Recs if you like The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)...

A growing list of books by LGBTQ+ authors of Muslim backgrounds (or from the general SWANA region) and/or focusing on such experiences in the text.

Based on books I have read or keen to do so. Recommendations are welcome

Books We Love from NPR began in 2013, always boasting over 200 books (almost 400 in recent years) featuring genres from memoirs, to cookbooks, to graphic novels, to children’s literature, to nonfiction, to novels. Check out NPR’s website to filter this massive list.

The list is in reverse alphabetical order directly from NPR.

SWANA authors are authors from South West Asia and North Africa. They currently make up <1% of the trad publishing industry. This list is here to introduce you to their stories.

NOTE: if you find an author who doesn’t belong on this list, please comment & I will remove the book(s) ASAP.

As always, lists are forever evolving🥰

Hii, everyone ♡ I am a very big fan of the booktuber @caricanread so I thought I would make a list of all the books she has read this year! ✰

Mix of genres by queer authors from nations in Asia set in the nation. Not every nation is represented yet—I'm still researching them! Keeping it at maximum 3 books per nation, but please leave recommendations if you have them!

China: In the Face of Death We Are Equal; Beijing Comrades India: How to Date a Fanatic Indonesia: Not a Virgin Iran: Medusa of the Roses; Disoriental Japan: The Night of Baba Yaga Lebanon: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible Malaysia: Black Water Sister Pakistan: Other Names for Love South Korea: Violets; Love in the Big City Sri Lanka: Swimming in the Monsoon Sea; The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida Syria: The Foghorn Echoes; The Last Syrian Taiwan: Notes of a Crocodile; The Membranes

Literary fiction that explore crises of masculinity. Particularly concerned with outsiders, weirdos, and capitalist alienation in books where the self is in conflict with the masculine ideal, the masculine ideal itself is in flux, or the masculine ideal has been rendered obsolete. Authors of any gender; protagonists exclusively men.

Nobel, Pulitzer, National Book Award, Booker Prize, International Booker Prize, Women’s Prize, Lambda Literary Award, etc. winners

Family stories! The tragic, the comedic, the heartwarming, the heartbreaking, and everything in between.

Fiction books set in Lebanon

Open to recs!

Title is pretty self-explanatory really! This list contains only the entries in the Fiction category but I might create the other lists too if someone doesn't beat me to it, we'll see what the future holds ~

Awards an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.