Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021.
The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton.
I will restrict my comments today to the observation that John Le Carré’s Silverview, on the list at No. 10 this week, needed and probably could have had a better title. First because there is something astonishingly unmemorable – in the sense of being unmnemonic – about Silverview. Second because I would bet the cost of the book that the author had something else in mind. That something else, I would also be prepared to wager, will in the fullness of time be revealed to have been The Republic of Literature, which would have been an appropriate self-tribute to Mr. Le Carré’s storied literary oeuvre as well as germane to the the story of this fine novel, published soon after the author’s death. No spoilers here, I will leave it to those of you who have not yet read Silverview to figure out why by reading it. But publishers do, more often than you might think, try to rob their authors of superior titles by expecting too little of their readership, although it is unusual to come up with a title as boring and all but incidental to the storyline as Silverview.
ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS
1. Five Little Indians – Michelle Good (Harper Perennial)
2. State of Terror – Louise Penny and Hillary Rodham Clinton (Simon & Schuster)
3. The Apollo Murders – Chris Hadfield (Random House Canada)
4. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone – Diana Gabaldon (Doubleday Canada)
5. What Strange Paradise – Omar El Akkad (McClelland & Stewart)
6. The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman (Viking)
7. What Strange Paradise – Omar El Akkad (McClelland & Stewart)
8. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – Charlie Mackesy (HarperCollins)
9. Fight Night – Miriam Toews (Knopf Canada)
10. Silverview – John Le Carré (Viking)
ALBERTA NON-FICTION BESTSELLERS
1. Atlas of the Heart – Brené Brown (Random House)
2. Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions)
3. Talking to Canadians – Rick Mercer (Doubleday Canada)
4. Whitewater Cooks Together Again – Shelley Adams (self-published)
5. Off the Record – Peter Mansbridge (Simon & Schuster)
6. No One Wins Alone – Mark Messier (Simon & Schuster) *
7. The Storyteller – Dave Grohl (HarperCollins Canada)
8. These Precious Days – Ann Patchett (Harper)
9. The Company – Stephen Bown (Anchor Canada) *
10. Borrowed Time – George Webber (Rocky Mountain Books) * +
* Alberta Author + Alberta Publisher
The independent bookstores contributing to this weekly list are:
Audreys Books, Edmonton
Cafe Books, Canmore
Drawn to Books, Edmonton
Glass Bookshop, Edmonton
Monkeyshines Books, Calgary
Owl’s Nest Books, Calgary
Pages on Kensington, Calgary
Shelf Life Books, Calgary
The Next Page, Calgary
Three Hills Books, Three Hills
Totally agree with you on the title of Le Carre’s last book.
And cover photo is dull as ditch water. If it weren’t for Le Carre’s name on it no one would pick it up.