This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category features sapphic books with a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist main character.
For this square, read a sapphic book where at least one of the main characters is Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist or practices another religion other than Christianity.
The character’s faith may play a central role in the story or it may simply be one aspect of their identity that isn’t focused on yet still influences how they see the world.
Ideally, the book should be written by an author who shares the character’s religious or cultural background to help ensure the story is told from an authentic perspective.
15 sapphic books with a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist main character
Below, you’ll find 15 sapphic books with a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist main character:
The Second Draft by Carrie Byrd
No one has ever melted uptight Anne Lowell’s icy exterior, not even the husband of thirty years she just divorced. Still, she has her dazzling best friend and neighbor, Sadie Rosenthal, to brighten her days, so she’s content. Really, she is.
But when Anne realizes that her feelings for warm-hearted Sadie might be more than just friendship, she’s no longer able to ignore the shattering truth she’s spent a lifetime repressing.
Anne’s choice is clear. She can keep her rigid existence, or she can find the courage to begin a daunting journey with Sadie—one that just might help them both find true happiness.
Available at:
Only Ever One Choice by Ilham Osra
In the choice between love or family, is it possible to have both? A sweet coming-out lesbian romance about the journey navigating culture and expectations to finding self-acceptance.
At a crossroads in her life, Mikaila Mohamed has made a list: all the girls from her past she needs to have a very important conversation with. She’s been saving the hardest one for last: Ashleigh von Bronckhorst, her old high school roommate.
Coming from a close-knit, conservative Muslim family in South Africa means Mikaila hasn’t dared dwell too much on her complicated feelings for Ashleigh. Meeting her now, though, when Mikaila’s on the brink of freedom, could change everything.
What will it be like being around Ashleigh again? Supported by her mosaic of misfit friends who seem so ready to take on the world with her, can Mikaila finally make a choice?
Sometimes a leap into the unknown is all it takes.
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Nice Jewish Girls by Elizabeth Andre
The past can cast a long shadow on a relationship.
Susan Hay just wants to find a nice girl. Is that too much to ask? Susan thinks it is until she meets Ali Sams. To no one’s surprise, Susan, a long-haired femme, falls hard and fast for the cute and sexy soft butch who looks strangely familiar.
Ali falls just as fast, but Susan realizes that the familiarity she feels is linked to a painful childhood incident that sends her running away. Ali doesn’t remember the incident, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting to make things right.
All Ali needs to do is get Susan to see her as more than who she was in the past, but Susan is not about to make that easy.
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Nation Under Siege by SR Shah
In a nation under siege, duty isn’t the only thing worth dying for.
Enter DIG Pallavi Deshmukh of the National Investigation Agency – fierce, brilliant, and haunted by her own demons. She races against time to stop a deranged scientist from unleashing his grotesque creations on an unsuspecting nation.
With a deadly mix of genetic manipulation, international crime syndicates, and internal conflicts, Pallavi must navigate not just a complex investigation but also her own heart. As India’s one of the biggest festivals approaches, she has mere days to prevent a catastrophe that could bring the nation to its knees.
But this case holds more than professional challenges. When she meets Aanchal Kapadia, the elegant wife of Gujarat’s Home Minister, Pallavi finds herself drawn into a dangerous attraction that could compromise everything she’s worked for.
In this gripping thriller that blends science fiction with raw human emotion, love and duty collide in a heart-stopping race against time. When the stakes are this high, every choice could be her last.
In a country of a billion people, two hearts beat against the odds
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Lifelines by Shireen Magedin
It’s 1975 in Nawabshah, Pakistan. Sarah and Tanya have fallen in love in an ancient land. Can they withstand the fierce opposition to their forbidden love in a city of deeply held beliefs and cultural traditions? Their journey is just beginning.
The world is changing, but not fast enough for Tanya Kareem. Her promotion to police inspector sends her to Nawabshah where she will have to prove herself and take a leading role in a man’s world.
