I spent the last couple of months tackling not one, but four, 1000 pagers. I have survived and am here to say that the effort was worth it. The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia, a human history of the oceans, was the only non-fiction of the 4.
The Boundless Sea is a fabulous book meticulous in its details, rich in colorful characters and set a number of facts straight for me. Growing up in India, ironically we accepted texts that stated Vasco Da Gama discovered India, much like Columbus' discovery of America! These statements not only ignored the presence of native population, they also ignored the seafaring adventures across the oceans by the indigenous people of these nations long before Europeans entered into the picture. Until the arrival of European adventurers the oceans were mainly used by traders, and successful trading usually involved learning another culture and customs. Abulafia's book is full of tales about how religions like Buddhism spread through the oceans, evidences of Greeks worshiping Indian Gods, a settlement of Jewish people in India, seals that bear inscriptions from multiple languages. However, the Portuguese and Spanish with the help of Italian seafarers took this to the next level. The big change that the Europeans brought about was the concept of conquest and colonization to control trade routes usually in search of a particular hot commodity. Human history of the oceans appears to be a human history of commodities - myrrh and frankincense, amber, spices (pepper and cinnamon especially), salt, herrings, tea, fur, and later sugar and cotton which in turn led to slavery. Abulafia could have told the story from the point of view of these products and our insatiable need for them. The oceans connect all corners of the earth, so it was no surprise that especially in the 15th century two key factors connect history of all humanity 1) The importance of the Indian & Chinese spice/tea trade to all European nations 2) European Christians wanting to avoid the Red Sea and the Islamic centers of trade in their effort to control the Indies. The colonization of the New World was because of this arms race to discover a route to India and that race determined winners and losers in multiple continents with consequences till date.
This book is not for the faint hearted or those with poor upper body strength (I got a physical copy - a mistake). Many days I wondered if it was for me too as it was just too much information to process! But Abulafia is a great storyteller and the book deserves the Wolfson History prize. If you don't want to read the book I recommend listening to this interview
I was introduced to Brandon Sanderson by my daughter. This marked a big moment in our mother-daughter relationship. I remember when I started curating books and movies for my dad and it is inevitable I am at that stage right now. I am a big fan of Sci-fi/ Fantasy/ Speculative fiction. I like to think I don't distinguish between hi-brow literature and genre fiction. I love the great masters of the genre from Tolkien, Frank Herbet, GRR, Ursula Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, Neil Gaiman and recently Neal Stephenson, Ann Leckie. I regularly check out the Hugo/Nebula/ Locus award winners. But it's been a long time since I was consumed by an epic fantasy like that of Sanderson's. I have to say he is truly the Tolkien for this generation, and yes I am ranking him higher than GRR! I read Mistborn and Stormlight (3 books in each series) in a span of 2 months and they are still with me. The world creation, character arcs, the plot, the magic systems and the no-gimmick and no-pandering style is just so refreshing. The depth of philosophy and religion in these books and the emphasis on civil discourse is fantastic! Most Sci-fi/fantasy writers fall into the liberal/ atheist category and then there are people like Orson Scott Card who holds despicable views. It is hard to separate art from the artist (which is why I can't bring myself to read Ender's Game or Mists of Avalon). Sanderson doesn't shy away from religion in his books and his life but is not a bigot and doesn't have a hidden agenda to spread the beliefs of LDS. In fact the struggle between the Parshendi and humans in Stormlight seemed to me, a commentary on the relationship between the Paiutes and Mormons in Utah. What is the nature of god when we seem to be tearing each other apart, what does it mean to live a life of honor when everything around you has gone to dogs, what does it mean for a god to die and how does an atheist and a believer react to that - these are all questions raised and discussed in the Cosmere universe, and I found the arguments intellectually stimulating. In one of my favorite quotes from his book a character says (and I paraphrase) a hypocrite is someone who is in the process of changing and without change and flow we cannot evolve. In these times when we are so polarized, listening to another, discussing, understanding and evolving are all crucial if we want to solve existential problems. Sanderson is also very generous as he puts up all his lectures on writing on Youtube something my daughter truly appreciated. I was hesitant to pick up Stormlight as I know he has planned 10 books in this series and has completed only 3. I am already waiting for Winds of Winter from GRR and it feels like an eternity, so I was hesitant to pick up an unfinished series. But the opportunity to read something with my daughter over the next 15 years was too great to pass up and I am richer for it. Now we both are waiting for the fourth book coming this thanksgiving.
RBG's passing was a sad day not just for women but for all underdogs. We shouldn't forget that one of her most successful gender discrimination case was won by her defending the right of a man to collect social security benefits as a home maker! The crazy election cycle just got crazier and I did not want to get sucked into a vortex of negativity. Instead, as a tribute to RBG I spent the day re-reading Mary Beard's Women and Power - A Manifesto. In Western civilization it looks like the first feminists were all lawyers - Maesia and Afrania who both went to court and were ridiculed for their androgyny - an outspoken woman has to be unnatural after all! So it seemed fitting that a petite, gentle lawyer had to school this country on gender equality. As Mary Beard states the problems are deep rooted and structural and as ancient as western civilization and dismantling these structures is going to take time. RIP RBG. The rest of us have work to do to make sure all the gains you made for us are not lost.
The other book I finished this month was Normal People by Sally Rooney which made everyone's list include President Obama's. I didn't think this book would appeal to me as I was not the target audience (or so I thought) but I was pleasantly surprised by the writing. I soon found myself absorbed by Marianne's and Connell's "relationship" - was it friendship or friendship with benefits? If you remember Seinfeld The Deal and thought how funny it was, take that premise subtract the jokes, add in smartphones + social media, depression, violence, alienation, class conflicts you get Normal People. Maybe it is the pandemic but I felt that as we all experience social isolation we realize that it is important to have at least one other person that we can absolutely lean on and in Normal People the two protagonists realize that they have been that person for each other but do not seem to have the ability to articulate that. Can tweets, tiktoks and texts help a human connect at a deeper level with another? At the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I have to say that I found that Marianne and Connell (despite being well read, intelligent people who cared for each other) could not communicate openly and this thwarted communication was at the root of all their troubles.
Anyway those were the books of this past month. I am trying a few books now and while non-fiction has been easy to find, I am yet to get Stormlight out of my system and so the quest for fiction books for next month is still ongoing.
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