The 46 Bestselling Adult Nonfiction Books for 2021

This page highlights 46 books, published in 2021, that made our Bestsellers List.

Note: We carry over bestseller status for out of print versions of books to new editions, so the punlication year may not reflect the year the book was orignally published.





8 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

The 1619 Project

by Nikole Hannah-Jones

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4 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Sacred Nile by Chester Higgins, Jr.

Sacred Nile

by Chester Higgins, et al.

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3 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The Victory of Greenwood by Carlos Moreno

The Victory of Greenwood

by Carlos Moreno

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3 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto by Charles M. Blow

The Devil You Know

by Charles M. Blow

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3 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson

Just As I Am

by Cicely Tyson

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3 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

How the Word Is Passed

by Clint Smith

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3 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee

The Sum of Us

by Heather McGhee

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3 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Four Hundred Souls

by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

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3 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Nothing Personal by James Baldwin

Nothing Personal

by James Baldwin

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3 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert with Erin I. Kelly

Chasing Me to My Grave

by Winfred Rembert with Erin I. Kelly

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2 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs

The Three Mothers

by Anna Malaika Tubbs

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2 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of No More Lies: The Myth and Reality of American History by Dick Gregory

No More Lies

by Dick Gregory

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2 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

Racism Without Racists

by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

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2 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Vice President Kamala Harris: Her Path to the White House by Malaika Adero

Vice President Kamala Harris

by Malaika Adero

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2 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Not a Nation of Immigrants

by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

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2 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor

The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition

by Sonya Renee Taylor

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Watergate’s Forgotten Hero by Adam Henig

Watergate’s Forgotten Hero

by Adam Henig

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The Three Mothers (Hardcover) by Anna Malaika Tubbs

The Three Mothers (Hardcover)

by Anna Malaika Tubbs

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir by Ashley C. Ford

Somebody’s Daughter

by Ashley C. Ford

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora by Bryant Terry

Black Food

by Bryant Terry

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America by Carol Anderson

The Second

by Carol Anderson

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women by Catherine E. McKinley

The African Lookbook

by Catherine E. McKinley

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The World History of the Black Race by Clyde Winters

The World History of the Black Race

by Clyde Winters

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ with Mother Nature by Dick Gregory

Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat

by Dick Gregory

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography by Donald Bogle

Dorothy Dandridge

by Donald Bogle

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The Officer’s Daughter: A Memoir of Family and Forgiveness by Elle Johnson

The Officer’s Daughter

by Elle Johnson

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature by Farah Jasmine Griffin

Read Until You Understand

by Farah Jasmine Griffin

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Sometimes Farmgirls Become Revolutionaries: Florence Tate on Black Power, Black Politics and the FBI by Florence L. Tate and Jake-Ann Jones

Sometimes Farmgirls Become Revolutionaries

by Florence L. Tate and Jake-Ann Jones

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Reclamation: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant’s Search for Her Family’s Lasting Legacy by Gayle Jessup White

Reclamation

by Gayle Jessup White

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen: The Emotional Lives of Black Women by Inger Burnett-Zeigler

Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen

by Inger Burnett-Zeigler

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: A Photographic History by Karlos K. Hill

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

by Karlos K. Hill

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Race Against Time by Keith Boykin

Race Against Time

by Keith Boykin

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Make Good the Promises: Reclaiming Reconstruction and Its Legacies by Kinshasha Holman Conwill and Paul Gardullo

Make Good the Promises

by Kinshasha Holman Conwill and Paul Gardullo

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Seven Sisters And A Brother (paperback): Friendship, Resistance, and Untold Truths Behind Black Student Activism in the 1960s by Marilyn Allman Maye, Harold S. Buchanan, Jannette O. Domingo, Joyce Frisby Baynes, Marilyn Holifield, Myra E. Rose, Bridget Van Gronigen Warren, and Aundrea White Kelley

Seven Sisters And A Brother (paperback)

by Marilyn Allman Maye, et al.

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America by Michael Eric Dyson

Entertaining Race

by Michael Eric Dyson

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Rice: A Savor the South Cookbook by Michael W. Twitty

Rice

by Michael W. Twitty

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of We Are Each Other’s Harvest by Natalie Baszile

We Are Each Other’s Harvest

by Natalie Baszile

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America by Priya Fielding-Singh

How the Other Half Eats

by Priya Fielding-Singh

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Keep On Moving: My Journey in the Fourth Quarter by Ronald Ancrum

Keep On Moving

by Ronald Ancrum

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Bad Fat Black Girl: Notes from a Trap Feminist by Sesali Bowen

Bad Fat Black Girl

by Sesali Bowen

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Spike by Spike Lee

Spike

by Spike Lee

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Fear of a Black Universe: An Outsider’s Guide to the Future of Physics by Stephon Alexander

Fear of a Black Universe

by Stephon Alexander

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke

Unbound

by Tarana Burke

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

All That She Carried

by Tiya Miles

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of God in the Ghetto: A Prophetic Word Revisited by William Augustus Jones Jr.

God in the Ghetto

by William Augustus Jones Jr.

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1 Time 2021 Bestseller Book cover of The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from the New Yorker by William Jelani Cobb and David Remnick

The Matter of Black Lives

by William Jelani Cobb and David Remnick

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Bestselling Books By Month May be Found Here

Our All-Time Bestselling Books May be Found Here