Black History Month Book Recommendations

Did you know that black authors only account for about 6% of all published authors in the United States? There is a lot of great literature written by black authors that go without recognition and appreciation. While it's important to support black authors all year round, February is a good time to highlight some Black History Month specific recommendations.

Since 1976 February has been nationally recognized as Black History Month in order to take this time to celebrate black literature. Each year there is a theme for Black History Month and for 2022 the theme is Black Health and Wellness. Click here for resources and materials specifically targeted to this theme.

Below will be recommendations of black authors based on genre. These are books that I have read and highly recommend as great sources for information and insight. See all my book recommendations and purchase your own copies here: https://bit.ly/LitCari

Anti-Racism Books

1. Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

2. Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho

3. Me and White Supremacy; Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad

4. I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

5. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Anti-Racism Steeped in History

1. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi

2. The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee

3. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (Author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration)

4. Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Historical/Literary/Contemporary Fiction

1. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

2. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

3. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

4. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

5. Transcendent Kingdome by Yaa Gyasi

Science Fiction/ Fantasy

1. The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs

2. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Classic Literature

1. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Memoirs

1. Will by Will Smith

2. Becoming by Michelle Obama

3. Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford

Poetry

1. The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

Essays

1. The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

See all my book recommendations and purchase your own copies here: https://bit.ly/LitCari