Top Checkouts of 2023
Check out what your fellow Berlin-Peck patrons have been reading this year!
December 11, 2023
Check out this year’s top 25 checkouts in fiction and non-fiction!
Fiction
#1 Remarkably Bright Creatures
Shelby Van Pelt
After her husband dies, widow Tova Sullivan starts working at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, where she forms a special bond with a giant Pacific octopus who holds the key solving the mysterious disappearance of her 18-year-old son, Erik, over thirty years ago on the Puget Sound.
#2 It Ends With Us
Colleen Hoover
After building what should be a perfect life with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, Lily finds herself in a troubled relationship with an abusive husband and must make a decision about her future, as she reencounters Atlas Corrigan, a man with links to her past.
#3 Ugly Love
Colleen Hoover
After Tate Collins and airline pilot Miles Archer agree to a no-strings attached relationship, they both have trouble sticking to the plan.
#4 Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver
The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
#5 The Hotel Nantucket
Elin Hilderbrand
Attempting to win the favor of the Hotel Nantucket’s new London billionaire owner, general manager Lizbet Keaton, with drama behind closed doors, staff and guests with complicated pasts, a ghost roaming the halls and her own romantic uncertainty, has her work cut out for her.
#6 Just The Nicest Couple
Mary Kubica
When her husband Jack vanishes without a trace, Nina Hayes will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, which, unbeknownst to her, is inextricably linked to their close friends, who may have been the last to see Jake before he went missing.
#7 The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins Reid
When an aging and reclusive Hollywood icon selects an unknown magazine reporter to write her life story, the baffled journalist forges deep ties with the actress during a complicated interview process that exposes their tragic common history.
#8 The Five-Star Weekend
Elin Hilderbrand
Inviting her best friend from each phase of her life, widow Hollis Shaw hosts an unforgettable weekend on Nantucket, during which things don’t go as planned as each woman deals with heartbreak, infidelity, scandal and secrets, but things turnaround due to new friendships, unexpected romance and self-discovery.
#9 It Starts With Us
Colleen Hoover
Atlas Corrigan, Lily’s first love and the person who returned suddenly and interrupted her romance with neurosurgeon Ryan Kincaid, tells his side of the story in the sequel to It Ends with Us.
#10 November 9
Colleen Hoover
When Fallon and aspiring novelist Ben meet and fall in love the day before Fallon’s cross-country move, they vow to meet on the same date every year, until Fallon suspects Ben is fabricating their relationship to create the perfect plot twist.
#11 Lessons In Chemistry
Bonnie Garmus
In the early 1960s, chemist and single mother Elizabeth Zott, the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show due to her revolutionary skills in the kitchen, uses this opportunity to dare women to change the status quo.
#12 Mad Honey
Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Finney Boylan
Her life upended when her husband revealed a darker side, Olivia MacAfee and her teenage son Asher move back to her New Hampshire hometown for a new beginning until Asher is implicated in the death of his girlfriend and she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.
#13 West With Giraffes
Lynda Rutledge
Inspired by true events, this part adventure, part historical saga and part coming-of-age love story follows Woodrow Wilson Nickel as he recalls his journey in 1938 to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo.
#14 Desert Star
Michael Connelly
After quitting the force in disgust, Renee Ballard is persuaded to return to rebuild the cold case unit in the elite robbery-homicide division.
#15 Wrong Place Wrong Time
Gillian McAllister
After witnessing her teenage son kill a man, a mother falls asleep in despair, wakes up and it is yesterday, and wakes up again and it is the day before yesterday, getting chance after chance to stop the murder and save her son.
#16 The Last Thing He Told Me
Laura Dave
After her husband disappears, Hannah Hall quickly realizes he isn’t who he said he was and that his 16-year-old daughter, who wants nothing to do with her, may hold the key to figuring out his true identity.
#17 The Guest List
Lucy Foley
An expertly planned celebrity wedding between a rising television star and an ambitious magazine publisher is thrown into turmoil by petty jealousies, a college drinking game, the bride’s ruined dress, and an untimely murder.
#18 Happy Place
Emily Henry
Despite breaking up months earlier, a picture-perfect couple still haven’t told their friends about the split and attempt to pretend they are still together at an annual Maine getaway.
