The checkout numbers have been culled and crunched, and we are pleased to present our Top Ten lists for 2021. The lists below were compiled using checkouts for all formats: print, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun placed at number one by a wide margin. This is not terribly surpising considering it is his first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in 2017 (and his first novel in about six years). As in 2020, perennial Society Library favorites make frequent appearances, and the only debut is Booker Prize winner, Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart. It is worth noting that Donna Leon appears for the remarkable sixth consecutive year with a new book in her Inspector Brunetti series. 

If you are an ebook reader or enjoy audiobooks, look for these titles on the "Most Popular Books of 2021" shelf in the Cloud Library. 

TOP TEN

1. Klara and the Sun | Kazuo Ishiguro
2. Caste: the Origins of Our Discontents | Isabel Wilkerson
3. Hamnet: A Novel of The Plague | Maggie O'Farrell
4. Harlem Shuffle | Colson Whitehead
5. Shuggie Bain | By Douglas Stuart
6. The Plot | Jean Hanff Korelitz & Snow | John Banville
7. Transient Desires | Donna Leon & A Swim In A Pond In the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give A Master Class On Writing, Reading, and Life | George Saunders
8. Second Place | Rachel Cusk
9. The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race | Walter Isaacson & A Promised Land | Barack Obama
10. Letters To Camondo | Edmund De Waal

Honorable mention: Mike Nichols: A Life | Mark Harris; Deacon King Kong | James McBride; Morningside Heights | Joshua Henkin; The Searcher | Tana French; The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett; The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz | Erik Larson; The Midnight Library | Matt Haig; Beautiful World, Where Are You | Sally Rooney

FICTION

1. Klara and the Sun | Kazuo Ishiguro 
2. Hamnet: A Novel of The Plague  | Maggie O'Farrell
3. Harlem Shuffle | Colson Whitehead
4. Shuggie Bain |  Douglas Stuart
5. The Plot | Jean Hanff Korelitz
6. Second Place | Rachel Cusk
7. Deacon King Kong | James McBride & Morningside Heights | Joshua Henkin
8. The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett
9. Beautiful World, Where Are You | Sally Rooney
10. Whereabouts | Jhumpa Lahiri 

Honorable mention: The Magician | Colm Tóibín; The Four Winds | Kristin Hannah; The Other Black Girl | Zakiya Dalila Harris; Homeland Elegies | Ayad Akhtar; Bewilderment | Richard Powers; The Vixen | Francine Prose & The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen; Crossroads | Jonathan Franzen; Cloud Cuckoo Land | Anthony Doerr; Who is Maud Dixon | Alexandra Andrews; Oh William! | Elizabeth Strout

MYSTERIES & CRIME FICTION

1. Snow | John Banville 
2. Transient Desires | Donna Leon
3. The Searcher | Tana French
4. Moonflower Murders | Anthony Horowitz
5. The Last Thing he Told Me | Laura Dave
6. The Thursday Murder Club | Richard Osman & The Survivors | Jane Harper
7. The Cellist | Daniel Silva & The Consequences of Fear | Jacqueline Winspear
8. While Justice Sleeps | Stacey Abrams
9. All the Devils are Here | Louise Penny & Silverview | John Le Carré
10. The Law of Innocence | Michael Connelly

Honorable mention: Snowdrift | Helene Tursten; State of Terror | Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny; The Guest List | Lucy Foley

NONFICTION

1. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents | Isabel Wilkerson 
2. A Swim in A Pond In the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life | George Saunders
3. The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race | Walter Isaacson & A Promised Land | Barack Obama
4. Letters To Camondo | Edmund De Waal
5. Mike Nichols: A Life | Mark Harris
6. The Splendid And The Vile : A Saga Of Churchill, Family, And Defiance During The Blitz | Erik Larson
7. The Barbizon : The Hotel That Set Women Free | Paulina Bren & The Empathy Diaries : A Memoir | Sherry Turkle
8. Empire Of Pain : The Secret History Of The Sackler Dynasty | Patrick Radden Keefe
9. Philip Roth : The Biography | Blake Bailey
10. The Best Of Me | David Sedaris

Honorable mention: World Travel: An Irreverent Guide | Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever; The Free World : Art and Thought in The Cold War | Louis Menand; The Light Of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos | Judy Batalion; Let Me Tell You What I Mean | Joan Didion; Tom Stoppard: A Life | Hermione Lee; All the Frequent Troubles of our Days: The True Story Of The American Woman At The Heart Of The German Resistance To Hitler | Rebecca Donner