Typically, we like to share our own recommended reads, fave titles, and most anticipated new releases - but this year, in the spirit of doing things a little differently (haven’t heard that saying enough yet) we’re highlighting the Best of 2020 (yep, that’s an oxymoron) as chosen by YOU. Using our new library circulation data collection tool (way more exciting than that description makes it sound), here’s a breakdown of the most popular titles with our patrons in the past 12 months.
In terms of overall popular circulation, mainstream fiction favourites David Baldacci (with A Minute to Midnight), James Patterson (Revenge) and John Grisham (Camino Winds) were checked out most often. We were happy to see a few fantastic 2018 titles like Michelle Obama’s Becoming and Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing also holding strong on our most requested list. An admirable, if misguided effort to cling to the past – 2020 will do that to a person. Our patrons also gave some much-deserved attention to Lisa Jewel - her October release Invisible Girl being trumped only by her late 2019 title, The Family Upstairs. Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Lisa Gardner, and (by far our personal favourite of the bunch) Fredrik Backman’s newest releases were also in constant demand.
Some Canadian standouts from the year included The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham, Shari Lapena’s A Stranger in the House (only narrowly eclipsing her July release, The End of Her), The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, Emma Donoghue’s The Pull of the Stars, and several Louise Penny titles including A Great Reckoning and her latest release, All the Devils Are Here. There was a continued circulation resurgence of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (in tandem with last year’s release, The Testaments), not to be outdone in classic Canadiana by Anne of Green Gables, which still managed to circulate approximately once per month. We can’t be the only ones excited for a new crop of readers to first experience our redheaded heroine smash a slate over the head of Gilbert Blythe.
Nonfiction titles that most frequently filled our holds shelves this year were not surprisingly Trump based tomes including Rage by Bob Woodward, Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump, and Disloyal by Michael Cohen. Our patrons got self reflective with Brené Brown’s I Thought it was Just Me (But it Isn’t) and embraced entertainingly annotated histories with The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. There was an understandable surge in organization titles like Home Edit and Home Edit Life by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, and somewhat more quizzically, 2016’s The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees. Perhaps used an invaluable tool for coordinating one’s sweatpants by colour code.
In children’s titles, the graphic novel-juvenile fiction hybrid held strong with Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (2009’s Dog Days being the most circulated title), Dogman by Dav Pilkey (led by 2018’s Brawl of the Wild) and Dork Diaries 14 (2019) by Rachel Renée Russell holding the top spots. The Baby- sitters Club, in its many various forms – including the revised chapter books series, graphic novel spinoff and Baby Sister spinoff of the spinoff – continued to appeal to a new generation of readers. LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary reigned supreme among visual dictionaries (as you may know, oft a hotly contested pictorial lexicon battle). Among picture book favourites, we saw the continued popularity of Pete the Cat, Baby Shark, and Mo Willem’s pigeon titles among standalones like Peppa’s First Colors, Anne’s Numbers, Bear Gets Dressed, and Bear’s Busy Morning (bear apparently also leading for most exciting life of of the year).
To order these, or any other titles for contactless pickup, place items on hold via our online catalogue or give us a call at 905-227-2581. The library is currently closed to the public, but open for all your curbside pickup and virtual programming needs.
