20 Bestselling Fiction Books
Period: May/June - 2023
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:
Kimberla Lawson Roby describes our #1 bestselling novel, The Thing about Home by Rhonda McKnight, as “…a beautifully written story about family, self-discovery, secrets, and forgiveness.” Rhonda McKnight, first made our bestsellers list eight years ago with her novel Live A Little.
Nonfiction:
Nonfiction books dominated sales this period. A Black History Reader: 101 Questions You Never Thought to Ask by Claud Anderson outsold all nonfiction titles this period.
Children’s Books:
Repeat After Me: Big Things to Say Every Day written by Jazmyn Simon and Dulé Hill with illustrations by Shamar Knight-Justice was not only the top selling chidlren’s book, it was the top selling of all books across all genres this period.
Poetry:
Call Us What We Carry: Poems by Amanda Gorman, has topped the poetry list three times, and has been an AALBC bestseller six times.
More About our Bestsellers List
View a printer-friendly version or a collage of the book covers.
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.