I spotted this meme on the outstanding blogs of Susan at A Life in Books and Marina at Finding Time to Write. If you haven’t visited their blogs I’d recommend you do for insightful reviews, bookish observations and original poetry. The meme was created by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best.

From what I can gather each month starts from a different book and the aim is to move from the initial book to the sixth book with one link from the previous title. The books don’t have to be linked to each other, just the one before.

Having missed out on taking part in January’s book we skip on to February. This month’s starter book is Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, which won the Booker Prize this year. Though I haven’t read this novel, described as an experimental novel has received plaudits galore and is one I hope to get to eventually.

Another Booker Prize winner, and yet another novel I’ve not read it A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, also loosely inspired by real events, though this one looks at the attack on Bob Marley by seven gunmen rather than the tragic death of Lincoln’s son.

Linked only by their titles the next book is The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. Described as “Gosford Park meets Inception, by way of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express“, the novel finds protagonist Aiden re-living the day of a fateful party until he can unmask the killer of the Evelyn of the title. Yet again another book I have still yet to read, though I have at least a copy of this one. It also happens to be published by Bloomsbury who published Lincoln in the Bardo.

The next book of course has to be by the queen of crime Agatha Christie. If I have read this, it was years ago and my memory of it is only that of the TV version but I do have a copy lurking around to read (again). The one I’ve chosen is Peril at End House, where the famous Belgian detective exercises his little grey cells in fathoming out who is tring to kill heiress Nick Buckley.

The Haunting of Hill House is the best known of Shirley Jackson’s novels, followed closely by We Have Always Lived in the Castle. You’ll not be surprised to find I’ve not read either of these though every time I see mention of them I remind myself I really need to.

And sticking with the theme of choosing books I’ve not read but want to the next book is I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. With it’s memorable opening line it is yet another book I see nothing but plaudits for. She wrote plays and many other novels, one of which happens to be The One Hundred and One Dalmations.

The latter novel was made into that quite well known animated movie by the Walt Disney company, as was my final novel, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. And though I’ve seen the film, I have not, as you may have guessed, read the book….

So from Lincoln in the Bardo to The Jungle Book in 6 tenous links. (I realise my previous attempts were only 5 steps – but nobody else seems to have noticed.) Where would your links take you? The next book is The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf (and no I’ve not read this one either).