Must Read Books by Black Female Authors

1.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1) 4.30 avg rating — 569,025 ratings
2.
The Color Purple
The Color Purple 4.27 avg rating — 737,296 ratings
3.
HUSH MONEY: How One Woman Proved Systemic Racism in her Workplace and Kept her Job
HUSH MONEY: How One Woman Proved Systemic Racism in her Workplace and Kept her Job 4.45 avg rating — 255 ratings
3.
Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football (Volume 19) (Atelier: Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century)
Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football (Volume 19) (Atelier: Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century) 4.17 avg rating — 6 ratings
5.
Wild Seed (Patternist, #1)
Wild Seed (Patternist, #1) 4.21 avg rating — 38,339 ratings
6.
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center 4.45 avg rating — 8,770 ratings
7.
Kindred
Kindred 4.31 avg rating — 258,415 ratings
8.
Amarna Book I: Book of Ida
Amarna Book I: Book of Ida 3.94 avg rating — 72 ratings
8.
I Am Not Your Slave: A Memoir
I Am Not Your Slave: A Memoir 4.60 avg rating — 341 ratings
10.
Women, Race & Class
Women, Race & Class 4.59 avg rating — 33,024 ratings
10.
Meridian
Meridian 3.75 avg rating — 6,509 ratings
10.
The Pack: Addison (The Pack, #1)
The Pack: Addison (The Pack, #1) 4.30 avg rating — 37 ratings
13.
Cabello: Mineau (Cabello #1)
Cabello: Mineau (Cabello #1) 3.80 avg rating — 54 ratings
13.
Rebellion Book I: Book of Quay
Rebellion Book I: Book of Quay 4.29 avg rating — 35 ratings
15.
Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon 4.15 avg rating — 123,956 ratings
16.
The Farming of Bones
The Farming of Bones 4.07 avg rating — 9,774 ratings
16.
Miael: Family
Miael: Family 3.95 avg rating — 40 ratings
18.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God 3.99 avg rating — 377,839 ratings
19.
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches 4.53 avg rating — 39,730 ratings
20.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness 4.52 avg rating — 115,057 ratings
21.
Killing Rage: Ending Racism
Killing Rage: Ending Racism 4.35 avg rating — 2,855 ratings
22.
Half of a Yellow Sun
Half of a Yellow Sun 4.34 avg rating — 176,495 ratings
23.
Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900
Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900 4.36 avg rating — 760 ratings
24.
A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story
A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story 4.30 avg rating — 4,578 ratings
25.
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America 4.26 avg rating — 3,392 ratings
26.
A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun 3.85 avg rating — 107,588 ratings
27.
The Angela Y. Davis Reader
The Angela Y. Davis Reader 4.49 avg rating — 253 ratings
28.
Communion: The Female Search for Love (Love Song to the Nation, #2)
Communion: The Female Search for Love (Love Song to the Nation, #2) 4.35 avg rating — 9,504 ratings
29.
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center 4.45 avg rating — 8,770 ratings
30.
Freedom's Gardener: James F. Brown, Horticulture, and the Hudson Valley in Antebellum America
Freedom's Gardener: James F. Brown, Horticulture, and the Hudson Valley in Antebellum America 3.81 avg rating — 16 ratings
30.
Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America
Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America 4.44 avg rating — 1,229 ratings
30.
The Girl Who Remained Elusive (Elusive, #1)
The Girl Who Remained Elusive (Elusive, #1) 3.24 avg rating — 17 ratings
30.
Numen Yeye
Numen Yeye 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings
30.
This Stops Today: Eric Garner's Mother Seeks Justice after Losing Her Son
This Stops Today: Eric Garner's Mother Seeks Justice after Losing Her Son
by: Gwen Carr
4.03 avg rating — 39 ratings
30.
These Bones
These Bones 3.75 avg rating — 115 ratings
36.
The Cracked Hearts Club: Vol. II
The Cracked Hearts Club: Vol. II 2.50 avg rating — 2 ratings
36.
Sunset Tales
Sunset Tales 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
36.
Will Williams
Will Williams 3.27 avg rating — 1,570 ratings
39.
The Cracked Heart's Club Vol. 1
The Cracked Heart's Club Vol. 1 really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings
39.
Rose of Numen
Rose of Numen 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
39.
