Read These Books for Nonfiction November and the Read Harder Challenge

Happy Nonfiction November! For many of us, nonfiction can end up on the bottom of our TBR piles. It can be intimidating, especially if you’re in the habit of just reading fiction. Nonfiction November is a great excuse to put those titles back on the top of the pile. Whenever I prioritize nonfiction in my reading, I’m reminded how many beautifully written, thoughtful, and yes, educational books I’ve been putting off.

Today, I’ve put together a list of nonfiction book recommendations that also check off 2025 Read Harder Challenge tasks. I went with five of the tasks that could be completed with either nonfiction or fiction, to tempt you to add a few more nonfiction books to your reading plans.

1) Read a 2025 release by a BIPOC author.

These are both recommendations from our resident nonfiction expert, Kendra Winchester, on the buzziest nonfiction of 2025:

Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy Arundhati Roy is known for her immersive novels The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Now she’s back with a memoir delving into her complicated relationship with her mother. The memoir is already a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and has been named as one of The New York Times’ Best Book of the Year (So Far). Her mother, Mary, passed away in 2022, and Roy was startled by the depth of her grief. She began to write about her mother “to be able to continue to love her.”

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad From his perspective as an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad argues that while America claims to be the land of the free, its funding of violence in Palestine is one of many examples of America treating others as less than human. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This became a New York Times bestseller, was shortlisted for the 2025 Palestine Books Awards, and was longlisted for the National Book Award in Nonfiction.

All Access members, read on for nonfiction book recommendations for four more 2025 Read Harder Challenge tasks.