Reading Wednesday
Sep. 24th, 2014 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Recasting India: How Entrepreneurship is changing the World's Largest Democracy by Hindol Sengupta. The long-form journalism genre generally does not produce page-turners, but this book was exceptionally readable and interesting. And, as is always important in this genre, the information it presents is incredibly recent; it even manages to comment on the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which only took place about five months ago. The chapter on Modi – and particularly his perception by Gujarati Muslims – was my favorite, in fact. Modi has been Chief Minister (Governor, basically) of the state of Gujarat since 2001, and in that capacity has been widely blamed (though not actually convicted) for Hindu/Muslim riots in 2002 which killed somewhere between 700 and 2000 Muslims. On the other hand, as Sengupta points out, Gujarat is ahead of the rest of India in categories like the Muslim literacy rate, the average income of urban Muslims, and even the percentage of police who are Muslims. This dichotomy obviously has inspired a lot of passionate feelings on both sides, and as Modi will be Prime Minister and therefore a world leader for at least the next five years, it's an important topic that really benefits from this sort of in-depth research.
Other chapters deal with other complicated issues of modern Indian society that are often ignored in business-focused writing: Kashmir, Dalits, tribals, the rural poor, women. The overarching focus of the book is, of course, on class, particularly the middle and lower classes, and how they have and are continuing to deal with the opening of India's economy since the liberalization of the early '90s. Sengupta is much more optimistic and prioritizes the role of business and trade more than I personally would, but his data and interviews are worth reading.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
Wet Grave by Barbara Hambly.Sigh, it's the book without Hannibal. I like everything else about it, though! I think this one has the most exciting climax sequence in the series (rebellion! No, smugglers! During a hurricane! Also Minou is suddenly here! Flood! Giant alligator! Leprosy!) and everything that happens with the Ben/Rose relationship is perfect and amazing.
Also, whichever nonny said last book that they wanted Ben to get some more sleep, he does here! He has a lot of free time actually, at least in the first half of the book. Rereading, I was really impressed at all the subtle background work the first 100 or so pages does to set up the rest of the book. On the surface it seems like not much is happening, but there's a lot of stuff like seeding information about the Avocett family and murder, or Uncle Joffrey's refusal to leave his plantation, mentions of Mulm's involvement with smuggling guns, even the offhand detail of 'who sunk the 'independence'. And obviously you need to care about Artois for his death to matter.
Oh, Artois. He's such a great character; I really wish he could have been in more books. And his death is SO SAD. It's such a terrible way to die, and then everyone's reaction - Uncle Veryl weeping, Rose holding herself so stiff and dealing with all the necessities, Ben kissing Artois's forehead and then crying when he gets home and sees the book Artois opened - ah, it's all so tragic and powerful.
But his throat closed again, and he stood mute, looking down at her, and she, silent, up at him. Then he saw tears track slowly from her eyes, and she turned her face away.
And sat, breathing hard to steady herself, like a statue that knows that it will fly into pieces if once it starts to feel.
January thought, I can't go to her. If this solitude is what she needs in her pain, how can I break her strength with my own need?
How can I ever?
She has fought hard for that strength, and it is her victory.
And for a moment, through his grief, he felt a keener pain, as if he saw Rose sitting in the stern of a barge like a young queen of legend, sailing out into a stream and away from him.
Then she held up her hand, reaching out behind her for him, while the tears flowed faster down her face. And January took her hand, and knelt beside her chair, and she turned where she sat and pressed her face to his shoulder, the corner of her spectacles digging into his cheek, her body shuddering with sobs.
OH BBS. :( I really love the uneasy complication of what finally gets them together being Artois's death, and Ben's own sadness at that knowledge. And also the same grief leads to Ben and Shaw hugging, so it's sort of a great impetus for all the ships.
But I just adore everything about Ben and Rose in this book! I love that Ben's character arc here is literally coming to realize that he can't rescue Rose, but has to let her rescue herself, or at least make her own decisions about danger and heroics. And I love that once he does, it doesn't make for a distance between them, but makes them closer. Also:
Rose's hesitancy about men aside—if it could ever be put aside—he knew that confined to one room, he and Rose would quickly come to hate one another, and there was no way they could afford more.
I do love a relationship where they deeply love each other and still know that, y'know, people need their space.
I'm resisting the urge to quote basically every relevant scene, because I love them all, but I just have to include this bit, which is my very favorite:
“I've spent most of my life being told how I'll feel or what I'll think, if only I do as I'm told.” He heard Rose try to make her voice light as she said it. “You'll feel differently about wanting an education when you're married. That was my father's favorite. Would you—or anyone—say such a thing to a boy? All any woman really wants is children of her own. I don't know how many times Papa and his wife said that to me. My own mother, too, before she died. And that... that pitying expression in their eyes when I'd cry and cry and tell them they didn't understand.”
She looked up into his face, her hazel-green eyes not velvety with the softness of a lover, but clear with a friend's joy in friendship. “You understand. I don't think you realize how rare that is.”
AHHH THEY ARE THE BEST.
