2025 Reading Challenge Book List

by K.C.
Small purple flowers (maybe lilacs?) in bunches in a wooden basket, on a white table, and in a white vase. One sprig is in a teardrop shaped clear vase next to a pair of silver scissors, There is a stack of books in the bottom left. The top one is fanned open.

Image by Ioana Motoc on Pexels.

This is my 5th year participating in the Calm Scribe Reading Challenge. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a list of 26 types of books, and participants get to pick which specific books to read.

I love this because:

  1. 26 books is a fairly realistic goal for me.
  2. It inspires reaching out of comfort genres to explore new authors and stories.

There’s no rule saying you have to have your books for the year all picked out, but I tend to function better that way. This year, however, there are a few that are best left to wait and see, along with a couple I haven’t been able to decide on yet. Below is my plan so far.

(TBD = To Be Decided.)

The 2025 Reading Challenge List

  • Won a literary award in 2025: [TBD].
  • By an Indigenous author: Rehearsals for Living by Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. (Ms. Simpson is Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg.)
  • By a BIPOC or LGBTQ+ author: Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else) by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò.
  • That has been banned: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.
  • That is nonfiction: Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition by Silky Shah.
  • A play: The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore.
  • By a Middle Eastern author: This Arab is Queer edited by Elias Jahshan.
  • In a genre you don’t usually read: [TBD].
  • Poetry: The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.
  • Under 200 pages: A Decolonial Feminism by Francoise Verges.
  • Over 500 pages: Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior by Marimba Ani.
  • Will challenge your worldview: Critical Multicultural Perspectives on Whiteness: Views from the Past and Present edited by Virginia Lea, Darren E. Lund, & Paul R. Carr.
  • Of philosophy: I have two, actually, and I haven’t decided which I’d rather re-read: The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy edited by Luke Cuddy or Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy edited by Richard Brian Davis. (Time permitting, I’ll probably read both.)
  • A graphic novel or Manga: I have the whole Umbrella Academy series and am eager to read it to see how different it is from the TV series.
  • Just for fun: Daughter of Time by Sarah Woodbury.
  • By a PEN International Writers in Prison Author: [TBD].
  • A debut novel: The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff.
  • You own but have not read: The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein.
  • Of short stories or essays: Africanfuturism: An Anthology edited by Wole Talabi.
  • That you read a long time ago to see how your perception has changed: The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans.
  • By an author who died in 2025: [TBD].
  • Has been translated: The Dark Heart: A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator by Joakim Palmkvist.
  • That is being turned into a film or series: [TBD].
  • That is an audio book: The Parenticide Club by Ambrose Bierce.
  • That is about your favorite topic: The Art of Activism by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert. (I’m not sure what my favorite topic is, but activism is definitely up there.)
  • That you saw someone reading in public: [TBD]. (As I don’t leave the house much, I’ll have to keep an eye on Twitter to see what folks post throughout the year. 😅)

Bonus Books

New ones this year! I finally read the previous two.

  • Found in an independent or second-hand bookstore: The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back from Anti-Lynching to Abolition by Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill V. Mullen.
  • By an indie/self-published author: Desecration by J. F. Penn.

Books I Started Previously and Really Mean to Finish

I didn’t manage to finish The Forging of the American Empire by Sidney Lens last year as I’d hoped, and never finished The Autobiography of Malcolm X either. I’m hoping to cross those off the TBR this year.

And while (as usual) I have loads of unread books waiting for me to notice them, I do have a shortlist of ones I’m eager to get to:

  • How Will Capitalism End? by Woolfgang Streeck was replaced on last year’s list, but I still want to read it.
  • Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit.
  • Occupation: Organizer: A Critical History of Community Organizing in America by Clement Petitjean.
  • War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony by Nelson A. Denis.
  • The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House by Audre Lorde.
  • Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson.
  • How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm.
  • Locating the Left in Difficult Times by Gordon Hak.
  • How to Hide an Empire: A Short History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr.
  • The Invention of the White Race Vol 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control by Cal Newport.
  • The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public by Susan M. Schweik.

Where I Got My Books

A lot of this year’s choices have been waiting in the wings, so to speak, but I also snagged several of them when Haymarket Books offered some free bundles. (Definitely worth keeping an eye out for. I follow them on Twitter to see their announcements.) I found the play and poetry on Project Gutenberg.

Other places to look for free or inexpensive books:

  • Classic Tales Podcast is a decent app for audiobooks.
  • LibriVox.org has free and public domain audiobooks. Fair warning: the navigation leaves something to be desired.
  • I search Amazon for what I need, then sort by lowest to highest price.

What are your reading goals for the year? @ me on Twitter and let me know! Here’s to another year of good reads.