{"id":335070,"date":"2025-12-08T15:54:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/22-of-the-best-books-of-2025-bipoc-edition\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:54:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:54:40","slug":"22-of-the-best-books-of-2025-bipoc-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=335070","title":{"rendered":"22 of the Best Books of 2025, BIPOC Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack.<\/p>\n

Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_<\/a>.<\/p>\n

View All posts by Erica Ezeifedi<\/a><\/p>\n

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Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack.<\/p>\n

Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_<\/a>.<\/p>\n

View All posts by Erica Ezeifedi<\/a><\/p>\n

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I had to do it to you. Even though the past couple of weeks have brought best-of book list after best-of book list, I had to give you one more. <\/p>\n

Of course, this list is just a sample of the many great books published by BIPOC authors this year, and spans across genres, fiction, and nonfiction, even including a couple poetry titles. The books on this list, assembled with the help of Editor Kelly Jensen, were on many of the biggest Best of the Year books lists, including NPR\u2019s, Barnes & Noble\u2019s, Bookshop.org\u2019s, and Electric Literature\u2019s. There are also some from our own list<\/a> and a few that have won book awards this year. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Wilderness<\/a> by Angela Flournoy <\/p>\n

Among the best BIPOC books of the year are works by award-winning authors, meditations on slippery characters, historical horror, mysterious family sagas, magical nonfiction, and much more. <\/p>\n

Fiction<\/h2>\n
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Audition<\/a> by Katie Kitamura<\/h3>\n
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A \u00a0beguiling, sharp, and surprising book that will have you scratching your head in the very best way. Clean, cutting observations and slippery characters combine in this gem for literary fiction lovers. Be warned: you might have to live with a little (ok more than a little) uncertainty in this book, but let Kitamura lead you toward a little provocative discombobulation. \u2014Jeff O\u2019Neal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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We Do Not Part<\/a> by Han Kang, Translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris<\/h3>\n
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Literary fiction of the highest order from a Nobel Prize-winning novelist. Not much happens in this quiet, dream-like novel that asks rich questions about history, memory, connection, and pain. It\u2019s the rare book that can be equally subtle and unsettling, and that\u2019s evidence of a masterful writer working at the height of her powers. You always know you\u2019re in good hands with Kang, and that makes it a pleasure to follow her wherever she wants to go. \u2014Rebecca Joines Schinsky<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Buffalo Hunter Hunter<\/a> by Stephen Graham Jones<\/h3>\n
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On the third day of reading Jones\u2019 latest horror novel, I had a nightmare, but it might not be why you think. The monsters here are supernatural and all-consuming, but the true horror is the very real story that\u2019s told of the Marias Massacre, where around 200 Blackfeet were murdered in the dead of winter. The story is told through a journal found in 2012, which was written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor. The pastor records his time with a Blackfeet man named Good Stab, a man with peculiar eating habits and seemingly superhuman abilities\u2026 and revenge on his mind. \u2014Erica Ezeifedi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Flashlight<\/a> by Susan Choi <\/h3>\n
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Susan Choi\u2019s sixth novel is a masterpiece, a family saga wrapped in a mystery that haunts its characters. Young Louisa and her father are walking along a beach at night, carrying flashlights. Hours later, Louisa is found alone, barely alive, and her father is never seen again. As Louisa grows up with her mother, the loss of her father hovering over their lives, parts of their pasts are revealed, including a long-held secret.\u00a0Flashlight<\/em>\u00a0is a sharp examination of not only the physical loss of someone, but loss of place, estrangement, and loss of self, as Louisa and her mother carry around a grief with no end. It\u2019s a stunning heart-puncher. \u2014Liberty Hardy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

