Stuff I've read

Last year, I read a book each month (sometimes two if I was lucky), and made an effort to blog about each one - compiling  a list of "stuff I've read." I thought I'd continue the trend for 2015...even though the first book blogged this year was, in fact, read last year.

December's book - and consequently the last book I read in 2014, was The Girl in the Garden, by Kamala Nair. It's Nair's first novel, the violently moving and profound story of Rakhee, whose life has been peppered with unknowns for almost as long as she can remember. It's about learning to resolve unresolvable issues, and coming to a place of acceptance for what used to seem unacceptable. It's a romance, a tragedy, a mystery of the best kind.

I read it in less than a week, needing to know how it would end. I finished it needing to share the story with Stephen, realizing it's one of the few, great stories that demands to be carried by more than one person. The Girl in the Garden left me tired, in a good way, somehow more aware of the vastness of the world around me, and of the importance of giving merit to that which seems impossible.

Nair writes with the hand of someone who cannot be silent. This story, the story of the girl in the garden and everything around her, is both terrifying and comforting, and challenges its readers to seek the very best for their societies and cultures.

Read it.

It was a funny way to put it: Muthashi is not more. Death had gathered up what was left of her in his black satchel and wandered off into the night. Muthashi had been snatched from the face of the earth. She was no more.