Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (September 21, 2022)

With reporting from the California Independent Booksellers Alliance, Alta Journal is pleased to bring you the bestselling titles at independent bookstores across Northern and Southern California for the sales week ending September 18, 2022.

Making the list again is Joan Didion—featured on the cover of Alta’s Spring 2022 issue—this time with her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking. Depicting grief and sorrow, the vivid work follows Didion through some of her most challenging times. Alta contributor Anita Kunz, author of Another History of Art, examines Didion’s life as well as her writing. Also on the list is Lauren Groff, for her book Matrix. The story follows an orphan cast out of a royal court and sent to live at a run-down abbey. Groff’s enthralling storytelling is not only present in Matrix; California Book Club host John Freeman featured the author in his literary journal, Freeman’s.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Fairy Tale, Stephen King, Scribner, $32.50
2. The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell, Knopf, $28
3. Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir, Tordotcom, $28.99
4. Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $28
5. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
2. What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randall Munroe, Riverhead Books, $30
3. Life’s Work: A Memoir, David Milch, Random House, $28
4. You Owe You: Ignite Your Power, Your Purpose, and Your Why, Eric Thomas, PhD, Rodale Books, $27
5. Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships, Nina Totenberg, Simon & Schuster, $27.99

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
2. It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
3. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $18
4. Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $18
5. Verity, Colleen Hoover, Grand Central Publishing, $16.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow & Company, $16.99
2. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, Mary Roach, W.W. Norton & Company, $16.95
3. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion, Vintage, $17
4. Meditations: A New Translation (Revised), Marcus Aurelius, Modern Library, $11
5. Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles, Rosecrans Baldwin, Picador, $18. Read the Alta review

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir, Tordotcom, $28.99
2. Fairy Tale, Stephen King, Scribner, $32.50
3. The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell, Knopf, $28
4. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
5. Lessons, Ian McEwan, Knopf, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
2. What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randall Munroe, Riverhead Books, $30
3. Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth Press, $28
4. Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships, Nina Totenberg, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
5. Holding the Line: Inside the Nation’s Preeminent US Attorney’s Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department, Geoffrey Berman, Penguin Press, $30

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
2. It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
3. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $18
4. Circe, Madeline Miller, Back Bay Books, $16.99
5. Matrix, Lauren Groff, Riverhead Books, $18

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
2. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, Mary Roach, W.W. Norton & Company, $16.95
3. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow & Company, $16.99
4. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
5. Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, Suzanne Simard, Vintage, $17

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.