Toronto Star bestsellers for the week ending May 24, 2023

A couple of noteworthy newcomers in both the fiction and non-fiction lists this week:

“Yellowface,” awash in enthusiastic reviews, debuts on the Original Fiction list at No. 6. Author R.F. Kuang has until now been known for her speculative fiction. Her new novel, a departure, involves a jealous white girl who wins fame and fortune after stealing the manuscript of her deceased Chinese-American rival, then adopting an ethnically ambiguous new identity.

“Standing in the Shadows” is the 28th and final novel in the popular Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson, who died last October. It debuts this week in the No. 8 spot.

In non-fiction, Samantha Irby’s third essay collection, “Quietly Hostile,” joins the list in the No. 6 spot on the Original list. “The World: A Family History of Humanity” ranks No. 10. It’s by the celebrated British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, who tells our story through the great dynasties through time. London’s the Daily Mail described it as “Succession meets Game of Thrones.”

And the book that sold more copies in Canada than any other over the past week is “Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea” by the inimitable Dav Pilkey.

ORIGINAL FICTION

1. Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley (4)*

2. Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune, Viking (3)

3. Homecoming, Kate Morton, Simon & Schuster (7)

4. It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria (85)

5. The Lie Maker, Linwood Barclay, William Morrow (1)

6. Yellowface, R.F. Kuang, William Morrow (1)

7. It Starts With Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria (30)

8. The True Love Experiment, Christina Lauren, Gallery (1)

9. Standing in the Shadows, Peter Robinson, McClelland & Stewart (1)

10. Icebreaker, Hannah Grace, Atria (8)

ORIGINAL NON-FICTION

1. Spare, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, Random House Canada (19)

2. The Wager, David Grann, Doubleday (5)

3. The Survivor, Josef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin, HarperCollins Canada (7)

4. 12 Rules for Life, Jordan B. Peterson, Random House Canada (148)

5. Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed (112)

6. Quietly Hostile, Samantha Irby, Vintage (1)

7. Ducks, Kate Beaton, Drawn & Quarterly (24)

8. Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner, Vintage (4)

9. Outsider, Brett Popplewell, Collins (4)

10. The World, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Knopf (1)

CANADIAN FICTION

1. Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune, Viking

2. The Lie Maker, Linwood Barclay, William Morrow

3. Standing in the Shadows, Peter Robinson, McClelland & Stewart

4. Everything She Feared, Rick Mofina, MIRA

5. The Dutch Orphan, Ellen Keith, HarperCollins Canada

6. Every Summer After, Carley Fortune, Penguin Canada

7. Coronation Year, Jennifer Robson, William Morrow

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

9. This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone, SAGA

10. Fit to Die, Daniel Kalla, Simon & Schuster

CANADIAN NON-FICTION

1. The Survivor, Josef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin, HarperCollins Canada

2. 12 Rules for Life, Jordan B. Peterson, Random House Canada

3. Ducks, Kate Beaton, Drawn & Quarterly

4. Outsider, Brett Popplewell, Collins

5. Wine Witch on Fire, Natalie MacLean, Dundurn

6. Fire Weather, John Vaillant, Knopf Canada

7. Lightfoot, Nicholas Jennings, Penguin Canada

8. 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act, Bob Joseph, Indigenous Relations

9. Mommy Don’t, Sherri Aikenhead, Nimbus

10. From the Ashes, Jesse Thistle, Simon & Schuster

CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULT

1. Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea, Dav Pilkey, Graphix

2. From the World of Percy Jackson: the Sun and the Star, Rick Riordan, Mark Oshiro, Disney-Hyperion

3. Surprisingly Sarah, Terri Libenson, Balzer & Bray

4. The One and Only Ruby, Katherine Applegate, HarperCollins

5. Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, Dr. Seuss, Random House Books for Young Readers

6. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson, Ember

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

8. If He Had Been With Me, Laura Nowlin, Sourcebooks Fire

9. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (a Hunger Games novel), Suzanne Collins, Scholastic

10. Taylor Swift: a Little Golden Book Biography, Wendy Loggia, Elisa Chavarri, Golden

BUSINESS AND PERSONAL FINANCE

1. Atomic Habits, James Clear, Avery

2. The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel, Harriman

3. Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert T. Kiyosaki, Plata

4. The Intelligent Investor (revised edition), Benjamin Graham, Harper Business

5. Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order, Ray Dalio, Avid Reader

6. Dare to Lead, Brené Brown, Random House

7. The Daily Stoic, Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman, Portfolio

8. I Will Teach You to Be Rich: The Journal, Ramit Sethi, Workman

9. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey, Sean Covey, Jim Collins, Simon & Schuster

10. The First 90 Days (updated and expanded), Michael Watkins, Harvard Business Review

* Number of weeks on list

SHARE: