Toronto Star bestsellers: Drew Hayden Taylor's play ‘Cottagers and Indians' joins fiction lists
How else to explain how a Canadian book that has never made the Star's bestseller lists suddenly popped up this week in both the original and Canadian fiction rankings, at No. 5 and No. 2 respectively.
I can't say why
'Cottagers and Indians'
— the book version of a play by
author and humourist Drew Hayden Taylor
, first published in 2019 — has lately captured readers' attention. Suffice to say it has.
In the play — inspired by a real-life dispute — Hayden Taylor dramatizes a tussle over land and water rights in Ontario cottage country between an Indigenous man and a Toronto woman.
Hayden Taylor, who is Ojibway from Curve Lake First Nation, isn't the only Indigenous author with an older book on the lists.
Jesse Wente
's memoir
'Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance,'
which is in part about growing up in Toronto the son of an American father and an Anishinaabe mother, is back on the original non-fiction list at No. 6 and the Canadian list at No. 5. It's the book's first appearance on original non-fiction since September 2021, although it was a regular presence on Canadian non-fiction that year.
Hayden Taylor has even more company on the Canadian fiction list, where
Waubgeshig Rice
's
'Moon of the Crusted Snow'
(2018) returns at No. 6;
Jessica Johns
'
'Bad Cree'
(2023) at No. 8; and
'Medicine Walk'
(2014) by the late
Richard Wagamese
, at No. 10.
ORIGINAL FICTION
1. One Golden Summer
, Carley Fortune, Viking (11)*
2. An Inside Job
, Daniel Silva, Harper (1)
3.
The Woman in Suite 11
, Ruth Ware, Simon & Schuster (2)
4.
Don't Let Him In
, Lisa Jewell, Atria (4)
5. Cottagers and Indians
, Drew Hayden Taylor, Talonbooks (1)
6. Atmosphere
, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Doubleday Canada (7)
7. The Enchanted Greenhouse
, Sarah Beth Durst, Bramble (1)
8.
My Friends,
Fredrik Backman, Simon & Schuster (12)
9.
Broken Country
, Clare Leslie Hall, Simon & Schuster (16)
10. Every Summer After
, Carley Fortune, Viking (11)
ORIGINAL NON-FICTION
1.
The Idaho Four
, James Patterson, Vicky Ward, Little, Brown (1)
2. Anatomy of a Cover-Up
, Paul Palango, Random House Canada (6)
3.
The Anxious Generation
, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin (55)
4.
The Serviceberry,
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Scribner (34)
5.
One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This,
Omar El Akkad, McClelland & Stewart (20)
6. Unreconciled
, Jesse Wente, Penguin Canada (2)
7.
Everything Is Tuberculosis
, John Green (7)
8.
Abundance
, Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson, Avid Reader (6)
9. 52 Ways to Reconcile
, David A. Robertson, McClelland & Stewart (9)
10. The Crisis of Canadian Democracy
, Andrew Coyne, Sutherland House (4)
CANADIAN FICTION
1. One Golden Summer
, Carley Fortune, Viking
2. Cottagers and Indians
, Drew Hayden Taylor, Talonbooks
3.
Every Summer After
, Carley Fortune, Viking
4. Valentine in Montreal
, Heather O'Neill, Arizona O'Neill, HarperCollins Canada
5.
A Most Puzzling Murder
, Bianca Marais, Mira
6. Moon of the Crusted Snow
, Waubgeshig Rice, ECW
7.
Finding Flora
, Elinor Florence, Simon & Schuster
8. Bad Cree
, Jessica Johns, HarperCollins Canada
9.
Everyone Here Is Lying
, Shari Lapena, Seal
10. Medicine Walk
, Richard Wagamese, Emblem
CANADIAN NON-FICTION
1.
Value(s),
Mark Carney, Signal
2.
Anatomy of a Cover-Up
, Paul Palango, Random House Canada
3.
Outsider
, Brett Popplewell, HarperCollins Canada
4.
One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This,
Omar El Akkad, McClelland & Stewart
5.
Unreconciled
, Jesse Wente, Penguin Canada
6.
52 Ways to Reconcile
, David A. Robertson, McClelland & Stewart
7.
Murder, Madness and Mayhem
, Mike Browne, HarperCollins Canada
8.
A History of Canada in Ten Maps
, Adam Shoalts, Penguin Canada
9. The Massey Murder
, Charlotte Gray, HarperCollins Canada
10. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism
, Stewart Reynolds, Grand Central
CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULT
1.
Sunrise on the Reaping,
Suzanne Collins, Scholastic
2. This Place
, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Sonny Assu, Brandon Mitchell, etc., Highwater
3.
Love You Forever
, Robert Munsch, Sheila McGraw, Firefly
4. Dinosaurs Before Dark
, Mary Pope Osborne, Sal Murdocca, Random House Books for Young Readers
5.
The Summer I Turned Pretty
, Jenny Han, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
6. Karen's Ghost (Baby-Sitters Little Sister #11)
, D.K. Yingst, Ann M. Martin, Graphix
7.
Binding 13,
Chloe Walsh, Bloom
8. We Were Liars
, E. Lockhart, Ember
9. Borders
, Thomas King, Natasha Donovan, HarperCollins
10. Fearless,
Lauren Roberts, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
BUSINESS AND PERSONAL FINANCE
1. Atomic Habits
, James Clear, Avery
2. The Psychology of Money
, Morgan Housel, Harriman House
3. Rich Dad Poor Dad
, Robert T. Kiyosaki, Plata
4. How Countries Go Broke
, Ray Dalio, Avid Reader
5. No More Tears
, Gardiner Harris, Random House
6. Dare to Lead
, Brené Brown, Random House
7. Surrounded by Idiots
, Thomas Erikson, St. Martin's Essentials
8. Start With Why
, Simon Sinek, Portfolio
9. Radical Candor (updated)
, Kim Scott, St. Martin's
10. In This Economy?
, Kyla Scanlon, Morgan Housel, Currency
*
Weeks on list
The bestseller lists are compiled by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited from information provided by BookNet Canada's national sales tracking service, BNC SalesData.
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