This is a solid collection of essays. I appreciated Sejal’s meditations on life as a Gujarati American, a writer, and someone trying to find her place in the world. Her writing is soft and intimate and I found myself so drawn into her words. My only critique is that there wasn’t really a cohesive theme. As a reader, you sort of drift along, and with the way the collection was introduced I was expecting more cohesion. Expect snapshots in time and soft meditations.

Beautifully written essays the authors writing flows seamlessly.An intimate look at the life of Indian Americans a story that is eye opening informative .The thought of fitting in to America is perfect for book club discussions #netgalley#uofgeorgiapress

At just 168 pages, Shah’s memoir is a topography of ethnicity, race, and femininity. Shah chronicles her upbringing in western New York as the daughter of Indian and Kenyan immigrants, and she shares her experiences traveling and living in NYC to the Midwest. At the center of these essays are questions of what it means to belong, whether that is to a culture or a place.

These are beautiful, carefully-crafted essays about being Indian-American, Gujarati, brown, woman, friend, daughter, wife, and more. Each essay marks a milestone moment in Shah's life but also illustrates her life journey across several decades. As she explores her identity, place, language, and culture, she shows us how everything is always in motion, in flux. Her own fluidity with language make the book a smooth read.

That said, at times, it felt like she was writing mostly for a white audience, explaining things more rather than exploring them deeper.

For those belonging to the same Indian-American diaspora, this is an engaging memoir of Shah's personal evolution as a brown woman in America. For non-Indian readers, hopefully, this goes further to provide some different perspectives on Indian food, culture, language, and traditions.

(Note: I've been pitching reviews for this book since February. It had gotten accepted but then declined due to an accidental double-booking. I'll keep trying but it's a difficult time for paying book review venues right now. My apologies.)

As a minority woman I love reading memoirs of women and their paths in life. This memoir told in essays flows seamlessly and it will grip your attention from the first page. In my opinion it's a must read whether you're a minority woman or not because her story is universal and definitely should be read. A must read.

"That you are a brown girl here, never just a girl." (pg. 5)

This is a beautiful essay collection examining race, identity, and what it means to be a woman of marriageable age in today's society.

“How awkward and beautiful we were, in our fake Izods, in our Sears.” (pg. 44) Shah's lyric prose brought me back to my own childhood in a neighboring suburb of Rochester, New York, shopping at Sears and dreaming of JC Penny. She brings us back into the 1980s streets of mismatched houses, putting us back into that space of childhood.


I read this while under home confinement for coronavirus, and her words were a welcome escape.

Shah writes, “She inhabited those words, and I believed in them again; I believed in words and movement and how they can, briefly, elevate a moment from the past and deliver it to us again.” (page 83)

The ability for words to reach out beyond our physical walls seems vital this month in particular, and Shah's collection is a wonderful respite from the news.

While the style was more wandering/musing than what I'm accustomed to reading, Shah's depiction of what it means to be Indian-American in a country that levels microaggressions at her on a regular basis is thoughtful, compelling, and beautiful.

Thanks netgalley for an ebook copy of the book before publication date.
4 stars.

Dancing, not my thing.
'Monsoon wedding', nope, but I've seen the great crossover movie 'Salam Namaste'
So it appears that Indian culture, is not something I know much about.

I wanted to read this collection of short pieces of writing, that talk about a personal experience I could never have but can read all about.

I enjoyed this book very much and will be interested in further writing from the mind and pen of Sejal Shah.

Autobiographical musings and poetic essays that capture what it means to search for--and claim-- one's identity where "white" is the norm. Strong and thoughtful, Sejal Shah paints a beautiful yet yearning picture of life's existential questions as they are tainted with microagressions that she's experienced.

If ‘India’ ever comes up in your talk with someone, what do you think about? Is it huge colorful weddings with lots and lots of people? Or do you think about gold jewelry or was it a place that you called home, or still call home? I grew up in India, and when I moved to Canada a couple years back, I wanted to take on this new identity of being Canadian. The last couple months of starting my first job and thinking about marriage has made me dig deeper into my connection with my culture and This Is One Way to Dance: Essays came to my notice on NetGalley at a very good time. It made me take a journey into the habits I have, the childhood I experienced as well as where I want to go from here. I loved this book and I hope you will give it a chance too.

