Here are the most checked-out books at the Hamilton Public Library for 2021

A climate change novel set off the coast of Newfoundland, Barack Obama's memoir and a plant ecologist's essays on science and Indigenous teachings — these were some of the most popular books at the Hamilton library this year.

Hamilton Public Library (HPL) released a list of its top 10 most checked-out books in 2021 earlier this month, which includes copies of physical books, audiobooks and ebooks.

The top checked-out title was Canadian novelist Catherine Bush's Blaze Island, which was also the 2021 Hamilton Reads pick. The novel, billed as an ecological thriller about climate change, is inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama's memoir A Promised Land also made the list twice — once as an audio book and again as a physical book. 

Lisa Radha Weaver, HPL director of collections and program development, said that last year saw more thrillers in the top 10, while 2021's list features more broad storytelling. 

"It was not just focused on one genre," she said. "I think that sort of speaks to all of us as we continue in a balance of pandemic and post-pandemic responses. We're all exploring in different ways."

Digital books have also become more popular in the last year. After hitting a milestone of one million checkouts of e-books in 2020, the HPL broke another record in 2021 with almost 1.3 million checkouts, Weaver said.

1. Blaze Island by Catherine Bush

In Blaze Island, a Category Five hurricane devastates the eastern seaboard of North America, including a small island off the coast of Newfoundland where the former climate scientist Milan Wells lives with his daughter Miranda. As in The Tempest, the arrival of strangers on the island upends the character's lives.

The novel was the 2021 Hamilton Reads Pick and A Writers' Trust of Canada Best Book of the Year. Based in Toronto, Bush is also the coordinator of the University of Guelph's creative writing masters program.

2. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half follows the story of the Vignes twin sisters through multiple generations of their family. Raised in a small black community in Louisiana, two sisters run away at 16 and their lives begin to radically diverge as adults. 

The book is a New York Times bestseller, and it is also being adapted into an HBO series with Bennett as one of the executive producers.

3. A Promised Land (audiobook) by Barack Obama