VANCOUVER -- In a year marked by a global pandemic, a massive recession and the beginnings of a reckoning on racism, Vancouver residents sought books to help them make sense of it all.

According to the Vancouver Public Library’s top circulating books list for 2020, authors Margaret Atwood, Malcolm Gladwell, Celeste Ng, Delia Owens, Ijeoma Oluo and Layla Saad are the leading authors in the adult categories.

The library system also saw an increase in ebook and audiobook use, rising by 51 per cent in 2020 over 2019.

Here’s the list of the most-circulated adult books in 2020 within the Vancouver Public Library system:

Adult Fiction - Print

1. Testaments by Margaret Atwood

2. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

3. Dutch House by Ann Patchett

 

Adult Fiction - Ebooks

1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

2. Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel by Celeste Ng

3. Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel by Bernardine Evaristo

 

Adult Fiction - Audiobooks

1. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

2. 1984 by George Orwell

3. Crazy Rich Asians: Crazy Rich Asians Series, Book 1 by Kevin Kwan

 

Adult Non-fiction - Print

1. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell

2. Becoming by Michelle Obama

3. Educated by Tara Westover

 

Adult Non-fiction - Ebooks

1. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad

2. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell

3. Becoming by Michelle Obama

 

Adult Non-fiction - Audiobooks

1. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

2. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad

3. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: The Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson