Home / Book clubs / Noname's Book Club NONAME'S BOOK CLUB
Noname's Book Club: Every Book Pick Chicago rapper and poet Noname (Fatimah Warner) launched her book club on August 1, 2019, after a fan replied to her social-media post about the community-economics book Jackson Rising with the same title they were reading. Noname described the project as a deliberate alternative to buying from Amazon and a response to the FBI's COINTELPRO-era targeting of Black-owned independent bookstores; the club asks members to buy from local, Black-owned booksellers instead, and has donated selections to more than 400 U.S. prison facilities. Each month the club names two picks, one "informative text" and one "creative work," drawn from a self-described "radical curated book list" of anti-capitalist, abolitionist, and diasporic writing by authors of color; celebrities have occasionally guest-selected a pick. The club's inaugural August 2019 selections were Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby. It has since grown into a global network of 20+ local chapters across the U.S., Europe, and Africa, and began building a physical Chicago headquarters in March 2021 offering political-education classes and community programs.
103 picks · hosted by Noname (Fatimah Warner) · since 2019.
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Start free trial → Homegoing November 2025
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Assata: An Autobiography October 2025
Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Sister Outsider September 2025
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature August 2025
Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Krik? Krak! July 2025
Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
Blessings June 2025
Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh
Africa Is Not a Country May 2025
Africa Is Not a Country by Dipo Faloyin
A Small Place April 2025
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Chain-Gang All-Stars March 2025
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle February 2025
Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara
Parable of the Talents October 2024
Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
The Black Woman: An Anthology September 2024
The Black Woman: An Anthology by Toni Cade Bambara
Tip of the Spear August 2024
Tip of the Spear by Orisanmi Burton
Big Black: Stand at Attica August 2024
Big Black: Stand at Attica by Frank Smith
How to Say Babylon July 2024
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
Rasta and Resistance July 2024
Rasta and Resistance by Horace Campbell
Another Word for Love June 2024
Another Word for Love by Carvell Wallace
Doppelgangbanger June 2024
Doppelgangbanger by Cortney Lamar Charleston
Discourse on Colonialism May 2024
Discourse on Colonialism by Aime Cesaire
Waiting to Exhale April 2024
Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan
Barracoon: The Story of the Last 'Black Cargo' March 2024
Barracoon: The Story of the Last 'Black Cargo' by Zora Neale Hurston
In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love February 2024
In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love by Joy James
My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter February 2024
My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter by Aja Monet
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa January 2024
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney
Freedom is a Constant Struggle November 2023
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine November 2023
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
Devil in a Blue Dress October 2023
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
No More Police October 2023
No More Police by Andrea Ritchie & Mariame Kaba
Vagabonds!: A Novel September 2023
Vagabonds!: A Novel by Eloghosa Osunde
Assata Taught Me August 2023
Assata Taught Me by Donna Murch
The Black Panther Party August 2023
The Black Panther Party by David F. Walker & Marcus K. Anderson
Blues People: Negro Music in White America July 2023
Blues People: Negro Music in White America by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka)
Coldest Winter Ever June 2023
Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah
Communist Manifesto June 2023
Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes May 2023
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou
Elite Capture April 2023
Elite Capture by Olufemi O. Taiwo
The Temple of My Familiar March 2023
The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker
The Stars and Blackness Between Them February 2023
The Stars and Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus
Of Water and The Spirit February 2023
Of Water and The Spirit by Malidoma Patrice Some
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments January 2023
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman
Care Free Black Girls January 2023
Care Free Black Girls by Zeba Blay
Intimate Direct Democracy November 2022
Intimate Direct Democracy by Modibo Kadalie
Solitary October 2022
Solitary by Albert Woodfox
