The bestselling books in Canada for the week ending Aug. 23
If you were to look at book-buying trends in January, you’d see that self-improvement and health-and-fitness titles dominate, inspired by New Year’s Resolutions. The rest of the year, the top-selling titles are often children’s books, usually from one of the popular franchises (the Dog Man series, say, or maybe a Bad Guys book or the Baby-Sitters Club) or self-improvement tomes such as James Clear’s “Atomic Habits,” which since its publication in 2018 has been a perennial bestseller, often ranked No. 1.
But right now, in the final weeks of lazy-summer-reading season, escapist fiction rules.
This week, the top 10 books, except two, sold in Canada, across all categories, were recently published novels.
Sarah Murdoch
The bestseller lists are compiled by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited from information provided by BookNet Canada’s national sales tracking service, BNC SalesData.
ORIGINAL FICTION
1. None of This Is True, Lisa Jewell, Atria (2)*
2. Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower (6)
3. Everyone Here Is Lying, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada (4)
4. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper (3)
5. Tides of Fire, James Rollins, William Morrow (1)
6. Icebreaker, Hannah Grace, Atria (18)
7. The Bone Hacker, Kathy Reichs, Simon & Schuster (3)
8. It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria (95)
9. It Starts with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria (39)
10. Lion and Lamb, James Patterson, Duane Swierczynski, Little Brown (1)
ORIGINAL NON-FICTION
1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Ramin Zahed, Sony Pictures, Abrams (5)
2. The Wager, David Grann, Doubleday (18)
3. Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed (123)
4. Spare, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, Random House Canada (32)
5. The Outsider, Brett Popplewell, Collins (6)
6. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster (38)
7. Beyond the Story, BTS, Myeongseok Kang, Anton Hur, Flatiron (7)
8. Pageboy, Elliot Page, HarperCollins Canada (11)
9. Atlas of the Heart, Brené Brown, Random House (57)
10. The Art Thief, Michael Finkel, Knopf Canada (7)
CANADIAN FICTION
1. Everyone Here Is Lying, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada
2. Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune, Viking
3. The Accident, Linwood Barclay, Anchor
4. The Whispers, Ashley Audrain, Viking
5. I Only Read Murder, Ian Ferguson, Will Ferguson, HarperCollins Canada
6. Recipe for a Good Life, Lesley Crewe, Vagrant
7. A World of Curiosities, Louise Penny, Minotaur
8. Every Summer After, Carley Fortune, Penguin Canada
9. The Drowning Woman, Robyn Harding, Grand Central
10. The Maid, Nita Prose, Penguin Canada
CANADIAN NON-FICTION
1. Outsider, Brett Popplewell, Collins
2. Pageboy, Elliot Page, HarperCollins Canada
3. 12 Rules for Life, Jordan B. Peterson, Random House Canada
4. Fire Weather, John Vaillant, Knopf Canada
5. What I Wish I’d Said, Jaime Watt, Optimum
6. Ducks, Kate Beaton, Drawn & Quarterly
7. Truth Telling, Michelle Good, HarperCollins Canada
8. Someone You Know, Catherine Fogarty, Collins
9. 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act, Bob Joseph, Indigenous Studies
10. Namwayut: We Are All One, Chief Robert Joseph, Page Two
CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULT
1. We’ll Always Have Summer, Jenny Han, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
2. The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
3. Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas under the Sea, Dav Pilkey, Graphix
4. Karen’s Haircut (Baby-Sitters Little Sister #7), Ann M. Martin, Katy Farina, Graphix
5. It’s Not Summer Without You, Jenny Han, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
6. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (a Hunger Games novel), Suzanne Collins, Scholastic
7. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson, Ember
8. A Super Scary Narwhalloween (Narwhal and Jelly #8), Ben Clanton, Tundra
9. Dawn of the Light Dragon (Dragon Masters #24), Tracey West, Matt Loveridge, Scholastic
10. Time for School, Little Blue Truck, Alice Schertle, Jill McElmurry, Clarion
COOKING
1. Baking Yesteryear, B. Dylan Hollis, Alpha
2. Magnolia Table, Vol. 3, Joanna Gaines, William Morrow Cookbooks
3. Yummy Toddler Food, Amy Palanjian, Rodale
4. Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving, Judi Kingry, Lauren Devine, Sarah Page, Robert Rose
5. Knife Drop, Nick DiGiovanni, Gordon Ramsay, Alpha
6. Cook It Wild, Chris Nuttall-Smith, Penguin Canada
7. Half Baked Harvest Every Day, Gerard Tieghan, Clarkson Potter
8. The Modern Pioneer Cookbook, Mary Bryant Shrader, Alpha
9. Mandy’s Gourmet Salads, Mandy Wolfe, Rebecca Wolfe, Meredith Erickson, Appetite by Random House
10. Half Baked Harvest Super Simple, Gerard Tieghan, Clarkson Potter
