As we bid farewell to 2020, let’s take a moment to review our year in reading. The following titles from our browsing collection represent books that were frequently checked out by members of our reading community in the past year. Additionally, a few ZSR staffers wanted to share their favorite reads in 2020. And, we’d love to hear from you– share your favorite titles from the past year in the comments below!

Browsing book with most checkouts of 2020

• Educated : A Memoir by Tara Westover

Frequently checked out browsing books of 2020

• Normal People by Sally Rooney
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
• The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution by Eric Foner
• Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond
• Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
• Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
• Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
• How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez
• Knife by Jo Nesbø
• Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA by Amaryllis Fox
• Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham
• Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett
• My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

** A special thanks to Carol Cramer for gathering the checkout statistics to help us compile this list of books!

ZSR Staff Favorites of 2020

Lauren Corbett, Director of Resource Services

• The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough
• The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith

Jeff Eller, Head of Acquisitions & Description

• Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
• Remainder by Tom McCarthy
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• V by Thomas Pynchon

Patrick Ferrell, Library Specialist III

• Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974 by Kevin M. Krause & Julian E. Zelizer
• Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham

Amanda Kaufman, Learning & Instructional Services Librarian

• How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

Molly Keener, Director of Digital Initiatives & Scholarly Communication

• the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
• Writers & Lovers by Lily King
• Dopesick by Beth Macy
• Lanny by Max Porter
• The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home by Diane Kiernan
• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
• Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

Meghan Webb, Instruction & Outreach Librarian

• Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
• Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
• The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren
• Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

Join our community of Readers!

Check out our Goodreads shelf to see titles read (and reviewed) by ZSR community members. Want to recommend a book? Submit a review at zsr.wfu.edu/bookreviews !