The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness 
by Arundhati Roy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“And yet , the burden of perpetual apprehension that she had carried around for years - of suddenly receiving news of death - had lightened somewhat. Not because she loved him any less, but because the battered angels in the graveyard that kept watch over their battered charges held open the doors between worlds (illegally, just a crack), so that the souls of the present and the departed could mingle, like guests at the same party. It made life less determinate and death less conclusive. Somehow everything became a little easier to bear.” ― Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Roy braids together the stories of many people (mostly in India and Kashmir) into a stunning novel filled with horror and love and the intimate struggles of facing each day as it comes. 

Cheers!

In honor of IPA day, I draw your attention to a book that I featured on Book Notes NH earlier this year. IPA: Brewing Techniques, Recipes and the Evolution of India Pale Ale by Mitch Steele (Boulder, CO: Brewers Publications, 2012) is the perfect book for the day. If reading about beer isn't your thing, perhaps reading a book set, at least partly, in India would be the proper way to celebrate: A Passage to India, The God of Small Things, The Namesake, and My Nine Lives are all excellent. 
If you need a beverage while you are reading I suggest you sample one of these fabulous IPAs: Heady Topper (The Alchemist), Stone Cali-Belgique, White Birch's Hooksett Ale.