The Library’s Most Popular Books of 2024

What was the story of 2024 in books? It’s always intriguing to look back and see which titles captured the interest of Seattle’s insatiable readers over the course of the year, and one way to do that is through library checkout data.

James McBride’s 2023 bestseller “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” was the most popular print novel of the year, followed closely by Percival Everett’s “James,” which just won the National Book Award for fiction. Rebecca Yarros’ , “Fourth Wing,” was downloaded most often by e-book borrowers.

We at the library loved seeing that our 2024 Seattle Reads selection, Octavia Butler’s prescient novel “Parable of the Sower,” ranked in the top 10 for fiction print and e-books. The works of other local authors topped nonfiction print checkouts, including Eden Dawn and Ashod Simonian’s “The Seattle Book of Dates,” Seattle chef Becky Selengut’s “Misunderstood Vegetables”and Taha Ebrahimi’s “Street Trees of Seattle.”

Finally, if you’re an audiobook fan, you’re in good company. Our most popular book in any category was the audiobook version of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass.”

Below are our top 10 checkouts in five different book categories for 2024. The lists were compiled from anonymous checkout data (does not include renewals) collected from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, 2024. Figures in parentheses reflect the number of times a book was checked out.

Most popular adult fiction physical books

1. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride (2,494)
2. James, by Percival Everett (2,213)
3. The Kamogawa Food Detectives, by Hisashi Kashiwai (1,961)
4. Wandering Stars, by Tommy Orange (1,672)
5. Absolution, by Alice McDermott (1,575)
6. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett (1,564)
7. Come and Get It, by Kiley Reid (1,561)
8. The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters (1,554)
9. The Paris Novel, by Ruth Reichl (1,547)
10. Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler (1,469)

Most popular adult fiction e-books

1. Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros (4,878)
2. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett (4,179)
3. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver (3,801)
4. The Women, by Kristin Hannah (3,039)
5. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride (3,038)
6. Happy Place, by Emily Henry (2,917)
7. Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler (2,499)
8. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin (2,480)
9. Iron Flame, by Rebecca Yarros (2,441)
10. Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang (2,325)

Most popular adult nonfiction physical books

1. The Seattle Book of Dates, by Eden Dawn (1,479)
2. Rental Person Who Does Nothing, by Shoji Morimoto (1,440)
3. Supercommunicators, by Charles Duhigg (1,428)
4. Slow Productivity, by Cal Newport (1,412)
5. Misunderstood Vegetables, by Becky Selengut (1,379)
6. The Other Significant Others, by Rhaina Cohen (1,374)
7. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan (1,309)
8. Street Trees of Seattle, by Taha Ebrahimi (1,130)
9. Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma, by Dr. Mariel Buqué (1,052)
10. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, by Salman Rushdie (1,024)

Most popular adult nonfiction e-books

1. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, by Lori Gottlieb (1,952)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann (1,775)
3. I’m Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy (1,699)
4. The Woman in Me, by Britney Spears (1,640)
5. Educated, by Tara Westover (1,389)
6. When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi (1,180)
7. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah (1,092)
8. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown (1,032)
9. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, by David Grann (1,008)
10. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Kimmerer (938) 

Most popular adult e-audiobooks

1. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Kimmerer (4,982)
2. Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros (4,685)
3. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett (4,418)
4. 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think, by Brianna West (4,045)
5. Iron Flame, by Rebecca Yarros (3,980)
6. The Woman in Me, by Britney Spears (3,843)
7. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese (3,560)
8. Dune, by Frank Herbert (3,309)
9. I’m Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy (3,104)
10. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver (3,093)

The Seattle Public Library loves to promote books and reading. This column was submitted by the library to highlight local checkout trends. Read the article on the Seattle Times website. This column is reprinted with permission from the Seattle Times.