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Zora Canon

Description: The 100 greatest books ever written by African American Women

Rank Title Author Added

1

A Raisin in the Sun

by Lorraine Hansberry

6,406 members

87 reviews

3.8

6 Members: aprille, hipdeep, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, steller0707, unicornangel

2

by Toni Morrison

26,599 members

447 reviews

3.9

5 Members: aprille, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, steller0707, unicornangel

3

The Color Purple

by Alice Walker

22,614 members

369 reviews

4.1

4 Members: aprille, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, steller0707

4

Their Eyes Were Watching God

by Zora Neale Hurston

22,351 members

386 reviews

4

4 Members: aprille, hipdeep, ahef1963, steller0707

5

The Fifth Season

by N. K. Jemisin

11,043 members

446 reviews

4.2

4 Members: aprille, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, steller0707

6

Song of Solomon

by Toni Morrison

12,594 members

137 reviews

4

3 Members: aprille, hipdeep, steller0707

7

Parable of the Sower

by Octavia E. Butler

11,570 members

318 reviews

4.1

3 Members: aprille, ManWithAnAgenda, steller0707

8

An American Marriage

by Tayari Jones

4,970 members

284 reviews

3.9

3 Members: aprille, ahef1963, steller0707

9

by Nella Larsen

3,570 members

134 reviews

3.8

3 Members: aprille, ahef1963, steller0707

10

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

2,236 members

29 reviews

½ 4.3

3 Members: aprille, steller0707, unicornangel

11

The House of Dies Drear

by Virginia Hamilton

1,758 members

18 reviews

½ 3.4

3 Members: aprille, ManWithAnAgenda, unicornangel

12

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

by Maya Angelou

17,558 members

259 reviews

4

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

13

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

by Mildred D. Taylor

14,031 members

395 reviews

4

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

14

by Toni Morrison

8,926 members

117 reviews

3.9

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

15

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

by Michelle Alexander

6,904 members

152 reviews

½ 4.4

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

16

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

by Isabel Wilkerson

6,668 members

207 reviews

½ 4.5

2 Members: aprille, ahef1963

17

Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson

5,501 members

416 reviews

½ 4.4

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

18

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

by Harriet A. Jacobs

5,047 members

88 reviews

4

2 Members: aprille, hipdeep

19

Sing, Unburied, Sing

5,000 members

212 reviews

4.1

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

20

Parable of the Talents

by Octavia E. Butler

4,898 members

126 reviews

4.1

2 Members: aprille, ManWithAnAgenda

21

by Toni Morrison

4,029 members

143 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

22

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

3,337 members

33 reviews

½ 4.4

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

23

The Heart of a Woman

by Maya Angelou

2,847 members

17 reviews

3.9

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

24

for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf

by Ntozake Shange

2,103 members

28 reviews

4.1

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

25

The Women of Brewster Place

by Gloria Naylor

2,002 members

27 reviews

4

2 Members: aprille, ahef1963

26

Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism

1,547 members

15 reviews

½ 4.3

2 Members: aprille, ahef1963

27

1,437 members

29 reviews

4.1

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

28

by Alice Walker

1,436 members

15 reviews

½ 3.6

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

29

by Margaret Walker

931 members

18 reviews

4.1

2 Members: aprille, unicornangel

30

Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo

by Ntozake Shange

638 members

6 reviews

4.1

2 Members: aprille, unicornangel

31

The Salt Eaters

by Toni Cade Bambara

556 members

7 reviews

½ 3.6

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

32

Moses, Man of the Mountain

by Zora Neale Hurston

549 members

3 reviews

4

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

33

Gorilla, My Love

by Toni Cade Bambara

460 members

4 reviews

3.9

2 Members: aprille, steller0707

34

The Black Woman: An Anthology

by Toni Cade Bambara

267 members

1 review

½ 4.5

2 Members: aprille, unicornangel

35

Salvage the Bones

3,592 members

181 reviews

3.9

2 Members: aprille, steller0707,ahef1963

36

by Octavia E. Butler

3,542 members

163 reviews

3.8

Member: aprille

37

Women, Race, and Class

by Angela Y. Davis

2,758 members

24 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: aprille

38

Coming of Age in Mississippi

1,835 members

32 reviews

4

Member: aprille

39

Waiting to Exhale

by Terry McMillan

1,830 members

21 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: aprille

40

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

by Angela Y. Davis

1,750 members

21 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: aprille

41

Assata: An Autobiography

by Assata Shakur

1,732 members

23 reviews

½ 4.5

Member: aprille

42

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide

by Carol Anderson

1,637 members

37 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: aprille

43

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose

by Alice Walker

1,602 members

13 reviews

4.2

Member: aprille

44

Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica

by Zora Neale Hurston

909 members

13 reviews

4.1

Member: aprille

45

by Gwendolyn Brooks

887 members

8 reviews

4.1

Member: aprille

46

The Third Life of Grange Copeland

by Alice Walker

823 members

11 reviews

3.9

Member: aprille

47

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals

by Saidiya Hartman

787 members

7 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: aprille

48

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty

by Dorothy E. Roberts

780 members

9 reviews

4

Member: aprille

49

Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black

by Harriet E. Wilson

757 members

7 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: aprille

