Aanika’s Book Recommendations: A Magical Reading Journey

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👋🏾Introduction: The Books That Have Shaped My Reading Journey

Books have always been my passport to different worlds, times, and perspectives. As Emily Dickinson once wrote, “There is no Frigate like a Book.” 

My journey began with four pivotal books that ignited a decade-long passion for reading about strong, courageous, and influential women from across the globe. This interest naturally expanded to embrace diverse voices and perspectives, leading me to explore works by authors from various countries and cultures writing about their own experiences and histories.

This reading list is a testament to that journey, spanning across genres, cultures, and centuries, featuring both historical figures and contemporary voices that continue to shape our world.

  1. 🇮🇳The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan (Book #1 in The Taj Trilogy) – This historical fiction about Empress Nur Jahan, the mastermind behind the Taj Mahal, opened my eyes to the power of women in shaping history.
  2. 🇲🇬Female Caligula Ranavalona I: The Mad Queen of Madagascar by Keith Laidler – A biography that introduced me to a complex and controversial figure from Southeast coastal Africa.
  3. 🇩🇴 In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez – A poignant tale of courage set in the Dominican Republic.
  4. 🇨🇳Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang – A biography that reshaped my understanding of modern China’s birth.

⛵The Story Behind My Curated Book Recommendations List

📖 To-Read List

💌Let’s Connect! What did you think of the book? Get in touch with me after finishing any of these books as I love discussing them with fellow readers.

Happy Reading! 🙂

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Historical Fiction

  1. The Secret Life Of Sunflowers by Marta Molnar (Netherlands, Paris, and NYC) – Based on the true story of Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law who is the reason his art is known worldwide.
  2. The Last Queen: Jindan Kaur by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (India)
  3. I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (Romania)
  4. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic, Caribbean)
  5. Molokai and Daughter of Molokai by Alan Brennert
  6. The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel (Shanghai, China)
  7. The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan (Book #1 in The Taj Trilogy)
  8. The Pearl that Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashmi

Fiction

  1. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
  2. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
  3. The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson
  4. The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam
  5. Now You See Us (Singapore), The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
  6. Home of the Floating Lily by Silmy Abdullah (Toronto, Canada/Bangladesh) (literary fiction)
  7. Flowers in the Sky, The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph (Dominican Republic)
  8. Hellfire by Leesa Gazi (Bangladesh)
  9. Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (West Bengal & former East Bengal, India and Bangladesh)
  10. The Space Between Us, The Secrets We Found, Everybody’s Son, The Weight of Heaven, Bombay Time, The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar
  11. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (India and USA)
  12. Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji (Iran)
  13. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
  14. A Walk Across the Sun and The Garden of Burning Sand by Corban Addison
  15. Devdas (English translation by Sreejata Guha) and Parineeta (English translation by Malobika Chaudhuri) by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay (Bengal region, Indian subcontinent)
  16. Drum Dream Girl by Margarita Engle (Cuba – Children’s Fiction – Inspired by the childhood of a Chinese-African-Cuban drummer Millo Castro Zaldarriaga who broke Cuba’s traditional taboo against female drummers)
  17. The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

Autobiographies, Memoirs, and Biographies

  1. They Called Us Exceptional And Other Lies that Raised Us by Prachi Gupta (Memoir)
  2. First Darling of the Morning by Thrity Umrigar (Autobiography)
  3. My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor (USA) (Autobiography) – The first female Latina Justice on the United States Supreme Court.
  4. The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future by Fawzia Koofi (Afghanistan) (Autobiography)
  5. A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice by Malalai Joya (Afghanistan) (Autobiography)
  6. A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur by Gayatri Devi (India) (Memoir)
  7. Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai (Kenya) (Memoir) – The first female African Nobel Laureate.
  8. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai (Pakistan) (Memoir)
  9. Between Two Worlds Escape from Tyranny: Growing up in the Shadow of Saddam by Zainab Salbi (Iraq) (Memoir)
  10. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung (Cambodia) (Memoir)
  11. Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War by Leymah Gbowee (Liberia) (Memoir) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her work in leading a women’s peace movement.
  12. Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand (British India/U.K.) (Biography)
  13. Meyebela, My Bengali Girlhood by Taslima Nasrin (Bangladesh) (Memoir)
  14. In Order To Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park (North Korea) (Memoir)
  15. The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee (North Korea) (Memoir)
  16. Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening by Manal Al-Sharif (Saudi Arabia) (Memoir)
  17. How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana & Abigail Pesta (Memoir)
  18. Funny in Farsi, Laughing Without an Accent, It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas (Iran) (Memoirs)
  19. A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman by Lisa J. Shannon (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (Memoir)
  20. Infidel: My Life by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Memoir)
  21. Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir by Yashika Dutt (Memoir)
  22. Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma (Memoir)
  23. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper (Memoir)
  24. Educated by Tara Westover (Memoir)
  25. My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me by Mahvish Rukhsana Khan (Cuba, Afghanistan) (Memoir)
  26. A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley (Memoir)
  27. Let Her Fly: A Father’s Journey by Ziauddin Yousafzai and Louise Carpenter (Memoir)
  28. Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang (East Asia) (Biography)
  29. Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant by Shrabani Basu (Biography)
  30. Female Caligula Ranavalona I – the Mad Queen of Madagascar by Keith Laidler (Southeast coastal Africa) (Biography)
     

