Moody weather calls for evenings and weekends curled up under a blanket, hot cocoa steaming in a mug, book in hand and the right tunes in the background. Need some inspiration from your neighbors? San Francisco Public Library has you covered with its most popular titles of the year. Read on to discover the most checked-out books and music at your local library.  

San Franciscans turned out in 2024 to read the One City One Book selection, Kathryn Ma’s The Chinese Groove, which topped the Adult Fiction—Print list. Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros, a social media hit in the escapist genre romantasy, took the #1 spot for Adult Fiction—Ebooks. Also worth mentioning are the notable all-stars that appeared across all formats. Fiction titles that nabbed spots on the top circulating print, ebook and audiobook lists were the critically acclaimed titles The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and Yellowface by R. F. Kuang. 

Top Print Adult Fiction 

1. The Chinese Groove by Kathryn Ma 
2. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett 
3. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese 
4. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 
5. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 
6. Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 
7. Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange 
8. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang 
9. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 
10. On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton 

Top eBooks Adult Fiction 

1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 
2. The Women by Kristin Hannah 
3. Funny Story by Emily Henry 
4. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese 
5. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett 
6. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 
7. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 
8. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang 
9. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 
10. Happy Place by Emily Henry 

Top Audiobooks Fiction 

1. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett 

2. The Women by Kristin Hannah 

3. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 

4. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 

5. Dune by Frank Herbert 

6. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang 

7. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros 

8. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab 

9. Funny Story by Emily Henry 

10. None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell 

On the Adult Nonfiction—Print and eBooks top 10 lists, a mixture of history, sociology and self-improvement titles overtook memoir, the most popular genre in 2023. The top two titles on the Print list were also SFPL’s “On the Same Page” book club picks—proving again that our City finds a sense of community through shared reading experiences. 

Top Print Adult Nonfiction 

1. Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond 
2. Solito by Javier Zamora 
3. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner 
4. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann 
5. The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin 
6. Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity by Peter Attia 
7. Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu 
8. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson 
9. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy 
10. Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein 

Top eBook Adult Nonfiction 

1. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb 
2. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann 
3. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer 
4. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears 
5. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy 
6. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia 
7. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson 
8. Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis 
9. The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel 
10. Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay Gibson                                                 

As with previous years, Dog Man Dav Pilkey ruled the charts for the children’s list, taking eight of the 10 spots. Authors Sarah J. Maas and Suzanne Collins reigned supreme for YA fiction. For the second year in a row, Maas’s romantasy blockbuster A Court of Thorns and Roses took the #1 spot. 

Top Children’s Fiction 

1. Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea by Dav Pilkey 
2. Cat Kid Comic Club: Influencers by Dav Pilkey 
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer by Jeff Kinney 
4. Cat Kid Comic Club: Perspectives by Dav Pilkey 
5. Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas by Dav Pilkey 
6. Dog Man Unleashed by Dav Pilkey 
7. A Tale of Two Kitties by Dav Pilkey 
8. Dog Man and Cat Kid by Dav Pilkey 
9. Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild by Dav Pilkey 
10. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltown by Jeff Kinney 

Top Teen Fiction 

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 
2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 
3. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson 
4. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 
5. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo 
6. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 
7. The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler 
8. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins 
9. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas 
10. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas 

Jazz, classic rock and pop and R&B albums by superstars Taylor Swift, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo were the highest circulating vinyl records this past year. 

Top Vinyl 

1. Abbey Road by the Beatles 
2. Evermore by Taylor Swift 
3. 1989: Taylor’s Version by Taylor Swift 
4. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis 
5. Wild Is the Wind by Nina Simone 
6. SOS by SZA 
7. Sour by Olivia Rodrigo 
8. A Love Supreme by John Coltrane 
9. The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd 
10. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles