12 Books by Black Chicago Women 2025

blackgirlsreadchi Host

36 participants (43 books)

01 Jan 2025—31 Dec 2025

Overview

Join us for the 12 Books by Black Chicago Women Reading Challenge for 2025! 

Whether you participated in the inaugural challenge or are participating for the first time—welcome! This year, let’s continue to celebrate the depth, diversity, and dopeness of Chicago’s Black women writers. Read at least 12 books by Black women from Chicago. The books can be in any genre, on any topic, and from any time period. 

Follow along here and on our Instagram page @blackgirlsreadchi, and use the hashtags #12BooksByBlackChicagoWomen and #12BooksByBlackWomenChi to share your progress. 

If you need a few more suggestions to get you started, check out our book list on Bookshop.org.

Challenge Books

All books added
Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon

Upstate

Kalisha Buckhanon

5 hours, 45 minutes • audio • 2004 user-added

fiction romance young adult emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

Saving Ruby King

Catherine Adel West

10 hours, 13 minutes • audio • 2020

fiction mystery emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West

The Two Lives of Sara

Catherine Adel West

11 hours, 38 minutes • audio • 2022

fiction historical emotional reflective medium-paced
A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 by Claire Hartfield

A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919

Claire Hartfield

3 hours, 59 minutes • audio • 2017

nonfiction history race reflective slow-paced
The Game Changer by Embassie Susberry

The Game Changer

Embassie Susberry

9 hours, 39 minutes • audio • 2024 user-added

fiction historical
Threads: A Tapestry of Life in the Black Community of Shiloh and Beyond by Tanya Davis
Threads: A Tapestry of Life in the Black Community of Shiloh and Beyond
—
Tanya Davis

Threads: A Tapestry of Life in the Black Community of Shiloh and Beyond

Tanya Davis

192 pages

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti

Binti #1

Nnedi Okorafor

2 hours, 30 minutes • audio • 2015

fiction science fiction adventurous fast-paced
Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe

Last Summer on State Street

Toya Wolfe

6 hours, 6 minutes • audio • 2022

fiction contemporary emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon

Speaking of Summer

Kalisha Buckhanon

10 hours, 10 minutes • audio • 2019

fiction contemporary mystery emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks

Maud Martha

Gwendolyn Brooks

180 pages • 1953

fiction classics literary poetry reflective fast-paced