50

735 members

28 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: aprille

51

by Nella Larsen

728 members

24 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: aprille

52

Brown Girl, Brownstones

by Paule Marshall

695 members

5 reviews

3.9

Member: aprille

53

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

666 members

3 reviews

4.1

Member: aprille

54

by Gloria Naylor

644 members

9 reviews

3.8

Member: aprille

55

636 members

20 reviews

3.8

Member: aprille

56

Where We Stand: Class Matters

634 members

6 reviews

4

Member: aprille

57

Native Guard: Poems

by Natasha Trethewey

614 members

20 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: aprille

58

When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America

by Paula J. Giddings

560 members

3 reviews

4.2

Member: aprille

59

Topdog/Underdog

by Suzan-Lori Parks

527 members

4 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: aprille

60

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

by Monique W. Morris

496 members

5 reviews

4.1

Member: aprille

61

by Gwendolyn Brooks

457 members

15 reviews

4.1

Member: aprille

62

Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted

by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

447 members

5 reviews

½ 3.4

Member: aprille

63

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? Stories

by Kathleen Collins

425 members

12 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: aprille

64

To Be Young, Gifted and Black

by Lorraine Hansberry

402 members

1 review

½ 4.3

Member: aprille

65

But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies

by Gloria T. Hull

401 members

2 reviews

4

Member: aprille

66

Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code

by Ruha Benjamin

384 members

3 reviews

4

Member: aprille

67

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision

by Barbara Ransby

325 members

2 reviews

4.1

Member: aprille

68

Thomas and Beulah

307 members

4 reviews

4

Member: aprille

69

Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology

by Barbara Smith

302 members

½ 4.4

Member: aprille

70

Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (Feminist Classics)

by Michele Wallace

290 members

½ 3.5

Member: aprille

71

The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1995

by Nikki Giovanni

265 members

½ 4.4

Member: aprille

72

by Tina McElroy Ansa

255 members

2 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: aprille

73

Sweat (TCG Edition)

by Lynn Nottage

239 members

7 reviews

4

Member: aprille

74

by Morgan Parker

236 members

10 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: aprille

75

by Gwendolyn Brooks

195 members

2 reviews

½ 4.5

Member: aprille

76

Blood Dazzler: Poems

by Patricia Smith

186 members

6 reviews

½ 4.6

Member: aprille

77

Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness

by Simone Browne

185 members

½ 4.4

Member: aprille

78

178 members

3 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: aprille

79

A Voice from the South

by Anna Julia Cooper

173 members

1 review

4

Member: aprille

80

The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010

by Lucille Clifton

164 members

2 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: aprille

81

The Black Christ (Bishop Henry McNeal Turner/Sojourner Truth Series in Black Religion)

by Kelly Brown Douglas

160 members

½ 3.5

Member: aprille

82

There Is Confusion

by Jessie Redmon Fauset

154 members

2 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: aprille

83

Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan

150 members

½ 4.3

Member: aprille

84

Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class

by Mary Pattillo-McCoy

136 members

1 review

½ 3.7

Member: aprille

85

Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory

by Michele Wallace

133 members

½ 4.5

Member: aprille

86

The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States

by Ida B. Wells-Barnett

116 members

2 reviews

3.9

Member: aprille

87

Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds: Stories by and about Black Women

by Mary Helen Washington

114 members

4.2

Member: aprille

88

Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women

by Brittney C. Cooper

103 members

1 review

5

Member: aprille

89

Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons & Love Affairs

by Pearl Cleage

79 members

3 reviews

½ 4.5

Member: aprille

90

I've Been a Woman: New and Selected Poems

by Sonia Sanchez

52 members

4.9

Member: aprille

91

by Nettie Jones

52 members

½ 2.5

Member: aprille

92

Funnyhouse of a Negro

by Adrienne Kennedy

51 members

2 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: aprille

93

Blue-Chip Black: Race, Class, and Status in the New Black Middle Class

by Karyn R. Lacy

43 members

½ 3.5

Member: aprille

94

The Flagellants

by Carlene Hatcher Polite

38 members

1 review

½ 3.5

Member: aprille

95

African American Music: An Introduction

by Mellonee V. Burnim

38 members

Member: aprille

96

All Bound Up Together: The Woman Question in African American Public Culture, 1830-1900

by Martha S. Jones

34 members

5

Member: aprille

97

Unequal City: Race, Schools, and Perceptions of Injustice

33 members

Member: aprille

98

We a BaddDDD People

by Sonia Sanchez

32 members

½ 4.3

Member: aprille

99

Radiance from the Waters: Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Mende Art

by Sylvia Ardyn Boone

29 members

4

Member: aprille

100

The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethnic Factions (Stanford Studies in Comparative Race and Ethnicity)

by Vilna Bashi Treitler

21 members

1 review

4

Member: aprille

About This List

Started: aprille
January 2020
Type: Unnumbered, Adding restricted

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20th century (1,542) African American (5,937) American (1,405) American literature (2,052) autobiography (1,672) classic (1,238) classics (1,751) fantasy (1,515) feminism (2,035) fiction (16,874) historical fiction (2,589) history (2,000) literature (2,027) memoir (1,862) non-fiction (4,214) novel (2,818) poetry (1,782) race (2,691) racism (2,328) read (2,333) science fiction (2,786) slavery (1,904) to-read (17,743) USA (1,345) women (1,565)

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