'The Women,' 'Great Big Beautiful Life' and 'The Let Them Theory' among Long Island's most popular library book checkouts of 2025

Long Islanders can’t get enough of Kristin Hannah.

For the second consecutive year, Hannah's historical fiction novel "The Women" tops the list of total checkouts in the Nassau Library System, with the book taken  14,665 times in 2025.

The novel, which centers on the experiences of nurses serving in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during and after the Vietnam War, had a whopping 19,650 checkouts in 2024.

Lisa Zuena, communications and marketing specialist for the Nassau system, said she has never seen a book hit No. 1 for checkouts two years in a row.

"I was shocked to see that," Zuena said.

The book was also popular with patrons of the Suffolk Cooperative Library System, where print, e-book and audiobook versions have been checked out a total of 11,675 times this year. The most checked-out book in Suffolk so far in 2025 is "Great Big Beautiful Life," a novel by Emily Henry, with 16,085 total checkouts.

Zuena said book clubs, many of which are part of Nassau’s 54 libraries, are a big driver of a book’s extended popularity.

She recalled seeing a similar trend with "Where the Crawdads Sing," by Delia Owens, which was published in 2018 but remained a popular book club pick for a long time.

Samantha Alberts, administrator for member services at the Suffolk Cooperative Library System, said she noticed a theme of comfort in this year's top picks.

Readers opted for romances like "Atmosphere,” by Taylor Jenkins Reid, a historical fiction about a physics professor who becomes one of the first female astronauts in NASA's space shuttle program, and "Broken Country," by Clare Leslie Hall. Also popular were "The Wedding People," by Alison Espach, and "The God of the Woods," by Liz Moore.

Mel Robbins' "The Let Them Theory," a self-help book, also made the top 10 for both counties.

Alberts said self-help books often don’t often make the list but, "People are looking for ways to help themselves and to bring comfort to themselves. Things are a little uncertain right now, and they want something to kind of reaffirm that things are going to be OK."

Move away from print

Digital versions and audiobooks continued to be a growing means for people to consume books, both county systems said.

In Nassau, e-book and audiobook readers accounted for the majority of checkouts of the top 10 titles. For example, "Wedding People" was digitally borrowed four times as much as the print version.

While four of Freida McFadden’s books — "The Boyfriend," "The Crash," "The Housemaid is Watching" and "The Housemaid" — were among Nassau's most checked-out print books, none were in the top 10 for total checkouts because digital copies are not available for libraries to purchase.

"The Housemaid" has been adapted into a film starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. It will be released next week.

Alberts said McFadden's books saw a similar trend in Suffolk.

"If it was available to libraries in multiple formats early on, it probably would be higher up," she said. "How people enjoy the story is very personal, but people enjoy it in different formats."