The Hamilton Review of Books' Independently Published Bestsellers List: September
Take a look at which independently published books Canadians are purchasing from independent bookstores.
Fiction
A Dream of a Woman by Casey Plett, Arsenal Pulp Press
Letters to Amelia by Lindsay Zier-Vogel, Book*Hug Press
Even So by Lauren B. Davis, Dundurn Press
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, Douglas & MacIntyre
Out of Mind by David Bergen, Goose Lane Editions
The River Troll: A Story About Love by Rich Théroux, UpRoute
Everything Turns Away by Michelle Berry, Buckrider Books
Death Becomes Us by Kirsten Wittman, Turnstone Press (Poetry)
No Harm Done: Three Plays About Medical Conditions by Eugene Stickland, UpRoute
Blaze Island by Catherine Bush, Goose Lane Editions
Non-fiction
21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act by Bob Joseph, Page Two Books
Richard Wagamese Selected: What Comes from Spirit by Richard Wagamese, Douglas & MacIntyre
Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society by Ronald J. Diebert, Anansi
Her Name Was Margaret: Life and Death on the Streets by Denise Davy, Wolsak and Wynn
Yes We Did: Leading in Turbulent Times by Gary Filmon, Heart
Stories of Metis Women: Tales My Kookum Told Me, ed. Bailey Oster and Marilyn Lizee, Durvile Publishing
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohellben, Douglas & MacIntyre
Field Study: Meditations on a Year at the Herbarium by Helen Humphries, ECW
Special Topics in Being Human by S. Bear Bergman, Arsenal Pulp Press
Indigenous Toronto: Stories that Carry This Place, ed. Denise Bolduc, Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere and Rebeka Tabobondung, Coach House Books
Children’s
The Orange Shirt Story: The True Story of Orange Shirt Day by Phyllis Webstad, Emma Bullen, et al., Medicine Wheel Education
I Sang You Down from the Stars by Tasha Spillett-Sumner, illus. Michaela Goade, Owlkids
When We Are Kind by Monique Gray Smith, illus. Nicole Neidhardt, Orca Book Publishers
Peter and the Tree Children by Peter Wohellben, illus. Cale Atkinson, Greystone Kids
Shi-shi-etko by Nicola Campbell, illus. Kim Lafave, Groundwood
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 September 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), Shelf Life Books in Calgary and Wordsworth Books in Waterloo. 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, both poetry and plays have made it onto the fiction lists.
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 October list, as the fall books continue to fill our bookstore shelves and we move closer to the holiday season. Please, if you’re looking for something wonderful to read this fall, 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