There was blood on the pencil, a good four inches of it. Rose must have driven it like a dagger into the man nearest her, the moment she judged it safe to do so, in order to get away.
“You've killed him,” he said, and licked his finger to scrub the dried blood off the lead point. “Puncture wounds that deep go septic very quickly, even if you didn't pierce an organ.”
“Good,” said Rose in a voice like a plucked guitar-string wound too tight.
YOU GUYS ROSE KILLED A DUDE WITH A PENCIL I LOVE HER SO MUCH. I love that she doesn't regret it or feel guilty too.
Athène was what Hannibal would call Rose in jest, after the intellectual warrior-goddess of the Greeks, meaning sometimes her erudition, and sometimes her spectacles. January understood now that it meant other things as well.
Tsk, Ben, it took you this long to figure that out? I love Rose's cross-dressing and want all of Ben poetically rhapsodizing on it and describing it as "erotic".
It occurred to January for the first time that Ayasha would probably have gotten on very well with Rose.
I really need this to happen in fanfic much more often. Whether silly coffeeshop AUs or canon-divergent AUs, I just want all of the 'Rose and Ayasha get to meet' fic.
Speaking of fanfic, I wish we had gotten to see Chloe and Minou's first meeting. Their relationship is fantastic and I love what we do see of it (the endearments! The giggling! Chloe sending presents for Dominique's baby!), but I really really want to know those first few things they said to one another. Chloe is a great character in general; I like the little hints of her own problems – with her family, with her nurse, with having a husband – and would love to get much more of her. I also totally ship Chloe/Minou (/Henri, I suppose). And Minou coming out to the swamps on her own while pregnant! That was amazing.
(And the link to the FFA discussion thread, which is still going strong.)
What are you currently reading?
Farzana: the Woman Who Saved an Empire by Julia Keay. A pretty awesome biography of an Indian woman in the later 1700s and early 1800s. Also from NetGalley, which is being awesome for me lately.
Days of the Dead by Barbara Hambly. SO MUCH OT3 YOU GUYS.
Also, I'm sort of vaguely reading Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber, which is an analysis of all the plays, though really I'm just jumping to the Romeo and Juliet chapter. But I feel the need to share this bit with you all, from the introduction. Garber was discussing how popular use and understanding of Shakespeare has changed over time, and currently there's tendency to use short quotes as a sort of prestige booster without regard to the quote's actual context within its play, and so you get things like people quoting villains thinking it's good advice. But my absolutely favorite example was this, which is an actual quote from a US congressman:
"William Shakespeare once wrote, 'For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause.' Hundreds of years before the death tax was even conceived, Shakespeare captured the worries felt by thousands of Americans."
I AM DYING.
Recasting India: How Entrepreneurship is changing the World's Largest Democracy by Hindol Sengupta. The long-form journalism genre generally does not produce page-turners, but this book was exceptionally readable and interesting. And, as is always important in this genre, the information it presents is incredibly recent; it even manages to comment on the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which only took place about five months ago. The chapter on Modi – and particularly his perception by Gujarati Muslims – was my favorite, in fact. Modi has been Chief Minister (Governor, basically) of the state of Gujarat since 2001, and in that capacity has been widely blamed (though not actually convicted) for Hindu/Muslim riots in 2002 which killed somewhere between 700 and 2000 Muslims. On the other hand, as Sengupta points out, Gujarat is ahead of the rest of India in categories like the Muslim literacy rate, the average income of urban Muslims, and even the percentage of police who are Muslims. This dichotomy obviously has inspired a lot of passionate feelings on both sides, and as Modi will be Prime Minister and therefore a world leader for at least the next five years, it's an important topic that really benefits from this sort of in-depth research.
Other chapters deal with other complicated issues of modern Indian society that are often ignored in business-focused writing: Kashmir, Dalits, tribals, the rural poor, women. The overarching focus of the book is, of course, on class, particularly the middle and lower classes, and how they have and are continuing to deal with the opening of India's economy since the liberalization of the early '90s. Sengupta is much more optimistic and prioritizes the role of business and trade more than I personally would, but his data and interviews are worth reading.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
Wet Grave by Barbara Hambly.
Also, whichever nonny said last book that they wanted Ben to get some more sleep, he does here! He has a lot of free time actually, at least in the first half of the book. Rereading, I was really impressed at all the subtle background work the first 100 or so pages does to set up the rest of the book. On the surface it seems like not much is happening, but there's a lot of stuff like seeding information about the Avocett family and murder, or Uncle Joffrey's refusal to leave his plantation, mentions of Mulm's involvement with smuggling guns, even the offhand detail of 'who sunk the 'independence'. And obviously you need to care about Artois for his death to matter.
Oh, Artois. He's such a great character; I really wish he could have been in more books. And his death is SO SAD. It's such a terrible way to die, and then everyone's reaction - Uncle Veryl weeping, Rose holding herself so stiff and dealing with all the necessities, Ben kissing Artois's forehead and then crying when he gets home and sees the book Artois opened - ah, it's all so tragic and powerful.
