DMPL closed Sunday, March 31

All locations of the Des Moines Public Library will be closed Sunday, March 31 for the Easter holiday.

The Most Popular Books of 2020

As 2020 winds to an end, we're celebrating the books you loved. Listed below are the books and DVDs most requested by our patrons in 2020. It's a list of unique and fun books and movies, symbolizing what has been a very unique year.

Adult Fiction

Book cover for "Where the Crawdads Sing"

 

  1. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
  2. The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
  3. American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins
  4. Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid
  5. The Guest List, by Lucy Foley
  6. Camino Winds, by John Grisham
  7. A Time for Mercy, by John Grisham
  8. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
  9. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
  10. All the Devils are Here, by Louise Penny

 

Adult Non-Fiction

Too Much and Never Enough

 

  1. Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, by Mary L. Trump
  2. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Race, by Robin DiAngelo
  3. Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson
  4. Untamed, by Glennon Doyle
  5. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama
  6. How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi
  7. Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover
  8. Rage, by Bob Woodward
  9. The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance, by Erik Larson
  10. The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir, by John Bolton

 

Teen Fiction

Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

 

  1. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins
  2. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
  3. Midnight Sun, by Stephenie Meyer
  4. One of Us is Lying, by Karen L. McManus
  5. Clap When You Land, by Elizabeth Acevedo
  6. The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan
  7. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, by Holly Jackson
  8. American Royals, by Katharine McGee
  9. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
  10. 1984, by George Orwell

 

DVDs

1917

 

 

  1. 1917
  2. Little Women (2019)
  3. Knives Out
  4. Parasite
  5. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
  6. Jojo Rabbit
  7. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
  8. Ford v. Ferrari
  9. Just Mercy
  10. Frozen II

Children’s Fiction

The Deep End

 

  1. The Deep End, by Jeff Kinney
  2. The One and Only Bob, by Katherine Applegate
  3. Wrecking Ball, by Jeff Kinney
  4. Pug Blasts Off, by Kyla May
  5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling
  6. Clean Getaway, by Nic Stone
  7. Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, by Jason Reynolds
  8. Dragons and Marshmallows, by Asia Citro
  9. Spy School Revolution, by Stuart Gibbs
  10. A Friend for Dragon, by Dav Pilkey

Children’s Picture Books

The Great Eggscape

 

  1. The Great Eggscape!, by Jory John, illustrated by Pete Oswald
  2. Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, by Kevin Noble Maillard, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal
  3. Something Happened in Our Town, by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivion
  4. Last Stop on Market Street, by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson
  5. The Day You Begin, by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Rafael López
  6. I Am Enough, by Grace Byers, illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo
  7. The Pigeon Has to Go to School, by Mo Willems
  8. Ravi’s Roar, by Tom Percival
  9. A Way with Wild Things, by Larissa Theule, illustrated by Sara Palacios
  10. Saturday, by Oge Mora
Published on December 22, 2020
Last Modified March 30, 2024