A list of books on Pakistan

[W]

Has its share of interesting bits,and quite controversial too.

[Aymen]

A Letter To Pakistan

[W]

Pakistan: Eye of the Storm by Owen Bennett-Jones

[W]

Himalaya by Michael Palin
Partly set in Pakistan.

[W]

The Battle for Pakistan: A Bitter US Friendship in a Tough Neighborhood by Shuja Nawaz

[W]

The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Kim Barker

[Shoaib]

1- From Jinnah to Zia (3/5 Star)
2- Soul Rivals: State, Militant and Pop Sufism in Pakistan (4/5 Star)
3- Points of Entry: Encounters at the Origin Sites of Pakistan (4.5/5 Star)
4- The Pity of Partition: Manto's Life, Times, And Work Across The India-Pakistan Divide (5/5 Star)
5- Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military (4.5/5 Star)
6- Pakistan at the Helm (3.5/5 Star)
7- Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory (5/5 Star)
8- Bari Jail Sey Choti Jail Tak (5/5 Star)
9- The Murder of History: A Critique of History Textbooks Used in Pakistan (5/5 Star)
10- The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (4.5/5 Star)
11- The Making of Pakistan: A Study in Nationalism (4/5 Star)
12- The Pakistan Anti-Hero: History of Pakistani Nationalism through the Lives of Iconoclasts (4/5 Star)
13- Apna Giribaan Chaak (5/5 Star)
14- Ban Bas (5/5 Star)
15- Ayub Khan: Pakistan's First Military Ruler (4/5 Star)
16- Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence (5/5 Star)
17- Qabar Ki Aaghosh (5/5 Star)
18- Pakistan: A Personal History (3/5 Star)
19- My Feudal Lord (3/5 Star)
20- Jinnah of Pakistan (5/5 Star)
21- Bhutto Ke Aakhri 323 Din (4/5 Star)
22- Footprints of Partition: narratives of four generations of Pakistanis and Indians (4/5 Star)
23- From Kargil to the Coup: Events that Shook Pakistan (5/5 Star)
24- Raft O Bood (4/5 Star)
25- Awaz-e-Dost (4/5 Star)
26- Likhte Rahe Junoon Ki Hikayat (3/5 Star)
27- Salute (4/5 Star)
28- Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 (5/5 Star)
29- Daughter of the East: An Autobiography (3/5 Star)
30- Shahabnama (5/5 Star)
31- Main Nay Dhaka Doobte Dekha (5/5 Star)

[Faraz]

a letter to Pakistan by Karen Armstrong is in my to read list. I will read it soon.
How is it?
Aymen have you read it?

[Aymen]

Faraz wrote: "a letter to Pakistan by Karen Armstrong is in my to read list. I will read it soon.
How is it?
Aymen have you read it?"

no its in my read list as well. i think amongst all these books mentioned above ill start with this one first, its pretty short too

[Aymen]

Shoaib wrote: "1- From Jinnah to Zia (3/5 Star)
2- Soul Rivals: State, Militant and Pop Sufism in Pakistan (4/5 Star)
3- Points of Entry: Encounters at the Origin Sites of Pakistan (4.5/5 Star)
4- The Pity of Par..."

thats impressive...
id love to read Bhutto Ke Aakhri 323 Din if i can get an English translation of it

[W]

It's on Bhutto.org along with a lot of pro Bhutto books.It is in Urdu,however.

[Shoaib]

Bhutto Ke Aakhri 323 Din is in fact written in Urdu by Col. Rafiuddin, in charge of Adiala Jail when Bhutto was there as a death sentence prisoner. It is a detailed account of the last days of ill-fated Bhutto. Details of the security arrangements, of Bhutto's visitors, how many times his wife Nusrat or daughter Benazir met him, his late night conversations with the author and his insightful analysis of geopolitics. The most chilling part is the last meeting of Bhutto with his daughter, Benazir and the manner in which the first elected PM is carried off to the gallows.

[W]

The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad

[W]

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

[W]

Granta 112: Pakistan by John Freeman

[W]

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie

[W]

Haveli by Suzanne Fisher Staples

[W]

Indus Journey: A Personal View of Pakistan by Imran Khan
Never found this one.

[W]

Mr. and Mrs. Jinnah: The Marriage that Shook India by Sheela Reddy

[W]

Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi by Steve Inskeep

[W]

Rock Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star's Revolution by Salman Ahmad

[W]

The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan by Rafia Zakaria

[W]

Karachi, You're Killing Me! bySaba Imtiaz
Read this recently and it was pretty bad.

[W]

Assignment Karachi by Edward S. Aarons

[W]

The Scatter Here Is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer

[Aymen]

Maps for Lost Lovers
The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan

[W]

I abandoned Maps for Lost Lovers,too much verbosity.
The Upstairs Wife is interesting,though a bit unrealistic.

[Aymen]

Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding
i see the upstairs wife was already added

[Aymen]

Wsm wrote: "I abandoned Maps for Lost Lovers,too much verbosity.
The Upstairs Wife is interesting,though a bit unrealistic."

yea ive been putting off Maps for lost lovers because of the bad reviews

[W]

Hussain Haqqani's views are very slanted,not very favorable towards Pakistan.

[W]

Austenistan by Laaleen Sukhera

[W]

To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan by Nicholas Schmidle

[W]

Aymen wrote: "Jinnah Often Came to Our House
anyone read this one? I havent but its on my to read list."
At first I thought it was non-fiction,but this seems to be fiction.

[W]

The Bhutto Dynasty: The Struggle for Power in Pakistan by Owen Bennett-Jones

[Komal]

Thanks everyone, for contributing to this list! Definitely a very handy place to come looking for culture/country specific reads!

[W]

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll

[W]

Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of our Times by George Crile

This was also a movie,but the book is far better.

[Amir]

[W]

On the Grand Trunk Road by Steve Coll

Part of the book is about Pakistan.

[W]

Great Air Battles Of Pakistan Air Force by M. Kaiser Tufail

[W]

More Bubbles of Water by Mian Zahir Shah

More anecdotes of Pakistan Navy.

[W]

Lahore Ki Dehleez Par by Inayatullah

An account of the 1965 war.

[W]

The Last Days Of United Pakistan by G.W. Choudhury

The tragic events of 1971.

[Sameer Khan]

Anybody read Taha Kehar’s Typical Taniya?

[W]

Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven

[W]

The Pakistan Paradox: Instability and Resilience by Christophe Jaffrelot

[W]

Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within by Shuja Nawaz

[W]

The Battle for Pakistan : The Bitter US Friendship and a Tough Neighbourhood by Shuja Nawaz

[Hamza]

The Ice-Candy Man
(Cracking India)
by Bapsi Sidhwa

[W]

Yes,it is a very good book.