Although each year there is grumbling about some of the arguments advanced to eliminate titles during the spring ritual of Canada Reads on CBC, there is one constant: no matter at what point a book is eliminated, the 23-year-old contest continues to give a major goose to sales, at least during the spring months. This year is, unsurprisingly, no different.
As of mid-June, Denison Avenue, a tale told through text and illustration about aging, loss, and the gentrification of Toronto’s Chinatown (published by ECW Press) – and one of the earlier titles to be eliminated from this year’s Canada Reads competition – sits as indie booksellers’ top-selling 2024 title from a Canadian-owned publisher as well the top-selling Canadian-authored title overall.
Download PDF of the top-selling titles from Canadian-owned publishers
and top-selling Canadian-authored titles.
Only Waubgeshig Rice’s two post-apocalyptic novels prevent the five Canada Reads titles – Jessica Johns’s Bad Cree (also shortlisted for the 2023 Amazon First Novel Award); Catherine Leroux’s The Future (also longlisted for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction); Carley Fortune’s Meet Me at the Lake; and Téa Mutonji’s 2019 collection Shut Up You’re Pretty – from taking all the top spots on the Canadian-authored bestseller lists.
The 2024 lists are drawn from sales data gathered by Bookmanager from 258 independent Canadian booksellers – an increase of nine stores since the previous lists reported in November 2023. Sales figures are from January 1 to June 19, 2024. Q&Q has been reporting these lists biannually since 2022.
In the 25 top sellers from Canadian-owned publishers, six titles were 2024 releases and five were published in 2023. Of the top-selling 25 titles by Canadian authors from all publishers, seven titles were published in 2024 and nine are carryovers from 2023.
The fastest rising new title from a Canadian publisher, debuting at #6, is powerhouse Iona Whishaw’s 11th title in the Lane Winslow mystery series, Lightning Strikes the Silence, published in early May.
The other 2024 releases are: #8, Bury the Lead, the first Quill & Packet Mystery, by Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti (Spiderline/House of Anansi Press); #13, Beneath the Surface of Things: New and Selected Essays by Wade Davis (Greystone Books); #19, the picture book Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak by Danielle Daniel and illustrator Jackie Traverse (Groundwood Books); #23, Always On Call: Adventures in Nursing, Ranching, and Rural Living by Marion McKinnon Crook (Heritage House); and at #25, Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia by Mark Bourrie (Biblioasis).
Cherie Dimaline, Richard Wagamese, Bob Joseph, Kate Beaton, and Leona Prince and Gabrielle Prince all continue their strong presence in the list from previous years, as does Robert Munsch. In addition to the perennially popular Love You Forever and The Paper Bag Princess, the Munsch Minis 6 Pack, published by Annick Press in 2021, is a new addition to the list at #22. All of the Munsch titles were originally published in the 1980s, making them the oldest ones on the list. Annick Press’s The Paper Bag Princess tote bag ranked 19th on the original list, but was disqualified as it is not a book.
The list of top-selling Canadian-authored titles for 2024 – which also includes books published by multinational publishers and others – sees Michael Greenwood, Michelle Good, Gabor Maté, and Jessica Johns carry over from 2023, as well as the much lauded, award-winning 2023 titles from John Vaillant and Naomi Klein. This list is dominated by Penguin Random House Canada imprints.
Carley Fortune snags three places in the top 25, with the aforementioned Meet Me at the Lake at #5, the trade paper edition of This Summer Will Be Different, released in May, at #10, and the signed edition of the same title coming in at #23 (all published by Penguin Canada).
The top Canadian young readers title, newly appearing on the list at #8, is Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Monique Gray Smith and illustrator Nicole Neidhardt’s 2022 adaptation of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s 2013 book (Zest Books/Lerner Publishing Group). Poetry makes it into the list at #12 with Michael Ondaatje’s A Year of Last Things (McClelland & Stewart) that was published in March.
In addition to Gabor Maté’s The Myth of Normal, three other health-related books made the top 25: Jane Philpott’s Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada (McClelland & Stewart), published in April, at #16; Jen Gunter’s Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation (Random House Canada), published in January, at #20; and Peter Attia’s 2023 title Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity (Harmony/Rodale) at #19.
