40 Best-Selling African-American Books — Summer 2015
In Era of Political and Social Discontent, Titles with Political Slant Gain Traction on
Summer 2015 Edition of the Power List of Best-Selling African-American Books
September 8, 2015
New York, NY
Contact:
Troy Johnson: troy@aalbc.com
Gwen Richardson: grichardson@cushcity.com
During a summer where both Black Lives Matter and New York billionaire Donald Trump were trending topics, books with a political slant were among the top sellers on the Summer 2015 edition of the Power List. Political topics were popular among both fiction and nonfiction titles.
Among non-fiction hardcover titles, the new release Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, tops the list and is described by New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani as, “Powerful and passionate…profoundly moving…a searing meditation on what it means to be black in America today.”
In the number two position is Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, a treatise on the inherent bias in America’s criminal justice system.
On the opposite end of the political spectrum is One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America’s Future by GOP presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. One Nation ranks at number seven and has sold well, particularly among Evangelical Christians and others on the political right who support limited government.
Other politically-oriented titles on the Summer 2015 edition of the Power List include:
Paperback Nonfiction
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (#2 on summer list and included on all editions of the Power List since its launch in spring 2013)
- America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great by Ben Carson (#9 on summer list and included on all editions of the Power List since its launch in spring 2013)
Hardcover Fiction
-
The Sellout by Paul Beauty (#2) – A biting satire about a young man’s isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court
Paperback Fiction
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (#1)
- Stand Your Ground by Victoria Christopher Murray (#8)
- Mama’s Boy by ReShonda Tate Billingsley (#9)
The Power List is compiled by collecting data from online book sellers, random samples on relevant Facebook pages, and a quarterly survey of 1,200 African-American book clubs. The list is usually released on the fourth Monday in the month following each calendar quarter, and is a joint project of AALBC.com and Cushcity.com.
The Summer 2015 lists may be viewed at the Power List web site: www.powerlist.info. Updates are included on the Power List Facebook and Twitter pages. For more information, contact either of the individuals listed above.
