I call it “Book Serendipity” when two or more books that I read at the same time or in quick succession have something in common – the more bizarre, the better.
Are all of these pure coincidence? Or, as a character says in The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg, maybe it’s true that “Sometimes serendipity is just intention, unmasked.”
This is a regular feature of mine every couple of months. Because I usually have 20–30 books on the go at once, I suppose I’m more prone to such incidents. The following are in roughly chronological order.
- A deadbeat boyfriend named Andrew in Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang and The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark.
- A partner’s piano playing is by turns annoying (practice) and revelatory (performance) in The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan and The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor.
- Frequent meals of potatoes due to poverty, and a character sneaking salt in, in Music in the Dark by Sally Magnusson and How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang.
- Getting close to a seal even though the character knows it might bite in Salt & Skin by Eliza Henry-Jones and one story in High-Wire Act by JoeAnn Hart.
- Rev. Robert Kirk’s writings on fairies are mentioned in The Archaeology of Loss by Sarah Tarlow and The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark (and were also a major element in Sally Magnusson’s previous novel, The Ninth Child; I happened to be reading her most recent novel at the same time as the above two!).
- Menthols are smoked in Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater and The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor.
- Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking is mentioned in Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater and The Archaeology of Loss by Sarah Tarlow.
An ant farm as a metaphor in The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan and The Wild Delight of Wild Things by Brian Turner.
- The main character, in buying a house, inherits the care of a large, elaborate garden from an older woman who kept it immaculate, in The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg and one story in High-Wire Act by JoeAnn Hart.
- A widow, despite her feminist ideals, wishes she had a man to take care of DIY and other house stuff for her in The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg and The Archaeology of Loss by Sarah Tarlow.
- A spouse’s death in 2016 and a description of cremation in The Archaeology of Loss by Sarah Tarlow and The Wild Delight of Wild Things by Brian Turner.
- A character deliberately burns a sexual partner’s cheek with a cigarette in Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater and The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor.
- Counting down the days, then hours, until a wedding, in The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg, The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan, and Crudo by Olivia Laing.
- Similar sentiments – about reading to find our own experiences expressed in a way we never would have thought to put them – in passages I encountered on the same day from A Life of One’s Own by Joanna Biggs (“I want to have that moment of recognition, finding something on the page I’ve felt but haven’t put into words”) and The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt (“the reader says to him or herself, Yes, that’s how it is, only I didn’t know it to describe it”).
- I encountered mentions of “Believe” by Cher in The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland and House Gone Quiet by Kelsey Norris on the same evening.
- Calculating how old a newborn child will be on a certain date in the future – and fearing what the world will be like for them then – in Matrescence by Lucy Jones and Milk by Alice Kinsella.
- Moving with twin sons is a key part of the setup in Dirt by Bill Buford and Speak to Me by Paula Cocozza.
- I read scenes of a mother’s death from brain cancer in The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt and One Last Thing by Wendy Mitchell in the same evening.
- There’s a mint-green house, and a house with a rope banister (the same house in one case, but not in the other) in both Speak to Me by Paula Cocozza and The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt, two 6 July 2023 releases.
- Connective tissue in the body is compared to the threads of textiles in Cross-Stitch by Jazmina Barrera and Floppy by Alyssa Graybeal.
- The metaphorical framework of one day is used as the structure in One Midsummer’s Day by Mark Cocker and The Farmer’s Wife by Helen Rebanks.
- I’ve read two chef’s memoirs this summer with a scene of pig slaughter: A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain and Dirt by Bill Buford.
- A character who lost an arm in the First World War in The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt and Haweswater by Sarah Hall.
I read descriptions of fried egg residue on a plate, one right after the other in the same evening, in The Dead Are Gods by Eirinie Carson and The Wren The Wren by Anne Enright.
What’s the weirdest reading coincidence you’ve had lately?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
You’re so good at this, Rebecca!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! One of life’s little pleasures.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Such great coincidences! (Andrew is a good name for a deadbeat boyfriend).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha! The husband in Friends and Strangers (by J. Courtney Sullivan) is also an Andrew and is kind of useless though not as bad. It’s my brother-in-law’s name so I can’t generalize too much 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
We all copy from each other, consciously and unconsciously.
LikeLiked by 1 person
True … nothing new under the sun!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! That’s a lot of book connections! How fun!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I enjoy looking out for them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think this is my favourite one yet! The menthols… the description of finding your own experience described in a book.. the deadbeat Andrews… also makes me want to read The Librarianist
LikeLiked by 1 person
Do read The Librarianist!
LikeLike
Wow, some of these coincidences are kind of crazy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They’re often pretty bizarre!
LikeLike
It is amazing how many of these you find, although you do give the serendipity more of a chance by reading so many books at once.
I have one: trekking through Iceland in Voyage au centre de la terre by Jules Verne, which I read this summer in French, followed by The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn, sequel to The Salt Path. I had no idea either of them would contain significant portions set in Iceland.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a fun one! I like an unexpected clumping together of themes.
LikeLike
Ha – the fried egg residue made me giggle! I’ve had some good ones, reporting and linking as I go along as usual. I’ve got another one to come in tomorrow’s review, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s good to do them as you go along so you don’t forget. I have to keep a running file or they’d be long gone.
LikeLike
[…] of colours (orange on brown, etc.) and small print that challenged the eye somewhat. In a Bookish Beck serendipity moment, Jane Jacobs, the late activist on cities and urban planning, pops up here less expectedly […]
LikeLike
Love these posts. I really need to start writing my down 🙂
Annoyingly, I came across a Joan Didion reference quite recently but can’t for the life of me think where (possibly either Wifedom by Anna Funder or A Kind of Magic by Anna Spargo-Ryan… or both!).
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are a few authors who get mentioned improbably often in my reading: Hannah Arendt, Louise Bourgeois and Joan Didion. It must say something about my (mostly nonfiction) choices!
LikeLike
You’re wonderfully observant. No doubt your attention span is better than mine because of my smartphone addiction! The one about burning the partner’s cheek with a cigarette is very disturbing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You could be reading and taking notes on your smartphone for all I know 😉 (My husband has started borrowing library books to read on his phone and it has increased his otherwise meager reading rate.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha, I could be, but I’m not. 😉
LikeLike
I’m amazed at the number of serendipitous moments you found in two books on the same evening! Coincidentally, I had also requested Cross Stitch, I noticed yesterday, but the request was neither accepted nor rejected, just left unanswered. 🙁
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s not out until November, so there’s still time yet!
LikeLike
I’ll keep my fingers xxxxxed, then.
LikeLike
[…] big Bookish Beck Serendipity Moment, of course: two books set in the queue for the Queen read within days of each […]
LikeLike