The 45 Most Acclaimed Books of 2021

The acclaimed books on this list have earned multiple honors including; winning an award; making our bestseller’s list, or being selected for inclusion on prominent book club’s reading lists. This list will continuously evolve as we incorporate additional sources to help readers discover excellent books. Print the 2021 reading list, view of collage of 2021’s books, view the complete list from all the years, and enjoy ♥

Fiction – Nonfiction – Children’s – Poetry

21 Fiction Books

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

The Sweetness of Water

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

Palmares

The Between

Praise Song for the Widow

My Monticello: Fiction

Wild Women and the Blues

While Justice Sleeps

Yellow Wife

The Girl with the Louding Voice

The Prophets

The Other Black Girl

Black Bottom Saints (Paperback)

The Man Who Lived Underground

The Personal Librarian

Magic City: A Novel

Creatures of Passage

The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You: Stories

The Chaneysville Incident: A Novel

In Every Mirror She’s Black

17 Nonfiction Books (top)

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature

Just As I Am

Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

The Three Mothers (Hardcover)

The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem

We Are Each Other’s Harvest

Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America

Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound

Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography

Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South

Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion

How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America

5 Children’s Books (top)

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

Home Is Not a Country

Stacey’s Extraordinary Words

Me (Moth)

Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People

2 Poetry Books (top)

Punks: New & Selected Poems

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