Popular Adult Authors

Stack of Books by Kate Ter Haar from Flickr Creative Commons

Two weeks ago, just ahead of Black Friday shopping, I presented a list of popular children’s and young adult authors.  Now it’s time to look at what authors tend to be popular with adult readers.  To that end I have again created a list based on what I have observed in my time working within libraries.  As you will be able to see, not all the authors listed are bestsellers.  Some may just be popular in my region.  Thus, this list may be different if published, say on the East or West coast versus the Midwest.  In some cases, I have seen where the only the author’s newest books are what checks out, such as with Stuart Woods and Tom Clancy.  Others have lasting power and their old and new works check out with just as much frequency, such as Danielle Steel, Sandra Brown, and Nora Roberts.  For others, their new works are always popular but their older works are hit and miss, such as with James Patterson.  At least locally, as you will see below, there are a number of inspirational fiction authors that are popular, but I have never seen listed on a bestsellers list.

I have linked each author to their profile on Goodreads so you can see not only their works, but links to their websites (if applicable) and other information they opted to post.

Adult Fiction:

• Dan Brown
• Sandra Brown
• Wanda E. Brunstetter
• Robyn Carr
• Lee Child
• Tom Clancy
• Colleen Coble
• Jude Deveraux
• Richard Paul Evans
• Gillian Flynn
• Lisa Gardner
• Sue Grafton
• John Grisham
• Charlene Harris
• Kim Harrison
• Mary Higgins Clark
• E.L.James
• J.A. Jance
• Stephen King
• Dean Koontz
• Beverly Lewis
• Debbie Macomber
• Judith McCoy Miller
• James Patterson
• Richard North Patterson
• Tracie Peterson
• Jodi Picoult
• Nora Roberts
• Anna Schmidt
• Lisa Scottoline
• Nicholas Sparks
• Danielle Steel
• Elaine Viets
• Susan Wiggs
• Stuart Woods

Also, keep in mind, many adults do enjoy young adult literature.  I’ve seen them check out the Hunger Games, Divergent, and Harry Potter Series.  Plus Code Name Verity and its companion novel Rose Under Fire, The Book Thief, and the novel Between Shades of Gray (which I wrote about before; also all four a great books) have also been popular with adults.

Adult Non-Fiction

In the case of adult non-fiction, I looked at which authors as a whole get checked out more.  I looked only at those who have at least two books for this list (to avoid the chance of a one-hit wonder).  As you can see, the leaning is towards three main categories:  History, Biographies, and Conservative issues.

• Stephen E. Ambrose
• Rick Atkinson
• Joseph J. Ellis
• Laura Hillenbrand
• Doris Kearnes Goodwin
• Alex Kershaw
• Charles Krauthammer
• David McCullough
• Bill O’Reilly
• Mitchell Zuckhoff

Again, please let me know if I forgot a popular author; this is by no means a complete list!  If you comment with anyone I forgot, I will add them to the list.  Also, consider using this list to help with the holiday shopping!

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