With the Black Lives Matter movement happening right now, and folks talking about anti-racism books they are reading, I’ve seen lots of discussion about the importance of making sure we are all reading books in all genres by Black folks, too. To that end, I wanted to share some of my favorite fiction books by Black authors, mostly Black women.
Literary Fiction
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
- The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray
- Akata Witch & Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Science Fiction
- the Binti triology by Nnedi Okorafor
- Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
- Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Romance
- the Reluctant Royals series by Alyssa Cole
- the Wedding Date series by Jasmine Guillory
Memoir/Non-fiction
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae
- We Should all be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Anything (and I mean ANYTHING) by Samantha Irby
These are all my stand-out books from the last few years, but I’d LOVE to hear about books by Black writers that have made an impact on you. As you can see, I love pretty much all genres (I do not necessarily like to read war books, but those are really the only ones I shy away from).