An exuberant family drama packed with humor and set in the English city of Leicester, 30 Things I Love About Myself opens with a scene inside a jail cell where, by virtue of a comedy of errors that started with a craving for falafel, the protagonist finds herself on the eve of her 30th birthday.
Nina Mistry is a free-spirited, chocolate-loving journalist who is stuck both professionally and in her personal life. A sensual, earthy Taurus, Nina just broke up with her fiancé. Her perfectionist mother doesn't understand Nina, her brother is struggling with debilitating depression and there is a gaping hole in her British Indian family left by a father who took his own life when Nina was a child.
Just when she feels like giving up, a book serendipitously falls into Nina's lap that promises to transform her life. The book, How to Love Yourself (and Fix Your Shitty Life in the Process), sets her on a rollicking journey of self-discovery that involves yoga, astrology, a solo romantic dinner date and mind-blowing tantric sex, all in the service of falling in love with herself, body and soul.
Radhika Sanghani (Virgin; Not That Easy) deploys both comedy and compassion to draw readers into Nina's narrative, an uplifting, entertaining story inspired by the author's own transformative self-love journey. Readers will enjoy rooting for Sanghani's authentic and memorably portrayed protagonist, a young woman whose family struggles represent real-life issues that are often considered taboo in immigrant communities where the pressure to succeed can be overwhelming. --Shahina Piyarali, reviewer