20 Bestselling Fiction Books for May/June - 2020

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

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.

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

#1

Book cover of Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Red at the Bone

by Jacqueline Woodson

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#2

Book cover of Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beloved

by Toni Morrison

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#3

Book cover of The Nickel Boys: A Novel by Colson Whitehead

The Nickel Boys

by Colson Whitehead

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#4

Book cover of The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Water Dancer

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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#8

Book cover of Blessings: A Novel by Sheneska Jackson

Blessings

by Sheneska Jackson

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#10

Book cover of The Bluest Eye  by Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye

by Toni Morrison

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#11

Book cover of Kindred by Octavia Butler

Kindred

by Octavia Butler

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#15

Book cover of Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston and M. Genevieve West (editor)

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick

by Zora Neale Hurston and M. Genevieve West (editor)

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#16

Book cover of Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Queenie

by Candice Carty-Williams

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#19

Book cover of Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Song of Solomon

by Toni Morrison

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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