📚Aanika’s Global To-Read List: Books I Want to Read

📚Welcome to My To-Read Book Collection: A Journey Through Stories!

Welcome to my “To-Read Books” collection! This curated list reflects my interests in diverse cultures, women’s stories, personal growth, and other topics I find thought-provoking.

⛵How My Global Reading List Started – A Personal Journey! 

• A Frigate to my Roots – How Books Transport Me to New Worlds

📚 My Ultimate To-Read List: Books Across Cultures & Genres 

• Reading List – books I’ve read and recommend
  

💌Let’s Connect! Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Get in touch with me 🙂

📚 Fiction: Cultural and Historical Fiction

🇧🇩 Bangladesh

1. Dark Diamond by Shazia Omar

2. Like a Diamond in the Sky by Shazia Omar

 🇮🇳South India

1. Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna (Coorg, Karnataka) – done

2. A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian (Bangalore, Karnataka)

3. Blue-Skinned Gods by S J Sindu (Tamil Nadu)

4. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Kerala)

5. Onam in a Nightie: Stories from a Kerala quarantine by Anjana Menon

6. Sakina’s Kiss by Vivek Shanbag (Translated into English by Srinath Perur from Kannada)

7. The Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar

8. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

 🇮🇳North India

1. The Book of Gold Leaves by Mirza Waheed (Kashmir)

2. Water by Bapsi Sidhwa

🎇Mughal India

1. Nur Jahan’s Daughter by Tanushree Podder

2. Escape from Harem by Tanushree Podder

🏹Indian Mythology and Retellings

1. Lanka’s Princess by Kavita Kané

2. The Liberation of Sita by Volga (Translated into English by T. Vijay Kumar from Telugu )

🏮Fiction Books from China

👑Empress Wu Zetian – first and only Empress of China

1. The Empress of Bright Moon by Weina Dai Randel

2. The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randel

🏴‍☠️ Ching Shih / Zhen Yi Sao – most successful and badass pirate in the history of time

1. Dragon Lady by Autumn Bardot

2. The Flower Boat Girl by Larry Feign

🌴Caribbean

1. Island Queen by Vanessa Riley (Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free woman of color who rose from slavery to be one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Caribbean history)

2. Queen of Exiles by Vanessa Riley (Marie-Louise Christophe, the first queen and only queen of Haiti)

Europe & Other

1. This Rebel Heart by Katherine Locke (Hungarian Revolution, includes some magical realism)

2. River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer

General – Fiction

1. Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi

2. What The River Knows by Isabel Ibanez

📚 Non-Fiction

💼 Business and Personal Growth Books

1. Chillpreneur: The New Rules for Creating Success, Freedom, and Abundance on Your Terms by Denise Duffield-Thomas

2. Die With Zero by Bill Perkins

👩🏽‍🎓Women’s Studies and Feminism

1. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India’s Lonely Young Women And The Search For Intimacy And Independence by Shrayana Bhattacharya

2. Lies Our Mothers Told Us: The Indian Woman’s Burden by Nilanjana Bhowmick

3. Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet

4. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

5. Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (and Why It’s Different Than You Think) by Reshma Saujani

📜History and Biography Books

Indian History & Royalty

1. Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan Begum by Ruby Lal (the only woman historian in the Mughal empire, Author of Humayun-Nama, the account of the life of her half-brother, Emperor Humayun, which she wrote on the request of her nephew, Emperor Akbar. Mughal Princess, daughter of Mughal Emperor Babur)

2. The Mughal Aviary by Sabiha Huq (About Mughal women – Princess Gulbadan Begam, Princess Jahan Ara, Zeb-un-Nissa, and Habba Khatoon

3. Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire by Ira Mukhoty

4. Heroines: Powerful Indian Women of Myth and History by Ira Mukhoty

Indian Princely States

1. The Begums of Bhopal: A History of the Princely State of Bhopal by Shaharyar M. Khan

2. Farzana: The Tumultuous Life and Times of Begum Sumru by Julia Keay

Modern Indian Figures

1. An Uncommon Love by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
   Story of the courtship, marriage, parenthood, and Infosys’s founding years of Sudha Murty and Narayana Murthy before they became famous as entrepreneurs and philanthropists.

2. Sumitra and Anees: Tales and Recipes from a Khichdi Family by Seema Chishti

World War II

1. Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan by Shrabani Basu

2. The Women with Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck

East Asian History

1. Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy: The Story of Kawashima Yoshiko, the Cross-Dressing Spy Who Commanded Her Own Army by Phyllis Birnbaum

 🖥️  Technology 

• Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World by Reshma Saujani

Religion and Spirituality

• The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going by Ryan P. Burge

• Women in the Qur’an: An Emancipatory Reading by Asma Lamrabet

• Qurʼan and woman by Amina Wadud

Gender, Relationships, Psychology

1. The Love Prescription: Seven Days to More Intimacy, Connection, and Joy by Drs. John and Julie Gottman

2. Intimacy in Alienation: A Psychoanalytic Study of Hindu-Muslim Relationships by Ashish Roy – done

📚Memoirs, Biographies, Autobiographies

1. Pieces You’ll Never Get Back By Samina Ali 

2. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of A Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi

3. Diversifying Diplomacy: My Journey from Roxbury to Dakar by Harriet Lee Elam-Thomas

4. Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea by Sungju Lee and Susan McClelland

5. A Pipe for February by Charles H. Red Corn

6. Rolling Warrior by Judith Heumann with Kristen Joiner

7. Exile: A Memoir by Taslima Nasrin

8. Memoirs of a Rebel Princess by Abida Sultaan

9. Building A Life Worth Living: A Memoir by Marsha Linehan

10. Finding My Way: A Memoir by Malala Yousafzai

🌏Cultural Studies & Ethnographies

1. The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories, and the Bangladesh War of 1971 by Nayanika Mookherjee

2. Making Ethnic Choices: California’s Punjabi-Mexican-Americans by Karen Leonard

🌟Inspirational Anthologies

1. Stories for South Asian Supergirls by Raj Kaur Khaira

2. Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World by Kate Pankhurst

3. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo

4. Nevertheless, She Wore It: 50 Iconic Fashion Moments by Ann Shen

💌 Share YOUR Book Recommendations With Me! 

I’m always on the lookout for more treasures to add to my map!🌟 Know a hidden gem that would fit right in? Got a book that made you laugh, cry, or see the world differently? 

• 🚀 Send me your recommendations!
• 📚 Spotted a must-read on this list or on my recommended book list? Let’s chat about it!
  

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