The Hamilton Review of Books' Independently Published Bestsellers List: November
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
Glorious Frazzled Beings by Angélique Lalonde by House of Anansi
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, Douglas & McIntyre
Mr. Jones: A Ghost Story for Christmas by Edith Wharton & Seth, Biblioasis
The Break by Katherena Vermette, House of Anansi
Everything Turns Away by Michelle Berry, Wolsak & Wynn
In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier, HighWater Press
The Short Story Advent Calendar ed. by Alberto Manguel, Hingston & Olsen
Even So by Lauren B. Davis, Dundurn Press
The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour by Dawn Dumont, Freehand Books
Non-fiction
Me Tomorrow: Indigenous Views on the Future ed. by Drew Hayden Taylor, Douglas & McIntyre
Richard Wagamese Selected: What Comes From Spirit by Richard Wagamese and Drew Hayden Taylor, Douglas & McIntyre
Shift Change: Scenes from a Post-industrial Revolution by Stephen Dale, Between the Lines
I Thought He Was Dead by Ralph Benmergui, Wolsak & Wynn
21 Things You Might Not Know about the Indian Act by Bob Joseph, Page 2 Publishing
Massey Hall by David McPherson, Dundurn Press
Prairie Garden: Smaller Spaces by The Prairie Garden Committee
Indigenous Toronto: Stories that Carry This Place ed. by Denise Bolduc, Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere and Rebeka Tabobondung, Coach House Books
Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga, House of Anansi
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
Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox by Danielle Daniel, Groundwood Books
When We Are Kind by Monique Gray Smith and Nicole Neidhardt, Orca Book Publishers
Living with Viola by Rosena Fung, Annick Press
We All Play, by Julie Flett, Greystone Books
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 November 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 December 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