#6degrees from tipping points to magic points

I keep losing track of time and the date for #6degrees passes by without my participation. I get so annoyed at myself. I missed The Poisonwood Bible which I love. But this month here and on time.  Six degrees of separation is hosted by booksaremybestandfavourite. You can play too.

tipping pointThis month we start with The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference by Malcolm Gladwell.  I have never heard of this book. I googled it and he uses The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon to explain connectors and networking so it is apt that we use the book in this game.  When I read the title I thought it was a self-help book. It’s not, (or is it?) nevermind I am going to pretend it is and link to my next book…

…with a great self-help title. How to Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman. It’s not a self-help book either. It is a clever little psychological thriller.  Has she been kidnapped by her husband or is she mentally ill? There’s lots of snow too.

Speaking of snow, The Snow Kimino by Mark Henshaw is a puzzle of a book with snow and puzzles and I guess it is a psychological thriller too. At this point, I have to admit to being awful at picking what genre a book belongs to. This is my blog and I am allowed to make things up.

A bit like how they have made things up when turning Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay into a television show. Natalie Dormer is too young and pretty to be Mrs Appleyard. She also has a considerable backstory as an orphan taken in by her dodgy husband Arthur.

They have also made up more backstory for the antagonist Serena Joy in the television adaption of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.  Not that I am complaining. She’s a great character. It also makes sense. We, by necessity, only had June’s point of view in the book. A television show can’t tell a story in this way. Retelling on a different medium can require changes.

I do like a good retelling. It seems like there are too many of them around at the moment.  Most recently I loved The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey which draws on snow maidan folktales when a childless couple makes a child out of snow. (I am back to snow again!)

norrellOn the subject of folktales, I recently discovered the fabulous Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke which has also been turned into a television series, though not successfully,  in my opinion.  Clarke’s magicians returning magic to England and fighting Napoleon and oblivious of evil fairy intervention is the funniest, cleverest, most entertaining book I have read in a long time.

10 thoughts on “#6degrees from tipping points to magic points

  1. What an entertaining chain Kathryn. Funny that you did some retellings – as did I in mine.

    I haven’t seen the television Picnic – is it on pay TV? I’m not sure I’m interested anyhow. I don’t want to spoil the film which is my go to version!

  2. Picnic was made by Foxtel for Foxtel so an interesting investment decision. It emphasises the thriller elements of the story over the mystical elements emphasised in the movie. I think it was made with a younger audience in mind. I liked it. My 23-year-old daughter who is less familiar with the movie loved it.

  3. Although it’s not specifically a self-help book, the principles in The Tipping Point could be applied at any scale. It’s an interesting book and very ‘readable’ if you’re in the mood for non-fiction.

    I have recorded the new version of Picnic at Hanging Rock and will binge-watch. Stay tuned for my review!

  4. Great blog. For some reason I did not like JS & Mr Norrell (the book). I think I found it slow and laboured, but I read it at least 15 years ago, so I expect I would approach it with an entirely different viewpoint now! Which would you recommend more out of the two thrillers?

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