Favorites from our 2021 Popular Reads Display

If you have visited our library lately you have seen that we have moved our Staff Picks, Patron Picks, and Lucky Stars to where the Hot Summer Reads are located in the summer. We are calling it our Hot Reads Corner. 

A new featured area that contains selections popular with our patrons is our Popular Books of 2021 Display located in the alcove in our Fiction area. These books are no longer considered "new releases" , but have proven to be continually checked out or they continue to be "talked about" in the book reviews, publishing magazines, and selected by book clubs. The selection is diverse and most genres are represented. 

Here are some of my favorites from 2021. Many of these are debut authors. I enjoy a book with a great sense of place, interesting imperfect characters with inherently good qualities, and a redemptive plot.

One of my most memorable reads of the year is The Reading List  by Sara Nisha Adams. This novel, set in London England, was a surprising delight where the premise of the story is a list of books that draw meaningful connections for the reader. The story includes a great sense of community, the focal setting is a library, and the cast of characters are diverse. You will enjoy taking the journey with the one of the main characters, Mukash, as he finds the joy of living after losing his wife.

I seemed to gravitated this year toward more character based literary fiction. These three were filled with family secrets and a great sense of place.

The Paper Palace by debut author Miranda Cowley Heller is set on Cape Cod. Full of family and love.

Olympus, Texas  by debut author Stacey Swann is set in Texas and if you are a fan of Greek mythology you will enjoy how each character relates to a Greek hero or heroine (but knowledge not needed to enjoy the book.)

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines by debut author Pamela Terry is mostly set in Georgia with southern charm and bit of introspection of southern ideas.

These mysteries have main characters whose past is intertwined with their current investigations. Both are set on the west coast and had me deeply invested in this storytelling through the ending.

When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain

We Begin At the End by Chris Whitaker

One of my top 10 reads of the year, Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elie
Cosimano is a hi-jinx mystery you will not want to put down. Its sympathetic main character is a writer caught up in a case of being mistaken for a murder-for-hire. What better fodder for a writer looking for her next story as she actually decides to "take the case". I can't wait for the next book in this series.

We hope to see you in the library soon.