Sarah Shahzad Shah’s passion for learning and compassion for her patients make her a brilliant doctor in training. But she possesses psychic abilities that she doesn’t know how to master… yet. Those gifts will come in handy when she handles some of her more puzzling cases that lead her to Inspector Tanya Kareem.
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The Escape Artist by Judith Katz
Set in the brothels and gangster dens of Jewish Buenos Aires at the beginning of the twentieth century, The Escape Artist catapults us into the exotic lives of Sofia Teitelbaum and Hankus Lubarsky.
Sofia, a nice Jewish girl from Poland, is wooed from her family by Tutsik Goldenberg, who claims to be a wealthy Argentine diamond merchant in search of a wife. In a horrifying turnaround, he delivers her to his sister’s brother in Buenos Aires.
Hankus, also a nice Jewish girl from Poland, escaped from the pogroms that killed her family by passing as a man. An illusionist to the core, she’s created the persona of a handsome and mysterious magician and escape artist.
In Hankus, Tutsik spots a different kind of prospect. Managing Hankus could be his ticket to freedom from his sister’s machinations. But his juggling is the act that brings Sofia and Hankus together. Their attempts to walk the tightrope of love, freedom, and independence are quickly put to the test.
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The Papercutter by Cindy Rizzo
A deeply polarized and ungovernable United States of America has separated into two nations—the God Fearing States (GFS) and the United Progressive Regions (UPR).
Judith Braverman, a teenager living in an Orthodox Jewish community in the GFS, is not only a talented artist accomplished in the ancient craft of papercutting, she also has the gift of seeing into peoples’ souls—and can tell instantly if someone is good or evil.
Jeffrey Schwartz has no love for religion or conformity and yearns to escape to the freedom of the UPR. When he’s accepted into an experimental pen pal program and paired with Dani Fine, an openly queer girl in the UPR, he hopes that he can finally find a way out.
As danger mounts and their alarm grows, Judith embeds a secret code in her papercuts so that she and Jeffrey can tell Dani what’s happening to Jews in the GFS without raising suspicions from the government. When the three arrange a quick, clandestine meeting, Jeffrey is finally faced with the choice to flee or to stay and resist. And Judith is reeling from a pull toward Dani that is unlike anything she has ever felt before.
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The Wilding of Em’s Path by Ana K. Wrenn
Untamed and wild, Cynda is an outdoorswoman holed up in the Appalachian backcountry. Her solitary existence is shattered when Kadija, a fierce freedom fighter, tracks her down. Kadija demands Cynda return to civilization to face the consequences of an out-of-control project Cynda worked on years ago.
But how can she take on the destructive research institute preying on vulnerable, sensitive people when it almost destroyed her once? How can Cynda face the outside world again, now it’s awash in so much fear and violence that it suffocates her? As the warring pair reluctantly journey into an oppressive world, the ties that bind them slowly draw them closer. But what happens if those delicate ties ever break?
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Gold For The Dead by Ann Aptaker
Early November, 1958
New York City
Art thief and smuggler Cantor Gold’s latest underworld caper begins when she arrives at big-time bookie Nick Fortunato’s apartment to celebrate his birthday, a ritual the two friends have enjoyed for years. But Nick is missing, and there’s blood on the living room carpet. It’s not Nick’s blood, though. Nick’s death still awaits him. Despite crime lord Sig Loreale’s best plans to protect Nick, with whom Sig has financial dealings, a killer finds Nick hidden away in a cheap hotel owned by Loreale.
Among the players in this tale of friendship, betrayal, and the competition for power between the young and the aging is the beautiful and possibly deadly Abby O’Brien. She was Nick’s right hand in his bookie operation, and now that he’s dead, she stands to either gain big or lose even bigger.