Indie bookstores’ top sellers from Canadian-owned publishers in 2024
- Denison Avenue, Daniel Innes and Christina Wong (ECW Press)
- The Future, Catherine Leroux (Biblioasis)
- Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice (ECW Press)
- Shut Up You’re Pretty, Téa Mutonji (Arsenal Pulp Press)
- The Marrow Thieves, Cherie Dimaline (Cormorant Books)
- Lightning Strikes the Silence, Iona Whishaw (TouchWood Editions)
- Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations, Richard Wagamese (Douglas and McIntyre)
- Bury the Lead, Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti (House of Anansi Press)
- Be a Good Ancestor, Leona Prince, Gabrielle Prince, and Carla Joseph, ill. (Orca Book Publishers)
- 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality, Bob Joseph (Page Two Books)
- Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly Publications)
- The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, Astra Taylor (House of Anansi Press)
- Beneath the Surface of Things: New and Selected Essays, Wade Davis (Greystone Books)
- Love You Forever (pb), Robert Munsch and Sheila McGraw, ill. (Firefly Books)
- Walking Together, Elder Dr Albert D. Marshall, Louise Zimanyi, and Emily Kewageshig, ill. (Annick Press)
- Indian Horse, Richard Wagamese (Douglas and McIntyre)
- The Paper Bag Princess (Classic Munsch), Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko, ill. (Annick Press)
- Love You Forever (bb), Robert Munsch and Sheila McGraw, ill. (Firefly Books)
- Sometimes I Feel Like an Oak, Danielle Daniel and Jackie Traverse, ill. (Groundwood Books)
- The Librarianist, Patrick deWitt (House of Anansi Press)
- A Killer in King’s Cove, Iona Whishaw (TouchWood Editions)
- Munsch Minis 6 Pack (Annikin Mini Book Series), Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko, ill. (Annick Press)
- Always On Call: Adventures in Nursing, Ranching, and Rural Living, Marion McKinnon Crook (Heritage House)
- Her First Palestinian, Saeed Teebi (House of Anansi Press)
- Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia, Mark Bourrie (Biblioasis)
Canadian independent bookstores’ top-selling Canadian titles of 2024
- Denison Avenue, Daniel Innes and Christina Wong (ECW Press)
- Bad Cree, Jessica Johns (HarperCollins)
- The Future, Catherine Leroux (Biblioasis)
- Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice (ECW Press)
- Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune (Penguin Canada)
- Moon of the Turning Leaves, Waubgeshig Rice (Random House Canada)
- Shut Up You’re Pretty, Téa Mutonji (Arsenal Pulp Press)
- Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Monique Gray Smith, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Nicole Neidhardt, ill. (Zest Books/Lerner Publishing Group)
- The Marrow Thieves, Cherie Dimaline (Cormorant Books)
- This Summer Will Be Different, Carley Fortune (Penguin Canada)
- Lightning Strikes the Silence, Iona Whishaw (TouchWood Editions)
- A Year of Last Things, Michael Ondaatje (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada)
- Greenwood, Michael Christie (McClelland & Stewart/PRHC)
- Barren Grounds, David Robertson (Puffin Canada/PRHC)
- Doppelgänger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein (Knopf Canada/PRHC)
- Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada, Jane Philpott (McClelland & Stewart/PRHC)
- The Mystery Guest, Nita Prose (Penguin Canada)
- The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture, Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté (Knopf Canada/PRHC)
- Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, Peter Attia and Bill Gifford (Harmony/Rodale)
- Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation, Jen Gunter (Random House of Canada)
- Five Little Indians, Michelle Good (Harper Perennial/HarperCollins)
- Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, John Vaillant (Knopf Canada/PRHC)
- This Summer Will Be Different (signed edition), Carley Fortune (Penguin Canada)
- Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations, Richard Wagamese (Douglas and McIntyre)
- Bury the Lead, Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti (House of Anansi Press)