish book, interested in nonfictions. Not too much into King, Grisham, Roberts, etc. I'm trying to avoid chick lit material though.

Ooh on Tan. Read Joy Luck and then started on Fish From Drowing but couldn't finish. Hrm. But I do like generational stories from other countries.

And I like geeky sci-fi/fantasy, too. I might be able to find something through Kingsolver. Huh.

[Bridgit]

Wil Wheaton was also in the most recent Star Trek, co-starring with Eric Bana. Bana starred in:

- The Other Boleyn Girl, which opens up any Phillipa Gregory
- The Time Travelers Wife, (any Niffenberger)

Bana was directed by Steven Spielberg in Munich, linking to:
- Jaws, based on Peter Benchley's book, so any thing by him
- The Color Purple, which links to any Alice Walker as well as Oprah and any book in her book club
- Jurassic Park - any Michael Crichton
- a documentary of Stanley Kubrick, linking to A Clockwork Orange and Lolita
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- War of the Worlds, any H G Wells
- The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

From Speilberg you can basically get to any actor that ever worked on any movie. So you could basically read any author that ever had any of their works made into a film.

[Donna Jo]

I'm thinking of reading something (haven't decided what yet) by Ann Patchett, who wrote Bel Canto. The main character in that book was based on opera star Renee Fleming, who has sung numerous operas and is starring in the upcoming movie In Search of Mozart, which leads me to the book Marrying Mozart.
I'm not sure exactly how many degrees that is, but I think it is doable.

[Usako]

Ooh Time Traveler's Wife! I have yet to read that one.

Donna Jo - I know Ann Patchett put a lot of research on opera singing and meet people. Bel Canto was soooo goood! But how does In Search of Mozart connect to Marrying Mozart other than the Mozart? Did the author write the screenplay?

[Amy]

Tanja wrote: "Ooh Time Traveler's Wife! I have yet to read that one.

Donna Jo - I know Ann Patchett put a lot of research on opera singing and meet people. Bel Canto was soooo goood! But how does In Search of..."

Tanja and Donna Jo - Patchett's Bel Canto was published by Perennial, an imprint of Harper Collins publishing house. Harper Collins also published Madeline L'Engel's A Wrinkle in Time. Madeleine L'Engel introduced Marrying Mozart's author, Stephanie Cowell, to her now husband, Russell Clay and, in fact, gave Ms. Cowell away at the wedding.

That's three degrees of separation for Donna Jo and a pat on the back for me because I can't believe I put it all together.

Read well !

[Nicole]

I am thinking I am going to read Starr Bright Will Be with You Soon which is by Joyce Carol Oates written under a pseudonym (she had the writing workshop with Jonathan Safran Foer). I am thinking this is fine since she is the exact same person whatever name she happens to be writing under.

Just wanted to double check since I realized I own the book, never read it and it sounds fascinating!

[Donna Jo]

Amy, you are a wizard! And Tanja was right; I was using the character as a connection. But the worst thing was that I did not correctly read the task--I have to use my TBR lists. And I have a pretty pathetic one. Back to the drawing board.
Maybe someone else can use Amy's brilliant work. Thanks to both of you.

[Usako]

Nicole - So cool!!

Donna Jo - You better read Bel Canto this challenge! It's that good! I brought out tissue.

[Donna Jo]

I read Bel Canto several years ago for a book discussion--and you are right. We not only cried when we read it, we cried when we talked about it. It is a lovely book.
I think I found another one with a book actually on my TBR list. See what you think.
Starting with South of Broad by Pat Conroy, who wrote The Great Santini. Kevin O'Keefe acted in TGS and also in the tv show Friendly Persuasion, which was based on the book written by Jessamyn West (and which I've alread read) and on Except for Me and Thee

[Liz]

I want to read Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. She attended The University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop (woohoo- my Alma mater). Marilynne Robinson is/was a professor in that program. Therefore, my second book will be Gilead. Does this work?

[Nicole]

I love Ann Patchett! Truth & Beauty: A Friendship sold me on her as a writer!

[Amy]

Donna Jo wrote: "Amy, you are a wizard! And Tanja was right; I was using the character as a connection. But the worst thing was that I did not correctly read the task--I have to use my TBR lists. And I have a pr..."

Donna Jo - Put Bel Canto on your TBR list tonight (tomorrow's okay too ;) - the entry will be legitimately before the Challenge starts and Tanja's cool - she'll say yes :) :) :)

[Nicole]

Amy wrote: "Donna Jo wrote: "Amy, you are a wizard! And Tanja was right; I was using the character as a connection. But the worst thing was that I did not correctly read the task--I have to use my TBR lists...."

I agree! I love how we all diligently follow our challenge honors system, but there are some nice loopholes that the people creating the tasks allow for!

i personally have become a huge fan of locking things in by reading a few pages (since we are legally allowed to start a book as long as we aren't more than halfway through it before the challenge begins)

[Usako]

Well the challenge doesn't officially start until March 1 soooooo...

Liz - Robinson was at the workshop around same time as Patchett? If so, the connection is approved! YAY!

[Donna Jo]

Nicole wrote: "Amy wrote: "Donna Jo wrote: "Amy, you are a wizard! And Tanja was right; I was using the character as a connection. But the worst thing was that I did not correctly read the task--I have to use m..."

Believe me, that reading up to half way point is getting a work out at my house. Or at least starting the book to cover my bases.

[Amy]

Donna Jo wrote: "Nicole wrote: "Amy wrote: "Donna Jo wrote: "Amy, you are a wizard! And Tanja was right; I was using the character as a connection. But the worst thing was that I did not correctly read the task--..."

