As we bid farewell to 2024, 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 2024. 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 2024

• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Frequently checked out browsing books of 2024

• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann
• Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis
• Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
• A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
• How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity by Peter Attia
• Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• The Trackers by Charles Frazier
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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

ZSR Staff Favorites of 2024

Jeff Eller, Head of Acquisitions & Description

• The Elephant’s Journey by José Saramago
• My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris
• The Rise and Reign of the Mammals by Steve Brusatte

Veronica Escamilla-Brady, Business Manager

• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Colleen Foy, Research & Instruction Librarian – Science

• The Fury by Alex Michaelides
• The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
• The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeleine Martin
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
• Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
• As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Emma Gauthier, Wake Forest Fellow for ZSR Library

• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
• The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
• Dictée by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
• Lying by Lauren Slater
• The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

Ashelee Gerald Hill, Access & Outreach Archivist

• The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Jemma Johnson, Research Support Assistant

• Wolfsong by TJ Klune
• Taking Initiative by Elle M. Stewart
• The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
• Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse
• Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Amanda Kaufman, Learning & Instructional Services Librarian

• What Tech Calls Thinking by Adrian Daub
• Wintering by Katherine May
• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Steve Kelley, Head of Continuing Resources and Database Management

• A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles
• Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
• Julia by Sandra Newman

Tim Mitchell, Computing Support Coordinator

• The Mathew Corbett series by Robert McCammon
  • Speaks The Nightbird
  • Queen Of Bedlam
  • Mister Slaughter
  • Providence Rider

Tim Pyatt, Dean of ZSR Library

• Trout Bum by John Gierach
• All the Time in the World by John Gierach

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

• Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
• A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
• D-Day Girls by Sarah Rose
• A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
• The Women by Kristin Hannah
• Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna
• Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
• All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner
• The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow

Kate Silton, Electronic Resources Librarian

• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• Funny Story by Emily Henry
• Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

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

• The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
• The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett
• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and Deacon King Kong by James McBride
• Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q Sutanto
• Longbourn by Jo Baker

Kate Trathen, Visiting Librarian for the Burr Congressional Collection

• Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
• Orbital by Samantha Harvey
• In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
• Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Meghan Webb, Instruction & Outreach Librarian

• The Searcher & The Hunter (Cal Hooper series) by Tana French
• The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
• Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum

Hu Womack, Instruction & Graduate Student Support Librarian

• All the Forgivenesses by Elizabeth Hardinger
• We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (Thursday Murder Club series)
• The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop
• Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls by Lauren Graham
• The Miss Julia series by Ann B. Ross (all 22 books)

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 !