16 Bestselling Nonfiction Books
Period: November/December - 2020
The African American Literature Book Club’s Bestsellers List has been published continuously since 1998. It celebrates the bestselling titles from our curated selection of books written by or about Black people. Learn More below.
★ New: The BLK Bestsellers: America’s Bestselling Books
Fiction: The 2020 National Book Award Finalist, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, by Deesha Philyaw was the bestselling book across all genres this period.
Nonfiction: Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents was the top-selling nonfiction book and the #2 best-selling book overall.
Children’s Books: Children’s book dominated sales this period, perhaps because of the gift giving season. The 9-time AALBC.com bestselling board book Whose Knees Are These? by Jabari Asim outsold all other children’s books.
Poetry: Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose by Nikki Giovanni, was the only book of poetry to make our bestsellers list and marks Giovanni’s 9th time, making her one of AALBC’s most popular poets.
More About our Bestsellers List
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You will learn about books selling well in the Black community that may never show up on lists published by corporate entities. Spread the word about our list; don’t let one or two lists, which we don’t control, determine which books are important.
We collect our bestselling titles from all our sales channels. The majority of our sales come from this website and our in-person events. We also include sales generated through our affiliate relationships, including Bookshop.org, Libro.fm (audiobooks), and Amazon.com*.
*For a few years, we actively boycotted Amazon but have discontinued this practice to ensure we do not exclude authors who are exclusive to that platform. We still discourage exclusivity but support all Black authors.