Happy Thursday! It’s one of my favorite days of the week, and it also happens to be the day that I received all the books that I bought for this week’s #blackoutbestsellerlist, so it’s time for a haul post! ICYMI:

“Amistad, a division of HarperCollins under the HarperOne group, is the oldest imprint devoted to books by and about people of color.”

Admittedly, I didn’t even know this division of HarperCollins existed, but when they reposted Amistad’s post, well–you can bet your bottom dollar that I made up a short list of books I wanted, filled up my cart over the weekend, and waited until Monday to buy them. And, I wanted to post this haul now so that you have a chance to join in on #blackoutbestsellerlist, too. Not only is it a way to continue to support BIPOC authors and read a bunch of amazing books, it’ll show the book community at large what we want to read. When the NYT releases their bestseller list for the week, hopefully they’ll be rocked by the sheer volume of BIPOC authors & books on the list because we showed them exactly what we want in the future.

So, without further ado, here’s the books I got!

Somehow, I still haven’t read The Poet X, but We Set the Fire on High was one of my favorite reads recently, and I knew that I needed to read Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo as soon as possible. And since it looks like I’m still not going to get to a bookstore anytime soon, what better time than the present, amiright?

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown has literally been ALL over my Instagram. Like, honestly, every third post or something, and that cover? I mean, duh, of course it’s been exploding all over my feed, it’s absolutely frickin gorgeous. I’m also hella excited to read some West African mythology in a duology, which happens to be my favorite type of ology, and this is just promising to be a great time.

Trust me, a lot of these are going to be a moment of ummmm, how have you not read this yet, Mary? I’ve only gotten into reading contemporaries pretty regularly recently, so Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles was definitely one that I had to pick up. And honestly, with that cover, I don’t know how I haven’t already snagged it.

Look at that smile! This cover is just the cutest, and the synopsis for You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson sounds so interesting, I can’t wait to watch this badass totally kick butt and take some names along the way. This has also been screaming all across my Insta recently, and for good reason.

Most of these ended up being contemporary, which I’m honestly not mad about because I’m in the middle of reading pretty much every contemporary that I own for pride (yes, 90% of my contemporary buys are queer, the straights have had more than enough time), and I’m so stoked to have If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann in my hands now as a shiny new (to me) queer contemporary to replace all the ones I’m devouring this month!

We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez is not by a Black author or about Black characters, but Latin stories are very close to my heart, and the issue with the US southern border is more prominent than ever with the Head Cheetoh in Charge, so it felt timely to be buying this.

And, lastly, perhaps one of the books I’ve seen floating around my feed the most (both recently and always) is Dear Martin by Nic Stone. I think this is going to be one of the most hard-hitting of these books, and it deserves that damn space. I can’t wait to finally crack it open and see why everyone loves it so much.

What books did you buy/are planning to buy for #blackoutbestsellerlist?