25 Bestselling Nonfiction Books for Full Year - 2021

AALBC’s Bestselling Book SealOur bestsellers list has been published continuously since 1998. Learn More ▶

Fiction: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance: Originally Published as The New Negro an Interpretation edited by Alain Locke and featuring a new introduction by AALBC’s Troy Johnson was the #1 fiction book for 2021. Voices, which was originally published almost 100 years ago, benefited from strong sales because it is an excellent treatment of The New Negro an Interpretation and we have focused on providing sales and distribution through independent channels.

Nonfiction: Sales of So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo surged immediately after the cruel murder of George Floyd. Readers, of all backgrounds, were anxious to understand the nature of racism how they could do something about it. More importantly, readers wanted to buy So You Want to Talk About Race, and similar title’s, from independent Black-owned booksellers. Sales have remained strong for these books more than a year later.

Children’s Books: Children’s books has been the top-selling category of books the past two years, which is really remarkable given the strength of nonfiction book sales (a close second). Born on the Water: The 1619 Project written by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson, and wonderfully illustrated by Nikkolas Smith, enjoyed a tremendous amount of support from virtually the entire bookselling community.

Poetry: Vice: New and Selected Poems by Ai Ogawa won a National Book Award in 1999, the year it was first published. Given the strength of the sales of Amanda Gorman’s Call Us What We Carry, the 22-year-old Vice topping all other poetry book sales is impressive.

View a printer-friendly version and a collage of the book covers. Also, check out links to more great books. Enjoy

#2

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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#3

Book cover of Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson

Just As I Am

by Cicely Tyson

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#5

Book cover of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

Caste

by Isabel Wilkerson

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#6

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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#7

Book cover of The ISIS Papers: The Keys to the Colors by Frances Cress Welsing

The ISIS Papers

by Frances Cress Welsing

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#8

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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#9

Book cover of Social Action, Advocacy and Agents of Change by Ruby M. Gourdine and Annie W. Brown

Social Action, Advocacy and Agents of Change

by Ruby M. Gourdine and Annie W. Brown

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#10

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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#13

Book cover of Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo

Mediocre

by Ijeoma Oluo

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#15

Book cover of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo

White Fragility

by Robin DiAngelo

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#16

Book cover of Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit by Mary-Frances Winters

Black Fatigue

by Mary-Frances Winters

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#17

Book cover of Sacred Nile by Chester Higgins, Jr.

Sacred Nile

by Chester Higgins, et al.

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#21

Book cover of PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America by Claud Anderson

PowerNomics

by Claud Anderson

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#22

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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#24

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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More About our Bestsellers List


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), Black History 365 Education, and Amazon.com*.

We aggregate all formats of a book sold (print, ebook, and audio) into one format, usually the most popular print format

*For a few years, we actively boycotted Amazon but have discontinued this practice, as many of our authors have made their books exclusively available from Amazon. While we discourage giving Amazon the exclusive right to sell a book, we do not want this to be a reason to exclude an author from our site. Amazon also has an effective monopoly on eBooks and out-of-print books, which we highlight on this site.


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