The 2016 Hit Parade: The Most Popular Books of the Year
The Library's annual lists of most-circulated books reveal the varied reading tastes of our membership. While long-time favorite Library authors dominated 2016 (Strout, McEwan, Anne Tyler, etc.), and many books also appeared on our 2015 list (e.g., Ferrante, Anthony Doerr, Lauren Groff, Ta-Nehisi Coates), there are many surprises here.
Following the Top 10 below, we have included Top 20 lists for the most-circulated general fiction, nonfiction, and mysteries. Nearly all titles are also available as ebooks in our Cloud Library collection,and can be found here.
The Top 10
1. Elizabeth Strout - My Name is Lucy Barton
2. Paul Kalanithi - When Breath Becomes Air
3. Alan Furst - A Hero of France
4. Noah Hawley - Before the Fall
5. Donna Leon - The Waters of Eternal Youth
6. Graham Swift - Mothering Sunday: a Romance
7. Lauren Groff - Fates and Furies
8. Elena Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend (translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein) | Ann Patchett - Commonwealth
9. Edna O'Brien - The Little Red Chairs
10. Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad
Top 20 Fiction
1. Elizabeth Strout - My Name is Lucy Barton
2. Noah Hawley - Before the Fall
3. Graham Swift - Mothering Sunday: a Romance
4. Lauren Groff - Fates and Furies
5. Elena Ferrante - My brilliant Friend (translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein) | Ann Patchett - Commonwealth
6. Edna O'Brien - The Little Red Chairs
7. Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad
8. Hanya Yanagihara - A Little Life
9. Anna Quindlen - Miller's Valley
10. Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney - The Nest
11. Anne Tyler - Vinegar Girl: The Taming of the Shrew Retold
12. Elizabeth George - A Banquet of Consequences
13. Curtis Sittenfeld - Eligible | Emma Straub - Modern Lovers
14. Richard Russo - Everybody's Fool | Cathleen Schine - They May Not Mean To, but They Do | Deborah Levy - Hot Milk | Stephanie Danler - Sweetbitter
15. Dominic Smith -The Last Painting of Sara de Vos | Julian Fellowes - Belgravia | Caleb Carr -Surrender, New York
16. Magda Szabó - The Door (translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix)
17. Anthony Doerr - All the Light We Cannot See
18. Kristin Hannah - The Nightingale
19. Hannah Rothschild - The Improbability of Love
20. Tessa Hadley - The Past
Top 20 Nonfiction
1. Paul Kalanithi - When Breath Becomes Air
2. Jane Mayer - Dark Money: the Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
3. Mary Beard - SPQR: a History of Ancient Rome
4. Robert Gottlieb - Avid Reader: a Life
5. Bill Bryson - The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain
6. Laura Cumming - The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velazquez
7. Roger Angell - This Old Man: All in Pieces
8. James Shapiro - The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606
9. Ta-Nehisi Coates - Between the World and Me | Jean Stein - West of Eden: an American Place
10. Elaine Sciolino - The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs
12. Eric Ripert (with Veronica Chambers) - 32 Yolks: From my Mother's Table to Working the Line
13. Katie Roiphe - The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End
14. Andrea Wulf - The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World | Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik - Notorious RBG : the Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Michael Kinsley - Old Age: a Beginner's Guide | J.D. Vance - Hillbilly Elegy: a Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
15. Laura Thompson - The Six: the Lives of the Mitford Sisters
16. Carly Simon - Boys in the Trees: a Memoir | Ian Buruma - Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War | Simon Sebag Montefiore - The Romanovs: 1613-1918 | Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt - The Rainbow Comes and Goes: a Mother and son on Life, Love, and Loss | Jenny Diski - In Gratitude | John Le Carre - The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from my Life
17. Erik Larson - Dead Wake: the Last Crossing of the Lusitania | Marie Kondo - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (translated from Japanese by Cathy Hirano)
18. Patti Smith - M train
19. Gloria Steinem - My Life on the Road
20. Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Gene: an Intimate History | Robert F. Worth - A Rage for Order: the Middle East in Turmoil, from Tahrir Square to ISIS
Top 20 Mysteries
1. Alan Furst - A Hero of France
2. Donna Leon - The Waters of Eternal Youth
3. Paula Hawkins - The Girl on the Train
4. Ian Rankin - Even Dogs in the Wild
5. Philip Kerr - The Other Side of Silence
6. Daniel Silva - The Black Widow
7. Ian McEwan - Nutshell
8. Harlan Coben - Fool Me Once | Louise Penny - A Great Reckoning
9. Peter Lovesey - Another One Goes Tonight: a Peter Diamond Investigation
10. David Baldacci - The Last Mile | Tana French - The Trespasser
11. John Lawton - The Unfortunate Englishman: a Joe Wilderness Novel
12. Jacqueline Winspear - Journey to Munich | Charles Todd - No Shred of Evidence & The Shattered Tree
13. Susie Steiner - Missing, Presumed
14. Jo Nesbø - Midnight Sun (translated from the Norwegian by Neil Smith) | P.D. James - The Mistletoe murder: and Other Stories
15. Michael Connelly - The Crossing
16. John Grisham - Rogue Lawyer
17. David Baldacci - The Guilty | Laura Lippman - Wilde Lake | Jeffrey Archer - Cometh the Hour
18. Rhys Bowen - Crowned and Dangerous
19. Lee Child - Make me: a Jack Reacher Novel | Benjamin Black - Even the Dead: a Quirke Novel | Elizabeth Brundage - All Things Cease to Appear | Michael Connelly -The Wrong Side of Goodbye | John Grisham - The Whistler
20. Lee Child - Night School: a Jack Reacher Novel | James Runcie - Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation | Anne Perry - Revenge in a Cold River: a William Monk Novel | Colin Cotterill - I Shot the Buddha
Disqus Comments