100+ Books by Black Women

100+ Books by Black Women That Should Be Essential Reading For Everyone

List by PopSugar

  1. The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
  2. Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
  3. We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge
  4. The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya
  5. The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
  6. The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat
  7. Whiskey & Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith
  8. How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs
  9. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
  10. The Mothers by Britt Bennett
  11. Kindred by Octavia Butler
  12. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
  13. Beloved by Toni Morrison
  14. Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
  15. What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons
  16. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  17. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
  18. The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
  19. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
  20. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
  21. Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden
  22. The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate
  23. Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo
  24. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
  25. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
  26. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
  27. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  28. Ugly Ways by Tina McElroy
  29. The Prisoner’s Wife by Asha Bandele
  30. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  31. Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
  32. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
  33. Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid
  34. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okarafor
  35. Push by Sapphire
  36. The House Girl by Tara Conklin
  37. Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo
  38. Halsey Street by Naima Coster
  39. A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
  40. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
  41. What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
  42. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  43. Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
  44. Negroland by Margo Jefferson
  45. The Terrible by Yrsa Daley-Ward
  46. Assata by Assata Shakur 
  47. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
  48. Ruby by Cynthia Bond
  49. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
  50. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
  51. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
  52. Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson
  53. Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
  54. My Soul Looks Back by Jessica B. Harris
  55. The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson
  56. Things I Should Have Told My Daughter by Pearl Cleage 
  57. Training School For Negro Girls by Camille Acker
  58. Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins
  59. Jam on the Vine by Katrice Barnett
  60. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
  61. Cane River by Lalita Tademy
  62. The Street by Ann Petry
  63. Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall 
  64. Jubilee by Margaret Walker
  65. Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  66. On Black Sisters’ Street by Chika Unigwe
  67. Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
  68. Sister Citizen by Melissa V. Harris-Perry
  69. All About Love by Bell Hooks
  70. Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts
  71. The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips
  72. This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins
  73. Dear Martin by Nic Stone
  74. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
  75. Ordinary People by Diana Evans
  76. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
  77. Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
  78. American Street by Ibi Zoboi
  79. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
  80. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
  81. Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
  82. We Are Taking Only What We Need by Stephanie Powell Watts
  83. The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
  84. Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
  85. We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
  86. She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore
  87. How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin
  88. When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
  89. Rabbit by Patricia Williams
  90. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
  91. Pushout by Monique W. Morris
  92. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
  93. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
  94. Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Conde
  95. Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste
  96. Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
  97. Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
  98. Daddy Was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether
  99. Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
  100. Ordinary Light by Tracy K. Smith
  101. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis
  102. Becoming by Michelle Obama