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 January 8, 2023.
On the list this week is Nobelist Annie Ernaux’s captivating memoir The Years. Pieced together from more than six decades of diary entries, the story flows and changes shape as readers experience the years of 1941 to 2006 through narrative, slogans, and pop culture references. Another memoir, Stay True, by Hua Hsu, reviewed by Alta, is a poignant new addition to the list. In this coming-of-age story, Hsu explores meaning and belonging in Berkeley.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- Age of Vice, Deepti Kapoor, Riverhead Books, $30
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
- The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy, Knopf, $30. Read the Alta review
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
- 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 Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, Gabor Maté, MD, with Daniel Maté, Avery, $30
- 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 Starts with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $17.99
- Circe, Madeline Miller, Back Bay Books, $16.99
- The Maid, Nita Prose, Ballantine Books, $18
- Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $20
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- The Years, Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator), Seven Stories Press, $19.95
- Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, Anna Lembke, MD, Dutton, $18
- The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills, Amber-Allen Publishing, $12.95
- 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
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
- Horse, Geraldine Brooks, Viking, $28
- Babel, R.F. Kuang, Harper Voyager, $27.99
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, Michelle Obama, Crown Publishing Group, $32.50
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
- An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Ed Yong, Random House, $30
- Stay True: A Memoir, Hua Hsu, Doubleday, $26. Read the Alta review
- The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Scribner, $32.50
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
- The Maid, Nita Prose, Ballantine Books, $18
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller, Ecco, $17.99
- It Starts with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $17.99
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
- Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
- Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, Anna Lembke, MD, Dutton, $18
- The Years, Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator), Seven Stories Press, $19.95
Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance
