#1
Months on List: 16
A reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view.
James: A Novel
by Percival Everett • Doubleday Books (March 19, 2024) • 16 Months on List
#2
Months on List: 2
A financial whiz uncovers his family's deep-seated secrets and fights dangerous criminals to protect his loved ones, navigating a web of family duty, crime, and looming mortality in a Southern town.
King Of Ashes
by S. A. Cosby • Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar (June 10, 2025) • 2 Months on List
#3
Months on List: 19
A novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
by James Mcbride • Riverhead Books (August 8, 2023) • 19 Months on List
#4
Months on List: 7
A woman haunted by her brother’s unsolved death and a shattered family heirloom uncovers buried truths that tie her personal heartbreak to a deeper ancestral legacy.
Good Dirt
by Charmaine Wilkerson • Ballantine Books (January 28, 2025) • 7 Months on List
#5
Months on List: 5
Four women navigate love, identity, and loss across continents and generations, confronting the truths they’ve avoided and the lives they’ve built amid personal and societal upheaval.
Dream Count
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie • Knopf Publishing Group (March 4, 2025) • 5 Months on List
#6
Months on List: 4
When a woman answers her estranged grandmother’s summons to rural North Carolina, she uncovers her family’s hidden connection to a forgotten kingdom founded by freed people and must decide how to protect its legacy.
Happy Land
by Dolen Perkins-valdez • Berkley Books (April 8, 2025) • 4 Months on List
#7
Months on List: 1
When the two men who shaped her twenties reappear at midlife, a guarded Cora must confront the past, the truths she wrote in secret letters, and the cost of the future she wants.
All The Men I’ve Loved Again
by Christine Pride • Atria Books (July 8, 2025) • 1 Months on List
#8
Months on List: 2
A white teenager navigating the American Civil War joins an all-Black regiment, gaining a unique perspective on racism, oppression, and familial bonds.
How To Dodge A Cannonball
by Dennard Dayle • Henry Holt (June 17, 2025) • 2 Months on List
#9
Months on List: 7
A Nigerian American writer grapples with fame, family, and creative control after her speculative novel about AI and humanity becomes a cultural phenomenon, blurring the lines between author and story.
Death Of The Author
by Nnedi Okorafor • William Morrow & Company (January 14, 2025) • 7 Months on List
#10
Months on List: 2
The narrative follows a young Black man navigating the complexities of race and class amidst the backdrop of a friend's mysterious death and his own arrest.
Great Black Hope
by Rob Franklin • S&s/summit Books (June 10, 2025) • 2 Months on List
#11
Months on List: 5
In a surreal present where historical icons return, a disgraced hip-hop producer joins forces with Harriet Tubman to craft an album that reclaims freedom, confronts trauma, and reimagines legacy through music.
Harriet Tubman: Live In Concert
by Bob The Drag Queen • Gallery Books (March 25, 2025) • 5 Months on List
#12
Months on List: 7
A pioneering editor and writer navigates love, ambition, and scandal as she helps launch the <a href="https://aalbc.com/content.php?title=The+Harlem+Renaissance">Harlem Renaissance</a> and elevates a generation of Black literary voices.
Harlem Rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray • Berkley Books (February 4, 2025) • 7 Months on List
#13
Months on List: 1
A history professor must unravel a deadly campus cover-up to solve her colleague's murder, all while navigating her own disastrous love life and academic responsibilities.
History Lessons
by Zoe B. Wallbrook • Soho Crime (July 1, 2025) • 1 Months on List
#14
Months on List: 1
An ancient African vampire and a determined slave form a powerful alliance to lead an army of blood slaves in a fight for freedom during the early days of American slavery, offering a unique twist on the vampire origin story.
Blood Slaves
by Markus Redmond • Dafina Books (July 29, 2025) • 1 Months on List
#15
Months on List: 13
When the first Black sheriff of a small southern town investigates a shocking murder, he uncovers a hidden serial killer, faces community secrets, and combats systemic racism while fighting to protect his hometown from impending darkness.
All The Sinners Bleed
by S. A. Cosby • Flatiron Books (June 6, 2023) • 13 Months on List
#16
Months on List: 7
A young enslaved girl haunted by her sister’s ghost confronts forbidden love, buried secrets, and the cost of freedom as she dares to challenge the world that has kept her captive.
Junie
by Erin Crosby Eckstine • Ballantine Books (February 4, 2025) • 7 Months on List
#17
Months on List: 2
This inaugural novel in a series is a darkly whimsical tale of women daring to live and create with impunity.
Catch: A Novel
by Yrsa Daley-ward • Liveright Publishing Corporation (June 3, 2025) • 2 Months on List
#18
Months on List: 2
A dedicated journalist unravels her family's secret connection to unsolved missing girls cases in North Carolina while battling her troubled past and struggling to maintain her crumbling marriage.
We Don’t Talk About Carol
by Kristen L. Berry • Bantam (June 3, 2025) • 2 Months on List
#19
Months on List: 10
In this dark comedy, aspiring novelist Jane navigates reinvention and the racial identity-industrial complex with Hollywood ambitions, enticing a hot-shot producer with the promise of the <em>Jackie Robinson of biracial comedies,</em> striving for success while grappling with unexpected setbacks.
Colored Television
by Danzy Senna • Riverhead Books (September 3, 2024) • 10 Months on List
#20
Months on List: 2
This novel is a compelling narrative about a young war veteran who enters the world of Black opulence in post-war Los Angeles, revealing the complexities of Black identity, class tensions, and the struggle for success in mid-century America.
Great Mann
by Kyra Davis Lurie • Crown (June 10, 2025) • 2 Months on List
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Sales Data Source: Circana BookScan. Represents U.S. print sales from thousands of retailers.
Methodology: Books are categorized and filtered for Black Authors by the African American Literature Book Club. This list is a sneak peek into the Black Book Accelerator initiative.
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