Indian Women

Life is built on single decisions. Choose wisely. It’s one of life coach Nikki Parekh’s mottos. That and being open to opportunities and taking leaps without fear. But when Nikki accepts her boyfriend’s casual proposal of marriage, she wonders if it’s just too soon, too spontaneous—and so sudden that she seeks out the advice of her not-so-nurturing mother, Tara. To Nikki’s surprise, Tara, who raised her daughter to be self-sufficient, urges Nikki to trust her decision.

The author, Vrinda Suresh Rao, who was an Indian Matchmaker for 25 years, has described her Indian Matchmaking journey. She combined the value of the Indian custom of arranged marriages with the power of technology to create a website with a unique matchmaking approach. During her matchmaking Journey, she met many amazing young men and women and their families. Connecting with them, she learned a lot about human nature and attitudes.

Victoria Trumbull, 92-year-old native of Martha's Vineyard, is savoring the sea air over Vineyard Sound with her granddaughter, Elizabeth, when she spots a person who seems in trouble near the top of a cliff. Elizabeth goes for help, but it's too late - the man dies before he can be rescued.

At twenty-one years old, Gia Kumari finally leaves the Delhi orphanage where she was raised. With few prospects for the future, she receives an unexpected invitation from a stranger named Sonia Shah in San Francisco: an internship at Sonia’s weddings and events company. Gia and America. It’s love at first sight as she navigates an unfamiliar but irresistible new world of firsts.

Usha Uthup, India's undisputed icon of pop music, has enthralled an entire generation of listeners with her unforgettable voice and continues to do so. Completing fifty years as a professional singer in 2020 was just another milestone in her fabled career. In this vivid biography, which was originally written in Hindi, Vikas Kumar Jha captures the entire arc of Uthup's career in music.

The daughter of proud Napa Valley hoteliers, Asha “Poppy” Patel chose a different line as a Paris perfumer, gifted with a nose for fragrances and business. Until her heightened sense of smell disappears. Her career in jeopardy, her world now muted, Poppy returns home. Maybe tending to her grandmother’s massive aromatic garden, where Poppy’s gift first flowered, will bring restorative hope. But when she arrives, Poppy discovers that the land upon which the beautiful garden once thrived has been uprooted and destroyed.

Handsome anesthesiologist Neel is sure he can resist his family’s pleas that he marry a "good" Indian girl. With a girlfriend and a career back in San Francisco, the last thing Neel needs is an arranged marriage. But that’s precisely what he gets. His bride, Leila, a 30-year-old teacher, comes with her own complications. They struggle to reconcile their own desires with others’ expectations in this story of two people, two countries, and two ways of life that may be more compatible than they seem.

In Calcutta’s notorious red-light district, Lalee aspires to a better life. Her unfailingly loyal client Tilu Shau has dreams too. A heady romantic and marginal novelist, Tilu is in love with the indifferent Lalee and wants to liberate her from her street life with marriage. But when a fellow sex worker and young mother is brutally murdered, the solicitous madam of the Blue Lotus invites Lalee to take the woman’s place “upstairs” as a high-end escort.

Georgia and Wyatt couldn't be more opposite. Wyatt teaches wilderness survival training. A gruff, simple, outdoorsy type, in a survival situation, what he says goes, or somebody could get hurt. Georgia controls her own life - parties, fundraisers, shopping, and spa days. Men come - men go. When Georgia signs up for Wyatt's survival week, it's obvious she's far outside her comfort zone. Everything that can go wrong, does. Wyatt has found his mate. But, how will he survive Georgia as a mate when he's not sure he'll survive the week?

Evolutionary biologist Amina Abdul accepts a post-doc in Washington, DC, choosing her career studying hybrid zones over a faltering West Coast romance. Her brother and sister-in-law welcome her to the city, but their marriage is crumbling, and they soon rely on her to keep their son company. Omar, hungry to understand his cultural roots, fakes an Indian accent, invents a royal past, and peppers his aunt with questions about their cultural heritage. When he brings an ornamental knife to school, his expulsion triggers a downward spiral for his family.

Gail shocks the world with her sexy tell-all book - from Playboy model to Hollywood casting couch to business mogul, to amassing an erotic library valued at $50 million dollars. In the era of #MeToo, Gail emerges as a strong woman who manages to play the game in a man’s world and use it to her advantage. This is not about a woman as a victim. Nor is it dishing out the dirt on powerful men in Hollywood and the sex industry, it’s actually a light-hearted, often hilarious look at the real inner workings of a male-dominated industry and how a young girl was able to pull the strings.

By the light of dawn, over steaming cups of tea, a daughter invokes the past and a mother opens her heart. Mumbai Mornings is centered mostly on conversations between Saya and her mother. As her mother’s stories about relatives long relegated to memory, unfold, it soon becomes clear to Saya that no life is ordinary.

FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed, a Modoc Indian from California, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator Emmett Parker, a Comanche from Oklahoma, are a team, sent by the Feds wherever there are problems in tribal territory.

Lawyer Vicky Holden leaves the reservation for important cases for the Indian Nations. But Wind River pulls her back when Balder Industries executive Vince Lewis is killed while trying to hire Vicky for reservation work.

In these essays, stories, and reflections, trailblazing Yankton Dakota writer and artist Zitkála-Šá honors the rich heritage of Sioux oral tradition. She muses on her childhood and early schooling, shares warrior tales of ancient spirits, and tells of the foreboding appearance of white settlers and missionaries. As a committed activist and a seminal voice for change, Zitkála-Šá also explores the oppressive forces that sought to erase her culture and remove her people from their land.

On March 14, 1889, Susan La Flesche received her medical degree - becoming the first Native American doctor in US history. She earned her degree 31 years before women could vote and 35 years before Indians could become citizens in their own country. This is the story of an Indian woman who effectively became the chief of an entrenched patriarchal tribe, the story of a woman who crashed through thick walls of ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice and then spent the rest of her life using a unique bicultural identity to improve the lot of her people.

More than any writer before or since, Louis L'Amour brought the American West to life. His action-packed stories deal with eternal themes: honor, deceit, passion, betrayal, loyalty, courage, love. His settings are historically accurate, his prose riveting, and his characters colorful: good guys, bad guys, toughs, roughs, sidekicks, and saints.