Race relations book series in reading order

by James Lee Burke

James Baldwin

40 books• 4 series

James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 - December 1, 1987), born James Arthur Jones, was an American writer and civil rights activist whose essays, novels, plays and poems drew wide acclaim. Time magazine ranked Go Tell It on the Mountain among the top 100 English-language novels. The essay collection Notes of a Native Son (1955) established Baldwin as a voice for human equality, and a 1965 debate with William Buckley became a landmark on race in the United States. Catalogued works include Giovanni's Room (1956), Another Country (1962) and The Fire Next Time (1963), with race relations and African American life as recurring subjects.

Mildred DeLois Taylor, born September 13, 1943, is an American young adult novelist whose Logan family books portray family life and the racism African Americans faced in the Deep South. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry won the 1977 Newbery Medal. Taylor received the first NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2003, the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2020 and the Children's Literature Legacy Award in 2021. The 11 catalogued books include Let the Circle Be Unbroken (1981), The Road to Memphis (1992) and All the Days Past, All the Days to Come (2020).

Thomas Sowell writes non-fiction on economics, race relations and public policy. Black Education: Myths and Tragedies and Classical Economics Reconsidered both appeared in 1974, followed by Ethnic America, Race and Economics, Knowledge and Decisions and the Cultures series. Forty-nine books reach Social Justice Fallacies in 2023.

Walter Mosley

71 books• 6 series

Easy Rawlins, a Black private investigator in Los Angeles, is the figure Walter Mosley returns to most. Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) opens the catalogue, which holds 71 books and reaches Ghalen (2026). Leonid McGill heads a second detective sequence, and Fearless Jones, Socrates Fortlow, King Oliver and the Crosstown to Oblivion science fiction books make up further lines. Los Angeles and New York are the recurring settings.

Joyce Carol Oates

180 books• 8 series

Joyce Carol Oates, born June 16, 1938, is an American writer of novels, short stories, poetry, plays and nonfiction. The catalogue holds 180 books, beginning with By the North Gate (1963) and reaching The Frenzy: Stories (2026). Oates took the National Book Award for the novel Them (1969), and later honours include two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal and the Jerusalem Prize in 2019. Black Water, What I Lived For, Blonde and the collection Lovely, Dark, Deep were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014.

Chester Himes

23 books• 2 series

Chester Himes (July 29, 1909 - November 12, 1984) was an American writer, several of whose works were filmed. If He Hollers Let Him Go appeared in 1945. Himes is best known for the Harlem Detective novels, set in the 1950s and early 1960s, whose leads are two black policemen, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. France awarded Himes the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1958. The catalogue lists 23 books, including Lonely Crusade (1947), For Love of Imabelle / A Rage in Harlem (1957), The Real Cool Killers (1958) and All Shot Up (1960).

Ta-Nehisi Coates

19 books• 5 series

Ta-Nehisi Coates, born September 30, 1975, is an American author, journalist and activist. As national correspondent at The Atlantic, Coates wrote about cultural, social and political questions, particularly African Americans and white supremacy. Four nonfiction books carry the name: The Beautiful Struggle (2008), Between the World and Me (2015), winner of the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction, We Were Eight Years in Power (2017) and The Message (2024). The listing also carries Black Panther graphic novel collections. Subjects include race relations, memoir, and fathers and sons.

Colson Whitehead

12 books• 1 series

Colson Whitehead is an American novelist, born November 6, 1969, and one of four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice. The Underground Railroad (2016) won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer, and The Nickel Boys took the Pulitzer again in 2020. Whitehead has written ten novels and two nonfiction books, and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002. The catalogue lists 12 books from The Intuitionist (1999) to Cool Machine (2026), including John Henry Days, Sag Harbor, Zone One and Harlem Shuffle. Ray Carney / Harlem Trilogy is the one series on file.

