Brookline’s most popular books and movies of the year
What were Brookline’s favorite reads and watches of 2025? To find out, Brookline.News asked the Brookline Public Library and the Coolidge Corner Theatre for data on the latest media consumption trends.
Based on the top 10 print titles, “literary fiction still rules the day in Brookline,” said the library’s interim assistant director, Ryan Brennan. But circulation was more spread out across top picks than last year, when a smaller “handful of ‘gotta read it’ titles” dominated, he said.
Most popular titles, print
| Title and author | Checkouts |
| “Intermezzo” by Sally Rooney | 307 |
| “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore | 272 |
| “The Women” by Kristin Hannah | 266 |
| “Tell Me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout | 246 |
| “James” by Percival Everett | 239 |
| “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach | 227 |
| “North Woods” by Daniel Mason | 201 |
| “The Grey Wolf” by Louise Penny | 195 |
| “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver | 190 |
| “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride | 187 |
The library has purchased “many more” romance titles this year, as the genre continues to surge in popularity, Brennan said.
The phenomenon isn’t unique to Brookline.
This summer, NPR reported that national romance book sales were up 24%. One sub-genre that’s driving the trend?: The “romantasy” genre, which reads similarly to other romance novels but has a fantasy backdrop featuring elements like magic or dragons, Brennan explained.
Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series appears on the lists of top audiobooks and eBooks—and not just the newest novel, “Onyx Storm,” published in 2025, but 2023’s “Fourth Wing” as well. Yarros was also a favorite of next door’s Boston Public Library readers.
Brennan shared additional takeaways from internal library data.
Audiobook and eBook checkouts continue to increase, Brennan said. Circulation for digital books through the service Libby has grown 10.3%, compared with numbers from the same nearly yearlong period in 2024.
Physical item circulation was down 3%, with two weeks in the year remaining. Digital streaming on both Hoopla (all media) and Kanopy (movies) was up roughly 7%. The biggest surprise, said Brennan, was PressReader (eMagazines & newspapers) usage, which nearly doubled, increasing 43%.
Libby eBooks
| Title and author | Checkouts |
| “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach | 593 |
| “Great Big Beautiful Life” by Emily Henry | 527 |
| “The Women” by Kristin Hannah | 520 |
| “Onyx Storm” by Rebecca Yaros | 519 |
| “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore | 496 |
| “Intermezzo” by Sally Rooney | 435 |
| “Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins | 415 |
| “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid | 249 |
| “James” by Percival Everett | 240 |
| “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros | 346 |
Libby audiobooks
| Title and author | Checkouts |
| “The Women” by Kristin Hannah | 440 |
| “Onyx Storm” by Rebecca Yarros | 369 |
| “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver | 343 |
| “James” by Percival Everett | 324 |
| “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach | 317 |
| “Great Big Beautiful Life” by Emily Henry | 312 |
| “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore | 298 |
| “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid | 249 |
| “Intermezzo” by Sally Rooney | 240 |
| “All Fours” by Miranda July | 226 |
Kristin Hannah’s “The Women,” which follows a young woman who decides to become an army nurse, returned to the list this year as a favorite audiobook listen.
“I loved the female empowerment aspect of it. It’s not a perspective that’s shared very often,” children’s librarian Emma Kell told Brookline.News last year. “I listened to it as an audiobook, and Julia Whalen is one of the best narrators out there.”
Movies
Brookliners didn’t spend all their time engrossed in books in 2025. They also flocked to the cinema.
The Coolidge Corner Theatre is “on track for record-setting attendance” this year, said deputy director Beth Gilligan, who will take over as executive director next year.
Many of the top films “provided a certain level of escapism but were also very much in dialogue with the world we live in today,” said Gilligan. “Coolidge audiences were unafraid to embrace artistically ambitious and bold works of art.”
Coolidge Corner Theatre’s top-grossing films of 2025
| 1.“One Battle After Another” Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson |
| 2. “Sinners” Dir. Ryan Coogler |
| 3. “The Brutalist” Dir. Brady Corbet (2024 film, but released in Boston in 2025) |
| 4. “Frankenstein” Dir. Guillermo del Toro |
| 5. “The Phoenician Scheme” Dir. Wes Anderson |
| 6. “Friendship” Dir. Andrew DeYoung |
| 7. “Nosferatu” Dir. Robert Eggers |
| 8. “Bad Shabbos” Dir. Daniel Robbins |
| 9. “Mickey 17” Dir. Bong Joon-Ho |
| 10. “Bugonia” Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos |
“One Battle After Another,” a critical hit but a national box office flop, found local success, climbing to first place.
The Coolidge was one of only four cinemas worldwide selected to show “OBAA,” as film buffs refer to it, in VistaVision, a high-resolution, widescreen format.
Gilligan called it “a fantastic year for cinema,” sharing annual highlights at the local independent theatre.
The Coolidge was “honored to welcome” internationally-renowned film artists, she said. Big names of the year included Francis Ford Coppola, Ethan Hawke, Jafar Panahi and Payal Kapadia.
Classic films and repertory series, such as “Spike and Denzel,” “Projections: Sci Fi from the Art House” and “Noirvember,” also drew “large crowds,” Gilligan said. The Coolidge has long been renowned for its innovative and creative repertory programming, popularized in part by longtime owner Justin Freed in the 1970s.
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