September 15-October 15 is Latine Heritage Month, also known as Hispanic Heritage Month, which is a great excuse to highlight books by Latine authors to read for the 2025 Read Harder Challenge! Each checks off at least one task. Most of these books come recommended by Book Riot’s Latine resident literature expert, Vanessa Diaz. If you want more recommendations like this in your reading life—and believe me, you do—sign up for her excellent Latine Lit newsletter!
Task #1: Read a 2025 release by a BIPOC author.
Archive of Unknown Universes by Ruben Reyes Jr.
Ruben Reyes Jr. is the author of the short story collection There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven, and this book is his debut novel. It’s a genre-bending tale of two families in alternate timelines of the Salvadoran civil war. In 1978 Havana and 2018 Cambridge, their stories explore displacement and loss, but also belonging and love. This is one of those books that asks big questions about what could have been. —Vanessa Diaz
Task#5: Read a book about immigration or refugees.
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Villavicencio wrote this nonfiction National Book Award finalist when she was on DACA. Writing a book about being undocumented under your own name takes deep, deep courage—Villavicencio did that to take us with her on a journey to learn the stories of other undocumented folks trying to find their place in this country. This is a memoir and essay collection that shares intimate stories that expose what the headlines and politicization of entire communities miss. Villavicencio doesn’t report on the lives of the people she meets from a distance—she goes all in to get to know them and walk in their shoes, if just for a moment, and does not hold back in sharing her own story. —S. Zainab Williams
Task #6: Read a standalone fantasy book.
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
This book was my induction into the SMG fan club. As a mythology and folklore girlie, it brought into stark relief how little Latine mythology and folklore I’d read until then, and I’ve been chasing that high ever since. This is the story of a young woman with big dreams in a small Mexican town who unwittingly unleashes the Mayan god of death (which I will point out she only did after her bitch-ass primo pissed her off on some misogynist shit). The god makes her an offer she can’t refuse (join him on a journey to reclaim his throne), and so begins an epic, cross-country journey set in Jazz Age Mexico.
Bonus rec by this author: Certain Dark Things (vampires in Mexico City!), The Beautiful Ones (gossip! telekinesis! love and betrayal!) —Vanessa Diaz
Task #8: Read literary fiction by a BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and/or disabled author.
The Gods of Tango by Caro De Robertis
In 1913, a young Italian immigrant arrives alone in Buenos Aries, expecting to be married. When they discover their new husband has been killed, they don men’s clothing and join a group of tango musicians, where they find unexpected companionship and family. Steeped in the rhythm of tango and the vibrant messiness of immigrant communities in Buenos Aries, this is a story of self-discovery, often full of heartbreak, that is sometimes physically painful to read. But if you let it, it will lead you out into the light at the end, leaving you feeling reborn. —Laura Sackton
Task #10: Read a romance book that doesn’t have an illustrated cover.
A Summer for Scandal by Lydia San Andres
Emilia Cruz accompanies her sister to a fancy boat party, not knowing that Ruben Torres, the darling of the literary scene and big ol’ judgy jerk—would be in attendance. He has nothing but snark and condescension to offer about the popularity of a very sexy serial making the rounds in society, one he also rags on in secret from a gossip paper no one knows he’s behind. Ruben is determined to suss out the identity of its author, which—surprise!—is Emilia under a pseudonym. He’s starting to like her and she likes him, but neither knows the other’s secret identity… tension! This book made me long for an island sojourn (and a juicy piece of chisme). —Vanessa Diaz
Task #16: Read a genre-blending book.
Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza
This book is a memoir, and it tells the story of the titular Liliana’s tragic death in 1990s Mexico, but to call it a blend of memoir and true crime almost feels reductive. The prose and the format make this a work of art, weird as it feels to say about a book on such a heavy topic. In the past, we get to know Liliana through testimony from friends and family and journal entries from Liliana herself. In the present, the author travels from her home in Texas to Mexico in search of her sister’s case file and a better understanding of the systemic failures that allowed, and continue to allow, femicide and gender-based violence to go so largely unchecked in Mexico. The grief jumps off the page, as does the love of Rivera Garza for her beautiful, enigmatic sister. —Vanessa Diaz
Task #18: Read a “cozy” book by a BIPOC author.
Witch of Wild Things by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
Sage Flores left her hometown years ago after her younger sister died, but returns reluctantly when she needs a soft place to land. She slides back into her old gig at the Cranberry Rose Company, where her ability to speak to plants comes in very handy when she’s tasked with tracking down some special plant specimens. There’s just one problem with this mission: Sage is paired with Tennessee Reyes, the boy who broke her heart in high school. Now, on top of her dead sister’s ghost bringing her coffee unbidden and her other sister’s volatile magic creating all kinds of weather-related chaos, Sage has to find a way to resist the man she has spent a lot of time hating. If you love plant magic, magical realism, and second-chance love stories, get into this book and series. —Vanessa Diaz
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