30 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MYSELF

A British Indian woman living in the suburbs of Leicester, England, spends a year finding 30 things she loves about herself.

Just before she turns 30, journalist Nina Mistry breaks up with her fiance, Nikhil. She still loves him, but she has realized that the two of them aren’t right as a couple. When she gets caught up in a protest on the eve of her birthday and is arrested when a fight breaks out, she spends the night in jail sobbing until the guard takes pity and gives her a book to keep her company: How To Love Yourself (and Fix Your Shitty Life in the Process). Reading the book begins her year of exploring self-love (defined in sexual, romantic, and platonic ways) as she works to discover 30 things she loves about herself. The road is rocky, with bumps and serious lows, but it also has high points as she becomes more spiritual (astrologically and meditatively speaking) and loving to herself, others, and the universe in general. She moves back in with her mother, Rupa, and her older brother, Kal, who is struggling with deep depression—which her father also suffered from before his suicide 15 years earlier. She makes new friends. She has new experiences. She works to reconnect with her Indian heritage and family history while making space for the modern woman that she is. Author Sanghani's book is fiction—as she points out in the preface—but it reads partially as self-help as well as Nina works through the chapters of How To Love Yourselfand its exercises. Readers will find much to appreciate in both the story and the lessons, which Sanghani imparts without the sense that she is overtly preaching.

A heartwarming read about self-acceptance and the idea that it’s possible to learn to love your imperfect self.