Bestselling Books May 2021, Bookstores of the Year, Author Awards Weekend, and More - 5/18/2021

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Our bestsellers list has been published continuously since 1998 and is the most visible list focused on Black Books in existence. You will learn about books selling well, in the Black community, that may never show up on lists published by larger corporate entities. Nonfiction: Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice, Nkechi Taifa’s powerful memoir, outsold all other books this period and was given a terrific review by AALBC. Fiction: Richard Wright’s previously unpublished novel, The Man Who Lived Underground, is our bestselling fiction title. The Man Who Lived Underground was written between his landmark books Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945), at the height of Wright’s creative powers. Children’s Books: The 11-time AALBC bestseller, Whose Knees Are These?, by Jabari Asim led a very crowded field of popular children’s books. We cap our bestsellers list at 20 books, and our children’s list could have easily included 40 titles. Poetry: The Tradition by Jericho Brown debuts on our bestsellers list at #1. The critically acclaimed work received many honors including winning a Pulitzer Prize.

New Books

Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Notes on Grief is an exquisite work of meditation, remembrance, and hope, written in the wake of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's beloved father’s death in the summer of 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged around the world, and kept Adichie and her family members separated from one another, her father succumbed unexpectedly to complications of kidney failure. Expanding on her original New Yorker piece, Adichie shares how this loss shook her to her core. She writes about being one of the millions of people grieving this year; about the familial and cultural dimensions of grief and also about the loneliness and anger that are unavoidable in it.

Nothing Personal by James Baldwin James Baldwin’s critique of American society at the height of the civil rights movement brings his prescient thoughts on social isolation, race, and police brutality to a new generation of readers. Available for the first time in a stand-alone edition, Nothing Personal is Baldwin’s deep probe into the American condition. Considering the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020—which were met with tear gas and rubber bullets the same year white supremacists entered the US Capitol with little resistance, openly toting flags of the Confederacy—Baldwin’s documentation of his own troubled times cuts to the core of where we find ourselves today.

Harlem Hit & Run by Angela M. Dews Harlem Hit & Run is the first of three murder mysteries set in the 1990s in Harlem. I had to do the perp walk through a gauntlet of paparazzi at the 28th Precinct and I must say I finally understood the impulse to put a coat over your head. It didn't take long for someone to recognize me. "Lt. Knight! Over here!" Lt. Summer Knight is the badass I play in my action movies. But now I'm home in Harlem reluctantly running the Harlem Journal, the weekly newspaper my Daddy left me when he just died. That's Pearl Washington, the hero of Harlem Hit & Run, a murder mystery set during one week in November 1990 between two editions of the Journal, as a community bank fails.

A Day for Rememberin’ by Leah Henderson, Illustrated by Floyd Cooper Inspired by true events and told through the eyes of a young boy, this is the deeply moving story about what is regarded as the first Memorial Day on May 1, 1865. Eli dresses up in his best clothes, Mama gathers the mayflowers, Papa straightens his hat, and together they join the crowds filling the streets of Charleston, South Carolina, with bouquets, crosses, and wreaths. Abolitionists, missionaries, teachers, military officers, and a sea of faces Black, Brown, and White, they march as one and sing for all those who gave their lives fighting for freedom during the Civil War.

Voices is now Distributed by Africa World Press & The Red Sea Press

Voices of the Harlem Renaissance: Originally Published as The New Negro an Interpretation, was edited by Alain Locke, features a new introduction by Troy Johnson, and is now available from these fine booksellers: ▪ Best Richardson African Diaspora Literature & Culture Museum, Tampa, FL; ▪ Blackbooks Plus, New York, NY ▪ Community Book Center, New Orleans, LA; ▪ DARE Books, Longwood, FL; ▪ Eso Won Bookstore, Los Angeles, CA; ▪ Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing, Little Rock, AR; and ▪ Sankofa Video Books & Cafe, Washington, DC

PW Bookstore of the Year Finalists: Eso Won Books & MahoganyBooks

Eso Won has long been one of the country’s preeminent Black-owned bookstores and, of course, was indispensable this past year,” noted Ellen Adler, publisher of the New Press, in her nominating letter. “But that’s nothing new: it has long been indispensable—as those who are lucky enough to count it as their local bookstore or who have made the pilgrimage and had a visit well know.” More ▶ When MahoganyBooks opened in the Anacostia Arts Center in 2017, it was the first new bookstore in southeast Washington, D.C., in 20 years. Though the store was new, owners and husband and wife Derrick and Ramunda Young were already veteran booksellers, having worked in D.C.-area bookstores in the 1990s and early 2000s. In the nearly four years since it opened, the store has garnered national recognition for its emphasis that books by Black authors matter. That focus led Bradley Graham, co-owner of Politics and Prose Bookstore, also in D.C., to say that Mahogany has quickly risen to become “one of the leading Black-owned bookstores in the country.” More ▶ Discover 108 Black-owned Indie Bookstore and 67 Websites Dedicated to Black books on AALBC.

Join Go On Girl! Book Club for Their Author Awards Weekend It is a Virtual Event that will be entertaining, exciting, fun, and planned especially for you. Their theme is “Celebrating 30 Years With Go On Girl! Book Club.” This two-day event will include a GOG Conversation, GOG Mixer/Chapter Strut, 30th Anniversary Day Party Celebration and the highlight of the weekend, the Author Awards presentation. We welcome our guests to gather with us for the GOG Conversation with Author Salamishah Tillet In Search of the Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece (Friday, May 21, 2021 at 7:30pm ET) and Author Awards Event (Saturday, May 22, 2021 at 2:00pm ET). The Author Awards will honor our Author of the Year, James McBride ; New Author of the Year, Sara Collins; Jr. GOG Readers Choice Author, L.L. McKinney; Literary Legend Award Author, Alice Walker; Pillar Award, Troy Johnson, African American Literature Book Club (AALBC.com); GOG Bookseller Recognition Award, Mahogany Bookstore; and their scholarship winners. Registration is $20 ▶

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Dear Reader, As always, you are why we’ve been able to make AALBC the premier online platform for books by, or about, Black people. Your paid subscription, book purchases, suggestions, engagement on the site, commenting, social sharing, and advertisements helps support our mission to celebrate Black books and authors. Also, if you are in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, in August, look out for my new pop-up bookstore, The Black Wall Street Book Store (blackwallstreetbookstore.com). I will showcase local authors and books related to the Tulsa Race Massacre. Peace and Love, Troy Johnson Founder & Webmaster, AALBC.com

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