Jessica Green is a book addict and library card holder since the age of 3. She’s a librarian at the Ottawa Public Library and Apt613’s Librarian-in-Residence.
Looking for the freshest reads this holiday season? I have some lists for you based on the top books checked out this year at the Ottawa Public Library. Numbers were crunched, experts were consulted and databases double-checked to discover what Ottawa loves to read. The adult reads are in this post, with the top children and teen reads coming in a following post.
Adult Fiction
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| 1. The Woman in Cabin 10 | Ruth Ware |
| 2. The Whistler | John Grisham |
| 3. The Witches of New York | Ami McKay |
| 4. Do Not Say We Have Nothing | Madeleine Thien |
| 5. Small Great Things | Jodi Picoult |
| 6. No Man's Land | David Baldacci |
| 7. Girl Before | JP Delaney |
| 8. The Best Kind of People | Zoe Whittall |
| 9. Into The Water | Paula Hawkins |
| 10. My Not So Perfect Life | Sophie Kinsella |
You can see this list features books about the dark secrets ordinary people may be hiding, to literary award winners, to popular thrillers like The Woman in Cabin 10, The Girl Before and Into the Water. We can see that appearing on the shortlist for a major Canadian literary award can positively affect a book’s popularity, like with Do Not Say We Have Nothing and The Best Kind of People. Humour makes a brief appearance to round out the list, with My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella.
Adult Mystery
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| 1. Wrong Side of Goodbye | Michael Connelly |
| 2. Night School | Lee Child |
| 3. Garden of Lamentations | Deborah Crombie |
| 4. Rather Be the Devil | Ian Rankin |
| 5. Never Never | James Patterson |
| 6. Heartbreak Hotel | Jonathan Kellerman |
| 7. Golden Prey | John Sanford |
| 8. Echoes in Death | JD Robb |
| 9. Right Behind You | Lisa Gardner |
| 10. I See You | Clare Mackintosh |
This list has no real surprises as these are all well-established names in the mystery genre, with many superstars like Michael Connolly, JD Robb, and Ian Rankin. The numbers for these checkouts are pretty close to those on the Adult Fiction list, so it’s safe to say Ottawa adores mysteries just as much as the rest of fiction.
Adult Nonfiction
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| 1. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood | Trevor Noah |
| 2. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry | Neil deGrasse Tyson |
| 3. The Stranger in the Woods: the Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit | Michael Finkel |
| 4. Scrappy Little Nobody | Anna Kendrick |
| 5. Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) | Lauren Graham |
| 6. The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds | Michael Lewis |
| 7. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race | Margot Lee Shetterly |
| 8. Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy | Sheryl Sandberg |
| 9. The Princess Diarist | Carrie Fisher |
| 10. The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well | Meik Wiking |
This is a fascinating list of books. I was surprised to see this wide range of memoirs on this list but then I recalled that many had favourable reviews! I am pleased to see the Hidden Figures book as well as the latest from Neil deGrasse Tyson. I am also not surprised to see a book about hygge on the list as that was a major trend in 2017 and will likely continue well into 2018.
Adult Graphic Novels
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| 1. Secret Path | Gord Downie |
| 2. Big Mushy Happy Lump: A Sarah's Scribbles Collection | Sarah Andersen |
| 3. Yuge!: 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump | GB Trudeau |
| 4. Paper Girls 2 | Brian K. Vaughan |
| 5. Star Wars Darth Vader: Vol. 4, End of Games | Kieron Gillen |
| 6. The Walking Dead: Vol. 26, Call to Arms | Robert Kirkman |
| 7. Wolverine Old Man Logan: Vol. 1, Bezerker | Jeff Lemire |
| 8. The Walking Dead: Vol. 27, The Whisper War | Robert Kirkman |
| 9. Saga: Vol. 7 | Brian K. Vaughan |
| 10. Star Wars: Vader Down | Jason Aaron |
There are many comics here with movie or show tie-ins like the Walking Dead, Star Wars and Old Man Logan. We also have the perhaps too true observations on Trump over the years from the Doonesbury strip, as well as Saga, perhaps the greatest ongoing series currently being written, and a Sarah’s Scribbles collection, which are brilliant.
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