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 March 5, 2023.
As Women’s History Month begins, the bestsellers list is loaded with fiction and nonfiction about women by women. Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You, reviewed last month by Anita Felicelli, brings the story of Bodie Kane, a podcaster in search of answers to her mysterious past. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus’s debut novel, tells of a female chemist in the 1960s. Ann Patchett’s essay collection These Precious Days offers glimpses into her family and her writing process, and Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died tells the painful story of her life as a child actor.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
- I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai, Viking, $28. Read the Alta review
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- A Day of Fallen Night, Samantha Shannon, Bloomsbury Publishing, $35
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy, HarperOne, $22.99
- Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy, James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams, Penguin Press, $32
- It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism, Bernie Sanders, Crown, $28
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- Circe, Madeline Miller, Back Bay Books, $16.99
- The Paris Apartment, Lucy Foley, William Morrow, $18.99
- The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides, Celadon Books, $17.99
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, Michael A. Singer, New Harbinger Publications, $18.95
- These Precious Days: Essays, Ann Patchett, Harper Perennial, $18
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson, Random House, $20
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
- Horse, Geraldine Brooks, Viking, $28
- I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai, Viking, $28. Read the Alta review
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, Malcolm Harris, Little, Brown, $36. Read the Alta review
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
- It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism, Bernie Sanders, Crown, $28
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17
- The Paris Apartment, Lucy Foley, William Morrow, $18.99
- The Maid, Nita Prose, Ballantine Books, $18
- It Ends with Us, Colleen Hoover, Atria Books, $16.99
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
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson, Random House, $20
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
- Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, Anna Lembke, MD, Dutton, $18
