Back to the Blog

Black Lives Matter Reading Recommendations

Reading Group Choices works to recommend a wide variety of books across culture and race as well as genre and subject matter. We are proud of our work in this area and are committed to doing more. We believe Black Lives Matter, and embrace the responsibility to use our reach to draw attention to books by Black authors for readers of all ages.

Books are a place to begin a conversation, expand the way we see ourselves and others, and take action to improve our communities and world.

Find our reading list of work by Black authors below, which we’ll continue to update!

The books listed on Reading Group Choices and on publishers’ sites often include discussion questions to help readers start talking with their book groups, friends, family, and neighbors.

Book a Day Authors

Our Book a Day authors often share current or past favorite reads during our live chats on Facebook. Here are some of their recommendations of books by Black authors:

One of our recommended books is A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif AbdurraqibHanif Abdurraqib, author of A Fortune for Your Disaster, recommends:
& more black by ta’i freedom ford

Samira Ahmed, author of Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, recommends:
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender (Young Adult)
A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell (Young Adult)
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

Leesa Cross-Smith, author of So We Can Glow, recommends:
Luster by Raven Leilani
Lakewood by Megan Giddings
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

Deni Bechard, author of A Song From Faraway, recommends the works of Toni Morrison: Home, God Help the Child, A Mercy

J.Ryan Stradal, author of The Lager Queen of Minnesota, A Mercy by Toni Morrisonrecommends:
Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman
In the Not Quite Dark by Dana Johnson

Publishers

Graywolf Press

As a leading independent publisher, Graywolf Press offers fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from a variety of voices, including these titles by Black authors:

One of our recommended books is The Dragons, the Giant, the Women by Wayetu MooreTelephone by Percival Everett
The Dragons, The Giant, The Women and She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore
Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith
Homie by Danez Smith
Citizen by Claudia Rankine

Support Graywolf by ordering from their store on Bookshop.org.

I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina

 

Lee & Low Books

As the largest multicultural children’s book publisher in the country, Lee & Low Books is committed to promoting diverse voices and stories for young readers. Browse their catalog online, from picture books to YA titles by Black authors, including the Reading Group Choices recommendation I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina

 

One of our recommended books for 2019 is The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

One World

Part of Random House, the One World imprint dedicates its mission “to challenge the status quo, subvert dominant narratives, and give us new language to understand our past, present, and future.”

Their offerings include the work of Black authors like Ta-Nehisi Coates and his novel The Water Dancer, and Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist.

 

Additional Lists

Jacqueline Woodson, author of Brown Girl Dreaming, curates a list of books for discussing racism with children for O: The Oprah Magazine.

And Powell’s Bookstores shares a list of recent science-fiction and fantasy novels by Black authors.


Find more great recommendations by following our continuing Book a Day reading picks!