As I read This Is One Way to Dance, I thought about my culture, my language, but through Sejal’s stories, I also wondered about the life that my kids will eventually have in the society I live in. Her essays reminded me that my culture, my home country is an integral part of who I am. No matter how much I assimilate into the Western society, no matter where I hide away my Indian clothes because I hardly ever wear them now, I will always be Indian. Sejal is Indian even if she never grew up in India! That speaks so strongly to the fact that we don’t have to live in a place to belong to that place.

Even if you are not Indian, I encourage you to read it. It will offer a glimpse into a different life altogether, a life that maybe your peers, if not your close friends, lead. Many thanks to the publisher, and author for making this available to me through NetGalley.

This is One Way to Dance is a collection of well written essays that caught my eye because, among other things, they explore culture. I like to read about other cultures and also about life as experienced through different lenses, and this book definitely gives an opportunity to do that. Sejal Shah weaves tales about food, language, travel, family, weddings, and the blending of Indian and American culture in her generation. Reading essays was a bit different for me, as there wasn’t the flow I’m used to when reading a novel or memoir, but Shah has a way with words, and below are some moments that made me pause to reflect. (Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review)

Writing was a way to have my say—to pick up those words like a piece of glass and turn it over in the sun and consider the sharp edges or blunted corners.

It was the first time these separate cultures—Indian and American—and for me, distinct selves, coexisted, even merged, in one semipublic place.

This was the first time I caught a glimpse of our faces in a larger cultural space. We were beautiful, multiple, mirrored, carnivalesque.

If you judged by our representation on television and in books, we had mastered almost nothing in the public sphere. According to newspapers and the networks’ nightly news, we didn’t even exist yet. But we did. I did.

I felt annoyed that the “Where are you from?” question was one I was expected to answer on a Friday night.

I would like to find a word for a friend who was better than a friend, who was as close as a sister, but I do not have a sister (une sœur), and something in these words won’t translate: to be like something is not the same as to be something.

I wanted to just go. All my life, I have been biking with brakes on.

Thanks to Netgalley and the University of Georgia press for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

As the title suggests, this is a collection of essays written by the author, Sejal Shah, on her own experiences as an Indian-American. From childhood to marriage and cultural traditions and the struggle to find herself in pop culture references.

Although the collection will not be available until June 2020, something compelled me to pick it up on this cold January day. I am glad that I did because Shal's voice was powerful and I was swayed very much by her words.

Here are some excerpts from my ARC that I enjoyed.

" I didn't want to be anyone's Passage to India. " (34% into my ARC)


"It was not a boyfriend I asked for, it was a husband. It was not a husband I asked for, it was love. It was not a place to swim I needed but a place to rest. It was not someone perfect I asked for, it was a songbird like you, with your hair sticking straight up, your wolfish teeth, your golden eyes. And though I had been on my way out the door in Washington Heights, I turned around. I dropped my coat. I stayed. With you, I will always want to stay."(49% into the arc)

"Life is not about weddings, but about cooking and dishes, laundry and work, writing, parents, teaching, taking out the recycling. I know this now. House hunting, moving, drafting a will, taxes. Making the appointment for snow tires. Determining the compromise temperature, the maximum number of blankets and books the other person can tolerate on the bed. Life is not about colors and saris. I know this now, but still, weddings astonish me: the threshold, the cusp; the crucible, the gathering, the hope." ( 86% of my ARC)


Goodreads review published 18/01/20
Expected Publication Date 01/06/20

Thank you to NetGalley And University of Georgia Press for providing me with an ARC of Sejal Shah’s essay collection. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

Over the course of this year I’ve read more than 150 books and at least half were nonfiction, in particular memoirs and essay collections. While I found the author’s writing good her content and thought patterns were completely dizzying and scattered. This collection was erratically arranged and the content was repetitive and disjointed. It was difficult to follow her threads and I must admit I stopped reading at the 60% mark.

I was interested in reading/learning about an American Indian experience however this book was too fragmented and incoherent for me to continue reading.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this title.