20 Bestselling Nonfiction Books
Period: May/June - 2020
Celebrating books written by or about Black people, the African American Literature Book Club’s Bestsellers List has been published continuously since 1998. In 2026, we began publishing our list quarterly, focusing on The BLK Bestsellers.
Fiction: Jacqueline Woodson’s Red at the Bone, which was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the “Top 10 Literary Fiction” titles for the fall of 2019, dominated fiction sales.
Nonfiction: Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist is the overall bestselling book for this period. In fact, it is the bestselling book for any period, of the almost 23-year history of our bestsellers list!
Children’s Books: Whose Knees Are These? by Jabari Asim is a 6-time AALBC bestseller and is the bestselling board book on AALBC this year.
Poetry: Reginald Dwayne Betts’ book of poetry Felon leads a list of excellent poetry books sold this period — the best period of poetry sales all year.
