What Canadian books are popular right now? Check out this week's bestsellers

CBC Books | Posted: March 6, 2025 3:45 PM | Last Updated: March 6

Here are the bestselling Canadian fiction, nonfiction and children's books from Feb. 22-March 1, 2025.

This week, all five contending Canada Reads 2025 books are on the list.

Meet the Canada Reads 2025 contenders

Bestseller lists are compiled by Bookmanager using weekly sales stats from over 260 Canadian independent stores.

Canadian fiction

Image | Etta and Otto and Russell and James and Emma Hooper and Michelle Morgan

Caption: Emma Hooper, left, is the author of Etta and Otto and Russel and James, a contender on Canada Reads 2025, championed by Canadian actor Michelle Morgan. (Penguin Random House Canada, Penguin Canada, CBC)

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Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper is the #1 Canadian fiction book this week.

In Etta and Otto and Russell and James, 82-year-old Etta decides to walk 3,232 kilometres to Halifax from her farm in Saskatchewan to fulfil her dream of seeing the ocean. With little more than a rusty rifle and a talking coyote named James for company, she begins her adventure, and in the process, her early life with her husband Otto and their friend Russell is revealed in flashbacks.

While Russell wants to bring her home safe, she's committed to making her way to the sea and before returning to her husband who will always wait patiently for her to come back.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James will be championed by Heartland actor Michelle Morgan on Canada Reads 2025.

Heartland's Michelle Morgan and Canada Reads author Emma Hooper bond over caring for people with dementia

See the full Canadian fiction list below.

Canadian nonfiction

Image | One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad - 1

Caption: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a book by Omar El Akkad. (Knopf, Kateshia Pendergrass)

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One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad is the #1 Canadian nonfiction book this week.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a book that grapples with the idea that the freedom promised by the West is an illusion. As a reporter, El Akkad has covered the war on terror, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests and watched the war in Gaza. Over time, he's come to the conclusion that that there will always be human beings that the West never intends to treat as human — and uses the book to grapple with what that means for the future.

The books that stayed with Canada Reads author Omar El Akkad long after he read them

See the full Canadian nonfiction list below.

Canadian kids

Image | Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli - 1

Caption: Rebel Witch is a YA novel by Kristen Ciccarelli. (Submitted by Kristen Cicacrelli, Wednesday Books)

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Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli is the #1 Canadian kids book this week.

Rebel Witch is the conclusion to the Crimson Moth duology in which Rune Winters is on the run after the boy she loved, Gideon, revealed her identity. She's forced to team up with the cruel and dangerous Cressida Roseblood to save herself. But when she makes Gideon an offer he can't refuse, they're reunited again, and they'll have to try and put aside their powerful feelings to do what they both feel is right.

See the full kids list below.