The Hamilton Review of Books' Independently Published Bestsellers List: February 2022
Take a look at which independently published books Canadians are purchasing from independent bookstores.
Fiction
Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez, Arsenal Pulp Press
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, ECW
Son of the House by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, Dundurn Press
The Break by Katherena Vermette, House of Anansi
Yume by Sifton Tracey Anipare, Dundurn Press
The Gospel of Breaking by Jillian Christmas, Arsenal Pulp Press
Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi, Arsenal Pulp Press
Even So by Lauren B. Davis, Dundurn Press
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom, Metonymy Press
A Wake in the Undertow by Rich Theroux, UpRoute
Non-fiction
Cobalt: Cradle of Demons, Birth of a Mining Super Power by Charlie Angus, House of Anansi
Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling by Esi Edugyan, House of Anansi
Her Name Was Margaret: Life and Death on the Streets by Denise Davy, Wolsak and Wynn
Shift Change: Scenes from a Post-Industrial Revolution by Stephen Dale, Between the Lines
21 Things You Might Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph, Indigenous Relations Press
It Was Dark There All the Time: Sophia Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery in Canada by Andrew Hunter, Goose Lane Editions
Have You Eaten Yet: Stories from Chinese Restaurants Around the World by Cheuk Kwan, Douglas & MacIntyre
Kingdom of the Night: Witnesses to the Holocaust by Mark Celinscak, University of Toronto Press
The Boy from Buzwah: A Life in Indian Education by Cecil King, University of Regina Press
Heart of Gold: A History of Winnipeg Music by John Einarson
Kids
Treaty Words: For as Long as the River Flows by Aimée Craft and illus. Luke Swinson, Annick Press
I Sang You Down From the Stars by Tasha Spillet-Sumner and illus. Michaela Goade, Owlkids
New Year by Mei Zihan and illus. Qin Leng, Greystone Kids
Welcome to the Cypher by Khodi Dill and illus. Awuradwoa Afful, Annick Press
Calvin by Martine Leavitt, Groundwood 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 February sales of Another Story Bookshop in Toronto, The City and the City Books in Hamilton, Epic Books in Hamilton, 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. If you are a bookstore who would like to contribute to the list please get in touch with us, we’d love to have more information.
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 nonfiction 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 Scarborough has run away with the fiction list, being the number one independently published fiction title in almost every store that reported.
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