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Priyanka Gupta's avatar

Heya Meenakshi!

Just discovered you, your books, and this newsletter. Lovely. I absolutely like the way you are so upfront and right in the face. A style we really need today. Thank you for sharing.

And I know how it feels. Writing a Substack all day and then one can read it within minutes. It took me more than two years to write my first book, a travel memoir, and some readers tell me the day after they bought it that they are done. I wonder should I complain or not? Connected with your Instagram book account too. Keep writing and cycling :)

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Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan's avatar

thank you! nice to hear from you. and haha yes, i know. although one of my biggest compliments to a piece of writing is how immersive it is, so i suppose i should be happy i’m read before someone gets impatient and alt-tabs away from me?

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Priyanka Gupta's avatar

Most welcome. Nice to hear from you too. Absolutely. Immersive is good.

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sujata sahoo's avatar

I thought I was the only one who mixed them. I read The Bookshop and was so floored by it I kept picking whatever book I saw by her or so I thought until I looked at the complete name !

Oh no, I love detective Karen Pirie and sidekick Jason. She barely makes an appearance in The Distant Echo, the subsequent books are much stronger IMHO. I have read them all and waiting for the newest installment. I loved the Emer Kenny adaptation too where Lauren Lyle plays Karen.

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G3's avatar

I keep mixing up the Penelopes too! Penelope Fitzgerald’s Human Voices is so good, I think you’ll enjoy it

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Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan's avatar

Oh thank you! Will look it up ASAP because I have a little travelling to do at the end of this month

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Paromita S's avatar

Whatever happened to the Claire Keegan?

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Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan's avatar

Ughhh I missed it! But fully recommend. The perfect short book for an hour’s wait/commute

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Priyanka Sacheti's avatar

Rosamunde Pilcher is my all time favorite comfort read! Every time I have a reading slump, I pick up a RP to gently get back into reading. The first RP I read was 'The Shell Seekers' when I was 15 but 'Coming Home' is a real favorite too (very autobiographical too) and 'September' as well.

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Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan's avatar

I just re-read The Shell Seekers as well! Because, as you know, September features a character from it. Extremely good, only I found myself wanting to give everyone actual good advice instead of them all privately fucking up their lives, which is when you know a book has "got" you.

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