Non-Fiction

Gender, Relationships, and Development

  1. Fight Right: How Successful Couples Turn Conflict Into Connection by Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman & Dr. John Gottman 

  2. The Man Who Has It All: A Patronizing Parody of Self-Help Books for Women by @ManWhoHasItAll

  3. The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by Dr. John Gottman

  4. Equal Partners: Improving Gender Equality at Home by Kate Mangino

  5. The Mental Load and The Emotional Load by Emma

  6. The Feminism Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

  7. Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein

  8. The Women’s Atlas by Joni Seager

  9. 102 Ways For Girls To Have Some Fun by Melina Gerosa

  10. The Fun Book for Couples: 102 Ways to Celebrate Your Love by Melina Gerosa

  11. Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) by Eve Rodsky

Women’s Rights and Social Justice

  1. The Johns: Sex for Sale and the Men Who Buy It by Victor Malarek

  2. The Tide Will Turn by Shahidul Alam

  3. The Women Who Ruled India: Leaders. Warriors. Icons by Archana Garodia Gupta (Historical Non-Fiction / Women’s History)

  4. How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

  5. Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans

  6. War Is Not Over When It’s Over: Women Speak Out from the Ruins of War by Ann Jones

Inspirational Non-Fiction

  1. Second Suns by David Oliver Relin

  2. Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Connor Grennan (Nepal)

  3. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Historical Non-Fiction

  1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind & 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

  2. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Travel / Global Perspectives Non-Fiction

  1. The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg

  2. Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds by Ruth E. Van Reken & Michael V. Pollock

  3. The Catch Me If You Can: One Woman’s Journey to Every Country in the World by Jessica Nabongo (The First Black Woman to visit every country in the world)

  4. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson (Australia) 

Multicultural, Interracial, Interfaith, Intercaste Love Stories

Fiction

  1. Honor by Thrity Umrigar

  2. The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel

  3. The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

  4. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

  5. Luv Shuv in New York by N.M. Patel

Non-Fiction

  1. Find Me Unafraid by Jessica Posner and Kennedy Odede (Kenya/USA)

  2. Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and his Nation by Susan Williams (Botswana/England)

  3. Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant by Shrabani Basu (India England)

Mythological Retellings and Magical Realism

  1. The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – A modern retelling of Sita’s perspective from the epic poem and love story The Ramayana

  2. The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni – Modern retelling of the epic poem The Mahabharata retold from a woman: Draupadi’s perspective

Series

  1. Rad Women Worldwide: Artists and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History, Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Girls Can by Kate Schatz & Miriam Klein Stahl

  2. Rejected Princesses: Tales of History’s Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics by Jason Porath

  3. Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World and Legendary Ladies: 50 Goddesses to Empower and Inspire You by Ann Shen

  4. HerStory: 50 Women and Girls Who Shook Up the World by Katherine Halligan

  5. Women In Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World and Women In Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win by Rachel Ignotofsky

  6. Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, & Rebels by Linda Skeers

Begum Rokeya Hossain’s English Translated Works

  1. Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag by Rokeya Hossain. Translated by Barnita Bagchi
  2. The Essential Rokeya translated and edited by Mohammad A. Quayum
  3. Sultana’s Dream and Selections from The Secluded Ones. Translated & Edited by Roshan Jahan with afterword by Hanna Papanek

Business, Entrepreneurship, and Lifestyle Design

  1. The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
  2. Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours by Noah Kagan

Trilogies

  1. The Taj Trilogy by Indu Sundaresan (Historical Fiction)
  2. The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray (Young Adult Fantasy)
  3. The Jaipur Trilogy by Alka Joshi (Fiction)

Religion and Spirituality

  1. The Trouble With Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith by Irshad Manji
  2. Living the Secular Life by Phil Zuckerman
  3. The Caged Virgin by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  4. The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
  5. Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution by Mona Eltahawy
  6. Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

Poetry

  1. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran 
  2. Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore, translated into English from the original Bengali

Ethnographies

  1. Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America by Vivek Bald
  2. The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea by Annette B. Weiner

💌Send Me Book Recommendations!

Have you read any of these books? Please contact me as I’d love to hear your insights and discuss them together.

Have a book that would complement this list? Or simply want to recommend a book to add to my “To-Read” List?

We Need Diverse Books – I’ve been following this non-profit over the years. They advocate for essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.

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