Top Fiction & Non Fiction Books 2021

With everyone sharing their Spotify #wrapped lists, we thought we would join in the fun and share our top borrowed books!

These titles were the top borrowed fiction books in the CBRL collection in 2021

It’s no surprise to us that local favourite Lesley Crewe has topped the fiction list but this time two of her recent books made the list. Other local fiction books include Moira Leigh MacLeod’s The Year with No Spring and The Bread Maker (both in the same series.) Cape Breton continues to love crime and mystery with popular mainstream thriller writers James Patterson, Lee Child, John Grisham, Michael Connelly are also topping the list. Finally there are two book club favourites Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.

  1. The Spoon Stealer – Lesley Crewe
  2. Amazing Grace – Lesley Crewe
  3. Hush – James Patterson and Candice Fox
  4. A Time for Mercy – John Grisham
  5. The Year with No Spring – Moira Leigh MacLeod
  6. The Bread Maker – Moira Leigh MacLeod
  7. The Sentinel – Lee Child and Andrew Child
  8. Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
  9. The Night Fire – Michael Connelly
  10. (A tie:) Hidden in Plain Sight – Jeffrey Archer and The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah
Top non fiction books borrowed at CBRL 2021

Most Borrowed Non Fiction Books of 2021

When it comes to non fiction, Cape Bretoners definitely Read Local! The only books on this list without connections to Atlantic Canada are the huge bestsellers, Educated, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, & of course more murder mysteries by James Patterson (these are true crime stories.) The most borrowed non fiction title of 2021, Blood in the Water, happens to both be a murder mystery and a local story!

  1. Blood in the Water : A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes – Donald Silver Cameron
  2. Educated : A Memoir – Tara Westover
  3. So-Called Normal – A Memoir of Family, Depression and Resilience – Mark Henick
  4. Peace by Chocolate : The Hadhad Family’s Remarkable Journey from Syria to Canada – Jon Tattrie
  5. Women of Courage : 15 Cape Breton Lives in their Own Words – edited by Ron Caplan
  6. Shipwrecked : North of 40 : Nova Scotia’s Lost and Forgotten Treasure Ships, Pirates & Privateers, and the Oak Island Mystery – Robert MacKinnon
  7. Closing Sysco : Industrial Decline in Atlantic Canada’s Steel – Lachlan MacKinnon
  8. Till Murder Do Us Part : True-Crime Thrillers – James Patterson
  9. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning : How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter – Margareta Magnusson
  10. The Wake : The Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami – Linden MacIntyre

Although they are popular many of these titles are now available to borrow without long wait lists. Click on the links for each title to go to the library catalogue and place a hold on the titles you want to read!