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
Good Girl by Aria Aber

Good Girl

Aria Aber

9h 31m • 2025 • 16 editions

fiction literary dark emotional reflective medium-paced
Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

Infinite Country

Patricia Engel

191 pages • 2021 • 19 editions

fiction contemporary literary emotional reflective sad medium-paced
My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

My Side of the River

Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

6h 37m • 2024 • 6 editions

nonfiction memoir emotional informative reflective medium-paced
All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien

All That's Left Unsaid

Tracey Lien

293 pages • 2022 • 30 editions

fiction contemporary literary mystery emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Children of the Land: A Memoir by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

Children of the Land: A Memoir

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

384 pages • 2020 • 10 editions

nonfiction memoir poetry challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas

Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen

Jose Antonio Vargas

256 pages • 2018 • 13 editions

nonfiction history memoir politics challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

The Undocumented Americans

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

185 pages • 2020 • 12 editions

nonfiction memoir politics challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
This Is the Year by Gloria Muñoz

This Is the Year

Gloria Muñoz

360 pages • 2025 • 5 editions

fiction science fiction young adult emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America by Laila Lalami

Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America

Laila Lalami

208 pages • 2020 • 6 editions

nonfiction memoir politics challenging informative reflective slow-paced
The Book of Rosy: A Mother's Story of Separation at the Border by Julie Schwietert Collazo, Rosayra Pablo Cruz

The Book of Rosy: A Mother's Story of Separation at the Border

Julie Schwietert Collazo, Rosayra Pablo Cruz

256 pages • 2020 • 7 editions

nonfiction memoir challenging reflective sad medium-paced