#alka joshi

[imlivingmylife]

“…I don’t always know what I’m doing. I try something. If it doesn’t work, I try something else. None of us are perfect, are we? But we have to keep trying to be our best selves. You are on your way to the top. You’ll make some missteps, but that’s normal. Mostly; you’re going to do things you didn’t even know you were capable of.”

-Lakshmi

The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi

[lesmotsdemoi]

Christine’s Nail Art Therapy 💅🏻💅🏻💅🏻

My A2Z Untried Challenge

Mani #8 📚📕📖

Inspired by The Henna Artist Author Talk ~ An Afternoon with Alka Joshi ~ the final event for Thousand Oaks Library One City, One Book 2024 The Henna Artist. It was a great afternoon hearing from this brilliant and engaging author, the perfect finish to a fabulous book (and trilogy)

📚 Featuring

Baroness X Bloodletting 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Untried since 2019, Holo Hookup Box Gothic Romance

💅🏼Stamping Plate El Corazon EC SP-1004

💅🏼Stamping Polish Emily de Molly Metallic Teal

[contedivaldoca]

Solo uno sciocco vive nello stagno restando nemico dei coccodrilli

“L’arte dell’henné a Jaipur”, A. Joshi

[coreglia]

We Are The Authors

Of Our Lives “Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.” Brené Brown The alarm goes off at exactly 6:30 am. Mercy me. It takes a minute to figure out where I am and how the hell to turn off that appalling noise.  After pushing every square…

[elireadsalot]

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

The Henna Artist explores the life of a woman named Laxmi who aspires to be self made and gain independence from her abusive husband, Hari.

“Success was ephemeral—and fluid—as I’d found out the hard way. It came. It went. It changed you from the outside, but not from the inside. Inside, I was still the same girl who dreamed of a destiny greater than she was allowed. Did I really need the house to prove I had skill, talent, ambition, intelligence?"

It is a most poignant read that accurately portrays to the reader the struggles and triumphs of a woman striving to make her place in a man's world. While the trope may sound overdone or cliche, the author does a great job in making the narrative original. Set in Jaipur, after the Independence Era of India, the book also describes the exquisite artiste culture of the Pink City. The author strings a group of well-written characters into a well-written plot that is driven by Laxmi's internal conflicts after her sister, Radha, who she did not know exists, turns up at her door. The henna artist's life spirals beyond her control and she struggles to bring it under her grasp.

The story that follows is an extremely thought-provoking yet wholesome read, necessary for every read to have read atleast once in their life. I, for sure, know that I will be coming back for multiple rereads of this book.

Rating: ★★★★★(5/5)

Review by Elizabeth Turner

[penofhearts]

Book Review: The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

When I saw this book in the recommendation section in my Libby app, I was just drawn to the cover and the title of this book. I know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but I did judge this book by its cover and name. The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi is a book dated back to the 1950s when India just got its independence and so many changes were taking place in the country. This story is not…

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Perfumist of Paris | Author: Alka Joshi | Publisher: MIRA (2023)

[bookdivareads]

Book Showcase: THE PERFUMIST OF PARIS by Alka Joshi

Read an #excerpt from the recently released THE PERFUMIST OF PARIS, book 3 in the Jaipur Trilogy by @alkajoshi. #fiction #historicalfiction #ownvoices #blogtour #MIRABooks #HTPBooks #recommendedread @HarlequinBooks @HarperCollins

The Perfumist of Paris, The Jaipur Trilogy #3, by Alka JoshiISBN: 9780778386148 (Hardcover)ISBN: 9780369718495 (eBook)ISBN: 9781488218057 (Audiobook)ASIN: B0B623PM6Y (Audible audiobook)ASIN: B09ZPPPSGV (Kindle edition)Page Count: 384Release Date: March 28, 2023Publisher: MIRA BooksGenre: Fiction | Historical Fiction | Own Voices “A stunning portrait of a woman blossoming into her full power…this…

[el-oh-her]

Alka Joshi

I desperately want The Parfumist of Paris but I don’t want the trilogy to be over ;-; 

[imlivingmylife]

“The measure of us isn’t in the day-to-day. And it’s not in our past or our future. It’s in the fundamental changes we make within ourselves over a lifetime.”

-Lakshmi

The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi

[read-alert]

Figured that now that I've got a bookblr, I should make a post about the Read the World Challenge I'm doing! I'm reading a book primarily set in every country, doing my best to focus on authors from said country, though I will read diaspora authors if that's not feasible. Also some of the books from early on were from diaspora authors because I was pulling from books I had already read; I'll likely read more books from those countries in the future if I can. I've got 52 countries so far, and I'll list the titles and countries under the cut

USA- Kindred by Octavia Butler- 5⭐️

Canada- The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline- 5⭐️

Trinidad and Tobago- The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull- 3⭐️

Brazil- Where We Go From Here by Lucas Rocha trans by Larissa Helena- 5⭐️

Argentina- Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica trans by Sarah Moses- 5⭐️

South Africa- The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden- 3⭐️

Nigeria- Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor- 4⭐️

Liberia- Dream Country by Shannon Gibney 5⭐️

France- Romance in Marseilles by Claude McKay- 2⭐️

UK- Watership Down by Richard Adams- 5⭐️

Ireland- Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen- 4⭐️

Qatar- Love from A to Z by SK Ali- 4⭐️

Iran- Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram- 4⭐️

China- The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu trans by Ken Liu- 5⭐️

Taiwan- Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen- 4⭐️

Japan- Confessions by Kanae Minato trans by Stephen Snyder- 3.5⭐️

Norway- Survival Kit by AH Haga- 4.5⭐️

Germany- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak- 4.5⭐️

India- The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi- 4⭐️

South Korea- The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn- 4⭐️

Columbia- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez trans by Gregory Rabassa- 4⭐️