Henning Mankell

35 books• 9 series

Kurt Wallander, a police detective in Sweden, is the figure Henning Mankell is known for. Mankell's catalogue holds 35 books, from A Bridge to the Stars (1990) to The Rock Blaster (2020), and takes in the Joel Gustafsson and Linda Wallander sequences, the Fredrik Welin novels, the Sofia Alface books, children's fiction and non-fiction. Faceless Killers (1991) and The Dogs of Riga (1992) are among the early titles.

Jacqueline Woodson

42 books• 7 series

Jacqueline Woodson, born February 12, 1963, is an American writer of books for children and young adolescents. Miracle's Boys is Woodson's best-known book, and Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers and Show Way each earned a Newbery Honor. Woodson was Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017 and National Ambassador for Young People's Literature for 2018 to 2019. Another Brooklyn reached the 2016 National Book Award shortlist for fiction. Honors include the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2018), the Hans Christian Andersen Award (2020) and a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship. The catalogue lists 42 books from Last Summer with Maizon (1990) to Remember Us (2023), with subjects such as African Americans, friendship, family life, race relations and grief.

Chinua Achebe

30 books• 1 series

Chinua Achebe (16 November 1930 - 21 March 2013), born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, was a Nigerian novelist, poet and critic and a central figure of modern African literature. Things Fall Apart (1958) is Achebe's first novel and the most widely studied, translated and read African novel; together with No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) it completes the African Trilogy. A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987) followed among the later novels. Readers commonly call Achebe the father of modern African literature, a description Achebe rejected. The catalogue holds 30 books, closing with There Was a Country (2012).

James Patterson

510 books• 73 series

James Patterson, born on March 22, 1947, is an American writer whose catalogue here holds 514 books published from 1976 to 2027. The run opens with The Thomas Berryman Number (1976), and Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995) follow later. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch & Wizard, NYPD Red, Private, Middle School and the Women's Murder Club are among the Patterson series, alongside standalone thrillers, non-fiction and romance. Marshall Karp shares the credit on 5 of the books. Patterson's sales exceed 425 million copies, and Patterson was the first person to sell one million e-books. Forbes ranked Patterson the highest-paid author in 2016, for a third year running, and the National Book Foundation gave Patterson the Literarian Award in November 2015. 27 Stars is scheduled for 2027.

Greg Iles

19 books• 4 series

Suspense set largely in Mississippi is Greg Iles's territory, above all in the Penn Cage novels, which take a lawyer through buried family secrets and murder. Iles's 19 catalogued books open with Spandau Phoenix (1993) and close with Cemetery Road (2019), taking in the Penn Cage and Mississippi sequences and a set of standalone thrillers. The catalogue is listed as likely complete.

Dave Robicheaux, a Louisiana detective, is the figure most associated with James Lee Burke, who also writes the Holland family novels around Billy Bob, Hackberry and Weldon Holland. Burke's 49 catalogued books stretch from Half of Paradise (1965) to The Hadacol Boogie in 2026, a span of six decades. Hard-boiled crime in Louisiana and Texas is the core subject. Median length is 387 pages, with the 2000s as the peak decade.

Mark Twain

71 books• 5 series

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), an American writer, humorist and essayist whom William Faulkner called the father of American literature. Twain's novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), its sequel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894); The Gilded Age (1873) was a collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner. The catalogue begins with The Jumping Frog (1865) and The Innocents Abroad (1869), and humorous stories are among its subjects. Series on the listing include Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and Diaries Of Adam and Eve.

N.K. Jemisin

21 books• 6 series

N.K. Jemisin (Nora Keita Jemisin, born September 19, 1972) is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy whose fiction addresses cultural conflict and oppression. The debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010), opened the Inheritance Trilogy. The Broken Earth series made Jemisin the first African-American author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the first to win in three consecutive years, and the first to win for all three novels of a trilogy. The catalogue holds 22 books from 2008 to Far Sector (2024), with Red Dirt Witch: A Graphic Novel due in 2027.

