As we bid farewell to 2023, 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 librarians and staff members wanted to share their favorite reads from 2023. And, we’d love to hear from you– share your favorite book titles from the past year in the comments below!

Browsing book with most checkouts of 2023

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Frequently checked out browsing books of 2023

• Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
• Godmersham Park : A Novel of the Austen Family by Gill Hornby
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
• The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by Victoria Schwab
• The Maid by Nita Prose
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
• The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells
• Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley
• Babel, or, The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang
• Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America by Eyal Press
• Empire of the Scalpel: The History of Surgery by Ira Rutkow
• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann

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

ZSR Staff Favorites of 2023

Stephanie Bennett, Collections Archivist

• Soil by Camille T. Dungy
• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
• Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Kathleen Belew
• The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
• Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

Rodrigo Castro, Director of Public Services

• Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories by Mariana Enríquez
• Fresh Dirt from the Grave by Giovanna Rivero
• Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin

Lauren Corbett, Director of Resource Services

• The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Maia Dickinson, Public Services Assistant

• When Crack was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era by Donovan X. Ramsey
• Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes by Christine Yu
• Commitment by Mona Simpson
• Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess

Jeff Eller, Head of Acquisitions & Description

• In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
• Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

Craig Fansler, Preservation Librarian

• Miles from Nowhere: A Round-the-World Bicycle Adventure by Barbara Savage

Joy Gambill, Teaching Librarian

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• Horse by Geraldine Brooks
• This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
• Carolina Built by Kianna Alexander

Jemma Johnson, Research Support Assistant

• A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
• House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
• Hell’s Belles series by Sarah MacLean

Amanda Kaufman, Learning & Instructional Services Librarian

• Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell
• Miseducation: How Climate Change is Taught in America by Katie Worth
• Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Molly Keener, Director of Digital Initiatives & Scholarly Communication

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
• Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis by Beth Macy
• Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Denice Lewis, Research & Instruction Librarian – Engineering & Science

• Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones
• Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele and John Joseph Abams
• Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey

Tim Pyatt, Dean of the Library

• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann

Morgan Ritchie-Baum, Research & Instruction Librarian – Business & Social Science

• Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon

Kate Silton, Electronic Resources Librarian

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
• Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
• Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith

Kathy Shields, Research & Instruction Librarian – History & Social Sciences

• Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty
• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
• Finding Me by Viola Davis
• Index, A History of The: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age by Dennis Duncan

Roz Tedford, Director of Research & Instruction

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
• London Seance Society by Sarah Penner

Kate Trathen, Visiting Librarian for the Burr Congressional Collection

• A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
• To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
• People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Meghan Webb, Instruction & Outreach Librarian

• I Have Some Question for You by Rebecca Makkai
• Trust by Hernan Diaz
• I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong
• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
• Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius by Nick Hornby

Hu Womack, Instruction & Outreach Librarian

• Trinity by Zelda Lockhart
• Good Women by Halle Hill
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

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 !