The Top 15 Most Borrowed Books - Fiction

Wondering what everyone else is reading? Not sure what to read next? Check out this list of "The Books Most Borrowed in U.S. Libraries" that the folks at Library Journal compiled as of October 15, 2014. (Click on the covers below to place your holds.)

1. The Heist

2. The Goldfinch

3. Personal

4. Big Little Lies

5. Invisible

6. Top Secret Twenty-One

7. All The Light We...

8. The Silkworm

9. A Perfect Life

10. Gone Girl

11. Cut and Thrust

12. Unlucky 13

13. Mean Streak

14. Mr. Mercedes

15. The Target

The Top Ten . . .

Want to know which new books librarian's across the country love? According to the August issue of Library Journal, here are the top ten:

1. One Kick: A Kick Lannigan Novel by Chelsea Cain (Mystery/Suspense): A debut installment in a new series by the author of the Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell best-sellers introduces Kick Lannigan, a famous kidnapping survivor who as an adult uses her martial-arts mastery and affiliation with a wealthy patron to find and rescue missing children.
2. Lucky Us by Amy Bloom (Historical Fiction): Forging a life together after being abandoned by their parents, half sisters Eva and Iris share decades in and out of the spotlight in golden-era Hollywood and mid-twentieth-century Long Island.
3. Heroes Are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Contemporary Romance): A down-on-her-luck actress reduced to staging kids' puppet shows finds herself trapped on a remote island off the coast of Maine with a sexy horror novelist who knows a dozen ways to kill with his bare hands.
4. Lock In by John Scalzi (Science Fiction): When a new virus causes one percent of the population to become completely paralyzed in body but not in mind, the United States pursues a scientific initiative to develop a virtual-reality world for victims, with unexpected consequences.
5. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (Historical Fiction): Engaging the services of a miniaturist to furnish a cabinet-sized replica of her hew home, Nella Oortman, the wife of a merchant in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, discovers that the artist's tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways.
6. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (Mystery/Suspense): Follows three mothers, each at a crossroads, and their potential involvement in a riot at a school trivia night that leaves one parent dead in what appears to be a tragic accident, but which evidence shows might have been premeditated.
7. The Truth About Leo by Katie MacAlister (Historical Romance): When she finds English spy Leopold Ernst George Mortimer left for dead and without his memory, Dagmar Marie Sophie, an impoverished Danish princess, marries him in order to escape the country and avoid an arranged marriage.
8. An Unwilling Accomplice by Charles Todd (Mystery/Historical Fiction): While home on leave, World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford finds her career, honor, and life in jeopardy when the wounded soldier she is supposed to accompany to Buckingham Palace commits murder and then disappears.
9. The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman (Fantasy Fiction): Visiting his magical college after being cast out of the land of Fillory, Quentin Coldwater, accompanied by Plum, encounters practitioners of gray magic before discovering a spell that could dissolve the boundaries between Fillory and Earth. (Third in the Magician's Trilogy. Start with The Magicians)
10. The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar (Psychological Fiction): Befriending a young Indian woman named Lakshmi--who is suicidal, lonely, and trapped in a loveless marriage--psychologist Maggie finds their relationship warped by conflicting expectations and threatened by the revelation of long-buried secrets.

New family drama: 'The Red House'

From the award-winning author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time comes a dazzlingly inventive novel about the modern family.  Told from rotating viewpoints, The Red House traces seven days of bitterly comic family dynamics and confrontation when a wealthy doctor invites his estranged sister's family to join his newly blended one at a vacation home in the English countryside.  This book got a starred review in Library Journal; be sure to check it out from your Community Library.

Intrigue and espionage in 'The Blind Spy'

Spies, assassins, and covert agents - there are plenty of these in Alex Dryden's action-intensive new book The Blind Spy, which earned a starred review in Library Journal.  When Burt Miller of Cougar, the powerful private intelligence company that overshadows the CIA, discovers Russia's plans to destroy the Ukraine's independence, he calls upon Anna Resnikov to run interference.  Feel free to share your own recommended spy stories in the comments!

Olympic reading in debut novel 'The Games'

Ted Kosmatka's debut novel The Games has gotten a lot of buzz, earning a starred review in Library Journal, which also featured it as a "debut of the month."  In the story, a near-future Olympic sport reminiscent of gladiator fighting in ancient Rome pits genetically engineered monsters against human athletes.  With the 2012 London Olympics coming up, this book might be just the thing to get into the spirit of the Games!  Got any other Olympics-themed reading suggestions?  Comment!

New release from the master of horror

Attention Stephen King fans!  11/22/63, King's first full-length novel since 2009's Under the Dome, is coming soon to a library near you.  The book tells the story of Jake Epping, an English teacher who travels back in time to grant his friend's dying wish: to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy.  Unsurprisingly, not everything goes according to plan.  The review in Library Journal notes that "alternate-history buffs will especially enjoy the twist ending."  Reserve a copy from your Community Library today!

Not for the easily offended: Lightning Rods

How can sexual tension at the workplace be ended?  If you're Joe, the main character of the new book Lightning Rods, your solution is going to be rather unorthodox: hire 'lightning rod' women who service their coworkers in addition to doing regular office work.  Joe gets nervous when the FBI starts investigating his use of female employees as 'lightning rods,' only to find out that the government agency wants to implement his system, too.  Not for the easily offended, Lightning Rods is a darkly humorous social commentary that Library Journal describes as "a total hoot" for the right person.

Required Reading: The Influencing Machine

The Influencing Machine is a recently-published graphic novel examining the media.  The starred review in Library Journal compares the book's narrator to "a chatty but interesting poli-sci professor" who guides the reader "through media history, source accuracy (or not), journalist impartiality (or not), bias (seven kinds), dilemmas relating to war reporting, objectivity (or not), disclosure, tricks the mind plays on understanding news stories, and how the media mirror ourselves in all of our human diversity."  The review also recommends that the book "should be required reading for nearly everbody over age ten, media students, and plain ole citizens, especially."  Intrigued?  Pick it up at your Community Library!

Pompeii: New Historical/Inspirational Fiction

Enjoy well-researched historical fiction with Christian themes? Then Pompeii by T.L. Higley might be a good choice for you. In this book (rated a "top pick" by Romantic Times and given a starred review by Library Journal), a Jewish woman posing as a Roman gladiator may be the only hope for Christian convert Portius Cato, whose attempt to start a new life in Pompeii seems doomed to failure.