What Were The Most Popular Books In Wilmington In 2020?

WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington loves "Where the Crawdads Sing": For the second year in a row, the Delia Owens novel topped the list of Wilmington's most-checked out books in 2020.

Wilmington Memorial Library shared the following list of the top adult book checkouts in 2020. Celeste Ng's "Little Fires Everywhere" is also a repeat appearance.

The only non-fiction book to make the list is Ibram X. Kendi's "How To Be An Antiracist."

Descriptions come from the library catalog.

1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
   
   "Fans of Barbara Kingsolver will love this stunning debut novel from a New York Times bestselling nature writer, about an unforgettable young woman determined to make her way in the wilds of North Carolina, and the two men that will break her isolation open. For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast.
   
   "She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world.
   
   "But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world--until the unthinkable happens. In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a heartbreaking coming of age story and a surprising murder investigation.
   
   "Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens's debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps"
2. 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand
   
   "When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020 and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election. There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?
   
   "Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother's bachelor party. Cooper's friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere--through marriage, children, and Ursula's stratospheric political rise--until Mallory learns she's dying.
   
   "Based on the classic film Same Time Next Year (which Mallory and Jake watch every summer), 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair and the dramatic ways this relationship complicates and enriches their lives, and the lives of the people they love."
3. Girls of Summer by Nancy Thayer
   
   "From star-crossed matches to unexpected love triangles, summer on Nantucket always holds the promise of romance in this sensational novel from New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer. Lisa Hudson feels more alive than she has in a long time after hiring hunky carpenter Mack Whitney to renovate her old Nantucket home. There's no denying the spark growing between them--despite the fact that Mack is ten years her junior.
   
   "But her twentysomething children, Juliet and Theo, on the island for the summer, worry that the new relationship will only lead to Lisa's heartbreak. Yet Juliet and Theo are in for tangled love stories all their own. When dreamy Ryder Hastings moves to the island to pursue a new environmental venture, Juliet feels an unwelcome attraction, her rocky romantic history pushing her to steer clear of love. Theo only has eyes for Mack's daughter, Beth, with whom he was bound by an unspeakable tragedy in high school--but can they overcome their past?
   
   "By August, when an impending storm threatens to shatter the peace of the golden island, everyone discovers what they can and cannot control. Nancy Thayer dazzles again with this new tale of a magical summer."
4. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
   
   "Set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond, from the author of Me Before You and The Peacock Emporium Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law.
   
   "So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt's new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically. The leader, and soon Alice's greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who's never asked a man's permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Horseback Librarians of Kentucky. What happens to them--and to the men they love--becomes a classic drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion. Though they face all kinds of dangers, they're committed to their job--bringing books to people who have never had any, sharing the gift of learning that will change their lives.
   
   "Based on a true story rooted in America's past, The Giver of Stars is unparalleled in its scope. At times funny, at others heartbreaking, this is a richly rewarding novel of women's friendship, of true love, and of what happens when we reach beyond our grasp for the great beyond"
5. The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
   
   "After my son Kyle Ferriera van Leer declared his major in Egyptology at Yale in 2010, he mentioned the Book of Two Ways in passing. Without knowing a thing about it, I said, "That's a great title for a novel." It was only after he began to explain what it actually was that I realized what I needed to write about - the construct of time, and love, and life, and death"
   
   "Dawn Edelstein is on a plane when she is told to prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong. Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised.
   
   "She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, their beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula. But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a career Dawn once studied for but was forced to abandon.
   
   "The airline ensures that the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers offers transportation to wherever they want to go. The obvious destination is to fly home, but she could take another path: return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history. As the story unfolds, Dawn's two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried with them."
6. Walk the Wire by David Baldacci
   
   "Amos Decker, the FBI consultant with a perfect memory, and Alex Jamison FBI. Return to solve a gruesome murder of a young woman named Irene Cramer, in a booming North Dakota oil fracking town. The promise of a second gold rush has attracted an onslaught of newcomers all hoping for a windfall, bringing with them problems, including drugs, property crimes, prostitution and now a gruesome murder."
7. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
   
   "In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned--from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren--an enigmatic artist and single mother--who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter, Pearl, and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs."
8. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
   
   "Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house overlooking a park in one of London's most desirable areas. One evening, her husband, Gabriel, returns home late from work, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face and then never speaks another word.
   
   "Alicia's refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure psychiatric unit in North London.
   
   "Criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber is captivated by Alicia's story and jumps at the opportunity to work with her. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a path more unexpected, more terrifying than he ever imagined -- a search for the truth that threatens to consume him"
9. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
   
   "Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society."
10. The Wedding Dress by Danielle Steel
    
    " Danielle Steel's epic new novel, the lives of four generations of women in one family span fortune and loss, motherhood, tragedy and victories. The Parisian design houses in 1928, the crash of 1929, the losses of war, the drug culture of the 1960s-history holds many surprises, and lives are changed forever.
    
    "For richer or for poorer, in cramped apartments and grand mansions, the treasured wedding dress made in Paris in 1928 follows each generation into their new lives, and represents different hopes for each of them, as they marry very different men. From inherited fortunes at the outset to self-made men and women, the wedding dress remains a cherished constant for the women who wear it in each generation and forge a destiny of their own.
    
    "It is a symbol of their remaining traditions and the bond of family they share in an ever-changing world."

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.