Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Public Library, and Queens Public Library unveiled the top ten titles for adults, teens, and children and surprisingly, female authors are winning over the hearts of New Yorkers of all ages and in all the boroughs.
Queens Public Library Chief Librarian Nick Buron declared: “This year’s top checkouts reflect a changing of the guard. In the past our readers leaned towards popular romance and suspense novelists, like Danielle Steel, John Grisham or Stephen King. This year they were drawn to writers of color, like Gabrielle Zevin and Abraham Verghese, and authors whose popularity soared after they went viral on social media, like Rebecca Yarros, Colleen Hoover and Brianna Wiest. These choices signal a desire to explore new themes as well as changes in the way our customers discover and engage with books.”
Data show that the top checkout of the Brooklyn Public Library was I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy, iCarly and Sam & Cat star, now New York Times bestselling author, who wrote about her struggles as a former child actor. At the New York Public Library–which has three locations in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island–the most borrowed book was Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, a fantasy reading about dragons, academic life and first love, was the favorite of patrons at Queens Public Library.
Female authors dominated throughout the lists: Gabrielle Zevin, Emily Henry, Lucy Foley, Jenny Jackson, Colleen Hoover, and Brianna Wiest were the most toted away.
Although for children and teen’s books the Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney won it all, female authors followed right behind with the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy by Jenny Han, and Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games.
