Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, March 27, 2022.

The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton.

Perennial bestseller Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, named Thursday as the book that all Canadians should read by the CBC’s annual Canada Reads “battle of the books,” once again led the independent book dealers’ fiction bestseller list for the week ended March 27. 

Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez, also a Canada Reads selection, was No. 2 on the fiction list. 

During Canada Reads, five personalities champion different books, each arguing for the merits of one. The debate is broadcast over five programs and at the end of each, the panelists vote out a title till only one remains. Ojibway author and Vogue fashion writer Christian Allaire won the debate for Five Little Indians. 

In a small irony, Teachers These Days by Jody Carrington, rose to the top of the non-fiction bestseller list in a week when Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government launched another spiteful attack on the province’s teachers. 

Dr. Carrington argues that “as we work to piece together our education system in the fallout from a global pandemic, the focus must be on the teachers.” The UCP is focussing teachers alright, it would seem with the goal of driving as many as possible out of the profession. At least the good ones who won’t knuckle under the Premier Jason Kenney’s cranky pedagogical notions. 

ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS

1. Five Little Indians – Michelle Good (Harper Perennial)
2. Scarborough – Catherine Hernandez (Arsenal Pulp Press)
3. The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman (Viking)
4. Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf Canada)
5. The Promise – Damon Galgut (Europa Editions)
6. Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
7. Still Life – Sarah Winman (Viking)
8. The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller (Ecco)
9. The Cat Who Saved Books – Sosuke Natsukawa (HarperVia)
10. What Strange Paradise – Omar El Akkad (McClelland & Stewart)

ALBERTA NON-FICTION BESTSELLERS

1. Teachers These Days – Jody Carrington (IMPress Books) *
2. The Tech Solution – Shimi Kang (Penguin Canada)
3. Swollening – Jason Purcell (Arsenal Pulp Press) *
4. The North-West Is Our Mother – Jean Teillet (Patrick Crean Editions)
5. 305 Lost Buildings of Canada – Raymond Biesinger and Alex Bozikovic (Goose Lane Editions)
6. Permanent Astonishment – Tomson Highway (Doubleday Canada)
7. We Have Always Been Here – Samra Habib (Viking)
8. Embers – Richard Wagamese (Douglas & McIntyre)
9. Change Your World – Michael Ungar (Sutherland House)
10. Power Shift – Sally Armstrong (House of Anansi Press)

* 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

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