By: Kam Williams
The Power List, the quarterly compilation of best-selling books written or read by African Americans, released its Winter 2014 list today. The Power List is a joint project of AALBC.com, Cushcity.com and Mosaicbooks.com, three Web sites which have promoted African-American literature for more than a decade.
The influence of feature films strongly impacted the Winter 2014 list, as books based on two movies released in 2013 topped the list in two separate categories. The Butler by Wil Haygood was #1 among hardcover non-fiction titles and Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northrup was #1 among paperback non-fiction titles. The movie adaptation of Twelve Years A Slave has received nine Academy Award nominations.
Terry McMillan’s latest novel, Who Asked You?, was #1 in hardcover fiction and Animal 2: The Omen by urban fiction author K’Wan was #1 in paperback fiction. McMillan has been a bestselling author for the past two decades, since her breakthrough novel, Waiting To Exhale, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for several months. K’wan has written several successful urban fiction novels and Animal 2 is the sequel to Animal, which also was a Power List bestseller in 2013, reaching the highest position of #7.
Other notable information about the Winter 2013 list:
- The hardcover edition of Oprah’s book pick, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, was included on the Power List in the spring, summer and fall of 2013. The paperback version of the book debuted on the Winter 2014 list and was #3 among paperback fiction bestsellers.
- Several non-fiction paperback titles that were published three or more years ago continue to be bestsellers, including The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and Brainwashed by Tom Burrell.
- Steve Harvey’s Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man, continues to experience strong sales.
The Power List is compiled by collecting data from online book sellers, random samples on relevant Facebook pages, and a quarterly survey of 1,200 African-American book clubs. The list is released on the fourth Monday in the month following each calendar quarter. The Winter 2014 lists may be viewed at the Power List web site: www.powerlist.info. Updates are included on the Power List Facebook and Twitter pages. For more information, contact one of the individuals listed above.
Contact: Troy Johnson: troy@aalbc.com
Gwen Richardson: grichardson@cushcity.com
Ron Kavanaugh: ron@mosaicbooks.com