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If you’re participating in the 2025 Read Harder Challenge, it may not be the only reading challenge you’re doing—many of you hardcore readers are juggling multiple challenges, and one of the most popular is Popsugar’s. That’s why today, I have recommendations that feed two birds with one scone: these books complete Popsugar and Read Harder tasks at the same time.
Personally, Popsugar’s 40 to 50 tasks are too much for me to take on in a year, never mind combining them with another challenge, but I know many of you do both every year! I’m also not a big fan of the prompt that requires you to use an AI chatbot, but I will admit that I am a chatbot hater, including when it comes to their boring book recommendations.
Some of these prompts line up perfectly, like Popsugar’s “Read a book that reminds you of your childhood” and Read Harder’s “Reread a childhood favorite book,” while others are only coincidentally completed by the same book. Of course, there are also prompts I would have trouble aligning to a Read Harder task, like “Read a book about a run club,” but luckily I’m not trying to match them all!
Let me know in the comments: have you ever done the Popsugar Reading Challenge? Did you complete it?
Now, let’s get into the books serving double duty for the Read Harder and Popsugar challenges!
Popsugar #19: A highly anticipated read of 2025
and Read Harder #1: Read a 2025 release by a BIPOC author.
Katabasis by R. F. Kuang (August 26, 2025)
One of the most anticipated books of the year is R. F. Kuang’s upcoming novel Katabasis! Babel and Yellowface were huge hits, so this is one on a lot of people’s 2025 TBRs.
Dark academia fantasy by R.F. Kuang was always going to land on my list of books to look forward to in 2025, and that’s before I realized Katabasis involved a descent into actual Hell. Two grad students of Magick at Cambridge have to put their rivalry on ice to save their professor’s soul after he dies in an accident that is maybe one of their fault. They make the journey to h-e-double-hockey-sticks armed with Dante and Orpheus as their guides and enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams they’ll need to cast their spells. Surely nothing could go wrong in the bad place! I am so excited for this. —Vanessa Diaz
Popsugar #25: A book where the main character is an immigrant or refugee
and Read Harder #5: Read a book about immigration or refugees.
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, believes fortune is shining upon him when he lands a job working as a chauffeur for a rich executive at Lehman Brothers, and he’s even happier when Jende’s wife is hired to work at the executive’s summer home. After struggling, finally, their dreams of making a living in America may be coming true. But their employer’s financial world is rocked by the collapse of his job, threatening to bring down Jende’s dreams for his family as well. This is a compelling, beautifully written look at the immigrant experience in America, as well as a sharp-eyed examination of race and class. —Liberty Hardy
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