Toronto Star bestsellers for Aug. 21, 2024

An interesting newcomer to the Canadian fiction list this week is “Peggy,” by Rebecca Godfrey and Leslie Jamison. It’s a novel about Peggy Guggenheim, the storied American art collector and philanthropist, focusing in part on her passionate affair with the playwright Samuel Beckett in 1938.
It’s on the Canadian list because Godfrey, who was based in New York, was raised in Toronto and Victoria, and attended the University of Toronto. It is co-written because, weeks before her death from lung cancer in 2022 at age 54, Godfrey asked her friend, Jamison, to complete her book.
Jamison wrote a luminous article for the New Yorker last November about her friend’s final request, titled “A Friend Died, Her Novel Unfinished. Could I Realize Her Vision?” And of course she agreed to this final request. “There are so few things we can do for the dead; this was something I could do for her,” writes Jamison.
ORIGINAL FICTION
1. It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria (95)
2. It Starts With Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria (31)
3. What Have You Done?, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada (3)
4. The Briar Club, Kate Quinn, William Morrow (7)
5. Born of Blood and Ash, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Evil Eye (1)
6. Fire and Bones, Kathy Reichs, Simon & Schuster (2)
7. The Housemaid, Freida McFadden, Grand Central (8)
8. When the World Fell Silent, Donna Jones Alward, One More Chapter (1)
9. Joy, Danielle Steel, Delacorte (1)
10. Verity, Colleen Hoover, Grand Central (61)
ORIGINAL NON-FICTION
1. The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin Press (21)
2. Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen, Harper (1)
3. On the Edge, Nate Silver, Penguin (1)
4. Men Have Called Her Crazy, Anna Marie Tendler, Simon & Schuster (1)
5. All in the Family, Fred C. Trump III, Gallery (3)
6. The Art of Power, Nancy Pelosi, Simon & Schuster (2)
7. The War We Won Apart, Nahlah Ayed, Viking (12)
8. Autocracy, Inc., Anne Applebaum, Signal (4)
9. Tiger, Tiger, James Patterson, Little Brown (5)
10. What This Comedian Said Will Shock You, Bill Maher, Simon & Schuster (13)
CANADIAN FICTION
1. What Have You Done?, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada
2. When the World Fell Silent, Donna Jones Alward, One More Chapter
3. This Summer Will Be Different, Carley Fortune, Viking
4. Till Death Do Us Part, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, Simon & Schuster
5. Fall With Me, Becka Mack, Simon & Schuster
6. Butcher and Blackbird, Brynne Weaver, Zando
7. Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune, Viking
8. Peggy, Rebecca Godfrey, Leslie Jamison, Knopf Canada
9. Body Check, Elle Kennedy, Harlequin
10. The Haters, Robyn Harding, Grand Central
CANADIAN NON-FICTION
1. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry, Flatiron
2. The War We Won Apart, Nahlah Ayed, Viking
3. The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards, Jessica Waite, Simon & Schuster
4. In Exile, Sadiya Ansari, House of Anansi
5. Fire Weather, John Vaillant, Vintage Canada
6. Truth Telling, Michelle Good, Harper Perennial
7. Untold Tales of Old British Columbia, Daniel Marshall, Ronsdale
8. A Two-Spirit Journey, Ma-Nee Chacaby, Mary Louisa Plummer
9. Outsider, Brett Popplewell, Collins
10. The HBC Brigades, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, Ronsdale
CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULT
1. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson, Ember
2. Bluey: Grannies and Other Stories, Penguin Young Readers
3. The New Girl (#1), Cassandra Calin, Graphix
4. Powerless, Lauren Roberts, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
5. The Grandest Game, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
6. Reckless, Lauren Roberts, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
7. The Wild Robot, Peter Brown, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
8. Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder (#12), Dav Pilkey, Graphix 
9. Good Girl, Bad Blood, Holly Jackson, Ember
10. Warriors: The Prophecies Begin (#1), Erin Hunter, Natalie Riess, Sara Goetter, HarperAlley
MYSTERY
1. What Have You Done?, Shari Lapena Doubleday Canada
2. The Briar Club, Kate Quinn, William Morrow
3. The Housemaid, Freida McFadden, Grand Central
4. Fire and Bones, Kathy Reichs, Simon & Schuster
5. The Secret, Lee Child, Andrew Child, Dell
6. Verity, Colleen Hoover, Grand Central
7. Long Shadows, David Baldacci, Grand Central
8. The Midnight Feast, Lucy Foley, William Morrow
9. The Housemaid’s Secret, Freida McFadden, Quercus
10. A Death in Cornwall, Daniel Silva, Harper
* 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.