The top 10 books New Yorkers are devouring in quarantine

While the lions outside the Fifth Avenue branch of the New York Public Library haven’t greeted incoming visitors for more than a month, they’re still a powerful reminder of city history.

“During the Great Depression, Mayor LaGuardia named the beloved lions … Patience and Fortitude for the qualities he felt New Yorkers needed to get through a difficult time,” said Anthony Marx, president of The New York Public Library. “That sentiment certainly rings true now. Just as the lions continue to stand strong and defiant, so will New York City.”

The New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue may be closed, but e-books are being checked out at record numbers as New Yorkers try to stay sane during the quarantine.NY Post photo composite/Mike Guillen

In the meantime, the library system is helping New Yorkers get through the coronavirus crisis. There have been 740,000 e-book checkouts through the library’s eReader app, SimplyE, in the weeks since closure — up 10 percent from the same time period last year, with 24,000 new library cardholders signing up.

And New Yorkers are choosing a lively mix of quarantine reads — from inspirational memoirs to tales of boy wizards, therapy confessionals and more. Here is the NYPL’s Top 10 list of most downloaded books, in order of what’s most popular now …

1. “Deacon King Kong: A Novel”
by James McBride (fiction, Riverhead Books)
In September 1969, a church deacon walks into the courtyard of a housing project and shoots the area drug dealer. What happens next is at the heart of this darkly funny novel of 1960s New York, as witnesses, investigators and even neighborhood mobsters overlap. Chosen as the April pick for WNYC’s “Get Lit with All Of It” monthly book club, it’s not surprising that this gritty NYC novel tops the list.

2. “Becoming”
by Michelle Obama (memoir, Crown Publishing)
There’s a reason this memoir by the former first lady sold as well as it did: It’s deeply engaging, honest and relatable, focusing mostly on the pre-White House years (every working mom will recognize themselves in her descriptions of buying applesauce snacks during a frantic lunch break). Now a Netflix documentary available on May 6.

3. “The Dutch House”
by Ann Patchett (fiction, Harper)
At the end of World War II, Cyril Conroy takes a gamble and buys a lavish estate called the Dutch House in the Philadelphia suburbs. This purchase ends up being the slow undoing of the entire family, and an unhealthy obsession they can never shake. At a time when everyone is stuck at home, a book that focuses on a house feels pretty on-point.

4. “Educated: A Memoir”
by Tara Westover (memoir, Random House)
“Educated” takes off-the-grid to new levels in this memoir by an author who was raised by survivalists in the mountains of Idaho. She was 17 when she first set foot in a classroom, but her education would take her to Harvard and the University of Cambridge. A runaway bestseller since its release in February 2018, survivalists seem particularly relevant now, in this age of panic buying and prepping.

5. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Harry Potter Series, Book 1”
by J.K. Rowling (fiction, Scholastic Press)
If you haven’t read this series yet about the boy wizard and his exploits at his boarding school for wizards-in-training, you are in for a real treat. This is one of those series that’s just as much fun for adults as it is for kids, making it a must-read for family quarantine.

6. “Normal People”
by Sally Rooney (fiction, Hogarth)
Connell and Marianne are classmates in a small Irish town: Connell is popular, while Marianne is socially ostracized. His mother cleans her house. An uneasy friendship forms, becoming a romance that follows them to university. It’s just been released as a BBC/Hulu adaptation.

7. “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed”
by Lori Gottlieb (nonfiction, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Who does your therapist go to when they need a therapist? In Gottlieb’s case, it’s a man named Wendell. A funny, moving book about her patients and her own struggles. With its focus on mental health, it’s understandably showing up on all the What You Should Be Reading During the Pandemic lists.

8. “The Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale”
by Margaret Atwood (fiction, Nan A. Talese)
The long-awaited sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale” picks up 15 years after the original book left off, with three female narrators offering their own testaments about Gilead. Not satisfied with the dystopian scene outside your window these days? Pick up this book!

9. “The Water Dancer”
by Ta-Nehisi Coates (fiction, One World)
Hiram Walker was born into slavery, separated from his mother at a young age — and possessing a mysterious life-saving power he doesn’t quite understand. He makes a plan to escape and rescue his family. The debut novel from the National Book Award-winning author of “Between the World and Me,” this was an Oprah Book Club pick in the fall, when it first came out.

10. “Olive, Again”
by Elizabeth Strout (fiction, Random House)
The hugely popular character of Olive Kitteridge comes to life once again in this novel, as she moves through the streets of Crosby, Maine, and encounters all types of people. Another fall Oprah Book Club pick.

Source

Newzandar News

Related Post: