Sometimes I choose a book knowing it will have to do with a certain subject. Usually the choice of my next book has more to do with mood or what I just finished reading. My favorite thing to read is a novel.

Recently, for four different reasons, I chose four books in four consecutive months in four different genres–essays, stories, memoir, and a novel–that all brought me back to the 60’s (I know, it would be a better story if it had been the 40’s)…

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Because of a quote a reader left in a blog post,

in September I read

Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, by Thomas Merton,

where I came across this passage: “January 22, 1961: President Kennedy’s inauguration speech has just been read in the refectory.”

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then on Pam Houston’s recommendation,

in October I read

Battleborn, by Claire Vaye Watkins,

whose father was a member of Charles Manson’s family and who in the first story of her collection writes about it but does not write about it and then goes beyond it.

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then because I love Neil Young’s music

in November I read

Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream, by Neil Young, 

who not only was the sixties but also played guitar with Charles Manson: “After a while, a guy showed up, picked up my guitar, and started playing a lot of songs on it. His name was Charlie…He was quite good.”

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then because I had the ARC and because I wanted a big, thick novel to sink into

in December I read

May We Be Forgiven, by A. M. Homes, 

where a character says, “Look at the film, you see that after the first shot Kennedy goes down but then he bounces back up; that’s because he was wearing a corset for his back…”

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Have you ever noticed coincidences like this in your reading choices?