Three newcomers of note on this week’s list:
The enigmatically titled “Cobalt” (No. 8 on the Canadian Non-Fiction list) refers to the Northern Ontario town (population 1,000) as well as the chemical element for which it is named. Cobalt is also much sought after these days by the global mining industry. Charlie Angus is well-placed to write this history of a place and a thing, a story that brings together environmental issues, Aboriginal land claims and the eternal quest for profit, as he has been the MP for Timmins-James Bay since 2004.
“Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World” is No. 9 on the Canadian Non-Fiction list. But what is sprakkar and why is a book about Iceland on the bestseller list? Turns out sprakkar is an ancient Icelandic word for amazing women, and the author is Eliza Reid, who was born and raised near Ottawa and is married to the president of Iceland. The World Economic Forum has ranked Iceland at the top of the list of countries closing the economic gender gap so a book about sprakkar has relevance everywhere.
Every Agatha Christie fan knows that in 1926, shortly after her first husband, Archie, asked for a divorce, the mystery novelist disappeared for 11 days. To this day, no one knows where she went. Nina de Gramont’s “The Christie Affair” (debuting at No. 7 on this week’s Original Fiction list) takes this event and builds her own murder mystery around it, narrated by Archie’s lover Nan. The real mystery is why no mystery novelist has used this real-life plot before. (My father, Derrick Murdoch, wrote the biography “The Agatha Christie Mystery” in 1976, so this historical puzzle is close to my heart.)
-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. It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria (23)*
2. The Maid, Nita Prose, Viking (5)
3. Reminders of Him, Colleen Hoover, Montlake Romance (3)
4. Verity, Colleen Hoover, Grand Central (6)
5. The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood, Berkley (6)
6. Ugly Love, Colleen Hoover, Atria (6)
7. The Christie Affair, Nina de Gramont, St. Martin’s (1)
8. Five Little Indians, Michelle Good, Harper Perennial (17)
9. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Harper Avenue (29)
10. Greenwich Park, Katherine Faulkner, Gallery (2)
ORIGINAL NON-FICTION
1. Atlas of the Heart, Brené Brown, Random House (9)
2. The Betrayal of Anne Frank, Rosemary Sullivan, Harper Collins (3)
3. The Real Anthony Fauci, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Skyhorse (2)
4. Enough Already, Valerie Bertinelli, Harvest (2)
5. Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed (58)
6. Will, Will Smith, Mark Manson, Penguin (12)
7. 12 Rules for Life, Jordan B. Peterson, Random House (107)
8. How to Be Perfect, Michael Schur, Simon & Schuster (2)
9. Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simard, Allen Lane (10)
10. Life in the City of Dirty Water, Clayton Thomas-Muller, Allen Lane (6)
CANADIAN FICTION
1. The Maid, Nita Prose, Viking
2. Five Little Indians, Michelle Good, HarperCollins Canada
3. When We Lost Our Heads, Heather O’Neill, HarperCollins Canada
4. State of Terror, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Louise Penny, Simon & Schuster
5. Find You First, Linwood Barclay, William Morrow
6. Lucky, Marissa Stapley, Simon & Schuster
7. What Strange Paradise, Omar El Akkad, McClelland & Stewart
8. The Strangers, Katherena Vermette, Hamish Hamilton
9. Her Last Goodbye, Rick Mofina, MIRA
10. Scarborough, Catherine Hernandez, Arsenal Pulp
CANADIAN NON-FICTION
1. The Betrayal of Anne Frank, Rosemary Sullivan, HarperCollins Canada
2. 12 Rules of Life, Jordan B. Peterson, Random House Canada
3. Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simard, Allen Lane
4. Life in the City of Dirty Water, Clayton Thomas-Muller, Allen Lane
5. Talking to Canadians, Rick Mercer, Doubleday Canada
6. 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act, Bob Joseph, Indigenous Relations
7. Nothing but the Truth, Marie Henein, Signal
8. Cobalt, Charlie Angus, House of Anansi
9. Secrets of the Sprakkar, Eliza Reid, Simon & Schuster
10. No Time Like the Future, Michael J. Fox, Flatiron
CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT
1. Good-Bye Stacey, Good-Bye, Ann M. Martin, Gabriela Epstein, Graphix
2. Cat Kid Comic Club Perspectives, Dav Pilkey, Graphix.
3. Karen’s School Picture (Baby-Sitters Little Sister #5), Ann M. Martin, Katy Farina, Graphix
4. Wings of Fire: The Brightest Night, Tui T. Sutherland, Mike Holmes, Graphix
5. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson, Ember
6. Little Blue Truck’s Valentine, Alice Schertle, Jill McElmurry, Clarion
7. Let’s Talk About Race, Julius Lester, Karen Barbour, HarperCollins
8. Big Shot (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 16), Jeff Kinney, Abrams
9. They Both Die at the End, Adam Silvera, Quill Tree
10. Storm on Snowbelle Mountain, Rebecca Elliott, Scholastic
MYSTERY
1. The Maid, Nita Prose, Viking
2. Verity, Colleen Hoover, Grand Central
3. Greenwich Park, Katherine Faulkner, Gallery
4. Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Exile, Joshua Hood, J.P. Putnam
5. The Palm Beach Murders, James Patterson, Grand Central
6. Something to Hide, Elizabeth George, Viking
7. The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides, Celadon
8. State of Terror, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Louise Penny, Simon & Schuster
9. The Camel Club, David Baldacci, Grand Central
10. Reacher: Killing Floor (Movie Tie-in), Lee Child, Berkley
* Number of weeks on list
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