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 April 18, 2021.

The midnight library cover
The four winds cover
Life after death cover
Klara and the sun cover
The invisible life of Addie LaRue cover
Win cover

View the full list

Midnight sun cover

New York Times - Children's Bestsellers (24 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 April 18, 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 April 18, 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 greens!

Greens 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 NL team enjoys…

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Suzanna Urminska installing the Making Her Mark exhibition.

Making Her Mark Spotlight: Poetry and Movement Building

by Suzanna Urminska and Sam Perduta Our words carry power—whether as balm or as burnish, our words have the power to come together to form poetry that recalls and reconnects a range of human experiences both personal and…

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

Newest Episode of "Book Feast" Invites Women to the Table

Coinciding with Women’s History Month, the newest episode of Book Feast uses the luncheon in Virginia Woolf ’s proto-feminist essay A Room of One’s Own (1929) to discuss women’s legacy in literature. The…

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The newest addition to the Literary Arts series of stamps will feature Ursula K. Le Guin!

Women's History Month | Ursula K. Le Guin Honored with Commemorative Stamp

Ursula K. Le Guin 's award-winning writing often depicted futuristic alternative worlds steeped in the themes of politics, the natural environment, gender, religion, sexuality, and ethnography. Now her legacy will live on in a…

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Page spread from: Black lives 1900 - W.E.B. Du Bois at the Paris Exposition

Art Book Club Online

The Art Department is now hosting a virtual book and art-making club and we're excited to kick off our next topic! Art Book Club Online: Picturing Information starts Tuesday, February 2, meeting 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. on Tuesdays…

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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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Podcasts

Natalie Diaz | <i>Postcolonial Love Poem</i> with Denice Frohman
Natalie Diaz | Postcolonial Love Poem with Denice Frohman
Phillip Lopate | <i>The Golden Age of the American Essay: 1945-1970</i>
Phillip Lopate | The Golden Age of the American Essay: 1945-1970
Blake Bailey | <i>Philip Roth: The Biography</i>
Blake Bailey | Philip Roth: The Biography
Quiara Alegría Hudes | <i>My Broken Language</i>
Quiara Alegría Hudes | My Broken Language
Viet Thanh Nguyen | <i>The Committed</i>
Viet Thanh Nguyen | The Committed
Hala Alyan | <i>The Arsonists’ City</i>
Hala Alyan | The Arsonists’ City
Melissa Broder | <i>Milk Fed</i>
Melissa Broder | Milk Fed
Victor Wooten | <i>The Spirit of Music: The Lesson Continues</i>
Victor Wooten | The Spirit of Music: The Lesson Continues
Nadia Owusu | <i>Aftershocks: A Memoir</i>
Nadia Owusu | Aftershocks: A Memoir
Salamishah Tillet | <i>In Search of The Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece</i>
Salamishah Tillet | In Search of The Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece
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