Looking for book recommendations about the Asian culture that are not manga? Yes there’s more out there. You might looking some to read for #asianreadathon or just to branch out your cultural reads. I personally love reading books about different cultures. Here’s a list that might help you. I’ve divided them in categories. Please leave a reply in the comments down below if you have a recommendation that I haven’t mentioned. Note: most of them are written by Asian authors and some are set in Asia. Therefore not every book mentioned is specifically about the Asian culture, but counts for #theasianreadathon because it’s written by an Asian author.
Classics
– The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
– Kim by Rudyard Kipling
– The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
– And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
– A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
– Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (not written by an Asian author but set in Bali
Non-Fiction
– I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Adult (historial/literary) fiction
– The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
– The Brides Test by Helen Hoang
– Crazy Rich Asians trilogy by Kevin Kwan
– Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (and everything else by him)
– The Vegetarian by Han Kang
– Sold by Patricia McCormick
– How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee
– The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob
– Ponti by Sharlene Teo
– The Leavers by Lisa Ko
– The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka
– Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
– The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
– Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
– Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
– Human Acts by Han Kang
– On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Fantasy/Dystopian (Adult and Young Adult)
– The Legend trilogy by Marie Lu
– The Young Elites trilogy by Marie Lu
– Warcross by Marie Lu
– The Poppy War trilogy by R.F. Kuang
– The Star-Touched Queen series by Roshani Chokshi
– Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
– The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
– An Amber In The Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir
– The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata
Young Adult contemporary
– To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy by Jenny Han
– The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy by Jenny Han
– Burn For Burn trilogy by Jenny Han
– Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Koi
– The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo
– American Panda by Gloria Chao
– When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
– Anna K. by Jenny Lee
Disclaimer: I haven’t read many of these books (yet) so my apologies if some of them aren’t that good. However, these are the ones I’ve seen everywhere over the internet. Please let me know if you have other books recommendations about Asian culture that I should add to the list. You can either leave a commend down below, or contact me via my contact page. I’m going to keep the list up to date as much as I can. You can also follow me on Goodreads, Instagram and/or Twitter if you’re curious about upcoming reviews of any of these books.