Booksellers’ picks of the year: crime and mystery

The third instalment of Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series, A Red Herring Without Mustard (Doubleday Canada), is one of the most popular crime and mystery titles of 2011, according to booksellers contacted by Q&Q.

Two other new books from established authors, Louise Penny’s A Trick of the Light (St. Martin’s Press/Raincoast) and Peter Robinson’s Before the Poison (McClelland & Stewart), are also among booksellers’ top 2011 crime and mystery titles.

A lesser-known Ontario author, retired aeronautical professional Liam Dwyer, has been one of the year’s top-selling authors at The Sleuth of Baker Street in Toronto. Co-owner Marian Misters says Murdoch in Muskoka (Muskoka Dockside Reader), a new omnibus containing the first three titles in Dwyer’s murder-mystery series, has been especially popular.

At Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore in Winnipeg, co-owner Jack Bumsted points to local author C.C. Benison’s Christmas mystery, Twelve Drummers Drumming (Doubleday Canada), as his store’s best-selling book of the year. Other top 2011 titles at Whodunit? include Q&Q book of the year The Water Rat of Wanchai and The Disciple of Las Vegas, both from Ian Hamilton’s Ava Lee series published by Spiderline, the new crime fiction imprint from House of Anansi Press.

Walter Sinclair, co-owner of Dead Write Books in Vancouver, says the best-selling 2011 books in his store have common features. “All are well-established authors, all with mysteries featuring series characters,” he says. Dead Write’s top titles this year include William Deverell’s latest Arthur Beauchamp mystery, I’ll See You in My Dreams (M&S), and the U.K. edition of Louise Penny’s Bury Your Dead (Headline/Hachette).

Booksellers’ picks of the year: LGBT

Booksellers contacted by Q&Q point to Taking My Life (Talonbooks) by Jane Rule as a top LGBT title of 2011. Rule, a member of the Order of Canada well known for her lesbian-interest fiction and non-fiction, died in 2007 but left behind a handwritten manuscript detailing her relationships and struggles with socio-cultural politics during the early years of her life. The manuscript, discovered by academic Linda M. Morra, who also edited the book, was published posthumously this summer.

Taking My Life is a sellout at Toronto Women’s Bookstore and has also been a hit at Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium in Vancouver. “It was certainly a surprise that Jane wrote a book [about her life],” says Little Sister’s manager Janine Fuller. “It’s quite amazing for our culture.”

Both stores have also seen high sales of Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme (Arsenal Pulp Press), a collection of personal essays on the butch/femme binary and life with an alternate gender identity, edited by Ivan E. Coyote and Zena Sharman.

At Little Sister’s, another popular 2011 title is Hold Me Now (Freehand Books), a novel by Stephen Gauer that explores the role homophobia played in a young man’s murder.

York University professor Sheila L. Cavanagh’s Queering Bathrooms: Gender, Sexuality, and the Hygienic Imagination (University of Toronto Press), a finalist for the 2011 Next Generation GLBT Indie Book Awards, has also garnered lots of positive attention, says Toronto Women’s Bookstore owner Victoria Moreno.

At Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto, manager Prodan Nedev says one of this year’s titles with buzz is Peter Knegt’s About Canada: Queer Rights (Fernwood Publishing). Another hit is Natural Order (Doubleday Canada), a novel about the relationship between a mother and her gay son by Brian Francis, whose YA debut Fruit: A Novel About a Boy and His Nipples (ECW Press) was the CBC Canada Reads runner-up in 2009.

UPDATE: Taking My Life was discovered and edited by Linda M. Morra.

Booksellers’ picks of the year: international non-fiction

Canadian booksellers contacted by Q&Q say 2011 has been an especially strong year for international history and biography, with one book clearly taking the lead.

“The huge one would be the Steve Jobs title,” says Colin Holt, manager of Bolen Books in Victoria. Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s biography of Apple’s late co-founder and CEO, had its publication date moved up from 2012 after Jobs’s death in October. Indigo, Chapters, and Coles stores opened early on Oct. 24, the book’s release date, so Canadians could get their hands on a copy right away. Steve Jobs has since become a #1 bestseller.

In Toronto, Book City branches have already seen high sales of U.K.-born historian Niall Ferguson’s latest title, Civilization: The West and the Rest, a follow-up to Ferguson’s 2009 bestseller, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.

At Nicholas Hoare’s Toronto location, books with buzz include Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History by Australian art critic Robert Hughes and Jerusalem: The Biography by British writer Simon Sebag Montefiore. Fiona McCarthy’s The Last Pre-Raphaelite, a biography of artist Edward Burne-Jones, and Franny Moyle’s Constance, chronicling the “tragic and scandalous” life of Oscar Wilde’s wife, are also top sellers.

Outside of history and biography, booksellers also pointed to Gully Wells’s memoir, The House in France, and Arguably, an essay collection by British-American writer Christopher Hitchens.

