Our most checked-out materials in 2020
Library Champion,
I always enjoy writing about our most checked-out materials. It doesn’t tell you everything about our readers, but it definitely gives a glimpse into what subjects and authors are popular here.
You can find an abridged version of this in your local newspaper. But as a library champion and subscriber to this newsletter, you get unlocked content 🔓 that isn't included anywhere else! This includes extra categories with their most checked-out items and some extra commentary by yours truly.
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Without further ado, here are our most checked-out materials in 2020...
Adult Fiction
1. Where the crawdads sing by Delia Owens
2. The Guardians by John Grisham
3. Fair Warning by Michael Connelly
4. 28 summers by Elin Hilderbrand
5. Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand
Adult Nonfiction
1. Wild game: my mother, her lover, and me by Adrienne Brodeur
2. The United states of pizza: America's favorite pizzas, from thin crust to deep dish, sourdough to gluten-free by Craig Priebe
3. Atomic habits: tiny changes, remarkable results: an easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones by James Clear
4. Smoke gets in your eyes & other lessons from the crematory by Caitlin Doughty
5. Educated by Tara Westover
Young Adult
1. Five feet apart by Rachael Lippincott
2. UnDivided by Neal Shusterman
3. The ballad of songbirds and snakes by Suzanne Collins
4. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
5. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
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Kids Fiction
1. Hank the cowdog #33: the case of the measled cowboy by John Erickson
2. The Case of the Haystack Kitties by John Erickson
3. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
4. A week in the woods by Andrew Clements
5. The map trap by Andrew Clements
Kids Nonfiction
1. Dog Man by Dav Pilkey
2. This is how we do it: one day in the lives of seven kids from around the world by Matt Lamothe
3. Encyclopedia Brown's book of wacky crimes by Donald Sobol
4. Drama by Raina Telgemeier
5. A picture book of Abraham Lincoln by David Adler
Kids Easy Reader
1. Disney bedtime favorites
2. Paw Patrol 5-minute stories collection
3. Little Blue Truck's springtime: a lift-the-flap book by Alice Schertle
4. Look, there's a tractor! By Esther Aarts
5. Fairy house by Victoria Kann
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DVD - Unlocked content for subscribers 🔓
1. Richard Jewell
2. Yellowstone season 2
3. A beautiful day in the neighborhood
4. The invisible man
5. Joker
Large Print - Unlocked content for subscribers 🔓
1. Where the fire falls : a Vintage National Park novel by Karen Barnett
2. The marriage game by Fern Michaels
3. Beneath a scarlet sky by Mark Sullivan
4. Cold aim by Janice Cantore
5. Looking for peyton place by Barbara Delinsky
Book on CD - Unlocked content for subscribers 🔓
1. Murder 101 by Faye Kellerman
2. Love 'n' marriage a selection from 'Love in Plain Sight' by Debbie Macomber
3. Blues highway blues : A crossroads thriller by Eyre Price
4. The American story-teller 19 true stories by Nelson Lauver
5. All the light we cannot see : a novel by Anthony Doerr
eBook: Cottage by the Sea by Debbie Macomber - tied with The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
eAudio: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Some thoughts...
- James Patterson, Danielle Steel, Lee Child, Stuart Woods, David Baldacci, as well as any political books are surprisingly not on any of these lists. Could it be that readers only see the continual wave of these authors or topics as more of the same?
- Where the crawdads sing was our most borrowed Adult Fiction and eBook in 2020. Fiction readers of all stripes really liked this book.
- Educated, our #5 overall nonfiction checkout, was released in 2018 and was still on the New York Times best seller list in 2020.
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released in print 23 years ago but was our most borrowed eAudio title. Wonder how that is? At the beginning of the pandemic, J.K. Rowling made the first book in her Harry Potter series available digitally to anyone at any time with no waiting list.
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One book I am reading: The Power Couple by Alex Berenson (Adult fiction)
Rebecca and Brian Unsworth, the married couple at the heart of Berenson’s latest breakneck thriller, lead far more exciting and important lives than most of us. She’s an ambitious FBI counterterrorism expert; he’s a laid-back coder for the National Security Agency who is ingenious enough to create an app in his spare time and sell it for a cool $2 million. That’s why the Unsworths can afford to spend their 20th wedding anniversary in Barcelona with their teenagers, Kira and Tony, looking forward to family time far from the daily grind of their high-pressure jobs.
But Kira, a college student, has other plans. She sneaks off to meet an attractive stranger at a club, ignoring her midnight curfew and relying on parental relaxation to guarantee eventual forgiveness. But when she doesn’t return to the hotel, Rebecca and Brian are catapulted into a nightmare. Who kidnapped Kira—and why? And how can they hope to find her in another country, even with all their government connections?
Berenson, who won an Edgar Award for his first novel, The Faithful Spy (2006), alternates points of view among Rebecca, Brian, and Kira, moving from past to present with ease and presenting a deeper look at a marriage that’s far more complicated that it seems on the surface. Yet even as it examines career jealousy and marital dissonance and draws intriguing portraits of its characters, this novel never forgets it’s primarily a thriller. The pace is unrelenting, and Berenson has a few twists in his arsenal. He also creates an engaging character in the brave and resourceful Kira, who is so much more than a helpless victim.
Bottom line: A fast-paced and engaging political thriller.
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One of the books I purchased that you should check out: Walk in My Combat Boots: True Stories from America's Bravest Warriors by James Patterson, Matt Eversmann, Chris Mooney (Adult Nonfiction)
In this wide-ranging, consistently absorbing collection, the authors cover the entire spectrum of American military action during the last 50 years, from Vietnam to the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
There are some truly striking experiences here—e.g., Gen. Ron Silverman, a dentist, installing a crown on one of Saddam Hussein’s teeth (“He starts talking about the history of the Middle East….It’s not so much a discussion as a lecture”) or Col. Mario Costagliola’s work near ground zero in the aftermath of 9/11. Nearly all of the pieces contain harrowing elements, especially Jeddah Deloria’s account of being wounded in Afghanistan. The “Home Front” section includes stories by veterans facing unemployment or PTSD after leaving the service while “Red,” a human intelligence collector, chronicles his interrogation of Iraqi prisoners.
The final section, “Memorial Day,” looks at the heartbreaking impact of soldiers’ deaths on their loved ones. The contributors come from a wide variety of backgrounds, from prep school to poverty, but they all demonstrate incredible pride and determination. One potent example is Lisa Marie Bodenburg, who fought entrenched sexism to become a helicopter gunner in the Marines. Many of the contributors come from military families, and a high percentage offer their personal stories of what they were doing on 9/11 and how those tragic events affected their lives in the following years.
Narrated in the present tense, the text is urgent and full of suspense, and while there is some repetition of experiences, the stories are different enough to keep the pages turning. The clear, matter-of-fact tone only adds to the gravity of life-and-death events that these courageous Americans have endured. Even after their service, many of them continue to work with veterans and their families.
Bottom line: A gripping account of American military members’ experiences before, during, and after wartime.
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--Vince Giordano
Librarian and Director of the Juniata County Library.
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