Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (March 1, 2023)

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 February 26, 2023.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Rebecca Makkai makes the list this week with her fifth work of fiction. I Have Some Questions for You, reviewed by California Book Club editor Anita Felicelli, follows Bodie Kane, a Los Angeles podcast host and professor, as she is drawn into the investigation of her former roommate's murder. Kane begins to second-guess the conviction of a Black man in the case and whether she shared everything she knew. I Have Some Questions for You explores obsession with true crime and analyzes our perceptions of justice. (For more on Makkai, watch her on the California Book Club with Rabih Alameddine.)

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
2. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
3. I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai, Viking, $28. Read the Alta review
4. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
5. Victory City, Salman Rushdie, Random House, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
2. Spare, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, Random House, $36
3. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
4. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Knopf, $26.95
5. Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy, James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams, Penguin Press, $32

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
3. The Paris Apartment, Lucy Foley, William Morrow, $18.99
4. It Starts with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $17.99
5. Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays, Joan Didion, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17
2. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
3. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
4. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson, Random House, $20
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

1. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
2. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
3. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
4. I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai, Viking, $28. Read the Alta review
5. Victory City, Salman Rushdie, Random House, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
2. Spare, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, Random House, $36
3. It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism, Bernie Sanders, Crown, $28
4. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
5. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27

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. The Maid, Nita Prose, Ballantine Books, $18
4. Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17
5. The Paris Apartment, Lucy Foley, William Morrow, $18.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
2. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson, Random House, $20
3. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
4. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, Anna Lembke, MD, Dutton, $18
5. 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

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.