The Hamilton Review of Books' Independently Published Bestsellers List: March 2023
Take a look at which independently published books Canadians are purchasing from independent bookstores.
April 17, 2023
Fiction
Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr, Coach House books
Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah, Véhicule Press
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton, Drawn & Quarterly
Chrysalis by Anuja Varghese, House of Anansi
We Meant Well by Erum Shazia Hasan, ECW Press
Xanax Cowboy by Hannah Green, House of Anansi
Some Unfinished Business by Antanas Sileika, Cormorant Books
The Russian Daughter by Sarah Klassen, CommonWord
Sing, Nightingale by Marie Hélène Poitras (Author), Rhonda Mullins (Translator), Coach House Books
Isolated Incident by Mariam Pirbhai, Mawenzi House
Nonfiction
On Writing and Failure: Or, On the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer by Stephen Marche, Biblioasis
Clara at the Door with a Revolver: The Scandalous Black Suspect, the Exemplary White Son, and the Murder That Shocked Toronto by Carolyn Whitzman, On Point Press (UBC Press)
An Anthology of Monsters: How Story Saves Us From Our Anxiety by Cherie Dimaline, University of Alberta Press
Laughing with the Trickster by Tomson Highway, House of Anansi
Harvesting Freedom: The Life of a Migrant Worker in Canada by Gabriel Allahdua and Edward Dunsworth, Between the Lines
The End of this World: Climate Justice in So-called Canada by Angele Alook, Emily Eaton, David Gray-Donald, Joël Laforest, Crystal Lameman, and Bronwen Tucker, Between the Lines
A Garden for the Rusty-patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators by Lorraine Johnson, Sheila Colla, and Ann Sanderson (Illustrator), Douglas & McIntyre
Only in Saskatchewan: Recipes and Stories from the Province’s Best-Loved Eateries by Naomi Hansen and Garrett Kendel, Touchwood Editions
Modern Fables by Mikka Jacobsen, Freehand Books
The Wild Boy of Waubamik: A Memoir by Thom Ernst, Dundurn Press
Kids
Still This Love Goes On by Buffy Sainte-Marie (author), Julie Flett (illustrator) Greystone Kids
Sometimes I Feel Like a River by Danielle Daniel (author) Josée Bisaillon (illustrator), Groundwood
Dear Polar Bears by Gabrielle Prendergast (Author), Marcus Cutler (Illustrator), Orca Book Publishers
Boys and Girls Screaming by Kern Carter, DCB (Cormorant)
I Hope by Monique Gray Smith (Author), Gabrielle Grimard (Illustrator), Orca Book Publishers
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 sales of Another Story Bookshop in Toronto, Biblioasis Bookshop in Windsor, 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 we’re still seeing the impact of the awards and of Canada Reads, but it is waning and the list is starting to reflect the spring titles.
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. Please, if you’re looking for something wonderful to read, 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