ARANYAKA: BOOK OF THE FOREST
Amruta Patil & Devdutt Pattanaik

My favorite book I read in March was this comic book of Vedic concepts and folktales. I've been following Amruta Patil on instagram for a year or so, watching her post sketches and page layouts while illustrating this book, so I was excited to finally read it, and it was one of the first things I ordered when I abruptly and unexpectedly returned to the US from Tunisia a few weeks ago. It's about a woman who lives in the forest after being kicked out of her village; how she survives, who she meets, how she grows and changes and stays the same. She spends time with ascetics and philosophers and has lots of observations and insights of her own, so the story is full of aphorisms and surprisingly clarifying sentences, which made reading this feel like reading wisdom literature in storybook form. Vibrant watercolor illustrations make the whole thing warm and inviting and accessible, and the afterword contains genuinely interesting ideas from the two authors about topics ranging from artistic collaboration to Hindu philosophy and symbolism. I really liked this and anyone who's interested in comix or relijun probably would too; you can borrow my copy if you want.

other books I read this month:
SISTERS IN THE WILDERNESS:
THE CHALLENGE OF WOMANIST GOD-TALK - Delores S. Williams
SALAD ON THE WIND - Mark Leidner
QUIET - Evan M. Cohen