#19 The Silent Patient
Alex Michaelides
Criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber becomes dangerously obsessed with uncovering the truth about what prompted his client, an artist who refuses to speak, to violently murder her husband in a way that triggers mass public speculation.
#20 Apples Never Fall
Liane Moriarty
A family of tennis stars debate whether or not to report their mother as missing because it would implicate their father.
#21 A Very Typical Family
Sierra Godfrey
After her mother’s death, Natalie Walker is informed by a lawyer that must return to Santa Cruz and reunite with her estranged siblings, one of whom she sent to jail 15 years prior, in order to claim their inheritance.
#22 Simply Lies
David Baldacci
Two women–a former detective and a dangerous con artist–go head-to-head in a twisting game of cat and mouse.
#23 Where The Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens
Viewed with suspicion in the aftermath of a murder, Kya Clark, who has survived alone for years in a marsh near the North Carolina coast, becomes targeted by unthinkable forces.
#24 Maybe Now
Colleen Hoover
Coming across an old list of things she wanted to do “maybe one of these days,” Maggie decides to live life to the fullest and accomplish these dreams, and, keeping Ridge updated on her adventures, unwittingly causes a rift in Ridge and Sydney’s relationship.
#25 Reminders Of Him
Colleen Hoover
Released from prison, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter, but with everyone against her, she turns to local bar owner Ledger Ward who, risking everything, secretly helps her make amends.
Non-Fiction
#1 Spare
Prince Harry
With its raw, unflinching honesty, Prince Harry’s memoir—in which he discusses the effect of his mother Princess Diana’s death on his life—is full of insight, revelation, self-examination and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.
#2 I’m Glad My Mom Died
Jennette McCurdy
The iCarly and Sam & Cat star, after her controlling mother dies, gets the help she needs to overcome eating disorders, addiction and unhealthy relationships—and finally decides what she really wants for the first time in her life.
#3 Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing
Matthew Perry
The beloved Friends star shares candid behind the scenes stories from the legendary sitcom, as well as detailing his own struggles with addiction that threatened to derail his career.
#4 The Extraordinary Life Of An Ordinary Man
Paul Newman
Culled from thousands of pages of transcripts, this raw, candid, unvarnished memoir of the greatest movie star of the past 75 years, told with searing honesty, covers everything: his traumatic childhood, his career, his drinking, his intimate life with Joanne Woodward and his innermost fears and passions and joys.
#5 The Berlin Turnpike
A True Story Of Human Trafficking In America
Raymond Bechard
This is a true story of human trafficking in America, its history, its growth, and its unprecedented entrance into our homes. It exposes every element of this crime; so reliant on secrecy and shrouded behind a scintillating veil of growing legitimacy. Yet it is buried just below the surface of our society’s mainstream perception. For the first time The Berlin Turnpike takes you to the core of how and where this all takes place. This is our path to uncovering a vast, long-ignored secret.
#6 The Light We Carry
Overcoming In Uncertain Times
Michelle Obama
Drawing from personal experiences, the former first lady offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the potential and progress around us.
#7 Go-To Dinners
Make Ahead, Freeze Ahead, Prep Ahead, Easy, Assembled
Ina Garten
The popular cooking show host and New York times bestselling author shares her strategies for making delicious, satisfying, and uncomplicated dinners, including such dishes as overnight mac & cheese, Tuscan white bean soup, chicken in a pot with orzo, and roasted vegetables with jammy eggs.
#8 The Wager
A Tale Of Shipwreck, Mutiny, And Murder
David Grann
In this tale of shipwreck, survival and savagery, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon recounts the events on His Majesty’s Ship The Wager, a British vessel that left England in 1740 on a secret mission, resulting in a court martial that revealed a shocking truth.
#9 Maid
Hard Work, Low Pay, And A Mother’s Will To Survive
Stephanie Land
An economic-hardship journalist describes the years she worked in low-pay domestic work under wealthy employers, contrasting the privileges of the upper-middle class to the realities of the overworked laborers supporting them.
#10 The Glass Castle
Jeannette. Walls
The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family’s nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities.
#11 Extra Lives
Why Video Games Matter
Tom Bissell
A personal assessment of the author’s addiction to video games explores his favorites, their roles as modern forms of popular art and their habit-forming appeal while considering how he has neglected his professional and social responsibilities in favor of gaming activities.
