#6Degrees of Separation-January

I'm taking part in #SixDegrees of Separation, which I first saw on the blog of Bookstooge over at https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/  Started by Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman, now hosted by https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.com/  On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet. 

I did Hamlet as one of our required reads at school and had some fun with it, though I never went on to really be a Shakespeare fan. I did read another three of his plays and I saw 'The Scottish Play' on stage as a school trip. That ended my time of being Cultured Chuckles and I started reading other things for fun instead!

Thinking of ham leads me to thoughts of bacon rolls. Bacon of course brings the thought of pigs to mind and then this book popped into my head. It's a short story about a slaughterhouse worker called Wade who goes to work with a hangover and discovers that AK47 armed demon possessed pigs are holding his co-workers hostage and are on a deadly rampage.   

I wish this book had been a bit longer as it was an amusing tale and watching Wade try to deal with the situation while hungover was funny. It brings a whole new meaning to having a bad day at work! You go in expecting to find your colleagues partying behind closed doors and instead you get demon pigs with guns...

Demons made me instantly think of the Dan Brown book. I actually started this book many years ago but never finished it, after I had devoured The Da Vinci Code in one night. Angels and Demons went very slow half way through and I DNFed it but I still have a copy. Robert Langdon finds himself caught up in a murder connected to the Illuminati and leads to a race to save Vatican City from a bomb. 

After enjoying the Tom Hanks film I might just decide to give the book another try, knowing that the action in the second half is worth hanging on through the slow bit. There is another book like that where I DNFed just before the main action started and I'm considering giving it another try and that is...

I read The Maze Runner and although I found the idea good, I ended up DNFing it because it was a bit slow and repetitive in places. I was getting as annoyed as Thomas about him being told nothing by the other boys and wanting to know more about the Maze and the monsters. 

Well not long ago I watched The Maze Runner film and really enjoyed it and it has made me want to go back and read the book again, to get to the end and see how it all played out-and the sequels. I never usually give books a second chance so Angels and Demons and The Maze Runner have that link. Now, moving on from this, I'm going to a subject where you really need to have stamina and be able to run for your life...

In the prequel to this book, a man is out training for a long distance endurance race when he stumbles into the middle of a zombie apocalypse. As he tries to evade the zombies and get back to his car, he worries about the safety of his friends who are out training in the same area but he has to concentrate on saving himself rather than look for them.

This book shows what happens to those friends as they are out training and find themselves in the same teeth chomping danger. Kate and Frederico are on a fun run when they get a call from her son, trapped 200 miles away during the zombie apocalypse. With no way to reach him by car, the only choice is to go on foot to get him, facing the most difficult ultra race they have ever done.

Sticking with the theme of a zombie road trip, an ex military man is trying to get home to his wife as a zombie apocalypse begins. He teams up with a stripper (who refreshingly he doesn't try to seduce) and an abandoned dog. They face the usual perils of the road with the people they meet being just as dangerous as the actual zombies.

Ah I love a good zombie book and this was certainly a favourite. I loved the addition of saving the life of Dog, though a more imaginitive name for the poor hound would've been nice! Dog survives book one which is what you want to know eh? So lets look at another book where there is a dog featuring heavily in the plot though not in an apocalypse setting this time.

Isn't it a really cute cover? This is Watson the corgi, who has moved with his owner Fred to a new town to be closer to her mother and open up a book shop. However Fred soon gets caught up in trouble when her stepfather is accused of murdering a body found dead in Fred's shop. Fred and Watson set out to clear his name and find the real culprit.

This was a cute cozy mystery with a decent plot and some quirky characters to enjoy. Watson is spoiled rotten but if he is as cute as the cover dog, well you can't really blame Fred can you! I'm not sure if I'll read more in the series as I'm not a love triangle kind of person but if you like dogs and cozy mysteries, it might be your kind of thing.

So there we go Hamnet to Cruel Candy in six steps!