#1
Months on List: 12
In a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by climate change and social chaos, a 15-year-old girl with a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions must overcome societal denial, protect her community, and navigate her disabling condition to forge a new faith and shape human destiny.
Parable Of The Sower
by Octavia E. Butler • Grand Central Publishing (April 30, 2019) • 12 Months on List
#2
Months on List: 12
In the early 20th century, Belle da Costa Greene, the black personal librarian to J.P. Morgan, must hide her true identity and navigate New York's high society to curate a world-class art collection, in this tale of resilience and secrecy.
The Personal Librarian: A Gma Book Club Pick
by Marie Benedict And Victoria Christopher Murray • Berkley Books (June 7, 2022) • 12 Months on List
#3
Months on List: 7
A divorced couple, Yasmen and Josiah Wade, navigate co-parenting and running a successful business together, only to find their romantic feelings reigniting, leading them to question if they can salvage their broken marriage despite past wounds.
Before I Let Go
by Kennedy Ryan • Forever (November 15, 2022) • 7 Months on List
#4
Months on List: 12
In Jim Crow–era Florida, a principled teen’s imprisonment in a brutal reform school tests his faith in justice and forges a complex bond with a cynical fellow inmate, in a haunting tale rooted in real history.
The Nickel Boys
by Colson Whitehead • Anchor Books (June 30, 2020) • 12 Months on List
#5
Months on List: 12
In this haunting New York Times bestseller, former slave Sethe battles the relentless torment of her past and the ghost of her deceased child, in a chilling exploration of the lasting impacts of slavery.
Beloved
by Toni Morrison • Vintage (June 8, 2004) • 12 Months on List
#6
Months on List: 10
In a world where the power of the earth is used as a weapon, a season of catastrophic endings begins with a colossal rift, a murder, a disappearance, betrayals, and rising wounds that threaten the familiar land of Stillness, where mercy is absent.
The Fifth Season (book 1: The Broken Earth)
by N. K. Jemisin • Orbit (August 4, 2015) • 10 Months on List
#7
Months on List: 7
After her life unexpectedly falls apart, domestic goddess Soledad Barnes must balance raising her daughters and rediscovering herself, whilst navigating an unexpected and forbidden romance that challenges her ideas of love and trust.
This Could Be Us
by Kennedy Ryan • Forever (March 5, 2024) • 7 Months on List
#8
Months on List: 12
In Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison's groundbreaking debut, an 11-year-old Black girl, Pecola Breedlove, seeking acceptance in a society that idolizes blond, blue-eyed children, embarks on a heart-wrenching journey of self-discovery, exposing society's obsession with beauty, conformity, and the devastating effects of racial and gender inequality.
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison • Vintage (May 8, 2007) • 12 Months on List
#9
Months on List: 7
A novel about the partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune.
The First Ladies (paperback)
by Marie Benedict And Victoria Christopher Murray • Penguin Publishing Group (June 4, 2024) • 7 Months on List
#10
Months on List: 12
<em>Homegoing</em> traces the divergent paths of two half-sisters born in 18th century Ghana – one living a life of privilege married to an Englishman, the other captured and sold into slavery – and their descendants across eight generations, revealing the lasting impact of slavery from Gold Coast to Jazz Age Harlem.
Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi • Vintage (May 2, 2017) • 12 Months on List
#11
Months on List: 7
In early-twentieth-century rural Georgia, two separated sisters maintain their bond through letters, navigating pain, companionship, growth, resilience, and bravery as they break the silence on domestic and sexual abuse, embarking on a transformative journey towards redemption and love in this Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic, The Color Purple.
The Color Purple
by Alice Walker • Penguin (December 10, 2019) • 7 Months on List
#12
Months on List: 8
In a dystopian America dominated by a private prison industry, two female gladiator prisoners fight in deadly matches for their freedom, against the backdrop of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration.
Chain Gang All Stars: A Read With Jenna Pick
by Nana Kwame Adjei-brenyah • Vintage (January 23, 2024) • 8 Months on List
#13
Months on List: 7
When a critically acclaimed but struggling author inadvertently achieves fame with a satirical indictment of a bestseller, he grapples with personal tragedies and professional consequences in this audacious, hysterical, and quietly devastating novel.
Erasure
by Percival Everett • Graywolf Press (October 25, 2011) • 7 Months on List
#14
Months on List: 12
A modern Black woman is inexplicably pulled back in time to the Antebellum South, where she must repeatedly save the life of a plantation owner's son while enduring the harsh realities of slavery and prejudice, her stays growing longer and increasingly perilous, threatening her existence in the present.
Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler • Beacon Press (February 1, 2004) • 12 Months on List
#15
Months on List: 6
In the midst of the antebellum South, a young slave named Cora embarks on a perilous journey to freedom via a literal Underground Railroad, as she experiences the terrors of her era and reflects on the shared history of a nation built on the backbone of slavery.
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead • Anchor Books (January 30, 2018) • 6 Months on List
#16
Months on List: 2
In 1950s Paris, a conflicted American expatriate explores his suppressed desires, navigates traditional morality, and embarks on a doomed romance with a bartender, unraveling the complexities of love and the human heart, in this deluxe edition of James Baldwin's seminal novel, <em>Giovanni's Room.</em>
Giovanni’s Room (deluxe Edition)
by James Baldwin • Vintage (June 18, 2024) • 2 Months on List
#17
Months on List: 9
<em>Seven Days in June</em> is a passionate tale of two acclaimed writers who, after a past torrid love affair and years of secret communication, reconnect over a week in a sultry Brooklyn summer, navigating personal traumas, societal expectations, and the complexities of love and creativity.
Seven Days In June
by Tia Williams • Grand Central Publishing (June 7, 2022) • 9 Months on List
#18
Months on List: 12
In Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, fiercely independent Janie Crawford navigates love, poverty, and self-discovery through three marriages, painting an enduring and compelling portrait of 20th-century African American womanhood.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston • Amistad Press (May 30, 2006) • 12 Months on List
#19
Months on List: 1
In the three-time Hugo award-winning Broken Earth Trilogy, a catastrophic rift divides the world, igniting a season of endings characterized by death, betrayal, and dormant wounds in a merciless land where the earth's power is a deadly weapon.
The Broken Earth Trilogy: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky
by N. K. Jemisin • Orbit (August 4, 2015) • 1 Months on List
#20
Months on List: 4
This novel is a poignant reimagining of American slavery, taking readers on a heart-wrenching journey from the Carolinas to Louisiana, guided by a sold slave finding solace in her ancestral spirits, ultimately revealing a tale of rebirth and reclamation.
Let Us Descend (paperback)
by Jesmyn Ward • Scribner Book Company (September 3, 2024) • 4 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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