Like a Spotify wrapped but without the annoying graphics and cringy “genre” names, the D.C. Public Library has released its annual list of most-read books in 2022, featuring several returning champions and some new faces.

Throughout the year, more than five million items were checked out, streamed, or downloaded according to DCPL — an increase of 2 million from 2021. (With a library card, you can check out e-books and audiobooks via the Libby app, or stream movies, documentaries, and shows via Kanopy.)

This year’s most borrowed fiction book was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, whose other novel, Malibu Rising, landed in seventh on that same list. In a huge win for people who love the color gray, Irish author Sally Rooney landed in second on the fiction list for her 2021 novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, and the children’s graphic novel Dog Man: Fetch 22 by Dav Pilkey, came in third.

And D.C. wasn’t immune from The Colleen Hoover Of It All: The buzzy author that’s overtaken BookTok in recent years landed eighth on the fiction e-book list for her novel Verity.

While recent years’ nonfiction lists showed local readers gravitating towards titles about anti-racism and white supremacy, this year’s lists points more toward memoir and self-help tomes. Washingtonians were taken with musician and author Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast, whose memoir Crying In H Mart topped both the nonfiction book and audiobook categories. She also snagged the top nonfiction spot in Fairfax County’s Public Library’s year-end list.

The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, And Body In The Healing of Trauma by Bessel A. Van der Kolk, published in 2014, saw a surge in D.C. readers this year, landing at third on the nonfiction book list. Clint Smith, who was featured in a month-long DC Reads program in September, ranked third and fourth, respectively, for his nonfiction book and e-book How The World Is Passed: A Reckoning With The History of Slavery Across America. 

Meanwhile, Matt Craig’s The Midnight Library, a fantasy tale of alternate realities, made the rounds once again. After landing in second and third, respectively, for fiction and fiction e-book last year, the novel ranked tenth for fiction this year, and ninth in e-books. In the Fairfax County Public Library, it was 2022’s most circulated title. (It was also the most checked-out book of the New York Public Library system.)

Other familiar names include Michelle and Barack Obama, whose individual memoirs made an appearance on nonfiction lists for the third year in a row. Fredrik Backman’s novel Anxious People, which was the the third-most read fiction book in 2021, was the second-most popular e-book this year. Kazuo Ishiguro’s sci-fi story Klara and the Sun moved up three places to be this year’s sixth most popular fiction title, and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson fell from number one of the nonfiction list to number nine.

See the full list of top titles here.

DCPL’s Top 10 Fiction Books

1. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
3. Dog Man: Fetch 22 by Dev-Pilkey
4. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
5. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
6. Klara And The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
7. Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
8. Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Big Shot by Jeff Kinney
9. Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
10. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

DCPL’s Top 10 Nonfiction Books 

1. Crying In H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
2. Empire of Pain: The Secret History Of The Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
3. The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, And Body In The Healing Of Trauma by Bessel A. Van der Kolk
4. How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With The History Of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
5. Cultish: The Language Of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
6. Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results : An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
7. Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
8. These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett
9. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
10. Atlas Of The Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection And The Language Of Human Experience by Brené Brown

DCPL’s Top Fiction E-books

1. The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
2. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
3. People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry
4. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
5. The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
6. Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
7. The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue by Victoria Schwab
8. Verity by Colleen Hoover
9. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
10. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

DCPL’s Top 10 Nonfiction E-books

1. Crying In H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
2. Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, And Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
3. How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With The History Of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
4. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
5. Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
6. Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
7. Empire Of Pain: The Secret History Of The Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
8. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
9. Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
10. Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir by Ashley C. Ford

DCPL’s Top 10 Fiction E-audiobooks 

1. The Guest List by Lucy Foley
2. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
3. Dune by Frank Herbert
4. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
5. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
6. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
7.  A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
8. Five Tuesdays in Winter: Stories by Lily King
9. The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
10. Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

DCPL’s Top Nonfiction E-audiobooks

1. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge And The Teachings Of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
2. 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think by Brianna Wiest
3. Crying In H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
4. Becoming by Michelle Obama
5. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
6. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
7. How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With The History Of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
8. A Promised Land by Barack Obama
9. Adult Children Of Emotionally Immature Parents: How To Heal From Distant, Rejecting, Or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay Gibson
10. The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*Ck: A Counterintuitive Approach To Living A Good Life by Mark Manson

Fairfax Public Library 

Overall circulating: The Midnight Library (e-book) by Matt Haig
Adult Fiction: The Judge’s List by John Grisham
Adult Nonfiction: Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Teen: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Childrens: Fetch 22; Dog Man by Dav Pilkey
E-book: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
E-audiobook: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
E-magazine: The Economist