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5 of Our Favorite Books by Black Authors

February 20, 2026
Gift Guides

To celebrate Black History Month, we’ve compiled a list of five books written by notable black authors, jumping from commentaries on racism, the black female experience, family matters, historical events, and even love. 

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American author, journalist, and activist who worked as a national correspondent at The Atlantic. He wrote largely about cultural, social, and political issues that African Americans faced. His book, Between the World and Me, is an autobiographical letter to his teenage son about his experiences and thoughts on being Black in the United States.

All About Love by Bell Hooks

 

Bell Hooks was an author, theorist, educator, social critic, and feminist. Her writing ranged from gender to race and moved feminism passed a white and middle-class perspective. All About Love is a collection of 13 deeply personal essays that explore the truth about love and address a society that is plagued with lovelessness.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Brit Bennett is an American writer based in Los Angeles who earned an MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan. The Vanishing Half is her second novel that became a #1 New York Times bestseller about twin sisters who choose to live different lives: one living in her southern town with her black daughter and one passing as white with her husband, who knows nothing. 


Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

Ibram X. Kendi is an American author, professor, historian, and anti-racist activist. He founded the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University and joined Howard University’s faculty, leading the new Institute for Advanced Study created to investigate the African Diaspora. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas explores race in America, combatting the idea that we live in a post-racial society. 

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith is an English novelist, essayist and short story writer. The Fraud is a novel set in Victorian England that centera around a real-life court case known as the Tichborne Trial, in which a butcher from Australia claims to be a long-lost aristocrat.  The story is narrated from the perspective of housekeeper Eliza Touchet. who becomes fascinated by the trial and what it reveals about truth, performance, class, and belief.  The novel examines race, empire, class anxiety, and the slipperiness of “truth,” showing that fraudulence isn’t just about one man in court but about a culture built on illusion.