12 Books by Black Chicago Women 2025

blackgirlsreadchi Host

37 participants (50 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
The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West

The Two Lives of Sara

Catherine Adel West

11h 38m • 2022 • 5 editions

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

3h 59m • 2017 • 6 editions

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

The Game Changer

Embassie Susberry

9h 39m • 2024 • 1 edition

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

192 pages • 1 edition

nonfiction memoir
Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon

Speaking of Summer

Kalisha Buckhanon

10h 10m • 2019 • 6 editions

fiction contemporary mystery emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

Remote Control

Nnedi Okorafor

4h 7m • 2021 • 8 editions

fiction science fiction adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
Ironheart, Vol. 1: Those with Courage by Eve Ewing

Ironheart (2018) #1

Ironheart, Vol. 1: Those with Courage

Eve Ewing

136 pages • 2019 • 3 editions

fiction comics young adult adventurous medium-paced
A Season of Light by Julie Iromuanya

A Season of Light

Julie Iromuanya

7h 43m • 2025 • 4 editions

fiction literary medium-paced
Broken Places by Tracy Clark

Cass Raines #1

Broken Places

Tracy Clark

12h 58m • 2018 • 9 editions

user-added

fiction crime mystery dark mysterious tense fast-paced
I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times by Taylor Byas

I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times

Taylor Byas

1h 51m • 2023 • 3 editions

user-added

nonfiction poetry challenging emotional reflective medium-paced