The operatives and bettors in Nick’s bookmaking business have a stake in Nick’s death, too…and motives to either solve his murder or get him out of the way: there’s Freddie Holmes, who sizes you up before you’re allowed entry into the betting parlor; Mike Leandro, leader of the crew that takes phoned-in bets; Chickie D’Andrea, who posts the odds from every track and sporting event; Harry “Horsehide” Lanz, a major gambler and trackside aficionado; Sylvia Georgiadis, an aging grand dame of the gambling world; and others.
Assisting Cantor, as always, are her young Guy Friday Judson Zane; cabbie, sometime getaway driver and sometime friend with benefits Rosie Bliss; and Cantor’s criminal mentor Esther “Mom” Sheinbaum.
And always circling are the cops.
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Unbreakable by Cari Hunter
Dr. Grace Kendal never stands a chance. The injured woman comes out of nowhere, bleeding heavily and holding a gun. Compelled to help her, Grace is dragged into Elin Breckenridge’s nightmare. Their fight to survive will take them across the country and to the limits of their endurance. But who is Elin running from? As Grace struggles for answers, one thing becomes clear—Elin is somehow connected to a dead man, and Grace could be next.
For Detective Sergeant Safia Faris, the case should have been easy: one dead body, one suspect. But the deeper she digs, the more obvious it becomes that murder was only the beginning. The investigation sets her on a collision course with Grace and Elin, and she’s forced to reevaluate everything she knows. Because nothing is quite as it seems, and Grace’s and Elin’s lives aren’t the only ones on the line.
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The Defiant Booklovers by Carol Anne Douglas
Chris O’Brien quits her job at a feminist newspaper to follow her dream: publishing books. It’s the heyday of women’s presses in the late ’70s, but that’s no guarantee of success, especially with a quirky business partner who is a female Oscar Wilde wannabe.
Ruth Goldman dreams of starting a collectively run feminist bookstore. She launches a business with other dedicated feminists. Does one of them harbor a secret that could destroy everything?
Despite vastly different backgrounds, Chris and Ruth’s shared passion for books leads to love. But politics intervenes, and Ruth faces a moral choice that could send her to prison. Can their love—and their dreams—endure?
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Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao
When a tall, stunning butch protects Mira from her ex-boyfriend at the club—and offers her a safe place to stay—Mira should be relieved. Not flustered. She’s not into women.
Yet this tough electrician with curves for days makes Mira’s heart race like never before.
But Isabel, wounded by grief, forces Mira to keep her distance. Until Mira’s desperate to win a union election at work—and only Isabel has the experience to teach her how.
Soon they’re lingering over dinner, teasing each other as the apartment heats up. And Isabel is making her coffee every morning, hanging her shelves, giving her smoldering looks before bed…
But Mira can’t afford temptation. Not after living with her nightmare ex.
No matter how well Isabel takes care of her…or how much Isabel needs healing, too.
She can’t risk her freedom—or her heart.
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Nightingale by Frances M. Thompson
London, 1990
Sharon Goldblatt
My best friend Danny is sick. Really sick. We know what it is, we know how he got it, but we don’t know how to make him better. Even the doctors and nurses don’t know. Although that doesn’t stop one particular nurse on his ward from acting like she knows it all. She’s bold, brash and bloody infuriating when she dismisses my questions and concerns at every turn. But I’m determined to do whatever I can to save Danny from AIDS. Because my family rejected me long ago and my social life consists of reading too many superhero comic books, so Danny is all I have. I’m a 27-year-old lesbian who has never kissed a woman and he’s all I have. And more than that, I’m all he has. So Florence F*cking Nightingale better keep out of my way if she knows what’s good for her.
