20 Bestselling Nonfiction Books for January/February - 2021

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

Fiction: Limitation of Life by d. E. Rogers the top-selling fiction book does not come out until Mar 23, but sold well due to a $5-off campaign for preorders.

Nonfiction: So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo and Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson were, by far, the bestselling books across all genres this period.

Children’s Books: The inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of the United States, Amanda Gorman, has three bestselling books that have not been published yet! She is the only author to accomplish this feat.

Poetry: African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song Edited by Kevin Young topped our poetry list followed by (Amanda Gorman’s new collection, Call Us What We Carry. Interest in Gorman’s work surged in reaction to the poem she read during the inauguration of President Joe Biden.

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 Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson

Just As I Am

by Cicely Tyson

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#4

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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#5

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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#6

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

Caste

by Isabel Wilkerson

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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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#13

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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#14

Book cover of Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District by Hannibal B. Johnson

Black Wall Street

by Hannibal B. Johnson

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#15

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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#16

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

Mediocre

by Ijeoma Oluo

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#18

Book cover of Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America (signed) by Michael Eric Dyson

Long Time Coming

by Michael Eric Dyson

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#19

Book cover of Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association by Tony Martin

Race First

by Tony Martin

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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.


The Most Critically Acclaimed Books

Bestselling Books By Year May be Found Here

Our All-Time Bestselling Books May be Found Here