The Hamilton Review of Books' Independently Published Bestsellers List: March 2025
Take a look at which independently published books Canadians are purchasing from independent bookstores.
April 17, 2025
Fiction
Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew, Arsenal Pulp Press
The Riveter by Jack Wang, House of Anansi Press
Heaven & Hell by Jón Kalman Stefánsson (Author), Philip Roughton (Translator), Biblioasis
No Credit River by Zoe Whittall, Book*hug Press
Peacocks of Instagram by Deepa Rajagopalan, House of Anansi Press
WAKEWord by Wakefield Brewster, Frontenac House Poetry
A Bouquet of Glass by Carol Krause, Guernica Editions
Good Victory by Mikka Jacobsen, Freehand Books
All You Can Kill by Pasha Malla, Coach House Books
A Different Hurricane by H. Nigel Thomas, Dundurn Press
Nonfiction
Dangerous Memory: Coming of Age in the Decade of Greed by Charlie Angus, House of Anansi Press
A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby (Author), Mary Louisa Plummer, University of Manitoba Press
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton, Drawn & Quarterly
Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre by Mark Bourrie, Biblioasis
On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy by Ira Wells, Biblioasis
Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging by Rachel Phan, Douglas & McIntyre
Jasper on Fire: Five Days of Hell in a Rocky Mountain Paradise by Matthew Scace, Sutherland House Books
Paying for It by Chester Brown, Drawn & Quarterly
Playing Hard: A Life and Death in Games, Sports, and Play by Peter Unwin, Cormorant Books
Against the People: How Ford Nation Is Dismantling Ontario by Bryan Evans (Editor), Carlo Fanelli (Editor), Fernwood Publishing
Kids
Raven’s Ribbons by Tasha Spillett (Author), Daniel Ramirez (Illustrator), Owlkids
This Land is a Lullaby by Tonya Simpson (Author), Delreé Dumont (Illustrator), Orca Book Publishers
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese (Author), Bridget George (Illustrator), Douglas & McIntyre
The Journal of Anxious Izzy Parker by Alma Fullerton, Second Story Press
Explore Canada by Jocey Asnong, Rocky Mountain 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 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 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 March we’re starting to see some of the spring releases make their way onto the list, while the impact of Canada Reads still lingers.
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