If you’re anything like me, you love the annual round-ups of the best books of the year. I spend hours crawling through NPR’s Book Concierge, Goodread’s Best Books of 2017, and Library Journal’s Top Ten Best Books of the Year and watch my to-read pile grow exponentially. Going through all of these lists made me wonder–what did Westmoreland County read in 2017? Throughout December, we will bring you the fiction, nonfiction, and young adult books that were checked out most this year.
Familiar authors flew off the shelves this year. Thrillers dominated, but perennial romance favorite Nicholas Sparks also makes an appearance in the ten most popular fiction books of 2017. Check out a few featured titles below, and then read the full Top 10 Fiction at the end of this post.
The Whistler by John Grisham
Grisham’s latest legal thriller follows an judicial conduct investigator as she digs into a claim against a judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined. And not just crooked judges in Florida. All judges, from all states, and throughout U.S. history. The case proves to be dangerous–possibly even deadly.
The Black Book by James Patterson
Police officer Billy Harney miraculously survives a shootout, but he remembers nothing about the events leading up to the event. Charged with double murder and desperate to clear his name, Billy retraces his steps to get to the bottom of what happened. When he discovers the existence of a little black book that everyone who’s anyone in Chicago will stop at nothing to get their hands on, Billy suspects it contains the truth that will either set him free…or confirm his worst fears.
Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks
Russell Green is living the dream, and his marriage to the bewitching Vivian is the center of that. But no one is more surprised than Russ when he finds every aspect of the life he took for granted turned upside down. In a matter of months, Russ finds himself without a job or wife, caring for his young daughter while struggling to adapt to a new and baffling reality. Throwing himself into the wilderness of single parenting, Russ embarks on a journey at once terrifying and rewarding—one that will test his abilities and his emotional resources beyond anything he ever imagined.
Night School by Lee Child
The latest installment in Child’s Jack Reacher saga is a flashback to 1996, which Reacher was still in the army. After receiving an award for a successful mission, Reacher gets a special assignment to stop a major terrorist operation. From Langley to Hamburg, Jalalabad to Kiev, Night School moves like a bullet through a treacherous landscape of double crosses, faked identities, and new and terrible enemies, as Reacher maneuvers inside the game and outside the law.
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong
WLN’s Top Ten Fiction Titles
- The Whistler by John Grisham
- The Black Book by James Patterson
- Never Never by James Patterson
- Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks
- Cross the Line by James Patterson
- Night School: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child
- 16th Seduction by James Patterson
- The Fix by David Baldacci
- The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
- Turbo Twenty-Three: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich