2026 Reading Challenge

Listopia > Racism Book Lists

The New Jim Crow by Michelle AlexanderBetween the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi CoatesThe Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm XBury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee BrownThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Books White People Need to Read
1,307 books — 1,560 voters
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeA People’s History of the United States by Howard ZinnThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodThe Color Purple by Alice WalkerNickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Social Justice: Books on Racism, Sexism, and Class
2,129 books — 1,536 voters

1984 by George OrwellU.S. Constitution (Saddlewire) by Founding FathersFahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeOn Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
Books to Read under the Trump Administration
1,169 books — 518 voters
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le GuinAnarchism and Other Essays by Emma GoldmanV for Vendetta by Alan MooreChomsky On Anarchism by Noam ChomskyThe Conquest of Bread by Pyotr Kropotkin
Anarchist books
470 books — 372 voters

Animal Farm by George Orwell1984 by George OrwellFahrenheit 451 by Ray BradburyThe Help by Kathryn StockettFlowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
FICTION Books That Opened Your Eyes to a Social or Political Issue
408 books — 248 voters
The Color Purple by Alice WalkerBeloved by Toni MorrisonKindred by Octavia E. ButlerAmericanah by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieThe Darkest Child by Delores Phillips
Contemporary Black Women's Literature
569 books — 233 voters

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan PappéMornings in Jenin by Susan AbulhawaPalestinian Dissident by Sam ShomanPalestine by Jimmy CarterMen in the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani
Best Books about Palestine (fiction and nonfiction)
252 books — 175 voters
The Lorax by Dr. SeussThe Story of Ferdinand by Munro LeafWho Colored the Leaves? by Robert D DeanLast Stop on Market Street by Matt de la PeñaThe Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss
Children's Books for the Resistance
659 books — 169 voters

1776 by David McCulloughTeam of Rivals by Doris Kearns GoodwinBattle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPhersonJohn Adams by David McCulloughA People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
U.S. History Reading List
446 books — 144 voters
Salt by Nayyirah WaheedMilk and honey by Rupi KaurTeaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan ShireI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angeloubone by Yrsa Daley-Ward
Poetry by Women of Color
352 books — 139 voters

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm XWolf Hustle by Cin FabréThe Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du BoisSet the Night on Fire by Mike DavisThe New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Best Books on African American Studies (nonfiction)
248 books — 135 voters
Wolf Hustle by Cin FabréThe New Jim Crow by Michelle AlexanderSet the Night on Fire by Mike DavisKillers of the Flower Moon by David GrannBetween the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Race, Racism and Identity in America (nonfiction)
398 books — 128 voters

The Hate U Give by Angie ThomasBecoming by Michelle ObamaThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca SklootBorn a Crime by Trevor NoahStamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
[ATY 2021] - About Racism and Race Relations
231 books — 124 voters
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara EhrenreichEvicted by Matthew DesmondJourney to the West by Biao WangMaid by Stephanie LandThe Working Poor by David K. Shipler
Books on Poverty and Inequality
218 books — 117 voters

Sister Outsider by Audre LordeBlack Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill CollinsAin't I a Woman by bell hooksSister Citizen by Melissa V. Harris-PerryFeminist Theory by bell hooks
Black Feminist/Womanist Studies (nonfiction)
129 books — 108 voters
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi KleinNickel and Dimed by Barbara EhrenreichThe Communist Manifesto by Karl MarxThis Changes Everything by Naomi KleinThe Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
How Capitalism Destroys Everything
205 books — 92 voters

Hunger by Roxane GayYou Can't Buy Love Like That by Carol E. AndersonDear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieSouth and West by Joan DidionThe Radium Girls by Kate Moore
2017 Non-male Non-Fiction
244 books — 86 voters
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. ButlerWild Seed by Octavia E. ButlerHalf of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieParable of the Talents by Octavia E. ButlerDawn by Octavia E. Butler
Books by Black Authors That Don't Feature Slavery, Colonialism, Racism, or Poverty
193 books — 78 voters

Detroit by Charlie LeDuffMiddlesex by Jeffrey EugenidesDetroit by Dan GeorgakasDetroit City Is the Place to Be by Mark BinelliOnce In A Great City by David Maraniss
Detroit (fiction and nonfiction)
165 books — 69 voters
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodWe Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieBad Feminist by Roxane GayThe Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah ArendtA Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
Let's Dismantle the Patriarchy
288 books — 58 voters

The Unwinding by George PackerDark Money by Jane MayerListen, Liberal by Thomas FrankBullies by Ben ShapiroStrangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Why Trump Won: Understanding the 2016 Electorate
231 books — 55 voters
Sapiens by Yuval Noah HarariMoral Tribes by Joshua D. GreeneThe Righteous Mind by Jonathan HaidtPolitical Tribes by Amy ChuaOn Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
Making Peace Between Tribalism and Globalization
128 books — 47 voters

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund MorrisThe Island at the Center of the World by Russell ShortoMornings on Horseback by David McCulloughThe Power Broker by Robert A. CaroGotham by Edwin G. Burrows
New York State History (nonfiction)
204 books — 35 voters
Caste by Isabel WilkersonHappiness Becomes You by Tina TurnerOverground Railroad by Candacy A. TaylorOur Time Is Now by Stacey AbramsWandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins
2020 Nonfiction Books by African-Americans
109 books — 34 voters

Set the Night on Fire by Mike DavisThe Color of Law by Richard RothsteinConspiracy in the Streets by Jon WienerDetroit by Charlie LeDuffThe Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Histories of United States Cities I (nonfiction)
277 books — 33 voters
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine HansberryFences by August WilsonDutchman & The Slave by Amiri BarakaPorgy and Bess Fantasy for Two Pianos by George GershwinFor Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rain... by Ntozake Shange
African American Plays
42 books — 32 voters

The Merchant of Venice by William ShakespeareThe Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion by Matvei Vasilyevich GolovinskiThe Jew of Malta by Christopher MarloweOliver Twist by Charles DickensThe Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Anti-Semitism in Literature
50 books — 27 voters
Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 by W.E.B. Du BoisReconstruction by Eric FonerThe Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann WoodwardA Short History of Reconstruction, 1863-1877 by Eric FonerReconstruction after the Civil War by John Hope Franklin
Civil War Reconstruction (nonfiction)
90 books — 22 voters

TWAS The Year 2020 by Karl WigginsAccounting for Slavery by Caitlin RosenthalSlavery by Another Name by Douglas A. BlackmonRacial Innocence by Robin BernsteinCaptives and Cousins by James F. Brooks
Slavery in the US: Systems and Ideology (nonfiction)
159 books — 19 voters
We Are Bridges by Cassandra LaneAmericanah by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieTheir Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale HurstonEvil Aliens With Afros by Daniel JosephThe Black Foster Youth Handbook by Ángela Quijada-Banks
Black Authors
50 books — 13 voters

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