20 Bestselling Nonfiction Books for September/October - 2021

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

Fiction: Number one in fiction is Voices of the Harlem Renaissance: Originally Published as The New Negro an Interpretation, was edited by Alain Locke and featuring a new introduction by AALBC’s Founder, Troy Johnson. This classic title was republished in hardcover by Konecky & Konecky, in March of 2020, and has made our bestsellers list seven times. In 1999, QBR: The Black Book Review included the book on their list of “100 Essential Black Books.”

Nonfiction: Topping our nonfiction category is Chasing Me to My Grave which tells the hearth wrenching, yet inspiring, story of Winfred Rembert who was arrested after fleeing a demonstration, survived a near-lynching at the hands of law enforcement, and spent seven years on chain gangs. Years later, at the age of fifty-one, he started drawing and painting scenes from his youth using leather tooling skills he learned in prison.

Children’s Books: Our #1 bestselling children’s book is Gabrielle Union’s 2020 picture book, Welcome to the Party made our bestsellers list for the second time this year. Union has really made her mark on the literary scene, as she has also penned her 2nd memoir this year, You Got Anything Stronger?

Poetry: Two titles, Vice: New and Selected Poems by Ai Ogawa and Second Line Home: New Orleans Poems by Mona Lisa Saloy, were popular with readers this period. Discover more excellent poetry books.

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 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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#2

Book cover of Sacred Nile by Chester Higgins, Jr.

Sacred Nile

by Chester Higgins, et al.

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#3

Book cover of Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature by Farah Jasmine Griffin

Read Until You Understand

by Farah Jasmine Griffin

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#4

Book cover of The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from the New Yorker by William Jelani Cobb and David Remnick

The Matter of Black Lives

by William Jelani Cobb and David Remnick

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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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#8

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

PowerNomics

by Claud Anderson

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#10

Book cover of Make Good the Promises: Reclaiming Reconstruction and Its Legacies by Kinshasha Holman Conwill and Paul Gardullo

Make Good the Promises

by Kinshasha Holman Conwill and Paul Gardullo

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#11

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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#14

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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#15

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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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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