God Help The Child September 2022
God Help The Child by Toni Morrison
Killing The Black Body September 2022
Killing The Black Body by Dorothy Roberts
Root Magic Friday Black July 2022
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The Death of Vivek Oji June 2022
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
Anarchism and the Black Revolution May 2022
Anarchism and the Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kem'boa Ervin
Rifqa May 2022
Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd
Home Is Not A Country April 2022
Home Is Not A Country by Safia Elhillo
The Sobbing School April 2022
The Sobbing School by Joshua Bennett
Children of Blood and Bone Salvation February 2022
Salvation by Bell Hooks
The Nation On No Map February 2022
The Nation On No Map by William C. Anderson
Becoming Abolitionists January 2022
Becoming Abolitionists by Derecka Purnell
Live From Death Row January 2022
Live From Death Row by Mumia Abu-Jamal
The Spook Who Sat By The Door December 2021
The Spook Who Sat By The Door by Sam Greenlee
Black Slaves, Indian Masters November 2021
Black Slaves, Indian Masters by Barbara Krauthamer
As Long As Grass Grows November 2021
As Long As Grass Grows by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
Blood Child October 2021
Blood Child by Octavia E. Butler
My Sister, The Serial Killer October 2021
My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Belly of the Beast September 2021
Belly of the Beast by Da'Shaun L. Harrison
Heavy September 2021
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
The Skin I'm in September 2021
The Skin I'm in by Sharon G Flake
Autobiography of Malcolm X August 2021
Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley
Looking For Lorraine August 2021
Looking For Lorraine by Imani Perry
Homegoing July 2021
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Hip Hop Wars June 2021
The Hip Hop Wars by Tricia Rose
A Little Devil In America June 2021
A Little Devil In America by Hanif Abdurraqib
June 2021
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
The End of Policing May 2021
The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
Facing the Rising Sun May 2021
Facing the Rising Sun by Gerald Horne
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed April 2021
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed by Charles E. Cobb Jr.
Cane April 2021
Cane by Jean Toomer
The Three Mothers March 2021
The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs
How We Get Free March 2021
How We Get Free by Keeanga-Yamhatta Taylor
The End of White World Supremacy February 2021
The End of White World Supremacy by Roderick D. Bush
Here I Stand February 2021
Here I Stand by Paul Robeson
No Name In The Street January 2021
No Name In The Street by James Baldwin
I Can't Date Jesus January 2021
I Can't Date Jesus by Michael Arceneaux
The Assassination of Fred Hampton December 2020
The Assassination of Fred Hampton by Jeffrey Haas
1919 December 2020
1919 by Eve L. Ewing
Class Struggle In Africa November 2020
Class Struggle In Africa by Kwame Nkrumah
Our History Is The Future November 2020
Our History Is The Future by Nick Estes
Prison By Any Other Name October 2020
Prison By Any Other Name by Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century September 2020
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong
Capitalism & Disability September 2020
Capitalism & Disability by Marta Russell
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination August 2020
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison
The Vanishing Half August 2020
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex July 2020
Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Eric Stanley & Nat Smith
Are Prisons Obsolete? July 2020
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis
Race Music: Black Cultures From Bebop to Hip-Hop June 2020
Race Music: Black Cultures From Bebop to Hip-Hop by Guthrie Ramsey
Blood In My Eye June 2020
Blood In My Eye by George Jackson
Assata: An Autobiography May 2020
Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
War Against All Puerto Ricans April 2020
War Against All Puerto Ricans by Nelson Antonio Denis
Mean April 2020
Mean by Myriam Gurba
Love WITH Accountability March 2020
Love WITH Accountability by Aishah Shahidah Simmons
Sister Outsider February 2020
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Magical Negro February 2020
Magical Negro by Morgan Parker
Die Nigger Die! January 2020
Die Nigger Die! by Jamil Al-Amin
Sabrina & Corina January 2020
Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
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Pick list sourced from Noname Book Club's official Monthly Picks archive (nonamebooks.com), cross-verified against an independent Goodreads community-curated list and public-library staff lists (Chicago, Boston, Kansas City, King County). Founding details verified against the Chicago Sun-Times' day-one launch coverage and Wikipedia's Noname (rapper) article. View the source list . Last verified 2026-09-02.
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