The most popular new and upcoming books by Black authors, according to Goodreads

Similar to the rest of the book world, Goodreads says it has seen many more readers looking for and reading more titles by Black authors and about Black people in the past year.

Suzanne Skyvara, vice president of editorial and marketing at Goodreads, says there are three main reasons behind this. First, a desire to learn more. “We saw a huge spike of interest from our members for nonfiction books that help them learn about our country’s history of racism and how to take action against it during the BLM protests,” says Skyvara.

Second, there’s a new commitment by some members to challenge themselves to read more widely, and third, a wish to discover and support more Black authors, of both fiction and nonfiction.

“We have a very strong belief that it’s important to include a wide variety of voices across our coverage,” Skyvara says. “Books by diverse authors are mainstream books and are included in our regular coverage as a matter of course. We also look for opportunities to shine a brighter spotlight on different communities, with articles to support events like Black History Month, Native American Heritage Month, and Pride Month.”

The first list rounds up popular new histories and biographies that highlight different aspects and eras of African-American history; all these books were published in the past year. Goodreads pulled together this list based on how many of their 110 million members have added a book to their “Want to Read” shelves, how many ratings a book has, and a book’s rating (out of five stars).

The second list covers new and upcoming popular books by Black authors that deal with social issues. The new and upcoming books list was solely determined by how many times a book had been added to a “Want to Read” shelf by Goodreads members.

One thing that’s important to note about Goodreads editorial coverage is that it is based on data about the books that members are reading, rating, and adding to their Want to Read lists, which is how the Amazon-owned site measures buzz, anticipation, and popularity, Skyvara explains.

“We also curate our articles to include an array of diverse authors and stories,” Skyvara says. “A recent initiative we’ve worked on to drive discovery of more books by underrepresented authors includes expanding our roster of freelancers and columnists to include more writers of color.”