Ghana- Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey- 4⭐️

Turkey- 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak- 4⭐️

Russia- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy trans by Louise Maude- 4⭐️

Sierra Leone- The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna- 4⭐️

Austria- The Wall by Marlen Haushofer trans by Shaun Whiteside- 5⭐️

Zimbabwe- Nervous Conditions by Tsiti Dangarembga- 5⭐️

Venezuela- It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo trans by Elizabeth Bryer- 4⭐️

Chile- The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende trans by Magda Bogin- 5⭐️

Sri Lanka- Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai- 4⭐️

Singapore- How We Dissappeared by Jing-Jing Lee- 4.5⭐️

Malaysia- Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf- 3.5⭐️

Egypt- A Master of Djinn by P Djèlí Clark- 4.5⭐️

Sudan- Ghost Season by Fatin Abbas- 4.5⭐️

Antigua and Barbuda- At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid- 4⭐️

Ukraine- The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh- 5⭐️

Bahamas- Learning to Breathe by Janice Lynn Mather- 4⭐️

Cuba- The Black Cathedral by Marcial Gala trans by Anna Kushner- 4⭐️

Dominica- The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid- 3⭐️

Bangladesh- Djinn City by Saad Z Hossain- 4⭐️

Mexico- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia- 4⭐️

Jamaica- Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn- 4⭐️

Vietnam- Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai- 4.5⭐️

Australia- Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko- 4⭐️

Israel- Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa- 4.5⭐️

Palestine- Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa- 5⭐️

Costa Rica- Where There Was Fire by John Manuel Arias- 4.5⭐️

Uruguay- Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis- 5⭐️

Dominican Republic- Tentacle by Rita Indiana trans by Achy Obejas- 2.5⭐️

Republic of the Congo- Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou trans by Helen Stevenson- 2⭐️

Czech Republic- The Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař- 2.5⭐️

Honduras- Turtles of the Midnight Moon by María José Fitzgerald- 4.5⭐️

[butchkaramazov]

alka joshi and khaled hosseini have changed my brain chemistry

[lesmotsdemoi]

Nail Art Therapy Sessions 💅🏻 💅🏻💅🏻

In the Wild Edition 🌀🖌️👩‍🎨

Thousand Oaks Library ~ One City One Book 2024 ~ The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

The library hosted a henna workshop today, lead by a delightful Henna artist Afshan Kahn, owner of Henna Me Beautiful, and her lovely daughter. It was great fun to learn about henna and then create a design on my arms and fingers inspired by provided design templates.

I was inspired to create a mandala mani using CjS LC-18 Collab with Manisha M. And my Emily de Molly stamping polishes in Metallic Teal, Rose Gold and Pink Orange. My base polish is Ethereal Coffee Cloud.

[bookaddict24-7]

AUTHOR FEATURE:

﹒Alka Joshi﹒

Three Books Written By this Author:

The Henna Artist

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

The Perfumist of Paris 

___

Happy reading!

[safifonhasstrel]

If I had learned anything from them, it was this: only a fool lives in water and remains an enemy of the crocodile.

2022 in books: the henna artist by alka joshi

[rockislandadultreads]

NoveList Combo: Lush & Descriptive Title Recommendations

Did you know NoveList is a database you can access with your library card to find reading recommendations? Find your next favorite read with this fantastic readers tool! Check it out on our website here.

The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch

In a faraway kingdom, in a long-ago land...

...a young girl lived happily in Moscow with her family: a sister, a father, and an eccentric mother who liked to tell fairy tales and collect porcelain dolls.

One summer night, everything changed, and all that remained of that family were the girl and her mother.

Now, a decade later and studying at Oxford University, Rosie has an English name, a loving fiancé, and a promising future, but all she wants is to understand--and bury--the past. After her mother dies, Rosie returns to Russia, armed with little more than her mother’s strange folklore--and a single key.

What she uncovers is a devastating family history that spans the 1917 Revolution, the siege of Leningrad, Stalin’s purges, and beyond.

At the heart of this saga stands a young noblewoman, Tonya, as pretty as a porcelain doll, whose actions—and love for an idealistic man—will set off a sweeping story that reverberates across the century....

Nocturne by Alyssa Wees

Growing up in Chicago’s Little Sicily in the years following the Great War, Grace Dragotta has always wanted to be a ballerina, ever since she first peered through the windows of the Near North Ballet Company. So when Grace is orphaned, she chooses the ballet as her home, imagining herself forever ensconced in a transcendent world of light and beauty so different from her poor, immigrant upbringing.

Years later, with the Great Depression in full swing, Grace has become the company's new prima ballerina—though achieving her long-held dream is not the triumph she once envisioned. Time and familiarity have tarnished that shining vision, and her new position means the loss of her best friend in the world. Then she attracts the attention of the enigmatic Master La Rosa as her personal patron, and realizes the world is not as small or constricted as she had come to fear.

Who is her mysterious patron, and what does he want from her? As Grace begins to unlock the Master's secrets, she discovers that there is beauty in darkness as well as light, finds that true friendship cannot be broken by time or distance, and realizes there may be another way entirely to achieve the transcendence she has always sought.

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.

But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.

The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi

Paris, 1974. Radha is now thirty-two and living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she’s finally found her passion—the treasure trove of scents.

When her friend’s grandfather offered her a job at his parfumerie, she quickly discovered she had a talent—she could find the perfect fragrance for any customer who walked in the door. Now, ten years later, she’s working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her.

Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage.

This is the third volume in “The Jaipur Trilogy.”