Shawnee County's Best Books of 2024
It’s the most wonderful time of the year – the time we find out which books were the local top picks of the year! Explore community favorites, unexpected staff favorites and the highest checkouts of the year. Find out what Topeka and Shawnee County readers enjoyed in 2024 and start 2025 with a long reading list!
Top Checkouts
Drum roll, please. Here are the lists of all the items – print, ebooks and audiobooks – that were checked out most this year.
Fiction
Taking the #1 spot across all fiction lists is The Women by Kristin Hannah! Between print, ebook and audiobook checkouts, Hannah’s novel was checked out more than 1,700 times in our library and that number is still growing. Now that’s a feat to be appreciated! Suspense, mystery and a sprinkling of romance claim a majority of the top checkout spots for 2024. Familiar authors like James Patterson, John Grishman and David Baldacci hold strong to their claim at the top end of the checkout lists.
Nonfiction
Nonfiction checkouts for 2024 were diverse. The print checkouts were higher for history and cooking books, while ebook checkouts were higher for self-improvement, health and fitness books. Audiobooks had high checkout rates for biographies and autobiographies. See which nonfiction books were most popular and build your to-be-read (TBR) list fast with these excellent selections.
Youth
Kid and teen readers had many great books to choose from this year. Bluey was popular amongst the youngest readers and fantasy was a hit with teens. Take a look for yourself at what caught the attention of young readers and maybe even grab a picture book to read!
All the favorites
The library is all about community. Here’s a list that showcases community members' favorite books from the past year. If your favorites aren't on the list, email kkriley@tscpl.org and we'll get them added.
Library employees are also big readers with very diverse reading preferences. There are two staff lists for you to review. The first list features staff members’ favorite books published in 2024. The second list are staff favorites we read in 2024, but were published prior to 2024.
Reading outside your normal interests can be a challenge, but there’s a chance you'll find a new favorite book. Here’s a list of local readers' unexpected favorites from 2024. Whether it's a new topic you read about or a new genre you dive into, we recommend you take a chance in 2025 to read something outside your normal interests.
Don't think we forgot about our young readers! Our teen librarian, Andrew, crafted a list of some of the best young adult books in 2024. Even if you’re not a teen, check out these fantastic books.
Deanna created an excellent school age readers list with all the favorites of the year and Sherry covered all the best picture books. These fantastic selections will encourage young readers to embark on a lifelong reading journey.
More recommendations
Check out our catalog anytime to find the newest books and browse staff created booklists. We also highlight a variety of reads in our book blogs all year long with new articles monthly.
You can find readalikes of your favorite books using Novelist. Pick up a copy of BookPage at the library to get national recommendations.
If you're looking for more personalized recommendations, consider using our Browsing Just for You service. Answer a few questions and let us select books just for you. We are also happy to make recommendations in person at the library or on bookmobiles.
Lastly, if you’re on Facebook, join the Top City Reads Together group to stay up-to-date on what other community members are reading and share your own suggestions.
Cheers to a great year of reading in 2025!
