The Hamilton Review of Books' Independently Published Bestsellers List: December
Take a look at which independently published books Canadians are purchasing from independent bookstores.
Fiction
The Son of the House by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, Dundurn Press
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, Cormorant Books
Mr. Jones: A Ghost Story for Christmas by Edith Wharton & Seth, Biblioasis
Everything Turns Away by Michelle Berry, Wolsak & Wynn
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, ECW Press
The Break by Katherena Vermette, House of Anansi
Glorious Frazzled Beings by Angélique Lalonde, House of Anansi
The Ring by André Alexis, Coach House Books
The Best of the Bonnet by Andrew Unger, Turnstone Press
Even So by Lauren B. Davis, Dundurn Press
Non-fiction
Me Tomorrow: Indigenous Views on the Future, ed. by Drew Hayden Taylor, Douglas & MacIntyre
Richard Wagamese Selected: What Comes From Spirit by Richard Wagamese and Drew Hayden Taylor, Douglas & MacIntyre
Shift Change: Scenes from a Post-industrial Revolution by Stephen Dale, Between the Lines
Massey Hall: An Enduring Legacy by David McPherson, Dundurn Press
Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations by Richard Wagamese, Douglas & MacIntyre
Indigenous Toronto: Stories that Carry This Place, ed. by Denise Bolduc, Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere and Rebeka Tabobondung, Coach House Books
Her Name Was Margaret: Life and Death on the Streets by Denise Davy, Wolsak and Wynn
This Place: 150 Years Retold by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Sonny Assu, Brandon Mitchell, Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, David A. Robertson, Highwater Press
Borrowed Time: Calgary 1976–2019 by George Webber, Rocky Mountain Books
Backyard Bird Feeding: A Saskatchewan Guide by Trevor Herriot and Myrna Pearman, Nature Saskatchewan
Kids
Treaty Words by Aimée Craft and Luke Swinson, Annick Press
Living with Viola by Rosena Fung, Annick Press
Firefly by Phillipa Dowding, Comorant Books
Buffalo Wild by Deidre Havrelock and Azby Whitecalf, Annick Press
Going Up by Sherry J. Lee and Charlene Chua, Kids Can Press
How I Built This List:
I am very grateful for all the bookstores who generously shared their sales data with me. The information used to create this list was drawn from the December sales of Another Story Bookshop in Toronto, The City and the City Books in Hamilton, Epic Books in Hamilton, Hunter Street Books in Peterborough, McNally Robinson Booksellers (both the Grant Park and the Forks Locations in Winnipeg), McNally Robinson Saskatoon, Shelf Life Books in Calgary and Wordsworth Books in Waterloo. We’re covering a fair amount of Canada, but I hope to add more stores over time to the process and create a more wide-ranging list.
Many of the authors on this list will be new to readers, but what I’ve done here is create a bestseller list drawn only from those books published by Canadian-owned independent presses. Most of the books in the top half of both the fiction and the non-fiction bestseller lists sold well in several of the stores on the list and many of the other titles are books that sold well in only one or two stores who shared information. Sometimes these were strongly regional titles. This month, in the lead up to Christmas, we’re seeing a bit more of an influx of gift books on the list.
I acknowledge that this list is not at all perfect. It is only a small sampling of the data out there, but it is a fascinating look at what independently published books Canadians are purchasing from independent bookstores across a reasonable amount of Canada.
My deep thanks to the Hamilton Review of Books for publishing this Independent Bestseller List. I’m looking forward to seeing the data for our January list, as the fall books continue to fill our bookstore shelves and we finish off the holiday season. Please, if you’re looking for something wonderful to read this winter, visit your nearest independent bookstore and ask them what they suggest. The people who work in these stores know an amazing amount about books and will find you your next best possible read.
Noelle Allen