It is time for another bookish six degrees of separation, and this month’s starter book is Samantha Harvey’s Orbital. And as I went along the journey making connections, I discovered that two roads diverged in the words, aka book chains!
Books have a way of weaving us through stories, themes, and ideas that connect in unexpected ways. Also, a quirky celebration showed up on my calendar which I had to include here. Did you know that Trivia has its own day?
I grew up loving to watch and participate in quiz shows and trivia games, but somehow this got pushed into the back burner along the way. Though I do myself on that trivia path every so often, like on our very first cruise last month. I joined in on a couple of fun trivia games on board and made my family participate too!
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Two Roads Diverged in the Words
As I mentioned earlier, I ended up with two chains as I made connections and had to share both of them here. So first up below is that common set of books, before the roads diverged in the words!!
Words Walking Together
Orbital —> Forget Me Not—> Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart —> Away With Words
Orbital —> Forget Me Not
The link: Story told from multiple perspectives
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Book Description: A slender novel of epic power and the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts—from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan—have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate.
My Thoughts: Finally, a starter book that I can at least say I am reading currently! And it is
dazzling, so lyrical and stunning in its narrative that I want to keep reading the words. A more detailed review to follow.
I am linking this with kind of a weak link but the books I am linking together are both not weak at all. While Orbital takes us through the narratives of all the space-shuttlers (six of them), Terry’s book tells the story through two characters (and in two different ways!)
Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry is a tugging-at-hearstrings middle-grade novel-in-verse about a girl affected with Tourette’s syndrome. I read it a couple of years ago and totally loved it.
Forget Me Not—> Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart
The link: The title, of course!
Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart by Mary Ann Hoberman and illustrated by Michael Emberley (Children’s Poetry | 4 – 8 years, and up) is a delightful read! And given my love for poetry anthologies, I memorized many in this one
Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart —> Away With Words
The link: Poems and Mary Ann Hoberman
Away with Words!: Wise and Witty Poems for Language Lovers by Mary Ann Hoberman and illustrated by Perry Hoberman (Children’s Poetry for 6 years and up) is a totally fun read with poems that, as the title says, are wise and witty!
The Fork in the Words: The First Path Taken
Away With Words —> A Walk in the Words —> Thank You, Mr. Falker —> When Lightning Comes in a Jar —> Orbital
Away With Words —> A Walk in the Words
The link: The word “words”
A Walk in the Words written and illustrated by by Hudson Talbott tenderly and “vividly reveals the challenges–and ultimately the rewards–of being a non-mainstream kind of learner.” And being who I am, I loved the play on words in the title itself.
A Walk in the Words —> Thank You, Mr. Falker
The link: When words become problems
Both books deal with learning difficulties that are associated with words.
Thank You, Mr. Falker is “the real-life, classic story of a dyslexic girl and the teacher who would not let her fail.” I read this Patricia Polacco book many years ago and included this in a list of ‘thank you’ books here.
Thank You, Mr. Falker —> When Lightning Comes in a Jar
The link: Patricia Polacco
Polacco’s When Lightning Comes in a Jar is inspired by her own family reunions and is a heartwarming read that brought back memories of similar reunions in my childhood and makes me yearn for more such gatherings so my kids can have such memories too when they read similar books years later!
When Lightning Comes in a Jar —> Orbital
The link: Up above the world so high! Lightning and the space station!
Closing the circle back again, for lightning is seen up above where the space shuttles are as well!
And Then I Walked Down this Wordy Path Too!
Away With Words —> 13 Words —> The Dark —> The Rock from the Sky —> Orbital
Away With Words —> 13 Words
The link: The word “words”
A straightforward link for two delightful reads. Lemony Snicket and illustrator Maira Kalman bring us “an uproarious, whimsical word book like no other.” 13 Words is unique, quirky, and so very read-worthy! Do check it out.
13 Words —> The Dark
The link: Lemony Snicket
I stumbled upon The Dark on a road less traveled – literally! And very thankful I did so. When a book’s first two lines are “Laszlo is afraid of the dark. / The dark lives in the same house as Laszlo. ” you know you have to read it. Perfect for parents and caregivers helping young ones deal with fears of the dark.
The Dark —> The Rock from the Sky
The link: Jon Klassen
I love Klassen’s books (and of course Lemony Snicket’s too). And The Rock from the Sky simply adds brute force to that love, with the strength of rocks from the sky!! Wit and wisdom come together in the most whimsical way here.
The Rock from the Sky —> Orbital
The link: A rock in the sky and a space station too!
Trivia Trivia on Trivia Day
Origin of the Word
The word trivia comes from the Latin term trivium, meaning “a place where three roads meet.” In ancient Rome, these crossroads were spots for casual conversation, often about mundane matters—hence, trivia came to mean unimportant or little-known facts.
Side note: Once again, without meaning too, a fork in the road where roads meet!
In medieval education, the trivium comprised grammar, rhetoric, and logic—the foundational studies. Over time, “trivia” came to mean “commonplace” or “insignificant,” as these were subjects everyone was expected to know.
Guinness World Record for Trivia
The largest trivia contest is the Stevens Point World’s Largest Trivia Contest, held annually in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. It spans 54 hours straight and involves thousands of participants.
Early Trivia Game Shows
“Quiz Kids,” a radio show that debuted in 1940, is considered one of the earliest trivia competitions. It later transitioned to TV. CBS Television Quiz was one of the first quiz shows to be broadcast regularly on television (first aired July 2, 1941) (source)
National Trivia Day
January 4th is celebrated as National Trivia Day in the United States—a day to share and revel in obscure facts!
Trivia in Pop Culture
The 1980’s board game Trivial Pursuit became a cultural phenomenon. It was created by two Canadian journalists who realized there wasn’t a game centered on general knowledge. Soon, it became a global sensation, and remains so today.
Trivia Night Popularity
Pub trivia nights, which originated in the UK in the 1970s, have become a global pastime. They are credited with helping pubs stay popular by creating a community-focused activity.
Related Reads and More
- Check out these cool trivia board games, including I should have known that!, Outsmarted, and Wit’s End.
- If you are looking at books, then you cannot go wrong with ‘The Book of….’ series. Each one is sure to arm you with facts, trivia, and more so you can host and/or win trivia contests anywhere!
- I love this trivia book all about flags.
And Now, the End of This Post
Dear reader, have you read any of these books? Your favorite trivia question to ask others and/or your favorite trivia game (be it a board game, on TV, or elsewhere)?
