There are only six more weeks until the end of the year, which means it’s time to get realistic about how much reading we can accomplish before 2025 ends. We only have a couple more weeks before the 2026 Read Harder Challenge is announced, so there’s pressure to get the 2025 Read Harder Challenge wrapped up! But I’m here to help.
I’ve gone through our recommendations throughout the year to pull out seven books that complete 2025 Read Harder Challenge tasks that are under 250 pages. This way, you can finish as many tasks as possible before the new year arrives! They range from just over 100 pages to just under 250 pages.
Let me know in the comments: which tasks do you still have left to do?
Task #1: Read a 2025 release by a BIPOC author.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (208 pages)
There is no book more urgent than El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, and the gravity, intensity, and horror of the atrocities being hurled against Palestinians deserve an entire book written by someone with his breadth of journalistic and personal experience. This is the first text to articulate what it means to witness the mass slaughtering of innocents in Gaza and to feel complicit and powerless as it happens in a way that resonated with me and so many people. “One day, everyone will have always been against this” is an ominous phrase I’ve encountered again and again since El Akkad tweeted it and then published a book deepening that thought. It’s a phrase that, I fear, will echo across time. —S. Zainab Williams
Task #3: Read a queer mystery.
Board to Death by CJ Connor (240 pages)
Ben is a queer thirtysomething divorcée who’s come back home to Salt Lake City to run his family’s board game shop. Once a married English professor in Seattle, he now spends his days caring for his ailing father and a Chihuahua named Beans while trying to make ends meet as his father’s medical bills pile up. Then a local toy and game collector approaches Ben with a rare opportunity: to buy a turn-of-the-century edition of the game that inspired Monopoly at a fraction of what it’s worth. Ben turns the offer down because there’s no way the deal is legit; but when the collector is found dead at Ben’s front door with a backpack full of $100 bills, Ben is the #1 suspect. This cute quozy mystery is by Book Riot contributor Andy Minshew, writing as CJ Connor! —Vanessa Diaz
All Access members, read on for more recommendations under 250 pages.
Task #5: Read a book about immigration or refugees.
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (208 pages)
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, like Exit West, 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.
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk (144 pages)
Every once in a while, I come across books that feel so perfect for me. Even Though I Knew the End is one such book, with its ’40s setting, warlock private eye, endearing queer romance, and deals with demons. Years ago, Elena sold her soul to save her brother. Now, with mere days left before she’s dragged to hell, she’s offered a job that, upon completion, would mean she can keep her soul and stay with the woman she loves. She only has three days, though, to catch Chicago’s most notorious serial killer and save herself. —Erica Ezeifedi
Task #10: Read a romance book that doesn’t have an illustrated cover.
Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole (160 pages)
Likotsi and Fabiola had a whirlwind love affair last time Likotsi was in town…until Fab broke it off without any explanation. When they meet again on the subway, Fab asks Likotsi to join her for tea, and Likotsi, looking for an explanation for what went wrong between them, agrees. What follows is a romantic night that takes them around the city while Fabiola slowly shares what’s been happening in her life that came between them. This charming second-chance romance is a novella, so it’s a quick read! —Danika Ellis
Task #14: Read a comic in translation.
All My Bicycles by Powerpaola, translated by Andrea Rosenberg (108 pages)
This nonlinear graphic memoir follows Powerpaola as she ponders on certain inanimate objects and animals—like bicycles and alligators—and uses her memory and experience with them to better understand her relationships, herself, and the world. —Erica Ezeifedi
Task #19: Read a queernorm book.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (160 pages)
Possibly the coziest science fiction story in existence, this novella duology follows a nonbinary tea monk looking for meaning in life. When Dex decides to leave tea brewing behind for a while to venture deep into the woods, they discover a wandering robot. Robots haven’t been seen for generations, and this one has a question for Dex and all of humanity: “What do you need?” Dex doesn’t feel remotely qualified to answer that question, but as the two travel together and search for answers, it becomes clear that the journey is more important than the destination. —Rachel Brittain
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