My India Reading and Film List

One of my readers recently asked me for a list of books I have read that were written by India authors…  And so another blog post is born.

I love to read. I read on the bus when I am back home en route to work and back, I read in the car on the way to our weekend home in Ocean Shores, I read when I have big gaps between classes, I read before going to bed, and I read on flights.  I read a lot, but, in my opinion, I do not enough!  I always have a book list going and the book list on my “later shelf” at the library keeps growing.

Below is a list of books I have read by Indian authors. Have fun exploring these novels. There is only one book below I have not yet read (and that’s only because the book is so BIG that every time I go to read A Suitable Boy, I am daunted by its sheer volume and end up putting it aside).

• A Fine Balance / Rohinton Mistry (fiction, a great read!)
• Sacred Games / Vikram Chandra (fiction, takes place in modern Mumbai)
• The Toss of a Lemon / Padma Viswanathan (fiction, South India)
• A Suitable Boy / Vikram Seth (fiction, huge book packed with social commentary) Family Matters / Rohinton Mistry (takes place in Mumbai)  NOTE: This is one I have not YET read, but it’s on my list. This is the long one.)
• Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard / Kiran Desai (fiction, fun read)
• Death of Vishnu / Manil Suri (fiction, sad but well-written, takes place in Mumbai)
• The City of Devi / Manil Suri
• The Space Between Us / Thrity Umrigar
• The Story Hour / Thrity Umrigar
• The Private Life of Mrs. Sharma / Ratika Kapur
• The Lowland / Jhumpa Lahiri
• Interpreter of Maladies / Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Last Mughal / William Dalrymple (history that reads like fiction) Enjoying India / J.D. Viharini (and anything written by Dalrymple!…He isn’t Indian, but he lives in India and his writing is great)
• Inheritance of Loss / Kiran Desai (fiction)
• The White Tiger / Aravind Adiga (fiction, Man Booker Prize winner)
• The God of Small Things / Arundathi Roy

For poetry, I found the following link for the ten best poets from India: Link