All access members continue below for more of the best BIPOC books of 2025.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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August Lane<\/a> by Regina Black<\/h3>\n
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This brilliant literary romance is a powerful reminder that Black country artists have always been here. One-hit-wonder Luke is honored to open for his idol, 90\u2019s superstar JoJo Lane, at her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But he\u2019ll have to confront his complicated past, because the concert is being held in his and JoJo\u2019s small hometown in Arkansas. Luke was close to JoJo\u2019s daughter, August, until a shocking betrayal ripped them apart and jump-started his career. As Luke, August, and JoJo grapple with their complicated relationships to the music industry, a new love song takes shape. It\u2019s fantastic in any format, but I recommend the full-cast audiobook. \u2014Susie Dumond<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Dream Hotel<\/a> by Laila Lalami <\/h3>\n
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Lalami is another multi-award nominated author and her latest reminds me of\u00a0Minority Report<\/em>\u00a0as it questions how technology, privacy, and freedom can coexist. We follow Sara, who has just landed at LAX, and who is swiftly gathered up by agents who say that she will soon commit a crime against her husband. They came to this conclusion using data from her dreams and the Risk Assessment Administration\u2019s algorithm. She\u2019s taken to a facility and held there with other dreamers, all of whom are women, and all of whom claim innocence of crimes not yet committed. Months pass before a new resident arrives who shakes things up. Now Sara is on a path to\u00a0knuck if you buck<\/em>\u00a0against those who have taken her freedom. \u2014Erica Ezeifedi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The River Has Roots<\/a> by Amal El-Mohtar <\/h3>\n
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This is the debut solo novella from Amal El-Mohtar, co-author of the hugely popular novella This Is How You Lose the Time War<\/a>! It\u2019s about the two Hawthorn sisters, who live on the edge of Faerie, and what happens when one of them puts their lives at risk by falling for a Faerie man. Holly Black calls it \u201cHalf delicious murder ballad, half beguiling love story.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>YES, PLEASE. \u2014 Liberty Hardy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When the Tides Held the Moon<\/a> by Venessa Vida Kelley<\/h3>\n
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Fantasy! Romance! Historical Fiction! Found family! Gorgeous art! Venessa Vida Kelley\u2019s dreamy debut\u00a0When the Tides Held the Moon\u00a0<\/em>has something for everyone. Puerto Rican blacksmith Benny is tasked with building a giant glass tank. When he delivers it to the 1910s Coney Island carnival sideshow that commissioned it, he realizes it was constructed for a real merman captured from the East River. And when he falls in love with that merman, Benny realizes he\u2019s constructed his prison and now must find a way to help him escape. The ensemble cast of \u201chuman curiosities\u201d and Vida Kelley\u2019s vivid illustrations make this story truly shine. \u2014Susie Dumond<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)<\/a>\u00a0by Rabih Alameddine<\/h3>\n
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This was the 2025 National Book Award winner for Fiction<\/a>, and, it\u2019s about a man, who, at his center, just really just wants some peace and quiet. Sixty-three-year-old Raja lives with his octogenerian mother in a small Beirut apartment, where they are known as \u201cthe neighborhood homosexual\u201d and a beloved high school philiosophy teacher, respectively. Well, Raja\u2019s mother stays in his business, so when he\u2019s offered an all-expenses-paid writing residency in the US, he jumps at the opportunity. What at first feels like a perfectly timed getaway soon starts to feel like something else, as Raja soon starts reliving past traumas he was trying to suppress. But Alameddine doesn\u2019t only fill Raja\u2019s story with doom and gloom\u2014over six decades, we see a unique life unfold that\u2019s full of absurdities, self-discovery, and humor. \u2014Erica Ezeifedi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Nonfiction<\/h2>\n
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Things In Nature Merely Grow<\/a> by Yiyun Li<\/h3>\n
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Li starts her memoir with \u201cThere is no good way to say this,\u201d then details how she lost both of her children to suicide years apart. She explores her grief and how she has learned to be and to do\u2014everything from gardening to playing the piano\u2014with the constant presence of grief and thoughts of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe verb that does not die is to be. Vincent was and is and will always be Vincent. James was and is and will always be James. We were and are and will always be their parents. There is no now and then, now and later, only, now and now and now and now.\u201d\u00a0\u2014Erica Ezeifedi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson<\/a> by Tourmaline<\/h3>\n
