Despite a trying year in the political crosshairs, public libraries remain one of the most used institutions in Alabama.

In fact, 2024 was a big year for libraries, as Alabamians borrowed more from libraries in 2024 than in 2023. One of the state’s largest public libraries even set a new record for digital borrowing.

Read more: Inside the blistering battle over Alabama libraries: ‘Burn the freaking books’

Millions of books were checked out. And a few stood atop the list.

So which books were the most popular? Let’s check it out.

Birmingham

2024 was a banner year for borrowing in the Birmingham area, especially for digital check-outs. Public libraries in Jefferson County lent out more than 1 million digital copies of books, either ebooks or audiobooks, a new milestone.

Libraries in Jefferson County saw total circulation top 3.9 million in 2024, a 5.6% increase over 2023. That includes a nearly 11% increase in digital circulation.

The Public Libraries in Jefferson County shared a list of the five most popular physical and digital books for the year.

One things for sure. Birmingham Metro residents love thrillers.

[Can’t see the list? Click here.]

Four of the five most popular physical rentals were thrillers, including Nos. 1 and 2, both by John Grisham. The only non-thriller on the list was “The Women” by Kristin Hannah, a historical fiction novel.

The physical and digital lists are different, a representative from the library said, because there are typically longer waits for digital books, especially new, popular ones.

“For physical media, libraries typically purchase multiple copies of new releases to fill holds placed by library users as efficiently as possible,” Tobin Cataldo, the executive director of the Jefferson County Library Cooperative, said in an email to AL.com. “Libraries will typically purchase fewer digital copies as the price difference between physical and digital can be significant. The result is that for some titles, the wait time [for digital copies] can be longer.”

Still, there was one small overlap between the two lists — Hannah’s “The Women,” which ranked third on the physical rentals list, was fourth in digital circulation as well.

Huntsville

Madison County, now the second largest county in Alabama, also shared library circulation data. Total circulation there increased by about 5%, up to nearly 3 million in 2024.

While there were some commonalities between the Huntsville and Birmingham areas, the top five lists overall look pretty different.

First of all, Huntsvillians are much more into historical fiction.

[Can’t see the list? Click here.]

“The Women,” which was popular in the Birmingham area too, was the single most checked-out physical library book in the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library for fiscal year 2024.

The four most popular books there were all historical fiction, including two books by Hannah and “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2023.

The digital list was very different in Huntsville, though. It featured two entries in the hit fantasy/romance series “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas, and the popular “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros. And the fifth most popular wasn’t a book at all, but a Hallmark streaming service provided by the library.

AL.com got data from library systems in Jefferson and Madison counties, the two largest counties in the state. There are several autonomous library systems in Jefferson County, including the Birmingham Public Library and others, which offer shared resources under the Public Libraries Jefferson County service.