Same here, Donna Jo ! I actually (shhh) checked the pages in The Help last night and sighed with relief that I was too exhausted to get anywhere near the half-way point. Mind you, I've picked it up and put it down and picked it up and put it down for a month - thanks to my Mom, and my girlfriend, and (almost) my other girlfriend...

[Dlmrose, Moderator Emeritus]

Does the second book need to be on my TBR shelf or just the first book?

[Liz M]

Ok, the theory is that any two people are separated by six degrees. So, instead of taking a single TBR book and seeing where the internet links would take me, I became a bit obsessed with trying to connect two specific books.

Book A: Mao II by Don DeLillo
Book B: The Professor's House by Willa Cather

Take One
DeLillo wrote the screenplay for Game 6 in which Robert Downey Jr. acted. Robert Downey Jr. also played Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin was married to Oona O'Neill, Eugene O'Neill's daughter. Eugene O'Neill was part of the Provincetown Players along with Edna St. Vincent Millay who won the Pulitzer Prize the same year as Willa Cather.

Is this six or seven degrees of separation?

Take Two
DeLillo wrote the screenplay for Game 6 in which Robert Downey Jr. acted. Robert Downey Jr. was in Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller who was in The The Royal Tenenbaums with Gene Hackman. Gene Hackman acted in Shadowlands which was written by Sinclair Lewis who, upon accepting the Nobel Prize for literature, gave accolades to Willa Cather.

Is the connection between Sinclair Lewis & Willa Cather too tenuous?

Take Three
DeLillo wrote the screenplay for Game 6 in which Robert Downey Jr. acted. Robert Downey Jr. also played Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin was married to Oona O'Neill who dated J. D. Salinger. Salinger's editor at the New Yorker, William Maxwell, overlapped with Louise Bogan, the New Yorker's poetry reviewer who interviewed Willa Cather.

Again, I think this is too many degrees?

Any of you excellent researchers want to help tighten the links between these two?

[Amy]

Liz wrote: "Ok, the theory is that any two people are separated by six degrees. So, instead of taking a single TBR book and seeing where the internet links would take me, I became a bit obsessed with trying t..."
Holy smokes, Liz, you've been busy !

[Liz M]

Take Four
DeLillo won the William Dean Howells Medal which was presented by John Updike who was edited by William Maxwell an editor for The New Yorker who overlapped with Louise Bogan, The New Yorker's poetry reviewer who interviewed Willa Cather.

[Cynthia]

Wanted to let everyone know that this task is now worth 30 points!

[kiki]

this is hard. :(

i really want to start with The Road but i have no idea where to go with it. preferably something on my TBR list, as my goal for the spring challenge is to only read things i own.

anyone want to help? :)

[Usako]

Dlmrose - Just the first book!

Liz - All 4 work! But I like 4 better! That's awesome! He had his award presented by Updike himself!!!!

Kiki - I'll take a look! The Road was turned into a movie so you're gonna get a lot of connections!

[Usako]

Kiki -- In his interview by Oprah Winfrey, McCarthy indicated that the inspiration for The Road came during a 2003 visit to El Paso, Texas, with his young son.

You can connect about anyone to Oprah including her Oprah Book of the Month since I HEARD she interviews every author on her show! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah%27...

Love in the Time of Cholera
Middlesex
Night
more on the list above

[kiki]

thanks, tanja! i'll go have a look see! :)

[kiki]

okay, so i could say i want to start with The Road, which was an Oprah's Book Club selection in 2007. Also an Oprah's Book Club selection, I Know This Much Is True for 1998. Is that two degrees? Three degrees? Does it even work? Cuz if it does, that's what I'm going with! :)

[Usako]

Kiki - That's two degrees and works :) Mcarthy->Oprah->Lamb

[Kathryn]

Hey there,

I just want to double check that this counts:

Book A) Changing Heaven by Jane Urquhart

Jane hired a woman named Erin Cossar to do an 11 x 17 inch promotional poster.

Erin then did a promotional poster for Kelly Armstrong who wrote book B: Stolen

Thanks!
Kathryn

[Usako]

Kathryn - NEATO!!! Yes. Approved :)

[Kate]

Kathryn wrote: "Hey there,

I just want to double check that this counts:

Book A) Changing Heaven by Jane Urquhart

Jane hired a woman named Erin Cossar to do an 11 x 17 inch promotional poster.

Erin then did a..."

OMG, I didn't realize anyone else in this group had my name and then Tanja's comment really confused me! lol

[Usako]

DOUBLES!

[kiki]

thanks for the help, tanja! :)

[Liz M]

Tanja wrote: "Dlmrose - Just the first book!

Liz - All 4 work! But I like 4 better! That's awesome! He had his award presented by Updike himself!!!!

Thanks! After all that work, I went and moved the Willa Cather book to a different task! But i least I have an idea how this thing works.

[Usako]

Admit it, Liz. You're having fun coming up with the connections.

And NP, Kiki :)

[Julie]

I am excited to read 2 of my TBR books in this task.
A. The Devil Wears Prada ~ Lauren Weisberger

Anne Hathaway was in this movie.
She was also in Becoming Jane
Jane Austen wrote Emma
Gwyneth Paltrow was Emma in 1996 version of Emma
Gwyneth Paltrow was also in Running With Scissors

B. Running With Scissors ~ Augusten Burroughs

[Angela]

Nicole I don't know if you found a book yet for Joyce Carol Oates but here is one I think you would enjoy with only 464 pages: Missing Mom A Novel P.S. by Joyce Carol Oates

[Usako]

Julie - That's great!