#the candid life of meena dave

[elsbookcorner]

2022 Book Wrap!

In total I read 29 books this year meaning I was only 1 book of my reading goal of 30. That is okay thought because this year I really got back into reading and considering last year I read about 14!

Books I read:

The Turn of the Screw - Henry James

The World's Greatest Miracle - Og Mandino

The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman

Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

The woman in Black - Susan Hill

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman

The Girls I've Been - Tess Sharpe

As Good as Dead - Holly Jackson

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman

How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You - The Oatmeal

Heartstopper - Alice Osrman

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Trial by Fire - Josephine Angelini

Firewalker - Josephine Angelini

Witches Pyre - Josephine Angelini

Midnight Sun - Stephanie Meyer

New Moon - Stephanie Meyer

Eclipse - Stephanie Meyer

The Candid Life of Meena Dave - Namrata Patel

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins

One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston

Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

Little women - Louisa May Alcott

Good wives - Lousia May Alcott

The Bullet that Missed - Richard Osman

My 5 top books of the year that weren't rereads are probably The Woman in Black, Midnight Sun, The Candid Life of Meena Dave, Daisy Jones and the Six, and One Last stop.

The Woman in Black is my new favourite horror book ever. It made me feel so unsettled (my imagination is very active) and had me peeking around corners before exiting a room incase the Woman in black was waiting for me. The plot twist at the end really got me as I genuinely thought that he had broken the curse but wow. It was sick but also amazing and I couldn't read anything for a few days once I finished it because I was still hooked.

Funnily enough Midnight Sun is in my top 5. I know alot of people disliked this book because it was too similar to Twilight but I really enjoyed it. I love how we really get to see Edwards character more in depth. What I loved is how dramatic he was and how funny he was. My favourite part was when Mike was speaking to Bella and Edwards decides to be the most dramatic man ever and start thinking about how he could just kill Mike. So silly.

The Candid Life of Meena Dave is incredible. I love the characters, especially the dog! The romance in this book was so cute and I loved how Patel didn't make Meena have her whole life and story revolve around Sam after meeting him. It didn't just focus on love but also on Meena trying to find herself before even thinking about getting into a relationship. Was an amazing read that had me kicking my feet.

Now at first I didn't like Daisy Jones and the Six because of how it was written. But then I grew to love it with my whole heart. I wanted to learn how to pkay bass guitar before reading this book but after it made me get up and actually learn. I'm so glad Reid didn't glamorise or romanticise drugs because drugs quite literally almost ruined Billy's life. I loved seeing how he changed and dealt with everything. Anyway I'm so excited for the show to come out in March!

Finally, One Last Stop, arguably my favourite overall this year. THIS REALLY HAD ME KICKING MY LEGS IT WAS SO CUTE. I think I also fell in love with Jane. When I say this book had me crying I mean actually sobbing. The end had me facing so many emotions. I don't even have the words to say how much I love this book.

I reread quite a few books too. My top 5 were definitely the Worldwalker Trilogy (Trial by Fire, Firewalker and Witches Pyre), The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Little Women. These 5 books are my comfort books. Every single one of them has broken spines and damaged covers because of the amount of times I've read them. I highly HIGHLY recommend them, especially the Worldwalker trilogy and anything by Josephine Angelini. The trilogy has my ultimate book crush, Rowan Fall, too! So underrated definetly go read it!

Anyway, that is everything I have to say about this year. Its a shame I only had one book left to read but I'll achieve it next year!

[caribeandthebooks]

Caribe's Contemporary Fiction TBR - Part 3

[bargainsleuthbooks]

The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel #AmazonFirstReads #KindleDeals #AudiobookReview #BookReview

"A woman embarks on an unexpected journey into her past in an engrossing novel about identity, family secrets, and rediscovering the need to belong." #TheCandidLifeofMeenaDave by #NamrataPatel #AmazonFirstReads #BookReview #KindleDeals #AudiobookReview

A woman embarks on an unexpected journey into her past in an engrossing novel about identity, family secrets, and rediscovering the need to belong. Meena Dave is a photojournalist and a nomad. She has no family, no permanent address, and no long-term attachments, preferring to observe the world at a distance through the lens of her camera. But Meena’s solitary life is turned upside down when she…

[devitalise]

