Books in June

I finally got around to reading the Full Metal Alchemist manga (by Hiromu Arakawa) I bought after watching the anime show. I read volumes 1-6 in June, and so far the show follows the manga pretty closely. I understand it's when Greed enters the picture that the two stories diverge.

After having read The Gangs of New York, I picked up another collection of New York anecdotes by Herbert Asbury, All Around the Town. These are not strictly about gangs and gangsters and some of the stories are quite amusing, like the breakdown in what it took to be a fashionable lady in the post Civil War period. Expensive, and a little on the ouch side.

Another nonfiction book I read was the latest from Ayaan Hirisi Ali, Nomad. I was sucked in with her life story in her last book, and here she has more reflections, about what everything she went through taught her, and how the western world should handle immigrants from the Muslim world in particular. A very thought-provoking read.

It sort of worked out that I ended up reading two books dealing with female genital mutilation. It's something that Ali went through, and it appears as a major plot point in Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death. I loved this book, it deals with a lot of dark material but in the end has a feeling of pragmatic optimism about the future. There is wonderful worldbuilding here, and complex characters. I'd highly recommend this one, a great read.

Lastly, another book I finally got around to is the English translation of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's Devdas. Having seen two film versions (of the dozens in various languages made), I can now say that the Dilip Kumar version does follow the book (novella, really) more closely, but nothing can match the visual splendor of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's version. He may have deviated from some details, but I think he got the soul of the book up on the screen. It's one beautiful bummer of a story.

And now back to my so nearly done novel. I'll leave you with a few of my favorite quotes:



He said first that since he resembled Queen Anne to such a remarkable degree, he occasionally donned skirts and paraded the streets solely that he might acquaint the colonists with the appearance of their sovereign, whom none of them would probably ever see. This explanation didn't seem to satisfy anybody, so His High Mightiness said that he sometimes dressed as a woman simply because he was the New World representative of the Queen, and he though that the people should be reminded from time to time that they were ruled by a woman. Colonial eyebrows were still lifted, so Lord Cornbury finally announced with considerable dignity that he had made a vow which compelled him to wear dresses one month each year. And if that wasn't sufficient for the citizens, he implied, they could concoct a few explanations of their own. - Herbert Asbury

To be something abnormal meant that you were to serve the normal. And if you refused, they hated you... and often the normal hated you even when you did serve them. - Nnedi Okorafor

It is the custom of the wise and the cautious not to pronounce judgment on anything hastily, or to jump to conclusions without considering the full implications of the matter. But there are human beings who are the exact opposite. They do not have the patience to reflect over anything or follow a matter through to its logical end. On the spur of the moment they decide that a thing is either good or bad. They make faith do the work of thorough soul searching. It isn't that such people aren't cut out for the world - in fact they often work out very well. If luck is with them, they can often be found at the pinnacle of success. But if luck doesn't favour them, they can be found in the deepest dregs of misery, wallowing in its murky depths, unable to get up, to rise above their circumstances. There they lie like lifeless, inanimate objects. Devdas belonged to this class of men. - Saratchandra Chattopdhyay

All human beings are equal, but all cultures and religions are not. - Ayaan Hirisi Ali