January often brings the onslaught of listicles, those irresistible half article-half list stories that fill our newsfeeds and invite us to look back on the most popular trends of the year. From Maine’s total solar eclipse to Charlie XCX reforming pop music to Moo Deng (the baby pygmy hippo that captured the world’s heart), our desire to take stock of the past year serves as a natural transition point: We plan for our futures by reviewing our pasts. And with 2024 being a centennial for Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library (BHML), it seems only natural to archive the year’s most popular books.

BHML Executive Director Joanna Breen has provided the Register with the library’s most borrowed books of 2024 for both adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction, as well as Minerva (Maine’s shared library system).  

Top 5  Adult Nonfiction Books:

1.        How to Be Old : Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon, Lyn Slater (Plume, 2024)

2.        Terror on the Maine Frontier: the Ordeal and Triumph of John Gyles, Gerard Gawalt (2023)

3.        My Side of the River: A Memoir, Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez (St. Martin’s Press, 2024)

4.        Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Natalie Dykstra (Mariner, 2024)

5.        Being Henry: The Fonz…And Beyond, Henry Winkler (Celadon, 2023)

Top 5  Adult Fiction Books:

1.        The Women, Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s Press, 2024)

2.        The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon (Vintage, 2023)

3.        Pitch Dark (Book 15 of the Mike Bowditch Mysteries) Paul Doiron (Minotaur, 2024)

4.        Red At Night, Jerry Farnham (2022)

5.        Three-Inch Teeth (Book 24 of the Joe Pickett series) C.J. Box (G.P. Putnum’s Sons, 2024)

Top 5  Children’s Nonfiction Books:

1.        A History of Underwear with Professor Chicken, Hannah Holt (Roaring Brook, 2022)

2.        Dinoblock, Christopher Franceschelli (Abrams Appleseed, 2015)

3.        The Book of Mysteries, Magic, and the Unexplained, Tamara Macfarlane (DK Children, 2023)

4.        Pokémon Super Deluxe Essential Handbook: The Need-to-know Stats and Facts on Over 800 Characters!, Scholastic (Scholastic Inc., 2024)

5.        Greeking Out: Epic Retellings of Classic Greek Myths, Kenny Curtis (National Geographic Kids, 2023)

Top 5  Children’s Fiction Books:

1.        Cat Kid Comic Club: Influencers, Dav Pilkey (Graphix, 2023)

2.        Star Wars: Rescue From Jabba’s Palace, Michael Siglain (Egmont Books, 2016)

3.        Baby-Sitter Little Sisters: Karen’s School Picture, Ann Martin (Graphix, 2022)

4.        Dog Man: The Scarlett Shredder, Dav Pilkey (Graphix, 2024)

5.        The Wild Robot Protects, Peter Brown (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2023)

Top 5  Minerva (all Maine participating libraries) Books:

1.        The Women, Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s Press, 2024)

2.        The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon (Vintage, 2023)

3.        Pitch Dark (Book 15 of the Mike Bowditch Mysteries) Paul Doiron (Minotaur, 2024)

4.        Tom Lake, Ann Patchett (Harper, 2023)

5.        The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride (Riverhead Books, 2023)

Kristin Hannah’s “The Women” outnumbered its competitors by a sizeable amount. It ranked first in adult fiction at BHML and across Maine’s shared library system. It is a book club favorite and a #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times lists, and placed sixth on Boston Public Library’s 2024 circulation list.

Local author Jerry Farnham’s “Red At Night”, reported by the Register last January, holds its own on the list with the other popular books of 2024.