CPL’s Most Popular Books of 2015

Before we completely shift our focus to the new books coming in 2016, let's take a look back at our most checked out and requested books of 2015. For comparison's sake, you may want to also look at Publishers Weekly's national statistics for 2015, as well as our most popular books of 2014.

Are you surprised to learn that The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins topped our most popular adult fiction list? You're probably not shocked, because the thriller was a word-of-mouth-sensation. Another suspense title (Luckiest Girl Alive) charted at No. 16 on the list, so the genre remains red hot. Meanwhile, the controversial Go Set A Watchman fared very well in third place. You also made a big hit of The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, a novel of two sisters during the French Resistance that we featured on our Best of the Best 2015.

The highest ranked nonfiction release of 2015 on our most popular adult nonfiction list is from that reliable hit-maker, Erik Larson, Dead Wake, a chronicle of the sinking of the Lusitania, published early in the year. Our current One Book, One Chicago selection, The Third Coast, ranks fourth, impressive considering the program just launched in the fall. Thanks to all of you who support and participate in this enriching program. (Our 2014-15 selection, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, ranked high on the fiction chart.) A mid-year publication, the much-lauded (including a place on our Best of the Best 2015Between the World and Me was still able to chart high, in fifth place. Many of our other Best of the Best 2015 selections chart here, as well.


At the top of our most popular teen books list is one of our old favorites, The Book Thief (another former One Book, One Chicago selection). The list is also dominated by John Green, whose Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars were made into movies, plus two series that have also been adapted into hit movies: Veronica Roth's Divergent series and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series. The most recent book to chart on the list was I'll Give You the Sun, which we named one of the best of 2014.

Authors Jeff Kinney and Mo Willems dominated our most popular kids books list. The most recent entries on the list were from 2014 and include Kinney's latest in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, The Long Haul; Rick Riordan's latest in the Heroes of Olympus series, The Blood of Olympus; the latest autobiographical graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier, Sisters; and the Newbery medal-winning graphic novel El Deafo, about the author's experience as a kid with hearing loss.