Top 10 ebooks Downloaded in January 2016

By Peter SM RSS Fri, February 12, 2016

Here are the Top 10 ebooks downloaded from the Free Library's OverDrive Digital Library in January 2016.

More than 93,000 ebooks were checked out and downloaded for the month!

New entries to this month's Top 10 include the 2016 One Book, One Philadelphia selection Cold Mountain and the latest David Baldacci thriller The Guilty. Downloads continue to hold steady for Andy Weir's outer space survival adventure The Martian, as well as long-running series from Lee Child and Janet Evanovich respectively, featuring their characters Jack Reacher and Stephanie Plum. Mystery and Suspense Thriller genre titles filled out the rest of this month's most downloaded titles from mainstay genre authors Gillian Flynn, Harlan Coben, and John Grisham..

The following list comprises titles from across all genres, downloaded from both our website and mobile site.

1. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins The Girl on the Train (fiction, suspense)
by Paula Hawkins

Continuing with the "unreliable narrator" theme, The Girl on the Train is a classic and suspensefully thrilling page turner. Rachel rides the same commuter train every morning, a boring and predictable experience each ride, until she catches a shocking glimpse of the unspeakable. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?


2. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier Cold Mountain (historical fiction)
by Charles Frazier

This year's One Book, One Philadelphia selection, Charles Frazier’s debut novel Cold Mountain, made publishing history when it sailed to the top of The New York Times best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and went on to sell over three million copies. The story concerns a Civil War soldier journeying through a divided country to return to the woman he loves, while she struggles to maintain her father's farm and make sense of a new and troubling world. The book has been adapted for the screen, and has now most recently been adapted for the stage as an opera.

3. The Stranger by Harlan Coben The Stranger (fiction, suspense thriller)
by Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben checks in with another shocking thriller full of all the genre's requisite lies and secrets. Adam has a perfect life but doesn't realize how close he is to losing everything until he meets "The Stranger". He soon finds himself tangled in dark deception and conspiracy. 
Who is "The Stranger" exactly? This page turner will have you reading feverishly as you go along with every twist and revelation.

4. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr All the Light We Cannot See (historical fiction)
by Anthony Doerr

Set in England and France during World War II, Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See is a book about the human spirit and the will to survive under insurmountable odds. The story of a blind French girl and an orphaned German boy whose lives cross paths, children thrust into a war-torn world and forced to make life a death decisions. Emotional and suspenseful, with intricately written detailed passages among the backdrop of history.

5. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee Go Set a Watchman (fiction)
by Harper Lee

Overdrive would have you believe this is book two in the To Kill A Mockingbird Series. Um, NO. What this book is—depending on what you read or believe—is a separate novel set after the events in the Pulitzer Prize–winning To Kill A Mockingbird or excerpts from said novel that were edited out of the published draft.
Set in Maycomb, Alabama, twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—"Scout"—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Civil rights tensions and political turmoil still abound in the South and Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her.


6. The Martian by Andy Weir The Martian (fiction, sci-fi)
by Andy Weir

Recently adapted from book to screen, Andy Weir's story of astronaut Mark Watney is one of survival, determination, and the true meaning of living life to the fullest. After becoming one of the first people to walk on Mars, Mark is suddenly stranded by a freak dust storm. With no way to signal Earth from the mysterious red planet, he puts his engineering and science skills to the test to stay alive. The journal entry style storytelling and dramatic action really immerse the reader in the events of this sci-fi thriller.

7. Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich Tricky Twenty-Two (fiction, romance and mystery)
by Janet Evanovich

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is back in her 22nd mystery, involving a fraternity, goofy pranks, a big man on campus nicknamed Gobbles, and a murder. There's also the requisite love triangle, this time between Trenton cop Joe Morelli and security expert Ranger. Can Plum solve the case and get the guy?

8. Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham Rogue Lawyer (fiction, suspense thriller)
by John Grisham

Another day, another new John Grisham novel set in the apparently dangerous and thrilling world of Law. Sebastian Rudd is not your typical  lawyer: he cruises around in a custum van while drinking small-batch bourbon with a heavily armed driver / bodyguard, defending the defenseless, trying to right injustices wherever he sees them. More fast-paced entertainment from a character we're sure to see more of from the Grisham-verse.

9. Make Me by Lee Child Make Me (fiction, mystery suspense thriller)
by Lee Child

Stephen King calls Jack Reacher "the coolest continuing series character", so it's no surprise that this newest (and 20th overall) installment of the action adventure star's series would make our monthly Top 10 list. What starts out in a small, sleepy town called Mother's Rest winds up being a mystery road trip that takes Reacher through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, the dark web of the Internet, and up  against thugs and assassins every step of the way.

10. The Guilty by David Baldacci The Guilty (fiction, thriller)
by David Baladacci

Book 4 in David Baladacci's Will Robie Series sees the government's most professional, disciplined, and lethal assassin is back but not neccessarily in action. His skills have left him and he is full of hesitation and doubt, after learning that his estranged father has been charged with murder. Can Will confront his past, solve the case, reconcile with his father, and conquer his impending future?

You can check out these ebooks, plus browse for audiobooks, music, and videos, across all kinds of different genres, all from your desktop, tablet, or smartphone!

Check out our Digital Media Portal and comprehensive ebook guide for step-by-step information on accessing all the latest digital media available from the Free Library today!

What ebooks are you looking forward to downloading and reading? Tell us in the comments!


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