#6 degrees July 2017

Picnic (1955)

1. Brona’s Books religiously posts her
2. …#6degree meme  (read her post here)
3. and I always promise I will try to
4. write a post as well….I never do.
5. Why?
6. I hate to make the connections, have no talent for it.
7. So, I will join Brona this month because  I know that interaction with bloggers
8. is important to keep the ‘writing’ juices to flowing!
9. I let her do the hard work (connections)
10. …and I’ll just add my 2-cents.
11. PS – #6degrees is a monthly meme hosted by Kate Books Are My Favourite 

 

Picnic #1 – eponymous play by W. Inge ‘Picnic’ 

1. I have it on my TBR list.
2. I was swept off my feet by the movie version (1955).
3. The hot and steamy chemistry between Madge (the ravishing Kim Novak)
4. and William Holden (Hollywood 1950’s hunk) fogged up my glasses!
5. The dance scene at the picnic is my absolute favorite.
6. If you watch femme fatale Madge and  drifter tough guy Hal
7. sashaying and listen to the movie’s theme song
8. …Moonglow by De Lange (words), Hudson and Mills (music).
9. I dare you not to get skin shivers…it is so  good!

 

Picnic #2 – Sound of Music…. based  ‘The Story of The Trapp Family Singers”.

1. If you haven’t seen this or read the story….you’re from another planet!

 

The Gilded Age NY society – That will have to be Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

1. This was very popular in the 1970’s but I had just shipped off to  The
2. Netherlands and landed into a world very distant from the NYTimes best sellers list.
3. I was in survival mode…no time for books yet!
4. It won the National Book Critics Circle  Award for fiction in 1975.
5. Not really a Pulitzer….but close enough.

 

Pulitzer connection:   – Angle of Repose

This book surprised me.

1. Many readers love this book and I keep asking myself why?
2. I too was drawn into the book in the first pages…but soon lost interest.
3. The writing was not ‘powerful’….it was seductive.
4. Stegener uses pathos that appeals to emotion to ‘bamboozle’  me.
5. I was not impressed.

 

Forgotten classic: – The African Queen by  C.S. Forester

1. My mother did not like movies  but I was addicted to them.
2. There was one film she would watch with me…and we watched it a zillion times!
3. This was ‘our’ movie.
4. I decided to read the book….just for old times sake!
5. Charlie: free-spirited libertine; drunk; loner.
6. Rose: well-educated, snobbish; head-strong; bossy; devout tea-teetotaler
7. This combination was explosive….and  yet a very tender love story.
8. …another ‘classic’  movie from the 1950’s with Oscar winning  Bogart and Hepburn.

 

Existential hero –  The Sheltering Sky by Paul  Bowles

1. The existential despair and determinism (fate) was dripping off every page!
2. This book review will be posted soon…but take it from me
3. …this was an exhausting read!

 

Road trip –  Walking the Nile  by Levison Wood.

1. You probably know I love to travel and learn about the world
2. …but I hate to leave home.
3. #WorldFromMyArmchair  started by Paul Halfbook, Halfman was just
4. …what the doctor ordered!
5. This walk  with phython snakes, croc’s an hippo’s, red mites, insects and feral dogs
6. …was an adventure pur sang!

 

• Now there you have it….my #6degree connections
• …with a little bit of help from a friend, Brona…who really travels!
• Have a look at her second blog  Four Seasons!