Booksellers’ picks of the year: international fiction

Canadian booksellers contacted by Q&Q all pointed to American author Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel, The Night Circus, as one of the top books of 2011. “The buzz has been huge, and all the reviews I’ve seen have been raves,” says Christopher Johnson, a manager at Nicholas Hoare in Toronto.

Michael Hamm, manager of Bookmark in Halifax, credits much of The Night Circus’s buzz to the fact that early adopters of Harry Potter and the Twilight series have grown up reading supernatural tales. “Now that they’re adults, they’re looking for a fantastical book, and this one certainly fits the bill,” he says.

Another top seller this fall is The Marriage Plot, U.S. novelist Jeffrey Eugenides’s follow-up to Middlesex, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2003. “A lot of people hold Middlesex in such high regard that it’s kind of hard to top that,” Hamm says, “but I read [The Marriage Plot] and I loved it.”

Booksellers contacted by Q&Q also consider The Sense of an Ending, British writer Julian Barnes’s 2011 Man Booker Prize–winning novel, one of the year’s biggest successes. “That was selling well before it was given the award, and now it’s selling even more,” says Ian Donker, manager of Book City in Toronto, adding that The Sense of an Ending is an in-house favourite.

Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s ambitious new novel, 1Q84, has been extremely popular in Canada since its release in October, according to booksellers. Other top 2011 titles include Nobel Prize–winning Portuguese author José Saramago’s posthumous novel, Cain; British novelist Alan Hollinghurst’s new title, The Stranger’s Child; and American writer Stephen Mitchell’s translation of The Iliad.

Booksellers’ picks of the year: sports

Although it was released just last month, Cornered: Hijinks, Highlights, Late Nights and Insights (HarperCollins Canada) by Ron MacLean with Kirstie McLellan Day has quickly become one of Canada’s top sports titles of 2011.

Booksellers from coast to coast have seen the Hockey Night in Canada co-host’s memoir sell to a broad audience.

“That’s done really, really well,” says Ian Donker, manager of Book City in Toronto. “And I think it’s going to continue to do well.”

Another autobiography, Georges Laraque: The Story of the NHL’s Unlikeliest Tough Guy (Penguin Canada), written with Pierre Thibeault, is poised to join Cornered as another hit of the holiday season, says Michael Hamm, manager of Bookmark in Halifax.

“[Georges Laraque] is one of those sports books where the readership will expand into people who don’t normally follow hockey,” says Hamm. “It touches on wider subjects.” The book addresses topics including racism, animal rights, Haitian relief efforts, and drug use among athletes.

At Bookmark, local appeal has made Chris Cochrane’s Inside the Game: The Stories Behind Nova Scotia’s Sports Headlines (Nimbus Publishing) a top pick of 2011, Hamm adds.

Out West, Celebrating the 2010–2011 Season of the Vancouver Canucks (Fenn-M&S) by Andrew Podnieks has been a best bet this year, says Colin Holt, manager of Victoria’s Bolen Books – perhaps because 2011 was the Canucks’ first shot at the Stanley Cup since 1994, or because no list of Canadian sports lit would be complete without a heavy dose of hockey.

In the September 2011 issue of Q&Q: Guy Vanderhaeghe completes his iconic Western trilogy

Q&Q speaks to Governor General’s Literary Award–winning Saskatoon author Guy Vanderhaeghe about the final book in his Western trilogy, the ambitious A Good Man.

Also in September, rekindling interest in history with high-profile political biographies, a look at independent U.S. bookstore e-book sales, and touring the country with Doug Gibson. Plus reviews of new books by Brian Francis, David Gilmour, Marina Endicott, and more.

FEATURES
A good guy
After nearly two decades, Guy Vanderhaeghe has completed his iconic Western trilogy – and now he’s ready to move on

Raising the dead white men
Can a handful of high-profile political biographies rekindle interest in Canadian history?

E-reading’s awkward embrace
If the experience of U.S. indies is anything to go by, Canadian booksellers gearing up to begin selling e-books should expect some bumps along the road

FRONTMATTER
Orphaned Key Porter authors take back control of their work
How digital technology has put audiobooks within reach of small presses
In memoriam: Robert Kroetsch
Montreal violin-maker Tom Wilder turns publisher
Snapshot: Knopf Random Canada executive vice-president and publisher Louise Dennys
Cover to cover: R.T. Naylor’s Crass Struggle
Touring the country with Doug Gibson
Guest opinion: Rolf Maurer on rethinking the role of the arts

REVIEWS
Natural Order by Brian Francis
The Perfect Order of Things by David Gilmour
The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott
Our Daily Bread by Lauren B. Davis
Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill

PLUS more fiction, non-fiction, and poetry

BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Starfall by Diana Kolpak; Kathleen Finlay, photog.
No Ordinary Day by Deborah Ellis
First Descent by Pam Withers
The Busy Beaver by Nicholas Oldland
Once Every Never by Lesley Livingston

PLUS more fiction, non-fiction, and picture books

Q&Q/BOOKNET CANADA BESTSELLERS

THE LAST WORD
Greenpeace International’s Tzeporah Berman on finding a balance between her own voice and that of the organization she represents

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In the July/August issue of Q&Q: 2011 fall preview

The busy season for publishers has no shortage of big new releases, with novels from Ondaatje, Vanderhaeghe, and Endicott, the Massey Lectures from Adam Gopnik, and kids’ books from Kenneth Oppel and Kit Pearson. In the July/August 2011 issue, Q&Q takes a look at the fall season’s top titles.

