For anyone who pays even the slightest attention to pop culture, television, or bestseller lists, it will come as no surprise that the bestselling Canadian author for the first half of 2026 at independent bookstores has been Rachel Reid, with the phenomenon that is Heated Rivalry (published by Harlequin imprint Carina Press) at the very top of the list, along with five other published titles in the Gamechanger series coming in at #3 and #4, and then sprinkled through the list of the 25 top-selling Canadian-authored titles this year.

With the television adaptation premiering at the end of November 2025, Reid’s books were a gamechanger for all booksellers in early 2026, during what is usually the slowest sales period of the year. On Bookmanager’s weekly Canadian fiction list, Heated Rivalry continues to remain in the top 10.

For the biannual bestsellers lists presented by Quill & Quire, Bookmanager provides the sales data from independent Canadian booksellers for the top-selling Canadian-authored titles from all publishers and for the top-selling titles published by Canadian-owned companies. Bookmanager tracks sales from 267 indie bookstores across Canada and the following bestseller lists reflect 2026 sales from Jan. 1 to June 20.

(As of next month, in addition to our regular bestseller lists, Quill & Quire will start publishing monthly bestseller lists of titles published by Canadian-owned publishers.)

Download bestseller lists as a PDF

The only book that kept the Gamechanger series from a hat trick at the top of the Canadian authors list was Loghan Paylor’s Canada Reads–winning The Cure for Drowning. Even perennial favourite Louise Penny, co-writing with Mellissa Fung, could not quite reach Reid’s titles, coming in at #5 with the indie-exclusive edition of stand-alone political thriller The Last Mandarin. Whether the absence of six pages of special content created by the authors for this edition (later supplemented by print booklets shipped to booksellers or provided online via QR codes) impacted sales, as some feared, can’t be determined; its ranking could also be attributed to the shorter selling period for the book, which published in May.

For books published by Canadian-owned presses, TouchWood Editions’ golden author, Iona Whishaw, topped the list with her 13th Lane Winslow mystery, A False and Fatal Claim, released in April. (Among all Canadian-authored titles, the title ranked at #10.) As in other such biannual rankings in recent years, Whishaw also has a second title on the list at #20 – the original title in the series, A Killer in King’s Cove, originally published in 2016.

A strong second in this list is the inspirational guide Sharing the Light: Stories and Reflections by Monique Gray Smith from the Ambrosia imprint of House of Anansi Press. (#13 among all Canadian-authored titles). Rounding out the top five Canadian publisher titles are Canada Reads runner-up Tyler Hellard’s Searching for Terry Punchout from Invisible Publishing at #3 (it just missed out on the top 25 of all Canadian-authored list due to the strength of two editions – one signed – of Carley Fortune’s Our Perfect Storm published in May, that took positions #22 and #25). Waubgeshing Rice’s perennial on the list, Moon of the Crusted Snow, published in 2018 by ECW Press, sits at #4 and David Suzuki’s memoir, written with Ian Hanington, Lessons From a Lifetime: Ninety Years of Inspiration and Activism (Greystone Books) is at #5.

While certain stalwarts of recent years remain present, particularly on the list of books published by Canadian presses (Robert Munsch, Cherie Dimaline, Bob Joseph, Kate Beaton with the paperback edition of her graphic memoir, Richard Wagamese, and Mark Carney) the 2026 lists show greater changes from previous seasons, with more than 35 per cent of the titles in each list published in 2026.

Maggie Helwig’s multi-awarding Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community (Coach House Books) remains a strong seller at #6. Nonfiction by journalist and broadcaster Gillian Deacon, and George Abbott’s Unceded: Understanding British Columbia’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now (Purich Books/UBC Press), which just won the B.C. Historical Federation prize and is shortlisted for the inaugural Al and Eurithe Purdy BC Award for Excellence, all make an appearance on the Canadian publisher list. New fiction – Don Gillmor’s mystery Cherry Beach (Biblioasis), Lisa Robertson’s Riverwork (Coach House Books), and Kerry Clare’s romantic comedy Definitely Thriving (House of Anansi Press) – make the list, along with Vanessa F. Penney’s The Witch of Willow Sound (ECW), which was first highlighted on the inaugural indie Booksellers’ List last fall.

In the Canadian-authored list (from all publishers), familiar names such as Giller Prize–winning Souvankham Thammavongsa, Omar El Akkad, and Margaret Atwood are joined by the other two Canada Reads finalists, Billy-Ray Belcourt and Joss Richard at #17 and #18, respectively, as well as such 2026 fiction releases as Heather Marshall’s sophomore historical fiction Liberty Street (Doubleday Canada) at #6 and Emily Austin’s Is This a Cry for Help? (Scribner Canada) at #20. There’s also the return of another Canadian publishing phenomenon, David Chilton, whose The Wealthy Barber: The Fully Updated All-Time Canadian Classic sits at the #7 spot, published by his Financial Awareness Corporation.

Young readers’ titles also make appearances on both lists. Two of last year’s bestselling graphic novelists return with new titles: Arley Nopra, with her latest instalment of The Baby-sitters Club, Dawn on the Coast at #8, and Cassandra Calin with the second book in her The New Girl series, First Crush at #14 (both published by Graphix/Scholastic).

There are more young readers titles on the bestseller list from Canadian-owned publishers, but two 2026 entries are by well-loved author Julie Flett, the picture book We All Love (Greystone Kids), and Tess’s Red Dress: Honouring Love and Family by Carolyn Roberts and illustrator Kelsey Matafoote (Medicine Wheel Publishing), which appear at number 14 and 12, respectively.