Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (August 24, 2022)

Alta Journal, with reporting from the California Independent Booksellers Alliance, brings you this handy list of the bestselling titles at independent bookstores across Northern and Southern California for the sales week ending August 21, 2022.

Those titles include Heat 2, a novel by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Michael Mann and Edgar Award–winning author Meg Gardiner. Taking inspiration from the 1995 film Heat, Heat 2 shadows LAPD detective Vincent Hanna as he hunts down elite criminal Chris Shiherlis. If you’re a fan of police procedurals, check out Michael Connelly’s The Dark Hours, the April 2022 selection of Alta’s California Book Club. Also on this week’s list is Mercury Pictures Presents, by Anthony Marra. Reviewed by Alta, the novel introduces readers to Maria Lagana, an Italian immigrant attempting to make her way in World War II–era Hollywood.

For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
2. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
3. Horse, Geraldine Brooks, Viking, $28
4. Heat 2, Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner, William Morrow & Company, $28.99
5. Mercury Pictures Presents, Anthony Marra, Hogarth Press, $28.99. Read the Alta review

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Knopf, $26.95
2. Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels, Paul Pringle, Celadon Books, $29.99
3. The World’s Worst Assistant, Sona Movsesian, Plume, $26
4. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
5. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
2. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $18
3. The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller, Ecco, $16.99
4. It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
5. Book Lovers, Emily Henry, Berkley, $17

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow & Company, $16.99
2. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
3. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, Don Miguel Ruiz, Amber-Allen Publishing, $12.95
4. Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays, Joan Didion, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17
5. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari, Harper Perennial, $24.99

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Horse, Geraldine Brooks, Viking, $28
2. The Last White Man, Mohsin Hamid, Riverhead Books, $26
3. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
4. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
5. Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel, Knopf, $25

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris, Little, Brown and Company, $29
2. The High Sierra: A Love Story, Kim Stanley Robinson, Little, Brown and Company, $40
3. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Knopf, $26.95
4. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27
5. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Ed Yong, Random House, $30

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $18
2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
3. Verity, Colleen Hoover, Grand Central Publishing, $16.99
4. Book Lovers, Emily Henry, Berkley, $17
5. Circe, Madeline Miller, Back Bay Books, $16.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow & Company, $16.99
2. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
3. This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan, Penguin Books, $18
4. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
5. Do the Work! An Antiracist Activity Book, W. Kamau Bell and Kate Schatz, Workman Publishing, $22.95

Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance

Elizabeth Casillas

Elizabeth Casillas is an assistant editor at Alta Journal. A graduate of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, she has previously written for the Poly Post and Enspire Magazine.