The bestselling books in Canada for the week ending April 5

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This is one of those great weeks for books — lots of new titles on every one of our lists.

In Original Fiction, Jeannette Wall’s third historical novel, “Hang the Moon,” rockets to the top spot. Wall is best known for her phenomenally successful 2005 memoir, “The Glass Castle,” which spent years on bestseller lists and even today serves as a masterclass for memoirists who have followed. “Hang the Moon” is set in a small Virginia town during Prohibition. At the heart of the story is a resilient young woman (of course), the daughter of the town’s biggest wheel, who returns to a community and a family that had once cast her out.

The Original Non-Fiction list brings us a new history of ideas book, “Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope” (at No. 6), by Sarah Bakewell, best known for 2017’s “At the Existentialist Café,” in which she took us into the lives of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus and the gang of thinkers who defined Paris intellectual society in the 1930s.

There are two new memoirs worthy of mention, too. “How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind” (No. 7 on the Original list and No. 4 on the Canadian list) is by Canadian-born philosopher Clancy Martin, whose capsule biography informs us that he has attempted suicide 10 times and is a recovering alcoholic. “Crying in H Mart,” by Michelle Zauner, about growing up Korean in small-town Oregon. H Mart is an American chain of Korean supermarkets. The book debuts at No. 8 on the Original Non-Fiction list.

Our rotating list this week is Cooking, where a full seven out of the 10 ranked cookbooks are new, including “RecipeTin Eats Dinner, at No. 1, by Nagi Maehashi, and “Sweet Enough,” new dessert recipes from Alison Roman.

Finally, my favourite new book title ranks No. 4 on the Children’s List: “We Don’t Lose Our Class Goldfish,” by Ryan Higgins.

— 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. Hang the Moon, Jeannette Wall, Scribner (1)

2. Loyalty, Lisa Scottoline, G.P. Putnam’s Sons (2)

3. A Death at the Party, Amy Stuart, Simon & Schuster (4)

4. Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano, Dial (2)

5. The Perfumist of Paris, Alka Joshi, MIRA (1)

6. Pineapple Street, Jenny Jackson, Viking (2)

7. It Starts with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria (23)

8. It’s One of Us, J.T. Ellison, MIRA (6)

9. Overkill, Sandra Brown, Grand Central (1)

10. Worthy Opponents, Danielle Steel, Delacorte (2)

ORIGINAL NON-FICTION

1. Spare, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, Random House Canada (12)

2. Ducks, Kate Beaton, Drawn & Quarterly (17)

3. The Watchmaker’s Daughter, Larry Loftis, William Morrow (5)

4. 12 Rules for Life, Jordan B. Peterson, Random House Canada (141)

5. Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed (105)

6. Humanly Possible, Sarah Bakewell, Knopf Canada (1)

7. How Not to Kill Yourself, Clancy Martin, Pantheon (1)

8. Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner, Vintage (1)

9. Love, Pamela, Pamela Anderson, Dey Street (9)

10. Atlas of the Heart, Bren Brown, Random House (55)

CANADIAN FICTION

1. A Death at the Party, Amy Stuart, Simon & Schuster

2. Two for the Road, Chantel Guertin, Doubleday Canada

3. Women Talking, Miriam Toews, Vintage Canada

4. Greenwood, Michael Christie, McClelland & Stewart

5. Old Babes in the Wood, Margaret Atwood, McClelland & Stewart

6. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel, Harper Perennial

7. Five Little Indians, Michelle Good, Harper Perennial

8. The Fake, Zoe Whittall, HarperCollins Canada

9. Hotline, Dimitri Nasrallah, Esplanade

10. Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton, McClelland & Stewart

CANADIAN NON-FICTION

1. Ducks, Kate Beaton, Drawn & Quarterly

2. Run Towards the Danger, Sarah Polley, Penguin Canada

3. 12 Rules for Life, Jordan B. Peterson, Random House Canada

4. How Not to Kill Yourself, Clancy Martin, Pantheon

5. Love, Pamela, Pamela Anderson, Dey Street

6. 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act, Bob Joseph, Indigenous Relations

7. Gibby, John Gibbons, Greg Oliver, ECW

8. The Menopause Manifesto, Jen Gunter, Random House Canada

9. Beyond Order, Jordan Peterson, Random House Canada

10. Half-Bads in White Regalia, Cody Caetano, Hamish Hamilton

CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULT

1. Dog Man, Dav Pilkey, Graphix

2. The Adventures of Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey, Scholastic

3. Cat Kid Comic Club: Collaborations (Cat Kid Comic Club #4), Dav Pilkey, Scholastic

4. We Don’t Lose Our Class Goldfish, Ryan Higgins, Hyperion Books for Children

5. We’re Going on an Egg Hunt, Laura Hughes, Martha Mumford, Bloomsbury

6. Why I Love Easter, Daniel Howarth, HarperCollins Children’s

7. Little Blue Truck Board Book, Alice Schertle, Jill McElmurry, Clarion

8. Big Nate: Nailed It!, Lincoln Pierce, Andrews McMeel

9. InvestiGators: Agents of S.U.I.T., John Patrick Green, Christopher Hastings, Pat Lewis, First Second

10. Where’s Waldo? The Great Speed Search, Martin Handford, Candlewick

COOKING

1. RecipeTin Eats Dinner, Nagi Maehashi, Countryman

2. Sweet Enough, a Dessert Cookbook, Alison Roman, Clarkson Potter

3. Anna Olson’s Baking Wisdom, Anna Olson, Appetite by Random House

4. Kitchen Bliss, Laura Calder, Simon & Schuster

5. Everyday Bread, America’s Test Kitchen

6. Sundays, Mark Pupo, Appetite by Random House

7. Half Baked Harvest Super Simple, Tieghan Gerard, Clarkson Potter

8. Mandy’s Gourmet Salads, Mandy Wolfe, Rebecca Wolfe, Meredith Erickson, Appetite by Random House

9. Sabai, Pailin Chongchitnant, Appetite by Random House

10. PlantYou, Carleigh Bodrug, Will Bulsiewicz, Hachette

* Number of weeks on list

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