Kate Xiao Hong Chiu
People think I’m crazy for loving my job. My husband divorced me because of it and even some nursing friends keep their distance, but these are not my problems. My sole focus is treating my patients or rather making them as comfortable as possible. Which is why I don’t take lightly to people getting in the way of my job, like this Sharon woman who thinks she knows better than me because she read a few articles. Does it matter that I keep wondering if the shaved sides of her head feel like velvet? No. Is it interesting that she seems to love Lady Phantom comics as much as me? Just a coincidence. Do I wonder what her body would feel like pressed up to mine? Yes, but that’s irrelevant. I have a job to do, and when there aren’t many of us willing to do it, I’m not going to let anyone stop me from doing it. People’s lives literally depend on me so Sharon Goldblatt and her honey-brown eyes can take a running jump… and not into my bed no matter how good that would be.
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Coltswood by Jules Revel
When academician and artist Belinda Coltswood comes face-to-face with a colleague from her younger years, old feelings and painful memories resurface in uncomfortable and potentially transformative ways.
Professor Belinda Coltswood has made a name for herself. As the recent winner of a prestigious art prize and the object of lingering rumors that nearly ended her career, Coltswood walks a fine line between celebrity and outcast. Though seemingly immune to both censure and accolades, Coltswood’s capacity for cool indifference dissolves in a riptide of memory when she finds herself face-to-face with a woman from her past. A woman she knew only as Wolf. While the Wolf in her office is hardly the same fierce young AIDS activist Coltswood remembers, this meeting has the potential to alter their lives in radical ways.
Available at:
Bywater Books
Yes, Today by Katey Hawthorne
Anjali always thought anxiety was her worst enemy. She’s got a decent handle on it, but it makes social situations, especially social situations with cute girls, awkward as hell. She first noticed Maeve in a college class, and since, she hasn’t been get the adorable punk girl with the heart-shaped backpack out of her head. Especially since the backpack invited onlookers to F Off. When Anjali sees Maeve again post-graduation at a coffee shop, they finally start up a conversation. Things get romantic over Thai food and at the Renn Faire.
But for once, anxiety might not be Anjali’s worst enemy. Maeve’s coworker seems bent on making things difficult for reasons of her own. Anjali has to find a way to deal with uncomfortable situations on her own terms if she wants to hang onto the cute girl.
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Sweet Talk by Rena Sapon-White and Ella Schaefer
Could late night’s saltiest host find her sweetest match?
Dr. Noa Hart lives her life unapologetically–from her PhD in ice cream science to the eccentric bumper sticker collection on her ancient VW Bug, Ringo Carr. She’s never hidden who she is, which is why she’s completely unprepared to fall for someone who’s spent her adult years doing the opposite.
Comedian Aarti Nair has clawed her way to the top as the first woman of color to host a legendary late-night talk show, but between balancing network expectations and hiding her true self, she’s drowning–until a nitrogen canister explosion changes everything.
When their off-the-charts chemistry pivots the show in a new direction, Aarti and Noa’s professional partnership becomes dangerously personal. With Aarti’s career hanging in the balance, can she risk everything for love? And can Noa protect her heart without compromising who she is–even if it means walking away?
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Calling Her Home by S.E. Chandler
Vann Townsend is complacent with her perfect life in LA until it’s upended when her wife vanishes. While looking for her, Vann finds her brother-in-law all too familiar and too comforting.
When life throws Vann another gut punch in the form of her estranged father’s sudden death, she halts the search for her wife to return to the one place she never wanted to be – home. There, she uncovers the redemption of the man she barely knew and starts questioning who she has become.
A saucy night with a stranger brings major déjà vu distorting her perception of love. Her father’s Buddhist community and final ceremony moves her to unlock her old patterns to find her way.
With a whole new center, will she choose to reconnect with her missing wife, get serious with the brother-turned-lover, or make her way back to the fiery night in San Fran?
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What sapphic book will you be reading for the “sapphic book with a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist main character” category? Let us know in the comments!
One Response
I highly recommend the Young Adult book, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Abida Jaigirdar. It’s a delightful enemies to lovers book with two Bangladeshi-Irish teens. And the descriptions of Bangladeshi food will have you salivating.