#12 No Immediate Danger
William T. Vollmann
The first volume in a timely series about climate change and energy generation focuses on the consequences of nuclear-power production through the events and aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011.
#13 Boards
Stylish Spreads For Casual Gatherings
America’s Test Kitchen
Inspirational and achievable ideas for creating boards—interactive and low-key elegant ways of presenting food—that are sure to be a hit and will help you step-up your presentation skills.
#14 The Revolutionary Samuel Adams
Stacy Schiff
A Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer turns her attention to Samuel Adams, an intensely disciplined man—and arguably the most essential Founding Father— who supplied the moral backbone of the American Revolution, becoming the most wanted man in America.
#15 Baking With Dorie
Sweet, Salty & Simple
Dorie Greenspan
A James Beard Award-winning and New York Times best-selling cookbook author offers more than 150 new recipes with ingenious twists including Meringue Little Marvels, Double-Decker Caramel Cake, Coconut Milk Chocolate Marble Cake and Curd and Cream Shortcake.
#16 Finding Me
Viola Davis
The critically acclaimed film, television and theater actress presents an inspiring and deeply honest story of her life, from her coming-of-age in Rhode Island to her current hard-won success.
#17 Snackable Bakes
100 Easy-Peasy Recipes For Exceptionally Scrumptious Sweets And Treats
Jessie Sheehan
From Peppermint Stick No-Churn Ice Cream to Deeply Chocolaty Baked Donuts with Buttermilk Glaze and Sprinkles, this guide to snackable sweets shows readers how to create decadent delights in 20 minutes or less.
#18 Solito
Javier Zamora
A young poet reflects on his 3,000-mile journey from El Salvador to the United States when he was nine years old, during which he was faced with perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions during two life-altering months alongside a group of strangers who became an unexpected family.
#19 Tiny Beautiful Things
Advice From Dear Sugar
Cheryl Strayed
Collects postings on life and relationships from The Rumpus’ popular “Dear Sugar” online advice column, sharing recommendations on everything from infidelity and grief to marital boredom and financial hardships.
#20 Man’s Search For Meaning
Viktor Frankl
Man’s Search for Meaning has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 psychiatrist Viktor Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the stories of his many patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl’s theory—known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos (“meaning”)—holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
#21 Dutch Girl
Audrey Hepburn And World War II
Robert Matzen
Twenty-five years after her passing, Audrey Hepburn remains the most beloved of all Hollywood stars, known as much for her role as UNICEF ambassador as for films like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Several biographies have chronicled her stardom, but none has covered her intense experiences through five years of Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. According to her son, Luca Dotti, ‘the war made my mother who she was.’ Audrey Hepburn’s war included participation in the Dutch Resistance, working as a doctor’s assistant during the ‘Bridge Too Far’ battle of Arnhem, the brutal execution of her uncle, and the ordeal of the Hunger Winter of 1944. She also had to contend with the fact that her father was a Nazi agent and her mother was pro-Nazi for the first two years of the occupation. But the war years also brought triumphs as Audrey became Arnhem’s most famous young ballerina. Audrey’s own reminiscences, new interviews with people who knew her in the war, wartime diaries, and research in classified Dutch archives shed light on the riveting, untold story of Audrey Hepburn under fire in World War II. Also included is a section of color and black-and-white photos. Many of these images are from Audrey’s personal collection and are published here for the first time.
#22 Taste
My Life Through Food
Stanley Tucci
The food-obsessed, award-winning actor, reflecting on the intersection of food and life, presents a heartfelt and delicious memoir of life in and out of the kitchen that takes readers on a gastronomic journey through the good times and bad.
#23 Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
A Savage Journey To The Heart Of The American Dream
Hunter S. Thompson
This cult classic of gonzo journalism is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.
#24 Dinners With Ruth
A Memoir On The Power Of Friendships
Nina Totenberg
In this moving story of the joy and true meaning of friendship, NPR’s award-winning legal affairs correspondent recounts her nearly 50-year friendship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, presenting an extraordinary account of how they paved the way for future generations by tearing down professional and legal barriers.
#25 The Creative Act
A Way Of Being
Rick Rubin
A master at helping people connect with who they really are and what they really offer, the nine-time Grammy-winning producer illuminates the path of the artist as road we all can follow, putting the power to create moments—and lifetimes—of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.