Every week we ask an interesting figure what they're digging into. Have ideas who we should reach out to? Let it fly: info@seattlereviewofbooks.com. Want to read more? Check out the archives.

Whatcha Reading is a year old! We started this column at the top of 2018, because we love hearing what people are reading. It's such a great way to discover overlooked books, but it's also a great way to judge what books are popular.

So, for the year end, we decided to look back at books that have been mentioned in the column more than once, and make a list. This would be the most popular of our Whatcha Reading reports.

Only one book — Rachel Kushner's The Mars Room — was mentioned three times, so that's probably the best place to start, but all three people who mentioned it put it in "What will you read next?" so there's no good quote to accompnay the mention.

All the following got mentioned twice, and are presented in no particular order:

• Instruments of the True Measure — Laura Da'. Paulette Perhach said "I pretty much just fangirl over her work every time. It’s embarrassing, but I can’t stop."
• What We Do With the Wreckage — Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum. Kristen Millares Young called it a "potent collection of short stories," and a "slow burn."
• The Overstory — Richard Powers. "For once, Richard Powers is not showing off how damn clever he is," said Lesley Hazleton, "...maybe because he really cares about trees — and humans — and how they communicate (trees with trees, humans with trees, humans with humans). It’s moved me to tears at times, and am already buying extra copies for friends."
• Winter — Ali Smith, of whom Kit Bakke said was "pretty fearless about making readers do some of the work, but rewarding them at the same time"
• Exit West — Moshin Hamid. Priscilla Long said that it was a "A moving love story set in the violence and dislocation of the world as we know it."
• So You Want to Talk About Race — Ijeoma Oluo, of which Jessixa Bagley said "I don’t use Twitter much, but as I’m reading this book, I feel like I should be live tweeting every line."
• There There — Tommy Orange, who Jessica Mooney called "an incredibly gifted writer, [and] a kind human being.
• Dept. of Speculation — Jenny Offill.
• Ties — Domenico Starnone (translated by Jhumpa Lahiri), which Lauren Cerand "loved", and which "won a prize the next day, so I felt very clever for a moment with my morning coffee."
• So Lucky — Nicola Griffith. Sharma Shields previewed her recent compelling must-read review in Cascadia Magazine by calling it "a kickass novel about the monster of multiple sclerosis; this was an intimate, difficult, and ultimately bracing read for me given my own struggles with MS"
• Wait, Blink — Gunnhild Øyehaug. Deb Caletti said it's "charming, odd, yet quietly profound...I loved it."
• Pachinko — Min Lin Jee. Kim Fu said "it made me sharply aware that “history” is living and endless, as much of the present as the past."
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation — Ottessa Moshfegh
• Wolf Hall — Hilary Mantel. Kory Stamper likes to read Mantel before bedtime, "the writing has such a lovely texture and rhythm and playfulness to it."
• How to Write an Autobiographical Novel — Alexander Chee. Lucy Bellwood says "I tore through it in one sitting on a flight home from Toronto, in tears maybe 70% of the time" (and, it's worth clicking through to see the illustration she gave it!)
• Her Body and Other Parties — Carmen Maria Machado Alix Christie said "These stories are blowing my mind. On the one hand they’re visceral, sexy, physical, and on the other fantasmagorically surreal — yet also terrifyingly plausible."