The Adversity of Diversity: How the Supreme Court's Decision to Remove Race from College Admissions Will Doom Diversity Programs
The Adversity of Diversity: How the Supreme Court's Decision to Remove Race from College Admissions Will Doom Diversity Programs 4.10 avg rating — 52 ratings
42.
The Killing Moon (Dreamblood, #1)
The Killing Moon (Dreamblood, #1) 3.96 avg rating — 22,758 ratings
42.
Blood Contract
Blood Contract 4.59 avg rating — 17 ratings
44.
A Small Place
A Small Place 4.05 avg rating — 17,334 ratings
44.
Elysium
Elysium 3.47 avg rating — 1,320 ratings
46.
Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? 4.34 avg rating — 26,841 ratings
47.
Those Bones Are Not My Child
Those Bones Are Not My Child 3.52 avg rating — 541 ratings
48.
Ugly Ways
Ugly Ways 4.08 avg rating — 1,754 ratings
49.
Passing
Passing 3.92 avg rating — 76,725 ratings
49.
Bitch Is the New Black: A Memoir
Bitch Is the New Black: A Memoir 3.29 avg rating — 841 ratings
51.
Sweeter the Juice: A Family Memoir in Black and White
Sweeter the Juice: A Family Memoir in Black and White 3.98 avg rating — 796 ratings
51.
Our Black Year: One Family's Quest to Buy Black in America's Racially Divided Economy
Our Black Year: One Family's Quest to Buy Black in America's Racially Divided Economy 3.73 avg rating — 445 ratings
53.
Behind the Scenes in the Lincoln White House: Memoirs of an African-American Seamstress
Behind the Scenes in the Lincoln White House: Memoirs of an African-American Seamstress 3.86 avg rating — 4,109 ratings
54.
A Matter of Black and White: The Autobiography of Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher
A Matter of Black and White: The Autobiography of Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher 4.32 avg rating — 22 ratings
55.
Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994
Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994 4.18 avg rating — 157 ratings
56.
White Teeth
White Teeth 3.79 avg rating — 170,772 ratings
57.
Let's Play White
Let's Play White 3.99 avg rating — 286 ratings
58.
Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South
Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South 4.18 avg rating — 1,435 ratings
58.
Are Prisons Obsolete?
Are Prisons Obsolete? 4.52 avg rating — 28,747 ratings
60.
Kabu Kabu
Kabu Kabu 3.99 avg rating — 1,806 ratings
60.
Blues: For All the Changes
Blues: For All the Changes 4.16 avg rating — 394 ratings
62.
Ghana Must Go
Ghana Must Go 3.85 avg rating — 12,203 ratings
62.
Jewels: 50 Phenomenal Black Women Over 50
Jewels: 50 Phenomenal Black Women Over 50 4.40 avg rating — 20 ratings
64.
Americanah
Americanah 4.31 avg rating — 401,578 ratings
64.
Black Women's Lives: Stories of Pain and Power
Black Women's Lives: Stories of Pain and Power 4.12 avg rating — 40 ratings
66.
Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women
Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women 4.55 avg rating — 6,263 ratings
67.
We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity
We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity 4.25 avg rating — 1,303 ratings
68.
Belonging: A Culture of Place
Belonging: A Culture of Place 4.23 avg rating — 1,477 ratings
69.
Salvation: Black People and Love
Salvation: Black People and Love 4.34 avg rating — 1,814 ratings
70.
Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics
Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics 4.26 avg rating — 824 ratings
71.
Outlaw Culture
Outlaw Culture 4.28 avg rating — 1,348 ratings
72.
Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black
Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black 4.37 avg rating — 2,562 ratings
73.
The Wedding
The Wedding 3.96 avg rating — 6,445 ratings
74.
The Last Leaf of Harlem: The Uncollected Works of Dorothy West
The Last Leaf of Harlem: The Uncollected Works of Dorothy West 4.05 avg rating — 40 ratings
75.
The Living Is Easy
The Living Is Easy 3.89 avg rating — 679 ratings
76.
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: An Informal Autobiography
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: An Informal Autobiography 4.42 avg rating — 2,810 ratings
77.
The Meaning of Freedom
The Meaning of Freedom 4.47 avg rating — 825 ratings
78.
An Autobiography
An Autobiography 4.44 avg rating — 10,451 ratings