#BlackoutBestsellerList Recommendations
June 16, 2020
![56 Brattle Morning](https://ccae.imgix.net/images/Additional-Header-Images/56-Brattle-Morning.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.492&fp-y=0.3201&h=214&w=300&s=26f897e695a8b7f3d6ec931628443e5c 171w, https://ccae.imgix.net/images/Additional-Header-Images/56-Brattle-Morning.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.492&fp-y=0.3201&h=429&w=600&s=d88c80e70c5399339798f928b5a7f251 343w, https://ccae.imgix.net/images/Additional-Header-Images/56-Brattle-Morning.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.492&fp-y=0.3201&h=643&w=900&s=8e0abec2764f7965e6c167e51ff97bf4 514w, https://ccae.imgix.net/images/Additional-Header-Images/56-Brattle-Morning.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.492&fp-y=0.3201&h=857&w=1200&s=6122ffbe77dcd856aaa8d744e9f0fd6d 686w, https://ccae.imgix.net/images/Additional-Header-Images/56-Brattle-Morning.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.492&fp-y=0.3201&h=1071&w=1500&s=4cd9d78bd3a022ac98ae1070677379ca 857w, https://ccae.imgix.net/images/Additional-Header-Images/56-Brattle-Morning.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.492&fp-y=0.3201&h=1286&w=1800&s=4be709c0859c7bd202e006e054e986eb 1029w, https://ccae.imgix.net/images/Additional-Header-Images/56-Brattle-Morning.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.492&fp-y=0.3201&h=1500&w=2100&s=d93f445c0aa78ca431e693f79f7a3574 1200w, https://ccae.imgix.net/images/Additional-Header-Images/56-Brattle-Morning.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.492&fp-y=0.3201&h=1714&w=2400&s=d87b8a611a52ccf7603252dfd2d487fa 1371w, https://ccae.imgix.net/images/Additional-Header-Images/56-Brattle-Morning.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.492&fp-y=0.3201&h=1929&w=2700&s=9b6cee9dcaee6257b446936244b3256a 1543w)
Amistad Books created #BlackoutBestsellerList and #Blackpublishingpower "to demonstrate our power and clout in the publishing industry, Sunday, June 14 to Saturday, June 20, we encourage you to purchase two books written by Black writers. Our goal is to Blackout bestseller lists with Black voices."
In support of this initiative, our staff compiled a list of recommended books by Black authors across genres that we have read and enjoyed.
Fiction
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (New!)
God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane
At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid
Rosewater by Tade Thompson
White Teeth and On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Nonfiction
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X
Interventions: A Life in War and Peace by Kofi Annan
Poetry Collections
The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde
Thomas and Beulah by Rita Dove
Quilting by Lucille Clifton (or any of her other collections)
The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks
Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir by Lucille Clifton
Black poets who've read at the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in recent years
John Murillo, from Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry
January Gill O'Neill, from Rewilding
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, from Personal Science
Rage Hezekiah, from Stray Harbor
When purchasing books we recommend reaching out to local bookstores that have online ordering, curbside pickups, or deliveries. We can recommend a few here:
- The COOP: https://store.thecoop.com/
- Harvard Bookstore: http://www.harvard.com/
- Frugal Books Roxbury (the only Black-owned bookstore in Boston): https://frugalbookstore.net/