Hey Dundalk! What Are You Reading?

I'm an avid reader, and during the winter months I can chew through one every couple of days.

I just finished Deep South, an Anna Pigeon mystery by Nevada Barr. Long a fan of Barr's work, I was pleasantly surprised to find the book in a bag of books given to me recently by my friend, Sandy Becker-Thorn.

Barr, a former National Park Service ranger, sets her Pigeon mysteries in national parks in which she has worked. As a former recreation and parks professional, I enjoy that connection.

My reading aside, Baltimore County Public Library officials have recently released the system's most borrowed list for February.

Among fiction readers, James Patterson is popular (he has four titles on the Top 10 Fiction list), and in nonfiction, the story about Turner Station's own Henrietta Lacks (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) is still in demand.

Here are the books most borrowed by Baltimore County readers during the darkest but shortest of winter months:

Top Ten Fiction Titles at BCPL in February (with number of loans)
‘
1. The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling (799)

2. Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn (564)

3. Merry Christmas, Alex Cross by James Patterson (523)

4. Private London by James Patterson (518)

5. NYPD Red by James Patterson (499)

6. Notorious Nineteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich (498)

7. The Forgotten by David Baldacci (497)

8. The Racketeer by John Grisham (475)

9. Zoo by James Patterson (470)

10. Low Pressure by Sandra Brown (461)

Top Ten Nonfiction Titles at BCPL in February (with number of loans)

1. Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot by Bill O’Reilly (203)

2. No Easy Day: The Autobiography of a Navy SEAL by Mark Owen (129)

3. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (110)

4. Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander (106)

5. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson (101)

6. Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly (94)

7. Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman (92)

8. Behind The Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo (91)

9. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (77)

10. Eat This, Not That! 2013: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution by David Zinczenko (76)

What are you reading? Talk about it in the comments section below.

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