Six Degrees of Separation ~ I Want Everything

Dominic Amerena

"I Want Everything" - 2024

#6Degrees of Separation:
from I Want Everything (Goodreads) to Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep? 

#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea. Thank you, Kate. See more about this challenge, its history, further books and how I found this here. 

The starter book this month is "I Want Everything" by Dominic Amerena. As usual, I haven't read the starter book. This is the description of the novel:

"You all know this, of course, but years and years ago, acclaimed Australian novelist Brenda Shales went missing. After two explosive, controversial books that would shape the literary canon of the country for decades to come — and that terrible legal scandal about plagiarism, of course — she was simply gone. 

That was, right up until a frustrated young writer sees an elderly woman swimming at his local pool in Melbourne. She looks familiar…very familiar in fact. No. It couldn’t be. Stunned, he returns home to confirm the impossible truth; it’s Brenda Shales, now in her old age and stranded in a retirement home. He’s determined to pursue her, to discover what happened to her all those years ago, and to possibly fulfil his dreams of literary stardom through a tell-all biography. But when he finds her, a case of mistaken identity and Brenda’s own terrible secrets begin to derail his ambitions, and ultimately, his entire life.

From brilliant debut novelist Dominic Amerena, I Want Everything is a wickedly sharp story of desire and deception, authorship and authenticity, and the devastating costs of creative ambition."

This was a nice title to find connections through words. I like that because it usually gives us a lot of different topics rather than all the same books. And I often get books I don't use so often otherwise. So we start with: I Want Everything

Bryson, Bill "A Short History of Nearly Everything" - 2003
The title is so true. There is so much information in this book, I wish my science teachers would have been half as informative and concise as he is, I learned more from this book than I did in years of trying to learn just a little about this subject.

Tartt, Donna "The Secret History" - 1992

A very impressive story hat will probably stay with me forever. A group of students does something really bad and can only get out of it by doing something even worse. The characters are not really likeable but they get under your skin.

Grenville, Kate "The Secret River" - 2005
The story of William Thornhill, whose main crime was to be born into absolute poverty in a time where there was no way out of it, where people were forced to become criminals in order to feed their families and, when caught, sent to a foreign country, a country so remote that the voyage there was one of no return. 

Tademy, Lalita "Red River" - 2007
The author tells the story of her father's ancestors that came all the way from Egypt as free men only to be turned into slaves in the States. The story begins after the Civil War when the slaves have officially been freed but white supremacists don't want to accept that, so there is still a long struggle ahead of them.

Xueqin, Cao (Cáo Xuěqín) "Dream of the Red Chamber/The Story of the Stone" (CHN: 红楼梦/Hung lou meng) - 1717-63

This novel has semi-autobiographical sides, it is said that it shows not just the rise and fall of the author's family but also that of the Qing Dynasty. It teaches us a lot not just about everyday Chinese life in the 18th century, but also their culture, religion, science, art and literature. Really captivating. Certainly one of the most informative books I have read about Ancient China, and I have read quite a few.

Dick, Philip K. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" - 1968

I always wondered about this weird title. The story is primarily about a bounty hunter in a dystopian world. After a nuclear global war damaged the earth tremendously, there are hardly any animals left. Or humans. So, the survivors have to create a new world.
The film "Blade Runner" is based on this novel.

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Is there a connection between the starter book and the last one? Maybe this: The Androids dream of everything, they want everything. That's about the closest I can get.

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