Year of the Asian Challenge 2019 #YARC2019

Hosted by Shealea from Shut Up, Shealea, CW from The Quiet Pond, Lily from Sprinkles of Dreams, and Vicky from Vicky Who Reads — the Year of the Asian Reading Challenge is one that encourages people to read as many as books by Asian authors as they can throughout the year!

I love this initiative to support Asian authors and to highlight books that represent my culture and other cultures.

While I used to think that books by Asian/Pacific Islander/Desi authors were limited, I also realized that the ones in existence weren’t being spoken about as much other books. When I discovered An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, I was ecstatic. I tweeted her to express how happy it made me to read a fantasy series by a brown woman. What an amazing feeling to read a novel by someone who looks like you and to also see someone who looks like you on the cover. I hope others get to feel that joy as more and more attention is brought to diverse authors and novels with representation.

I’m aiming for the Indian Cobra level (11-20 books) since that’s a little under the amount of books I have on my To Be Read list so far. So excited to share what I read and to see what books other bloggers are reading!

I’ll be updating this post with all the books I read (and plan to read) for the YARC:

Read

1. Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman (01/10/19)
2. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (01/23/19)
3. China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan (01/28/19)
4. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han (01/30/19)
5. Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan (02/05/19)
6. Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen (02/08/19)
7. The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf (03/03/19)
8. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur (03/04/19)
9. There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon (03/16/19)
10. Jade City by Fonda Lee (04/29/19)
11. The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco (05/12/19)
12. Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami (05/20/19)
13. As Kismet Would Have It by Sandhya Menon (05/24/19)

14. A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Ellen Oh (05/27/19)

15. Brave, Not Perfect by Reshma Saujani (06/03/19)
16. Chemistry by Weike Weng (06/05/19)
17. I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai (06/06/19)
18. The Book of M by Peng Shepherd (06/27/19)
19. Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier (06/30/19)
20. The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala (07/01/19)
21. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang (07/25/19)
22. A Place for Us by Farheen Fatima Mirza (08/03/19)
23. If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar (08/05/19)
24. The Loves and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan (08/18/19)
25. The Matchmaker’s List by Sonya Lalli (08/24/19)
26. Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev (08/31/19)
27. A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum (09/06/19)
28. The Laws of Medicine by Siddhartha Mukherjee (09/11/19)
29. The Bride Test by Helen Hoang (09/24/19)
30. Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi (09/30/19)
31. Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li (10/10/19)
32. The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo (10/29/19)
33. Aru Shah and the Song of Death by Roshani Chokshi (10/30/19)
34. We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal (11/12/19)
35. A Match Made in Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai (12/05/19)
36. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan (12/16/19)
37. The Vegetarian by Han Kang (12/31/19)

To be read:

• Descendant of the Crane by Joan He
• Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
• Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao
• Internment by Samira Ahmed
• Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet by Kashmira Sheth
• Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup
• Love From A to Z by S.K. Ali
• Love, Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
• Naturally Tan by Tan France
• Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
• Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
• The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad
• The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai
• Time Keeper by Tara Sim
• and hopefully many many more!

Please leave a comment if you have any recommendations!