2025 - Read About the Immigrant Experience

tsprengel's profile picture tsprengel Host

10 participants (23 books)

01 Nov 2024—31 Dec 2025

Overview

The Challenge:
With how much immigrants have been villainized and dehumanized in the American media landscape, I want to make a point of understanding both the people and the countries they came from in 2025.

So please join me in a year-long reading challenge to diversify our reading and read 12 books about the immigrant experience - fiction, nonfiction, or a mix of the two!

The Rules:
Only one. Please try to focus on Own Voices authors as much as possible. The term Own Voices means that the author is part of the marginalized group they are writing about. (e.g. a Mexican author writing about Mexico, a child of immigrants writing about being a child of immigrants, etc.). 

If you are unable to find an Own Voices book that fits the prompt, then a book of interviews, an ethnography, etc. written by a non-Own Voices authors may be substituted, but it must feature extensive commentary coming directly from the marginalized group if at all possible. 

Challenge Books

All books added
Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung

Ghost Forest

Pik-Shuen Fung

272 pages • 2021 • 12 editions

fiction literary emotional medium-paced
Too Soon by Betty Shamieh

Too Soon

Betty Shamieh

12h 35m • 2025 • 6 editions

fiction historical literary challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
Bride of the Sea by Eman Quotah

Bride of the Sea

Eman Quotah

7h 20m • 2021 • 3 editions

fiction literary emotional slow-paced
Sing the Truth by Laura Pegram

Sing the Truth

Laura Pegram

8h 31m • 2025 • 2 editions

fiction literary race challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
Living Beyond Borders by Margarita Longoria

Living Beyond Borders

Margarita Longoria

219 pages • 2021 • 5 editions

nonfiction essays poetry short stories young adult emotional reflective medium-paced
Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Behind You Is the Sea

Susan Muaddi Darraj

256 pages • 2024 • 12 editions

fiction literary emotional reflective sad medium-paced
The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora by Wendy Pearlman

The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora

Wendy Pearlman

304 pages • 2024 • 2 editions

nonfiction contemporary essays medium-paced
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis

Jonathan Blitzer

534 pages • 2024 • 12 editions

nonfiction history politics informative reflective medium-paced
The Beauty of Your Face: A Novel by Sahar Mustafah

The Beauty of Your Face: A Novel

Sahar Mustafah

312 pages • 2020 • 14 editions

fiction literary emotional reflective slow-paced
The Best That You Can Do by Amina Gautier

The Best That You Can Do

Amina Gautier

256 pages • 2024 • 4 editions

fiction short stories challenging reflective medium-paced