7 Books to Get You Started on the 2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge
If you’re participating in the 2025 Read Harder Challenge, it may not be the only reading challenge you’re doing—many of you hardcore readers are juggling multiple challenges, and one of the most popular is Popsugar’s. That’s why today, I have recommendations that feed two birds with one scone: these books complete Popsugar and Read Harder tasks at the same time.
Personally, Popsugar’s 40 to 50 tasks are too much for me to take on in a year, never mind combining them with another challenge, but I know many of you do both every year! I’m also not a big fan of the prompt that requires you to use an AI chatbot, but I will admit that I am a chatbot hater, including when it comes to their boring book recommendations.
Some of these prompts line up perfectly, like Popsugar’s “Read a book that reminds you of your childhood” and Read Harder’s “Reread a childhood favorite book,” while others are only coincidentally completed by the same book. Of course, there are also prompts I would have trouble aligning to a Read Harder task, like “Read a book about a run club,” but luckily I’m not trying to match them all!
Let me know in the comments: have you ever done the Popsugar Reading Challenge? Did you complete it?
Now, let’s get into the books serving double duty for the Read Harder and Popsugar challenges!
Popsugar #19: A highly anticipated read of 2025
and Read Harder #1: Read a 2025 release by a BIPOC author.
Katabasis by R. F. Kuang (August 26, 2025)
One of the most anticipated books of the year is R. F. Kuang’s upcoming novel Katabasis! Babel and Yellowface were huge hits, so this is one on a lot of people’s 2025 TBRs.
Dark academia fantasy by R.F. Kuang was always going to land on my list of books to look forward to in 2025, and that’s before I realized Katabasis involved a descent into actual Hell. Two grad students of Magick at Cambridge have to put their rivalry on ice to save their professor’s soul after he dies in an accident that is maybe one of their fault. They make the journey to h-e-double-hockey-sticks armed with Dante and Orpheus as their guides and enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams they’ll need to cast their spells. Surely nothing could go wrong in the bad place! I am so excited for this. —Vanessa Diaz
Popsugar #25: A book where the main character is an immigrant or refugee
and Read Harder #5: Read a book about immigration or refugees.
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, believes fortune is shining upon him when he lands a job working as a chauffeur for a rich executive at Lehman Brothers, and he’s even happier when Jende’s wife is hired to work at the executive’s summer home. After struggling, finally, their dreams of making a living in America may be coming true. But their employer’s financial world is rocked by the collapse of his job, threatening to bring down Jende’s dreams for his family as well. This is a compelling, beautifully written look at the immigrant experience in America, as well as a sharp-eyed examination of race and class. —Liberty Hardy
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Popsugar #8: A book under 250 pages
and Read Harder #23. Read a wordless comic.
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
The Arrival (128 pages) tells a familiar story of a stranger in a strange land, but the artwork is so original that this immigrant’s tale feels fresh. For instance, foods and pets don’t resemble anything specific we’ve seen before, and yet they’re recognizably foods and pets. It’s a clever way of bringing home the sensory complications of being a new arrival. It’s also a good fit for a message about compassion and humanity in relationships between newcomers and long-term residents.
Apart from its originality, Tan’s art is just stunningly beautiful. There’s a sepia tinge to the color scheme as well as lavish attention to detail so that each page evokes a sense of wonder. The book feels like an intricate, lovingly animated movie. —Christine Ro
Popsugar #18: A book containing magical creatures that aren’t dragons
and Read Harder #20: Read the first book in a completed young adult or middle grade duology.
All the Stars and Teeth Series by Adalyn Grace
Looking for pirates, mermaids, and an island kingdom? This one’ll do it for you. The story follows Amora, who has spent her life preparing to become a master of souls—it’s how she’ll secure her place on the throne. But when her demonstration of mastery doesn’t go well, she flees and strikes up a deal with a mysterious pirate.
All The Tides of Fate is book #2. —Kelly
Popsugar #30: A book that reminds you of your childhood
and Read Harder #2: Reread a childhood favorite book.
The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone
I already shared that my chapter book choice for this Read Harder task would be Ella Enchanted, but if I went the picture book route, it would be this one or The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales: two childhood favorites that foreshadowed by current love of metafiction. The Monster at the End of This Book walked so House of Leaves could run!
Popsugar #35: A book centering LGBTQ+ characters that isn’t about coming out
and Read Harder #19: Read a queernorm book.
The Unbroken by C. L. Clark
A queernorm book is a story set in a world where homophobia and transphobia don’t exist. Conveniently, this matches with the Popsugar prompt, because usually coming out isn’t a concept that’s present in these cultures, because being queer is unremarkable. Like many queernorm books, The Unbroken may be set in a world without homophobia, but that doesn’t mean it’s rainbows and unicorns. Instead, this is a story that is about colonialism and racism. It also has an unhealthy (but captivating) F/F relationship between two women — a disabled white princess and a Black foot soldier — who find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.
Popsugar Advanced Prompts #6: A book where nature is the antagonist
and Read Harder #13: Read a nonfiction book about nature or the environment.
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
Man vs. nature is one of the quintessential conflicts in the story, and nonfiction examples will knock out both the Popsugar and Read Harder tasks. There are plenty of memoirs about wilderness survival, but personally, I can’t think of a more formidable nature antagonist than the one hundred-foot waves of this storm. Junger describes what happened to the people caught in this storm, including the rescuers as well as the crew of a small fishing vessel, who were never found.
Are you attempting the Popsugar Reading Challenge? Let’s chat in the comments!
Check out all the previous 2025 Read Harder posts here.
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