🚨 WE ARE LESS THAN 48 HOURS AWAY FROM OCTOBER HOW ON EARTH ARE WE TO STAND IT!! Ok Miss Imo I have my popcorn popped, let's hear all about the September flops and, if applicable, your planned October's reads to remedy those flops 🍿

sorry the only flop here is me!!! 6th october and i'm only just answering this and what's worse is my september reading was so bad it's not even going under the cut so here's my

september book wrap up

girls in love and girls under pressure by jacqueline wilson

cres of castawavy fame asked if read JW growing up and as a girl in the uk of course i had. the conversation was so nostalgic and i loved Jacqueline's books growing up so i wanted to revisit this series as an adult and see what i thought. yeah, they're great books. i just love and appreciate the space for girlhood in books like these, of individuality and insecurity and the real topics that are addressed in these.

and that's all i read :) (ignoring my 2nd dnf of the year (the candid life of meena dave by namrata patel))

my october reading is already off to a much better start. finished the girls series and then as it's black history month in the uk i've created a list of Black horror books to read! i couldn't find much Black British horror which was a real shame so i'm planning on getting back into a nonfiction moment, maybe reading some texts on windrush that kind of thing

[coffeeinkblog]

#BookReview #TheCuriousSecretsOfYesterday by #Namrata Patel #KayePublicity

GoodReads Summary: A woman’s ambitions clash with familial expectations in a captivating novel about generational secrets and self-discovery by the bestselling author of The Candid Life of Meena Dave. Raised by her mother and grandmother and tutored in the healing wonders of spices, Tulsi Gupta is expected to carry on the ancestral tradition from her family’s Salem spice shop. Restless and…

[chantalstacys]

Can you drop your fall reading list 👀

so i have a bunch! i’m not expecting to actually make it all the way through this list, and i might re-read a few old favorites instead, but here’s some fresh ones that i gave myself to choose from!

♡ the dead romantics by ashley poston

♡ maybe in another life by taylor jenkins reid

♡ before we were strangers by renee carlino

♡ if we were villains by m.l. rio

♡ the candid life of meena dave by namrata patel

♡ before the coffee gets cold by toshikazu kawaguchi

♡ the traveling cat chronicles by hiro arikawa

♡ how to find love in a bookshop by veronica henry

♡ shady hollow by juneau black

♡ the ex hex by erin sterling

♡ a single thread of moonlight by laura wood

♡ the shadow of the wind by carlos ruiz zafón

♡ alone with you in the ether by olivie blake

♡ persuasion by jane austen

♡ the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde

♡ and then there were none by agatha christie

[raplinesmoon]

Hey Isi! ☺️💜 For your random question game, what are your favorite books (as many or as few as you want to list)?

Hi Allison!!! Thank you for sending me this, I’m freezing my butt off while trying to nap for a bit hahaha! I love a lot of books, so it’s hard for me to pin down favorites, but I’m going to try my best:

A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza - this is probably the one book I can definitively classify as a favorite. It broke me and put me back together, and was just full of so many wonderful and also difficult emotions 😭

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery - I grew up with all these books, and something about reading Anne’s adventures just fills me with a wonderful sense of nostalgia for my childhood 😊

A couple of recent favorites:

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood - this had me screaming and kicking my feet like I was reading a fanfic. Major bonus points if you visualize Namjoon as the male lead 😍

House of Salt and Sorrow by Erin Craig- this was a compelling, creepy fantasy story! I’d be lying if I said this didn’t inspire some of my hyung line gothic horror fics 😈

The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel - this one surprised me! I wasn’t expecting to come out of it so emotional, but it explores found family, which is one of my favorite tropes 💕

ask me anything!

[moon-stars-and-ink]

Identity is something most of us examine at some point in our lives. It is universal to feel comfortable or uncomfortable in our bodies, our skins, our commonness, and our otherness.

— Namrata Patel, The Candid Life of Meena Dave

[notesonartistry]

6 and 18 !

6. What books have you read in the past month?

Oh, I've been on a reading spree this month:

Pretty Things, Janelle Brown

The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett

The Darkest Evening, Ann Cleeves

Book Lovers, Emily Henry

Sunrise by the Sea, Jenny Colgan

The Teashop on the Corner, Milly Johnson

Left You Dead, Peter James

The Long Call, Ann Cleeves

The Candid Life of Meena Dave, Namrata Patel

The Heron's Cry, Ann Cleeves

and I finally finished listening to Becoming by Michelle Obama

Holidays and a lack of work to do make me a busy reader!

18. How many books have you read this year?

I'm at 37 for the year so far. I initially set a target of 41 for the year because I had a very slow reading year last year, but I've got back in the habit.

[thenerdcantina]

The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel: Book Review

The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel: Book Review

Meena Dave doesn’t have a family or permanent address. She’s perfectly happy being a nomadic photojournalist. She likes keeping her network to a small group of professionals and one college friend. But then one day she learns that she has inherited an apartment in a historic Victorian building in Boston. She’s set on selling it. But then she begins finding clues from the previous occupant that…