The Hamilton Review of Books' Independently Published Bestsellers List: March 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
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom, Metonym Press
Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead, Arsenal Pulp Press
Aquariums by J.D. Kurtness, trans. Pablo Strauss, Rare Machines (Dundurn)
This Place: 150 Years Retold by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Sonny Assu, Brandon Mitchell and more, High Water Press
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, Douglas & MacIntyre
Marshwood Songs by Nick Hildenbrand and Jovan Stefanov, Black Moss Press
My Grief the Sun by Sanna Wani, House of Anansi
Tainna: The Unseen Ones by Norma Dunning, Douglas & MacIntyre
Non-fiction
305 Lost Buildings of Canada by Raymond Biesinger and Alex Bozikovic, Goose Lane Editions
Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic by Nora Loreto, Fernwood Publishing
Prairie Gardener’s Go-To Guide for Soil by Janet Melrose and Sheryl Normandeau, Touchwood Editions
I Thought He Was Dead: A Spiritual Memoir by Ralph Benmergui, Wolsak and Wynn
Next Time There’s a Pandemic by Vivek Shraya, The University of Alberta Press
My Privilege, My Responsibility by Sheila North, Great Plains Publications
#BlackInSchool by Habiba Cooper Diallo, University of Regina Press
Backyard Birdfeeding: A Saskatchewan Guide by Trevor Herriot, Nature Saskatchewan
It Was Dark There All the Time: Sophia Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery in Canada by Andrew Hunter, Goose Lane Editions
Shift Change: Scenes from a Post-Industrial Revolution by Stephen Dale, Between the Lines
Kids
Little Book: Story Reader for a Free Ukraine by Mykola Matwijczuk and Lorene Shyba, UpRoute
I Sang You Down From the Stars by Tasha Spillet-Sumner and Michaela Goade, Owlkids
Bharatanatyam in Ballet Shoes by Mahak Jain and Anu Chouhan, Annick Press
The Case of the Windy Lake: A Mighty Muskrats Mystery by Michael Hutchinson, Second Story Press
Road Allowance Era: A Girl Called Echo Series by Katherena Vermette, Scott B. Henderson, Donovan Yaciuk, High Water 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 March 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 were thrilled to have Biblioasis Bookshop in Windsor, Ontario, join this month as well. 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 continued to run away with the fiction list, being the number one independently published fiction title in almost every store that reported. Scarborough was the only independently published title that was on this year’s Canada Reads competition.
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 April list, as the Spring books continue to fill our bookstore shelves. Please, if you’re looking for something wonderful to read this spring, 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