Toronto Star bestsellers for Nov. 27, 2024

Anne Michaels’ “Held” won the Giller Prize on Nov. 18. It’s the fattest literary purse in Canadian letters: $100,000 for the winner and $10,000 for each of the four runners-up. So how is “Held” faring at Canadian bookstores since the announcement?
Is it enjoying the fabled “Giller bounce”?
It is indeed. “Held” ranks No. 2 on the Canadian fiction list this week. That’s for the hardback version of the 2023 novel, with a retail price of $32. The paperback version of “Held,” released in September and costing a more affordable $22, ranks No. 9. It’s unusual for two versions of the same book to rank in the Top 10. And is it odd that the more expensive version was the better seller?
Maybe more readers bought the expensive version because they wanted to honour the Giller winner by spending the extra money. Or perhaps they wanted the “original” and arguably esthetically better version adorning their household bookscapes (shelves, coffee tables and bedside tables). Or the stores simply decided to give greater prominence to the original version of “Held.” Smart merchandising.
Two of the other shortlisted books — Éric Chacour’s “What I Know About You” and Conor Kerr’s “Prairie Edge” — made the midlist of BookNet Canada’s rankings of about 250 fiction titles sold last week. The other two did not.
ORIGINAL FICTION
1. The Mirror, Nora Roberts, St. Martin’s (1)*
2. The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny, Minotaur (4)
3. The Songbird and the Heart of Stone, Carissa Broadbent, Bramble (1)
4. Trial by Fire, Danielle Steel, Delacorte (1)
5. The City and Its Uncertain Walls, Haruki Murakami, trans. Philip Gabriel, Bond Street (1)
6. Here One Moment, Liane Moriarty, Doubleday Canada (6)
7. Now or Never, Janet Evanovich, Atria (1)
8. The Boyfriend, Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen (6)
9. To Die For, David Baldacci, Grand Central (2)
10. In Too Deep, Lee Child, Andrew Child, Delacorte (5)
ORIGINAL NON-FICTION
1. We Who Wrestle With God, Jordan B. Peterson, Portfolio (1)
2. The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer, John Burgoyne, Scribner (1)
3. Cher, Cher, Dey Street (1)
4. Guinness World Records 2025, Craig Glenday, Guinness World Records (9)
5. Revenge of the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, Little Brown (7)
6. This Is Our Life, The Tragically Hip, Genesis (3)
7. Framed, John Grisham, Jim McCloskey, Doubleday (4)
8. Home and Away, Mats Sundin, Amy Stuart, Simon & Schuster (4)
9. Taylor Swift Style, Sarah Chapelle, Saint Martin’s Griffin (5)
10. Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari, Signal (9)
CANADIAN FICTION
1. The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny, Minotaur
2. Held, Anne Michaels, McClelland & Stewart
3. The Front Runner, Elsie Silver, Bloom
4. The Mistletoe Mystery, Nita Prose, Viking 
5. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, McClelland & Stewart
6. When the World Fell Silent, Donna Jones Alward, One More Chapter
7. Looking for Jane, Heather Marshall, Simon & Schuster
8. Butcher and Blackbird, Brynne Weaver, Zando
9. Held, Anne Michaels, McClelland & Stewart
10. The Treasure Hunters Club, Tom Ryan, Simon & Schuster
CANADIAN NON-FICTION
1. We Who Wrestle With God, Jordan B. Peterson, Portfolio
2. Revenge of the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, Little Brown
3. This Is Our Life, The Tragically Hip, Genesis
4. Home and Away, Mats Sundin, Amy Stuart, Simon & Schuster
5. Taylor Swift Style, Sarah Chapelle, Saint Martin’s Griffin
6. Hockey Rants and Raves, Steve “Dangle” Glynn, HarperCollins Canada
7. Who We Are, Murray Sinclair, Sara Sinclair, Niigaan Sinclair, McClelland & Stewart
8. Dreamer, Nazem Kadri, Viking
9. Reconciling History, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Roshan Danesh, McClelland & Stewart 
10. At a Loss for Words, Carol Off, Random House Canada
CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULT
1. Hot Mess (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #19), Jeff Kinney, Abrams
2. Little Blue Truck’s Christmas, Alice Schertle, Jill McElmurry, Clarion
3. The Bad Guys in One Last Thing (#20), Aaron Blabey, Scholastic
4. The Wild Robot, Peter Brown, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
5. The Scarlet Shredder (Dog Man #12), Dav Pilkey, Graphix
6. Christmas at Hogwarts, J.K. Rowling, Ziyi Gao, Bloomsbury Children’s
7. The Wild Robot Escapes, Peter Brown, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
8. Impossible Creatures, Katherine Rundell, Ashley Mackenzie, Knopf Books for Young Readers
9. Dork Diaries (#16), Rachel Renée Russell, Aladdin
10. Sounds Like Christmas, Robert Munsch, Michael Martchenko, Scholastic
COOKING
1. Half Baked Harvest Quick and Cozy, Tieghan Gerard, Clarkson Potter
2. Matty Matheson: Soups, Salads, Sandwiches, Matty Matheson, Appetite by Random House
3. Simply Jamie, Jamie Oliver, Appetite by Random House
4. Ottolenghi Comfort, Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh, Appetite by Random House
5. Martha: The Cookbook, Martha Stewart, Clarkson Potter
6. From Crook to Cook, Snoop Dogg, Chronicle
7. The Elements of Baking, Katarina Cermelj, Quercus
8. Not Too Sweet, Jessica Seinfeld, Sara Quessenberry, Gallery
9. I Love You, Pamela Anderson, Voracious
10. The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook, ConcernedApe, Ryan Novak, Random House Worlds
* 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.