2025 Reading Wrapped: The 60 Books I've Read This Year

This has been my best reading year yet! From sci-fi & biographies to romance & poetry to memoirs & nonfiction, find out my faves, check out the full list, & explore my '26 goals

TL;DR if you’d prefer to skim this post, here’s what to expect in order:

1. My reading goals going into 2025

2. How many of the books I read were by Black people, women, and BIPOC writers

3. My top 10 reads + a few honorary mentions

4. The full list of 60 books that I read

5. My 2026 reading goals

Now let’s dive in!

I’ve always been a reader. As a kid I stayed up past bedtime reading by flashlight until my eyes hurt because I just had to know what was going to happen next. As an adult, I’ve continued that love but often didn’t have the time to devote. Because of that, I often stuck to nonfiction and memoir books that I knew I’d love.

This year, working for myself has gifted me the space and flexibility to dive into books that I love and to challenge myself with genres I don’t normally explore. It has also been a monumental gift to my work to remember that consistent reading is the prerequisite to great writing. My goals for the year were pretty simple:

• I wanted to read more poetry, fiction, and essay collections.

• I also wanted to spend more time with the classics and particularly Octavia Butler who I am on a quest to read everything she’s ever written. (I knocked out 4 books by her this year, plus an adapted essay-book, *and* a biography of her written by a Black woman)

• Lastly, I wanted to learn more about politicized identities that I don’t have. As a queer, Black woman, it would be easy to lean into all of the ways this country makes my life harder without acknowledging that I also benefit from colorism, ableism, a U.S. passport, and economic privileges. I sought out books that would challenge what I already know and push me to be a better accomplice and comrade to the people I’m in community with.

Surprisingly, even while balancing entrepreneurship, pregnancy, a new book deal, and parenting a toddler, I managed to read 60 books!!! Because I’m rooting for Blackity Black books and authors, here’s the key stats that I like to track:

• 73% of the books I read were by Black authors (44/60)

  • 62% of them were by Black women (37/60)

  • 12% of them were by Black men (7/60)

• 80% of the books I read were by women (48/60)

• 83% of the books I read were by people of color (50/60)

The full list of books will be at the end but I want to kick this off with my top 10 which includes 5 Black authors, 5 BIPOC women authors, 3 API authors, and 2 LGBTQ authors. To keep this post brief, I’m describing why each title made my top 10 in one sentence or less:

1. One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This — Omar El Akkad (Nonfiction)

   1. Free Palestine until it’s backwards.

2. Matriarch — Tina Knowles (Memoir)

   1. More than a book about Beyonce’s mama, this is reflection on growing up Black in the South as well as navigating marriage, motherhood and self-fulfillment.

3. Happy Land — Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Historical Fiction)

   1. Black land matters and Black elders matter.

4. Mý Documents — Kevin Nguyen (Novel)

   1. Asian American internment set in the 21st century and a reminder that we are underreacting to ICE detention centers and xenophobia.

5. There is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America — Brian Gladstone (Nonfiction)

   1. We have barely scratched the surface on how evil and meticulous capitalism is in disappearing people.

6. Zeal — Morgan Jerkins (Historical Fiction)

   1. Black love across generations in times and spaces I’ve never imagined it; hell yeah!

7. Isaac’s Song — Daniel Black (Fiction)

   1. Healing is non-linear and our memories aren’t what they seem.

8. How To Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom — Johanna Hedva (Nonfiction)

   1. Capitalism depends on ableism to survive so we should all be invested in rooting it out of our minds, communities, and politics.

9. Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia Butler — Susanna Morris

   1. This bio helped me better understand the strange, brilliant, and poignant nature of Octavia’s work.

10. The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters — Sasha Bonet

    1. I literally found myself googling to make sure this wasn’t a novel because her writing and introductions to her family were so so vivid.

Honorary Mentions:

1. Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores — Katie Mitchell (Nonfiction)

   1. One of the most picturesque books I’ve owned and a love letter to Black bookstores.

2. Harlem Rhapsody — Victoria Christopher Murray (Historical Fiction)

   1. Our ancestors are messyyyyy and human! This historical fiction was the perfect reminder of that.

3. Black in Blues: How A Color Tells The Story of My People — Imani Perry (Nonfiction)

   1. Imani Perry makes me fall in love with the South over and over again with each word.

4. Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood — Gretchen Sisson (Nonfiction)

   1. I learned soo much about adoption and the harm we’ve normalized through this industry all in the name of “family planning.”

Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts?

