Alta Journal brings you the bestselling titles at independent bookstores across Northern and Southern California for the sales week ending September 11, 2022—with reporting from the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.
On this week’s list is Educated, by Tara Westover, which tells the gripping and heartbreaking story of her self-initiated homeschool experience in rural Idaho. Students across the country experienced varying degrees of such self-instruction when the pandemic forced them to partake in homebound education, as analyzed by Alta’s Catherine Womack. Also on the list is a powerful memoir of the trials and tribulations a young child from El Salvador faced as he traveled to the United States. Solito, by Javier Zamora, recounts the emotional journey he made as a nine-year-old. Zamora is not the only author to address this heavy subject: Alta has compiled a handful of works tackling the subject of immigration.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
- Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $28
- The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell, Knopf, $28
- Fairy Tale, Stephen King, Scribner, $32.50
- Horse, Geraldine Brooks, Viking, $28
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Knopf, $26.95
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
- Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth Press, $28
- Dinner in One: Exceptional & Easy One-Pan Meals, Melissa Clark, Clarkson Potter, $29.99
- A Visible Man: A Memoir, Edward Enninful, Penguin Press, $30
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
- Verity, Colleen Hoover, Grand Central Publishing, $16.99
- Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17
- Circe, Madeline Miller, Back Bay Books, $16.99
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow & Company, $16.99
- Educated: A Memoir, Tara Westover, Random House, $18.99
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays, Joan Didion, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari, Harper Perennial, $24.99
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Fairy Tale, Stephen King, Scribner, $32.50
- The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell, Knopf, $28
- Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $28
- Horse, Geraldine Brooks, Viking, $28
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
- Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth Press, $28
- Dinner in One: Exceptional & Easy One-Pan Meals, Melissa Clark, Clarkson Potter, $29.99
- California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America’s Power Grid, Katherine Blunt, Portfolio, $29
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Knopf, $26.95
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
- Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $18
- Verity, Colleen Hoover, Grand Central Publishing, $16.99
- The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller, Ecco, $16.99
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
- Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, Mary Roach, W.W. Norton & Company, $16.95
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow & Company, $16.99
- This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan, Penguin Books, $18
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance
