Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (November 30, 2022)

With reporting from the California Independent Booksellers Alliance, Alta Journal brings you a list of the bestselling titles at independent bookstores across Northern and Southern California for the week ending November 27, 2022.

In addition to the top sellers from big-name authors like Patti Smith and Michelle Obama, this week’s rankings include two volumes of 2022’s best writing. The Best American Short Stories 2022, selected by California Book Club writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer, along with series editor Heidi Pitlor, collects 20 of this year’s top tales. And The Best American Essays 2022, chosen by Alta contributor Alexander Chee, alongside series editor Robert Atwan, presents 23 outstanding works of exposition, introspection, and humor.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

Alta

1. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
2. The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy, Knopf, $30. Read the Alta review
3. Desert Star, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown, $29
4. Our Missing Hearts, Celeste Ng, Penguin Press, $29
5. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

Alta

1. The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, Michelle Obama, Crown Publishing Group, $32.50
2. A Book of Days, Patti Smith, Random House, $28.99
3. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
4. Go-To Dinners: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Ina Garten, Clarkson Potter, $35
5. Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, Bono, Knopf, $34

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

Alta

1. It Starts with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $17.99
2. It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
3. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine Books, $20
4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
5. The Best American Short Stories 2022, Andrew Sean Greer and Heidi Pitlor (editors), Mariner Books, $17.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

Alta

1. These Precious Days: Essays, Ann Patchett, Harper Perennial, $18
2. The Best American Essays 2022, Alexander Chee and Robert Atwan (editors), Mariner Books, $17.99
3. All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business, Mel Brooks, Ballantine Books, $20
4. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari, Harper Perennial, $24.99
5. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

Alta

1. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
2. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
3. The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy, Knopf, $30. Read the Alta review
4. Desert Star, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown, $29
5. Liberation Day: Stories, George Saunders, Random House, $28

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

Alta

1. The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, Michelle Obama, Crown Publishing Group, $32.50
2. The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Scribner, $32.50
3. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
4. A Book of Days, Patti Smith, Random House, $28.99
5. Go-To Dinners: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Ina Garten, Clarkson Potter, $35

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

Alta

1. It Starts with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $17.99
2. Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $20
3. It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
5. The Best American Short Stories 2022, Andrew Sean Greer and Heidi Pitlor (editors), Mariner Books, $17.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

Alta

1. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
2. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
3. These Precious Days: Essays, Ann Patchett, Harper Perennial, $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. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, Mary Roach, W.W. Norton & Company, $16.95

Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance

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