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 December 4, 2022.
This week brings us lighthearted reads and charming protagonists perfect for upcoming winter days spent curled up with a book. California-born author Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry—a familiar title on the bestsellers list—takes readers back to 1960s California, where chemist Elizabeth Zott questions the status quo. And we learn of a Hollywood icon’s rise to stardom and her many marriages in Los Angeles novelist Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, another regular title on the list.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- A World of Curiosities, Louise Penny, Minotaur Books, $29.99
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
- The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy, Knopf, $30. Read the Alta review
- Desert Star, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown, $29
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, Michelle Obama, Crown Publishing Group, $32.50
- A Book of Days, Patti Smith, Random House, $28.99
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
- Go-To Dinners: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Ina Garten, Clarkson Potter, $35
- Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, Bono, Knopf, $34
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- It Starts with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $17.99
- Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine Books, $20
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro, Vintage, $16.95
- Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $20
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
- These Precious Days: Essays, Ann Patchett, Harper Perennial, $18
- City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Mike Davis, Verso, $21.95
- The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, Don Miguel Ruiz, Amber-Allen Publishing, $12.95
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- A World of Curiosities, Louise Penny, Minotaur Books, $29.99
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
- The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy, Knopf, $30. Read the Alta review
- Horse, Geraldine Brooks, Viking, $28
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, Michelle Obama, Crown Publishing Group, $32.50
- A Book of Days, Patti Smith, Random House, $28.99
- The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Scribner, $32.50
- An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Ed Yong, Random House, $30
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $20
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- The Best American Short Stories 2022, Andrew Sean Greer and Heidi Pitlor (editors), Mariner Books, $17.99
- The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman, Penguin Books, $17
- Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine Books, $20
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
- Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, Mary Roach, W.W. Norton & Company, $16.95
- These Precious Days: Essays, Ann Patchett, Harper Perennial, $18
Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance