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This is a deeply researched, definitive biography of transgender activist and artist Marsha P. Johnson. Written by the brilliant multi-hyphenate Tourmaline, this beautifully written book shows Marsha as a whole person, both before and after the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. Many people have heard that Marsha threw the first brick during the Stonewall Uprising, but few people know much beyond that. She was an artist and performer who toured outside of the U.S. She was a poet and muse and a fierce friend bursting with love. This book also includes some gorgeous photographs and is told with the care and reverence that Marsha\u2019s story deserves. \u2014Patricia Elzie-Tuttle<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age<\/a> by Vauhini Vara<\/h3>\n
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Vauhini Vara, an award-winning tech journalist and editor, delves into the world of Chat GPT. What will the world look like now that this powerful AI has been unleashed? Vara answers this question and more in her new essay collection. \u2014Kendra Winchester<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Conjuring of America<\/a> by Lindsey Stewart<\/h3>\n
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Since the beginning of the United States, Black conjure women, who combine traditional West African spiritual beliefs with herbal remedies and local resources, have been a balm to their communities. The legacy of these Mammies, Voodoo Queens, and Reconstruction-era Blues Women began, like so much of American history, in the South during slavery. Here, Feminist philosopher Lindsey Stewart traces their influence and legacy, which includes everything from blue jeans to Vicks VapoRub, to 2023\u2019s\u00a0The Little Mermaid<\/em>. \u2014Erica Ezeifedi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color<\/a> by Caro De Robertis<\/h3>\n
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I named this a Best Book of 2025 So Far and had to bring it back for the finale, a collection of beautiful stories of self-discovery, activism, resistance, and survival from queer elders of color. These testimonies are a necessary record of lived experience and hard-won progress, a love letter to queer history, and a reminder of the gift it is to have living elders among us. The joy in each of these stories is what has stayed with me, a joy that persisted even in periods of profound struggle and loss. We hear all the time that joy is resistance; this is the kind of work that really drives that point home and gives me hope for a better future. \u2014Vanessa Diaz<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Poetry<\/h2>\n
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Startlement: New and Selected Poems<\/a> by Ada Lim\u00f3n<\/h3>\n
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Pulling from Lim\u00f3n\u2019s six published collections, these gorgeous poems unfold in chronological order from\u00a0Lucky Wreck<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0The Hurting Kind<\/em>. Having read every in-print title by the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate, I found myself electric with excitement to behold some of the prolific author\u2019s new and new-to-me work. Revisiting familiar poems fed my bookish heart in myriad ways, and reading pieces from\u00a0This Big Fake World<\/em>\u00a0and the final section for the first time is precisely why I open books\u2014to connect, to learn, to feel awe. If you need a gift for yourself and for others, look into this exploration of dreams, grief, love, the ordinary, and the extraordinary. \u2014Connie Pan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems<\/a> by Patricia Smith
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What the National Book Foundation<\/a> had to say about The Intentions of Thunder<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Intentions of Thunder<\/em>\u00a0gathers, for the first time, the essential work from across Patricia Smith\u2019s career. Here, Smith\u2019s poems, affixed with her remarkable gift of insight, present a rapturous ode to life. With careful yet vaulting movement, these poems traverse the redeeming landscape of pain, confront the frightening revelations of history, and disclose the joyous possibilities of the future. The result is a profound testament to the necessity of poetry\u2014all the careful witness, embodied experience, and bristling pleasure that it bestows\u2014and of Smith\u2019s necessary voice. Lyrical and sly, meditative and volcanic,\u00a0The Intentions of Thunder\u00a0<\/em>stunningly explores the fullness of living.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For more of the best books of the year, make sure to check out our mega list<\/a>. It could also be fun to compare to this list of the best BIPOC books of the year (so far)<\/a> that was created in July.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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