But his throat closed again, and he stood mute, looking down at her, and she, silent, up at him. Then he saw tears track slowly from her eyes, and she turned her face away.
And sat, breathing hard to steady herself, like a statue that knows that it will fly into pieces if once it starts to feel.
January thought, I can't go to her. If this solitude is what she needs in her pain, how can I break her strength with my own need?
How can I ever?
She has fought hard for that strength, and it is her victory.
And for a moment, through his grief, he felt a keener pain, as if he saw Rose sitting in the stern of a barge like a young queen of legend, sailing out into a stream and away from him.
Then she held up her hand, reaching out behind her for him, while the tears flowed faster down her face. And January took her hand, and knelt beside her chair, and she turned where she sat and pressed her face to his shoulder, the corner of her spectacles digging into his cheek, her body shuddering with sobs.
OH BBS. :( I really love the uneasy complication of what finally gets them together being Artois's death, and Ben's own sadness at that knowledge. And also the same grief leads to Ben and Shaw hugging, so it's sort of a great impetus for all the ships.
But I just adore everything about Ben and Rose in this book! I love that Ben's character arc here is literally coming to realize that he can't rescue Rose, but has to let her rescue herself, or at least make her own decisions about danger and heroics. And I love that once he does, it doesn't make for a distance between them, but makes them closer. Also:
Rose's hesitancy about men aside—if it could ever be put aside—he knew that confined to one room, he and Rose would quickly come to hate one another, and there was no way they could afford more.
I do love a relationship where they deeply love each other and still know that, y'know, people need their space.
I'm resisting the urge to quote basically every relevant scene, because I love them all, but I just have to include this bit, which is my very favorite:
“I've spent most of my life being told how I'll feel or what I'll think, if only I do as I'm told.” He heard Rose try to make her voice light as she said it. “You'll feel differently about wanting an education when you're married. That was my father's favorite. Would you—or anyone—say such a thing to a boy? All any woman really wants is children of her own. I don't know how many times Papa and his wife said that to me. My own mother, too, before she died. And that... that pitying expression in their eyes when I'd cry and cry and tell them they didn't understand.”
She looked up into his face, her hazel-green eyes not velvety with the softness of a lover, but clear with a friend's joy in friendship. “You understand. I don't think you realize how rare that is.”
AHHH THEY ARE THE BEST.
There was blood on the pencil, a good four inches of it. Rose must have driven it like a dagger into the man nearest her, the moment she judged it safe to do so, in order to get away.
“You've killed him,” he said, and licked his finger to scrub the dried blood off the lead point. “Puncture wounds that deep go septic very quickly, even if you didn't pierce an organ.”
“Good,” said Rose in a voice like a plucked guitar-string wound too tight.
YOU GUYS ROSE KILLED A DUDE WITH A PENCIL I LOVE HER SO MUCH. I love that she doesn't regret it or feel guilty too.
Athène was what Hannibal would call Rose in jest, after the intellectual warrior-goddess of the Greeks, meaning sometimes her erudition, and sometimes her spectacles. January understood now that it meant other things as well.
Tsk, Ben, it took you this long to figure that out? I love Rose's cross-dressing and want all of Ben poetically rhapsodizing on it and describing it as "erotic".
It occurred to January for the first time that Ayasha would probably have gotten on very well with Rose.
I really need this to happen in fanfic much more often. Whether silly coffeeshop AUs or canon-divergent AUs, I just want all of the 'Rose and Ayasha get to meet' fic.
Speaking of fanfic, I wish we had gotten to see Chloe and Minou's first meeting. Their relationship is fantastic and I love what we do see of it (the endearments! The giggling! Chloe sending presents for Dominique's baby!), but I really really want to know those first few things they said to one another. Chloe is a great character in general; I like the little hints of her own problems – with her family, with her nurse, with having a husband – and would love to get much more of her. I also totally ship Chloe/Minou (/Henri, I suppose). And Minou coming out to the swamps on her own while pregnant! That was amazing.
(And the link to the FFA discussion thread, which is still going strong.)
What are you currently reading?
Farzana: the Woman Who Saved an Empire by Julia Keay. A pretty awesome biography of an Indian woman in the later 1700s and early 1800s. Also from NetGalley, which is being awesome for me lately.
Days of the Dead by Barbara Hambly. SO MUCH OT3 YOU GUYS.
Also, I'm sort of vaguely reading Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber, which is an analysis of all the plays, though really I'm just jumping to the Romeo and Juliet chapter. But I feel the need to share this bit with you all, from the introduction. Garber was discussing how popular use and understanding of Shakespeare has changed over time, and currently there's tendency to use short quotes as a sort of prestige booster without regard to the quote's actual context within its play, and so you get things like people quoting villains thinking it's good advice. But my absolutely favorite example was this, which is an actual quote from a US congressman:
"William Shakespeare once wrote, 'For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause.' Hundreds of years before the death tax was even conceived, Shakespeare captured the worries felt by thousands of Americans."
I AM DYING.