Also in this issue, QR-code marketing, novelist Esi Edugyan’s sophomore blues, and publishers’ reactions to Indigo’s new co-op program. Plus reviews of new books by Lynn Coady, Nicole Lundrigan, Cary Fagan, and more.

FEATURES
Fall preview
A sneak peek at the season’s top fiction, non-fiction, children’s, and international titles

The CBA’s balancing act
The Canadian Booksellers Association looks to new digital partnerships – and old-school member outreach – to regain its place as the united voice of booksellers

After the collapse
Canadian book distributors remain optimistic following the bankruptcy of H.B. Fenn and Company

FRONTMATTER
Esi Edugyan finds an unlikely inspiration for her sophomore novel, Half-Blood Blues
Winnipeg’s Aqua Books revinvents itself as a popular community hangout
Joshua Knelman’s art-theft investigation landed him a book deal
Best short stories: Michael Christie on David Bezmozgis’s “Tapka”
Indigo’s new co-op program faces mixed publisher reaction
Is QR-code marketing just a fad, or can it sell books?
Cover to cover: Caitlin Sweet’s The Pattern Scars
Snapshot: eBound Canada CEO Robert Hayashi

REVIEWS
The Water Man’s Daughter by Emma Ruby-Sachs
Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay
Glass Boys by Nicole Lundrigan
The Antagonist by Lynn Coady
How Shakespeare Changed Everything by Stephen Marche
PLUS more fiction, non-fiction, and poetry

BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Dear Baobab by Cheryl Foggo; Qin Leng, illus.
Nini by François Thisdale
The Summer of Permanent Wants by Jamieson Findlay
Testify by Valerie Sherrard
Born Ugly by Beth Goobie
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier
PLUS more fiction, non-fiction, and picture books

THE Q&Q/BOOKNET CANADA BESTSELLERS

THE LAST WORD
Authors who borrow from historical events face real ethical issues, writes novelist D.J. McIntosh

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Book links round-up: booksellers charging for events, nasty author-on-author insults, and more

• You can meet your favourite author, but you’ll have to buy a ticket
• Ouch, that hurts: 30 of the nastiest author-on-author insults
• Contrary to media reports, Lady Gaga and philosopher Slavoj Žižek are not caught in a bad romance
• Over 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin’s e-mails condensed into I Hope Like Heck: The Selected Poems of Sarah Palin
• Last chance to nominate your favourite Canadian political books for The Writers’ Trust of Canada/ Samara list, and read current nominations
  

Canadian literary event round-up: June 3-9

Here are just a few of the literary events happening across the country in the coming week:

• Canadian Women in Afghanistan presents Fawzia Koofi reading from her memoir Letter to My Daughters, John Dutton Theatre, Calgary (June 3, 7 p.m., registration required)
• Children’s rights activist Craig Kielburger reads from his new book Lessons From a Street Kid, Me to We, Toronto (June 4, 10 a.m., free, RSVP)
• Dialogic Series on the writings of poet and editor Dr. John Asfour with Professor Norman Cornett, Lallouz, Montreal (June 6, 6 p.m., $25, $15 f0r students and seniors)
• Joel Thomas Hynes will launch his new chapbook God Help Thee: A Manifesto, The Ship Pub, St. John’s (June 7, 7:30 p.m., free)
• Elisabeth Mann Borgese, Paul Kennedy, and ocean-inspired writers Kathy Mac and Donna Morrissey celebrate Oceans Day, Scotiabank Auditorium, Dalhousie University, Halifax (June 8, 7 p.m., free)
• Andre Gerard read from Fathers: A Literary Anthology, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Saskatoon (June 9, 7:30 p.m., free)

Book links round-up: Google’s eBookstore, e-mail woes, Q&A with Chester Brown, and more

• Chasing the story behind the story: exploring literary journalism
• The nominees for the inaugural Independent Booksellers’ Choice Awards
• Is the eBookstore worth it for Google?
• Crime writer Robert Rotenberg goes to town on e-mail
• Graphic novelist Chester Brown discusses why he has no problem with Paying for It
• Amazon selling more e-books than printed titles
• The unique world of Zsuzsi Gartner