It’s Black History Month, which is the perfect excuse to buy books by Black authors, especially when you purchase them from Black-owned bookstores. To get you started, I’ve selected seven books by Black authors that complete the first seven tasks of the 2026 Read Harder Challenge, including a microhistory, recent gothic novel, YA by a Latine author, a book with a main character who uses they/them pronouns, and more.
Task #1: Read a microhistory
Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture by Emma Dabiri
This brilliant book is all about Black hair and Black hair culture — and so much more than that! Dabiri writes about the history of Black hair products, the natural hair movement, Black hair as it’s portrayed in pop culture, hair practices in several ancient African cultures, and more. Through it all, she uses Black hair as a lens to explore bodily autonomy, how we talk about race, the history of racism, and cultural appropriation. It’s a richly researched and deeply personal book that’s equally parts celebration and critique. —Laura Sackton
Task #2: Read a book featured on a “best book covers” list
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen, cover designed by Chelsea McGuckin
If seeing a book about Harriet Tubman by thee Bob the Drag Queen isn’t enough to make you get it, let me add that it’s the story of Harriet Tubman coming back to life to put on a Hamilton-esque show about her life. To write it, she taps the low-key washed-up hip hop producer Darnell Williams, who was outed at a BET Awards ceremony. They don’t have long to write the Broadway show, but as they come together, they realize they’ll have to contend with the horrors of both of their pasts. —Erica Ezeifedi
This was one of the New York Times picks for the best books covers of 2025.
All Access members, read on for five more books by Black authors that complete tasks in the 2026 Read Harder Challenge.
Task #3: Read a YA book by a Latine author
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Xiomara is a 15-year-old Dominican girl from Harlem whose frustrated passion finds a haven in her poetry. Written in prose poetry format, Acevedo’s words move us with their intensity as well as rhythm.
“We’re different, this poet and I. In looks, in body,
in background. But I don’t feel so different
when I listen to her. I feel heard.”
I especially recommend this as an audiobook. —Yashvi Peeti
Task #4: Read a novel with a main character who uses they/them pronouns
Model Home by Rivers Solomon
The author of genre-defying novels like An Unkindness of Ghosts and Sorrowland is back with a take on haunted houses like no other. The Maxwell siblings grew up the only Black family in their neighborhood, in a house haunted by unexplained phenomena. Their mother refused to give the house up, so they endured—but as adults, they avoid it at all costs. When their parents die, they’re forced to walk inside again to determine what led to their demise. This is a queer, trans haunted house story that is more about the aftermath of being haunted—and real-life horrors—than it is about the setting. Check out the content warnings, including child sexual abuse, before picking this one up, but it’s a powerfully written, unsettling, and unforgettable read that I cannot get out of my head. —Danika Ellis
Task #5: Read a nonfiction book about resistance
Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Davis
Originally published in 1972, activist and scholar Angela Davis’s autobiography is an inspiring story about her journey to activism and her lifelong commitment to working against oppression. She has written several books on feminism, race, incarceration, and class. Her most recent book Abolition. Feminism. Now. (coauthored with Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie) came out in 2022. —Anne Mai Yee Jansen
Task #6: Read a gothic novel published in the last ten years
House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson
Marion is barely scraping by, which is why she jumps at the chance to be a blood maid. It means living in luxury, with the one small drawback that your employer drinks your blood for its health benefits. She joins Countess Lisavet’s harem of blood maids, who are all desperately in love with Lisavet and competing to get her attention. Soon, Marion realizes her devotion to the mercurial Lisavet will destroy her, but there doesn’t seem to be any way out… —Danika Ellis
Task #7: Read a sports book by a woman, trans, or nonbinary writer
Coming Home by Brittney Griner with Michelle Burford
While Brittney Griner is an award winning WBNA player and Olympic gold medal winner, this compelling memoir is about a dark period in her life when she couldn’t play basketball. In February of 2022, Grinner traveled to Russia to play basketball during the WNBA offseason. Instead, she was arrested and imprisoned for mistakenly carrying medically prescribed hash oil. For the first time, she recounts what it was like to lose her freedom and become the first American woman sent to a Russian penal colony, and how she stayed strong and didn’t lose hope of getting home. —Liberty Hardy
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