I asked if you had any book recommendations for Black History Month on Instagram and you came through with so many recommendations that I’m ashamed to say that it will probably take years before I can get through half of this list. This actually isn’t all of them (and thank you so much to everyone that sent in), but these are the most recommended. I’ve also put an asterisk next to the books I think I’ll start with if you’re interested, so please enjoy!
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie*
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Don’t Touch My Hair By Emma Dabiri
Are Prisons Obsolete? By Angela Y. Davis
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge*
After the Rain: Gentle Reminder for Healing, Courage, and Self-Love by Alexandra Elle
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emery
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Bad Feminist: Essay by Roxane Gay*
Homegoing by Yea Gyasi
All About Love: New Visions By Bell Hooks
Blood In My Eye by George L. Jackson
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion and Reinvention by Jamal Joseph
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Nikki Kendall
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi*
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Sparrow by Sarah Moon*
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison*
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid*
Early Departures by Justin A. Reynolds
Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon*
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas*
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon