Bestsellers

Find out about the latest bestsellers from many well known resources.

Guides

Bestsellers

Links

  • Google Play

    Enjoy millions of the latest Android apps, games, music, movies, TV, books, magazines & more, including the Overdrive Media Console and Hoopla apps.

  • iTunes App Store

    Browse and download apps to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch from the App Store, including the Overdrive Media Console and Hoopla apps.

  • Kindle App Store

    Instant access to thousands of the most popular free and best-selling apps and games, including the Overdrive Media Console and Hoopla apps.

  • NOOK Store

    Your one-stop-shop for all things NOOK.

New York Times - Bestselling Fiction by Bestsellers

Bestselling fiction titles, updated every week! This list includes bestselling fiction for the week of January 24, 2021.

The return cover
A time for mercy cover
The vanishing half cover
Where the crawdads sing cover
Anxious people : a novel cover
Light of the jedi cover

View the full list

The complete cookbook for young chefs. cover

New York Times - Children's Bestsellers (19 items)

Bestselling Children's titles, updated every week! This list includes bestselling children's fiction, children's series, and Children's Picture Books for the week of January 24, 2021.

Caste : the origins of our discontents cover

New York Times - Bestselling Nonfiction (10 items)

Bestselling nonfiction titles, updated every week! This list includes bestselling nonfiction for the week of January 24, 2021.

Classical Chinese poetry : an anthology cover

Poetry in Translation (6 items)

Take pleasure in reading poets from other languages and cultures.

Brains for lunch : a zombie novel in haiku?! cover

Poetry - Novels in Verse (19 items)

Poetry with special appeal for tweens and teens.

Crush cover

Poetry - Great Contemporary Poetry (5 items)

Selections from the Literature Department.

Prelude to bruise : poetry cover

Award Winners (20 items)

Award-winning Bestsellers, fiction and nonfiction

The woman in cabin 10 cover

Library Reads: Favorite of Favorites 2016 (10 items)

Librarians across the country have chosen their ten favorite books published in 2016.

A fine balance cover

Oprah's Book Club (73 items)

Bestselling selections from Oprah's Book Club.

Electronic Resources

Upcoming Events

Blog Posts

There are so many kinds of squash!

Squash Across Tables

Thank you to Nourishing Literacy (NL) team member Carolyn for writing this blog post! In addition to sharing her experience and findings, Carolyn has included some of the activities and approaches that we use in NL. The Nourishing…

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Book Feast celebrates this connection by highlighting a specific food or dish that plays a special role in a work of literature—analyzing its significance and demonstrating its general culinary use.

Let Culinary Explorations of Literature Nourish You with Book Feast!

Have you ever thought about why we use the same vocabulary to describe consuming food and consuming knowledge? How we’re hungry for the truth, devour a good book, and digest information?  Intellectual nourishment has been so…

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Hosts of Story Search, Andrea Lemoins and Joe Shemtov

Story Search from Special Collections: An Interview by Hannah Cho

Hannah Cho is a University of Pennsylvania Work-Study student from Davis, CA. During the Fall semester, she studied, recorded, and edited the Story Search podcasts remotely from South Korea. I’ve always been more of a talker…

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Philadelphia Poet Laureate Trapeta B. Mayson

Healing Verse Philly: a Project from the Poet Laureate

Through the challenges of 2020, one of the abiding sources of relief for many of us has been poetry. More people than ever are looking to the written word for strength, wisdom, and comfort. Even before the pandemic struck, Trapeta B.…

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Have you read any of the above titles? What’s the best book you’ve read this year? Let us know in the comments!

What Philadelphia Read in 2020

The longest year ever is coming to a close. (Amen.) That means that it’s time to peruse some Best of 2020 book lists! Across the web you can find tons of these kinds of lists. Two of my favorites are Book Riot’s Best Books…

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You can now ask about adding specific titles through OverDrive’s Recommend to Library feature!

How to Recommend a Digital Book

For many Philadelphians, library access to free ebooks and audiobooks has been a lifesaver during the pandemic. We may not be able to go anywhere we want, but we can travel vicariously through someone else’s adventures or at least…

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My favorite picture books of 2020!

Picture Book Highlights | My Favorite Books of 2020

I wanted to write a blog post about my favorite picture books of 2020; all the books that touched me through their text and art... but that is not an easy thing to do. There are so many wonderful books published every year – how…

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¿Aprendiendo Español?

¿Aprendiendo Español? Check Out These Resources!

Nowadays, mastering a new language is so much fun—there are so many resources available! Depending on your learning style, you can design a work plan that fits your needs and time. With only five minutes a day, you can build a…

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Winnie the Pooh and his friends

It's Winnie the Pooh's Birthday!

In these difficult times, the birthday of a beloved book, TV, and movie character from childhood feels like the perfect excuse to curl up within the comfort and safety of nostalgia. And boy do we need it! For so many of us, Winnie the…

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This book club centers around connection through cultural understanding

Join Our New YA and Adult Multicultural Book Club!

Are you interested in reading new authors? Are you looking for a safe place to discuss literature and culture? Then this book club is for you! The YA / Adult Multicultural Book Club has a focus on authors of color and expanding cultural…

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Monday Poets Celebrates 25 Years!

