Atlantan, Oprah book club author on DeKalb’s most borrowed book list

Tayari Jones’ new book was inspired by a conversation she overheard at Lenox Mall. ALYSSA POINTER/ALYSSA.POINTER@AJC.COM

Tayari Jones’ new book was inspired by a conversation she overheard at Lenox Mall. ALYSSA POINTER/ALYSSA.POINTER@AJC.COM

Atlantans, including one who is an Oprah book club author, wrote two of the most borrowed books in the DeKalb County Public Library system.

The list includes popular authors such as James Patterson, Celeste Ng, and Oprah book club author and Atlanta native Tayari Jones. Emily Giffin, also an Atlanta resident, made the list as well. The list, compiled by DeKalb County Public Library, was based on the number of first-time adult rentals in 2018. The numbers do not include book rental renewals.

So if you’re looking to start your own reading list (or need to finish the one you started in 2018), here is a list of the Top 10 most borrowed books in DeKalb County and information provided by publishers.

"Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng (borrowed 604 times)

Celeste Ng's latest work Little Fire Everywhere made the list despite its September 2017 release. Set in the 1990s, the novel takes places in Ng's hometown Shaker Heights, Ohio and focuses on two families divided by a custody battle. The book will be adapted in to an eight-episode miniseries on Hulu staring and produced by Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon.

"The Great Alone" by Kristin Hannah (borrowed 538 times)

Two years after writing historical fiction piece The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah revisits the genreThe Great Alone centers on Ernt Albright, a former prisoner of war marred by the Vietnam war, who decides to move his family to Alaska after he loses another job. Ernt, his wife Cora and daughter Leni struggle to maintain their stalwart unit as supplies diminish. With Ernt's mental state weakening, Cora and Leni must decide how they will survive.

"Before We Were Yours" by Lisa Wingate (borrowed 534 times)

In this historical drama set in 1939 Memphis, Lisa Wingate's writes a fictional adaptation on  notorious Tennessee Children's Home Society director Georgia Tann who kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families across the U.S. Rill Foss must watch her four siblings while their father rushes their mother to a hospital. But soon after he leaves, the children are kidnapped and thrown in to one of the  orphanages, where Rill must fight to keep her and siblings together. 

"An American Marriage" by Tayari Jones (borrowed 526 times)

For newlyweds Celeste and Roy, life was just starting, but the pair are torn apart when Roy, a young executive, is arrested and sentenced to 12 years in prion for a crime he didn't commit. In An American Marriage, Jones bends the strength of the pair's marriage as Celeste leans on childhood best friend Andre while Roy is in jail. The novel quickly garnered mainstream attention when media maven Oprah Winfrey selected it for her 2018 book club. it later landed on former President Barack Obama's summer reading list. The novel is also expected to be adapted for film, according to media reports.

Best-selling suspense novelist James Patterson and former president Bill Clinton will talk about their new novel The President is Missing Tuesday at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale. Photo by David Burnett

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"The President is Missing" by Bill Clinton and James Patterson (rented 488 times)

Preparing to testify before the House of Representatives, President Jonathan Lincoln faces impeachment after he negotiated with a terrorist. That opening sequence in The President is Missing sets the scene for the rest of the novel's windy tale. In this political thriller, former president Bill Clinton and famed author James Patterson team up for an intertwined story of espionage, terror and treason with a fictional President Duncan eventually becoming a suspect before he (as you might've guessed) goes missing. The book garnered buzz nine months before its June 2018 publish date when Showtime announced it is adapting the book for a television series, according to media reports.

"The Woman in The Window" by A.J. Finn (rented 454 times)

Wine, movies and people watching. That's what a daily routine is for New York City dweller Anna Fox in A.J. Finn's The Woman in The Window. That changes when the Russells move in to the neighborhood and Anna, peeping through her window no doubt, witnesses a crime. A movie adaptation featuring Amy Adams is due in theaters on Oct. 4. 

"The Fallen" by David Baldacci (rented 396 times)

In the fourth instalment of the Amos Decker series, the ex-football pro turned FBI detective and his colleague Alex Jamison must investigate four murders in the small town of Baronville. The book, published in April, landed on the New York Times Bestseller book list.

"Educated: A Memoir" Tara Westover (rented 384 times)

Much of Tara Westover's life in the mountains of Idaho consisted of remote living. In fact, she'd never been in a classroom until she was 17 and lived a very isolated life. But the obstacles living didn't deter Westover from getting an education. In Educated: A Memoir, Tara details how her education journey which eventually led her to a Brigham Young University and eventually Harvard. 

Author Emily Giffin appeared at the 2016 AJC Decatur Book Festival. AJC FILE

Credit: Jennifer Brett

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Credit: Jennifer Brett

"All We Ever Wanted: A Novel"by Emily Giffin (rented 365 times) 

To some a picture may be worth a thousand words. But in this Emily Giffin novel, a drunken moment at a party captured on camera has Nina Browning, Tom Volpe and his daughter Lyla questioning their relationships and themselves. Giffin, an Atlanta resident, is best known for her novel Something Borrowed.

"A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles (rented 361 times)

Set in 1922, this novel focuses on Count Alexander Rostov, who is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin, according to an online description about the book. Rostov is then forced in to "a much larger world of emotional discovery." The book comes five years after his debut, breakout novel Rules of Civility.

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