Now for the full list of books that I read:

1. Girls That Never Die — Safia (Poetry)

2. A Few Rules For Predicting The Future — Octavia Butler (Essay)

3. Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons With Racism in Medicine — Uché Blackstock (Memoir)

4. Parable of the Talents — Octavia Butler (Science-Fiction)

5. Harlem Rhapsody — Victoria Christopher Murray (Historical Fiction)

6. One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This — Omar El Akkad (Nonfiction)

7. Mý Documents — Kevin Nguyen (Novel)

8. O Sinners! — Nicole Cuffy (Fiction)

9. A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics — Juanita Tolliver (Nonfiction/Biography)

10. Black in Blues: How A Color Tells The Story of My People — Imani Perry (Nonfiction)

11. Assata In Her Own Words — Assata Shakur (Essays)

12. Matriarch — Tina Knowles (Memoir)

13. Can’t Get Enough — Kennedy Ryan (Romance)

14. Happy Land — Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Historical Fiction)

15. The Message — Ta-Nehisi Coates (Essays)

16. A Court of Thorns & Roses — Sarah J. Maas (Fantasy)

17. Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging — Tara Roberts

18. Black Power Scorecard: Measuring the Racial Gap What We Can Do To Close It — Andre Perry

19. Catalina — Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

20. Zeal — Morgan Jerkins (Historical Fiction)

21. From These Roots: My Fight With Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy — Tamara Lanier

22. Great Black Hope — Rob Franklin (Novel)

23. The Life of Josiah Henson: The Autobiography of the Former Slave Who Became Stowe’s Uncle Tom (Memoir)

24. Mainline Mama — Keeonna Harris (Memoir)

25. Fearless and Free: The Artist In Her Own Words — Josephine Baker (Memoir)

26. Toni at Randomhouse: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship — Dana Williams (Biography)

27. There is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America — Brian Gladstone (Nonfiction)

28. The Stalker — Paula Bomer (Psychological Mystery/Thriller)

29. The Fire Next Time — James Baldwin (Essay)

30. A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America — Trymaine Lee (Nonfiction)

31. How To Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom — Johanna Hedva (Nonfiction)

32. Corregidora — Gayl Jones (Fiction)

33. Gorilla, My Love — Toni Cade Bambara (Short Stories)

34. Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal — Yuval Taylor (Biography)

35. Isaac’s Song — Daniel Black (Fiction)

36. It Girl: The Life & Legacy of Jane Birkin — Marisa Meltzer (Biography)

37. A Killer Getaway — Sienna Sharpe (Crime Fiction)

38. Seven Days in June — Tia Williams (Romance)

39. A Rebellion of Care: Poems and Essays — David Gate (Poetry)

40. By The Time You Read This: The Space Between Cheslie’s Smile and Mental Illness — Cheslie Kryst & April Simpkins (Memoir)

41. The Eyes of Gaza: A Diary of Resilience - Plestia Alaqad (Memoir)

42. Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood — Gretchen Sisson (Nonfiction)

43. Out of Office — A.H. Cunningham (Romance)

44. Florida Water: Poems — Aja Monet (Poetry)

45. Dawn — Octavia Butler (Science-Fiction)

46. Adulthood Rites — Octavia Butler (Science-Fiction)

47. Imago — Octavia Butler (Science-Fiction)

48. Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia Butler — Susanna Morris (Biography)

49. On Anarchism — Noam Chomsky

50. We The Gathered Heat — edited by Terisa Siagatonu, Frank Choi, Bay Phi, and No’u Revilla (poetry anthology)

51. Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden From Us — Anna Malaika Tubbs (Nonfiction)

52. Reel — Kennedy Ryan (Romance novel)

53. Every Moment Is A Life: Gaza in the Time of Genocide — edited by Susan Abulhawa & Huzama Habayeb (Anthology)

54. Let the Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom — Camonghne Felix

55. Grand Mothers: Poems, Reminiscences, and Short Stories About the Keepers of Our Traditions — edited by Nikki Giovanni (Anthology)

56. The Mad Wife — Meagan Church (Novel)

57. What We Lose — Zinzi Clemmons (Novel)

58. Fannie Lou Hamer: A Biography — Susan King (Nonfiction/biography)

59. Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores — Katie Mitchell (Nonfiction)

60. The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters — Sasha Bonet (Memoir)

The best part of planning for a new year is preparing my TBR list. My goals going into 2026 are:

• To finish off all of Octavia’s works (I have 4 more full-length works to go!)

• To read more about Black resistance & rebellion

• To add more Black men authors to my TBR list

• To learn more about Black innovators and visionaries across history.

So far there are 50 books on my 2026 reading list with space for new releases I haven’t heard of yet. Some of the books I’m most looking forward to reading next year are (surprisingly most of this list is fiction!):

1. Boom Town — Nic Stone (Crime Thriller)

2. The Wilderness — Angela Flournoy (Novel)

3. Skin & Bones — Renée Watson (Novel)

4. Chain Gang All Stars — Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Novel)

5. They Were Her Property: White Women As Slave Owners in the American South — Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers (Nonfiction)

6. Detransition, Baby — Torrey Peters (Novel)

7. The Black Family Who Built America: The McKissacks, Two Centuries of Daring Pioneers — Cheryl McKissack Daniel with Nick Chiles (Nonfiction)

8. The American Daughters — Maurice Carlos Ruffin (Novel)

9. Octavia Butler’s Patternist series (Science-Fiction)

10. Don’t Cry For Me — Daniel Black (Novel)

How do are reading lists and goals line up? I’d love to hear your favorites of the year and what you’re prioritizing for 2026!