Liara Tamani Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Liara Tamani is a wonderful American author of young adult, contemporary, romance, and realistic fiction stories. Her career is just two books old, but the critics believe she has a long way to go. Tamani made her debut with the book called Calling My Name. It succeeded in reaching out to places far and wide and helped to establish her as an author with extraordinary talents. Author Tamani hails from Houston, Texas, and still resides there. She obtained a master’s degree in fine arts from Vermont College. After trying her hand at publishing and failing for some time, Tamani finally achieved the due fame and popularity when her first book became a finalist for the PEN American Literary Award and the SCBWI Golden Kite prize, both in 2018.

The close friends of author Tamani like to refer to her as Lili. She believes that there is no other thing more powerful in life than love. It is love that binds people and helps to spread good feelings among individuals. Tamani also believes that love in the form of romance is not the only one that casts its magic. Rather, there are other forms of love that as effective and powerful, such as the love for friends and family, love for self, and love for the world. During her free time, Tamani likes to indulge in dance-offs with her daughter. She thinks dancing helps to keep her active and allows her to increase her imaginative powers. Tamani is quite serious about happiness in her life and does not hesitate to sing in public. She considers her friends as her succulents and doesn’t like to have regular plants inside the house.

Tamani takes great pride in knowing that she has now a total of ten house plants arranged outside her house. She thinks that the plants are happier in the open environment rather than inside. Tamani was once headed for a law degree from Harvard Law Degree, but she dropped out and does not feel sad about it. The people who know her better believe that she took a long time figuring out what she wanted to do in life. Before choosing to settle down as a writer, she tried her hand at law. When that did not work, she began working as a marketing coordinator, production assistant, floral designer, dance teacher, accessories designer, and yoga teacher. In between, Tamani earned her bachelor of arts degree from Duke University, followed by a Vermont College postgraduate degree in MFA.

As of now, she lives happily with her husband and daughter in Houston. Tamani’s books have been called luminous, striking, and amazing by numerous critics. They have also been labeled as a literary exploration of spirituality, self-ideal, and family. Many reviewers believe that Tamani’s writing style is best suited for the fans of Jandy Nelson, Sandra Cisneros, Jacqueline Woodson, and Noomi Shihab Nye. In one of her interviews, Tamani has claimed that she used her journey of self-discovery as an inspiration to write her first novel. The novel that entertained many in an excellent exploration of different aspects of life, such as aspirations, expectations, and spirituality. The book’s story served as a healing factor for the wounds of Tamani’s teenage life.

Author Tamani is quite happy with the limited success of her writing career. She hopes to become much more successful in the years to come by writing many exciting novels. Tamani likes to give the credit of her novels’ success to her fans, who have loved and supported her work and provided genuine reviews on various literary platforms. She has developed a website in her name that she uses to interact with her fans and followers. Tamani also uses the website to give out updates regarding the latest happenings in her career. She also uses the popular social media platform called Twitter to promote her work and reach out to a large number of readers across the globe.

The debut book written by author Liara Tamani is entitled ‘Calling My Name’. It was released by the Greenwillow Books publication in 2017. This book features a character-driven story and revolves around the life of a black girl named Taja Brown. Other important characters mentioned in the book by Tamani include Taja’s brother Damon and other members of her family. Initially, Taja Brown is introduced as a girl who knows what her place is and what restrictions are imposed on girls like her in her tight-knit, conservative African-American family. But, when her friends begin to experience their firsts, from making boyfriends to kisses and everything else, she suddenly begins to feel left behind. However, her insecurities get tossed out of the window as soon as she meets the love of her life.

Tamani has provided an elegant cover design along with an engaging writing style. Her depiction of the heroine is quite interesting. Tamani has done a fantastic job of describing a story about what it means to grow up in a family that doesn’t always understand you. Taja Brown has great regard for religion in her life and wants her parents to know that she respects religion as much as they do. But unlike them, she feels obliged to question certain beliefs and explore things like other teenagers. She feels attracted to dating, making boyfriend, kissing, and having sex. The character of Taja serves as an authentic voice for teenagers. Tamani has covered the growth of Taja from middle school to joining college very well. She has shown how Taja struggles with her sexual awakening and deals with her religious guilt.

There is a blend of realistic situations and familial obligations that make this story unforgettable. The poetic, lyrical, and gorgeous writing style of author Tamani also adds to the excellence of this book. Contrasting to Taja’s character is her brother’s depiction, who is shown having all the freedom to take advantage of the opportunities given to him, both sexually and socially. He is often let off by his parents, who believe that is just ‘different’ when it comes to boys. This frustrates Taja very much and makes her question the discrimination between a girl child and a boy child by her religious parents. The engaging story and strong characters mentioned in this novel helped it to become a worldwide success.