Monday Poets Turns 25! View Ephemera from Over the Years

The Literature Department at Parkway Central Library is celebrating the 25th year of our flagship program, Monday Poets ! Over the years, the department has hosted poets from all over the country, and has always made it their mission to…

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Soar into September with help from Free Library programs and resources!

Back to School Resources and Programs for Students

The new school year starts this week throughout Philadelphia and whether students will be attending school in-person and / or virtually, the Free Library is ready to help with resources and programs to help make the school year a…

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The Free Library now offers access to ebooks and audiobooks in seven world languages: Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, French, Haitian Creole, and Arabic.

Hurra! Hourra! Hoan Hô! | ebooks in 7 Languages

¡hurra! 万岁 hoan hô! Ура! hourra! hooray! الصيحة! Let’s celebrate! The Free Library now offers access to ebooks and audiobooks in seven world languages: Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, French, Haitian Creole, and…

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Father and child go on a hike.

Picture Book Highlights | Let's Go Hiking

In these times of social distancing and no indoor activities, what better way to spend time than venturing outside and going for a hike in the great outdoors? You don’t have to go far—here in Philly we have both Fairmount…

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Kingsessing Story Stroll by entrance to Kingsessing Recreation Center

Take a Story Stroll and Enjoy a Book in a Brand New Way!

Something I love about storytelling is the way it brings people together. That is the very reason it can be hard to come by in our current world of social distancing. Many storytellers, including some of our wonderful librarians, have…

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Try this vegetarian version of Cobb Salad for a healthy and hearty summer meal.

Edible Alphabet Recipe of the Week: Vegetarian Cobb Salad

Edible Alphabet is a free English Language Learning (ELL) program offered by the Free Library's Culinary Literacy Center. The mission is to teach English language and literacy skills through hands-on cooking projects. While Free…

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Don't miss these new titles in the Free Library catalog!

New Titles Coming to the Free Library in July!

In this time of self-reflection and evaluation of our own and our society's biases and attitudes around race, our suggestions include new titles in which race is a central theme, as well as a primer on voting and why it matters. We…

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These wonderful ebooks can help you celebrate the richness and diversity of families today!

Celebrating Families During Pride Month

Families come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. These wonderful ebooks can help you celebrate the richness and diversity of families today:   Baby’s First Words written by Stella Blackstone ; illustrated by Christiane Engel…

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Award-winning Science Fiction author, Octavia Butler, would have celebrated her 73rd birthday on June 22, 2020.

In Appreciation of Octavia Butler

That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times. ― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of…

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Podcasts

VIRTUAL - Sadeqa Johnson | <i>Yellow Wife</i>
VIRTUAL - Sadeqa Johnson | Yellow Wife
George Saunders | <i>A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Masterclass on Writing, Reading, and Life</i>
George Saunders | A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Masterclass on Writing, Reading, and Life
Jerald Walker | <i>How to Make a Slave and Other Essays</i>
Jerald Walker | How to Make a Slave and Other Essays
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o | <i>The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi</i>
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o | The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi
Eddie Glaude, Jr. | <i>Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own</i>
Eddie Glaude, Jr. | Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
Karen Russell | <i>Sleep Donation</i> with Charles Yu | <i>Interior Chinatown</i>
Karen Russell | Sleep Donation with Charles Yu | Interior Chinatown
Jess Walter | <i>The Cold Millions</i>
Jess Walter | The Cold Millions
Issac J. Bailey | <i>Why Didn't We Riot: A Black Man in Trumpland</i>
Issac J. Bailey | Why Didn't We Riot: A Black Man in Trumpland
Nicole Krauss | <i>To Be a Man: Stories</i>
Nicole Krauss | To Be a Man: Stories
Ayad Akhtar | <i>Homeland Elegies</i>
Ayad Akhtar | Homeland Elegies
Barbara Kingsolver | <i>How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)</i>
Barbara Kingsolver | How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)
Nikki Giovanni | <i>Make Me Rain</i>
Nikki Giovanni | Make Me Rain
Asha Lemmie | <i>Fifty Words for Rain</i>
Asha Lemmie | Fifty Words for Rain
Roddy Doyle | <i>Love</i>
Roddy Doyle | Love
Imani Perry In Conversation with Kiese Laymon: On the Uprising since George Floyd's Murder and Black Struggles for Freedom in the United States
Imani Perry In Conversation with Kiese Laymon: On the Uprising since George Floyd's Murder and Black Struggles for Freedom in the United States
Lauren Francis-Sharma | <i>Book of the Little Axe</i>
Lauren Francis-Sharma | Book of the Little Axe
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio | <i>The Undocumented Americans</i>
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio | The Undocumented Americans
Seanan McGuire | <i>Middlegame</i> and <i>Imaginary Numbers</i>
Seanan McGuire | Middlegame and Imaginary Numbers
Susan Choi | <i>Trust Exercise</i> with Jacqueline Woodson | <i>Red at the Bone</i>
Susan Choi | Trust Exercise with Jacqueline Woodson | Red at the Bone
Frank B. Wilderson III | <i>Afropessimism</i>
Frank B. Wilderson III | Afropessimism