Joe R. Lansdale

156 books• 24 series

Joe R. Lansdale, born Joe Richard Lansdale on October 28, 1951, is an American writer and martial arts instructor who works across Western, horror, science fiction, mystery and suspense and has also written comic books and screenplays. Lansdale's honours include the British Fantasy Award, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award and eleven Bram Stoker Awards, and several novels have been adapted for film and television. The catalogue begins with Act of Love (1981) and includes Dead in the West (1986), The Magic Wagon (1986), The Nightrunners (1987), The Drive-In (1988) and Cold in July (1989); Petrified Dreams (2026) is the newest. Hap Collins and Leonard Pine head the Hap and Leonard series, and Texas features in the subjects.

Percival Everett

36 books

Percival Everett, born December 22, 1956, is an American author and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. The fiction moves across western, mystery, thriller, satire and philosophical forms, often using satire to examine race and identity in the United States. Erasure (2001), I Am Not Sidney Poitier (2009) and The Trees (2021), shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, are the best-known novels. The catalogue lists 37 books from Suder (1983) to James (2024), with Serious Music due in 2027, and includes short stories and poetry.

Kwame Alexander

35 books• 3 series

Kwame Alexander, born August 21, 1968, writes poetry and children's fiction. The catalogue holds 35 books from Just Us (1997) to The Mighty Macy (2026), including 360° A Revolution of Black Poets (1998), Crush (1999), Do the Write Thing (2001) and Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band (2011). Door of No Return is an Alexander series. Subjects include African Americans, American poetry, stories in rhyme, musicians, high schools and authorship.

Ann M. Martin

446 books• 24 series

Ann Matthews Martin, born August 12, 1955, is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction and a Smith College graduate. The Baby-Sitters Club, first published in 1986, is the series Martin is known best for, and Martin remains involved with the series and its spin-offs. The catalogue lists 446 books, beginning with Inside Out and Bummer Summer in 1983. Related lines include Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries, California Diaries, Kids in Ms. Colman's Class, Main Street and Doll People. Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter: A Graphic Novel (2025) is the newest listed title.

Sharon M. Draper

31 books• 5 series

Sharon M. Draper is an American children's writer and professional educator, named National Teacher of the Year in 1997 and a two-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for books on young and adolescent African American experience. The Hazelwood High and Jericho series, Out of My Mind, Romiette and Julio, Copper Sun and Double Dutch are her best-known titles, alongside the Clubhouse Mysteries and Sassy series. Draper's catalogue holds 31 books dated 1970 to 2024, at a median 183 pages, taking in school stories, friendship, family life, race relations and death.

Philip K. Dick

86 books• 4 series

Philip K. Dick (December 16, 1928 to March 2, 1982) was an American science fiction novelist and short story writer. Dick wrote 45 novels and roughly 121 short stories, most of them first published in science fiction magazines. The fiction asks what is real and probes perception, identity and human nature. Characters in Dick's work contend with alternate realities, illusory worlds, monopoly corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian states and altered consciousness. Dick ranks among the most important figures in 20th-century science fiction. Catalogued titles include Beyond Lies the Wub (1951), Paycheck (1953) and Adjustment Team (1954), and the VALIS Trilogy appears as a series. Androids and life on other planets feature in the subject tags.

Doris Lessing

66 books• 6 series

Doris Lessing, born Doris May Tayler on 22 October 1919 and died on 17 November 2013, was a British novelist and the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Iran to British parents, Lessing lived there until 1925, grew up in Southern Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe - and moved to London in 1949, which is why the early career is sometimes labelled Rhodesian. The catalogue holds 66 titles from The Grass Is Singing (1950) to An Old Woman and Her Cat (2013). Children of Violence and Canopus in Argos are the two five-novel sequences; the Diaries of Jane Somers, The Fifth Child, Mara and Dann and the Collected African Stories follow. Africa, women and British social life recur as subjects.

Sherman Alexie

26 books

Sherman Alexie is a Spokane novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter and filmmaker whose work draws on his life as an Indigenous American with ancestry in several tribes. Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and lives in Seattle, Washington. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) is his best known book: it took the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2007, and the Odyssey Award for best audiobook for young people in 2008, read by Alexie himself. Twenty-six titles are catalogued, from The Business of Fancydancing (1991) to You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (2017).