Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (April 5, 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 April 2, 2023.

This week’s list features two novels that blend elegant narratives with pulse-pounding mysteries. Santa Monica–based author Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me recounts the story of a missing husband and the tenuous relationship between the wife and daughter he has left behind. This soon-to-be Apple TV+ series challenges readers to question how well they know their loved ones. Station Eleven author and Los Angeles writer Emily St. John Mandel takes us on a journey spanning five centuries in Sea of Tranquility. This inventive novel carries readers through parallel universes and introduces us to a detective tasked with exploring an anomaly in the North American wilderness.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

Alta

1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
2. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
3. I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai, Viking, $28. Read the Alta review
4. Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano, Dial Press, $28
5. Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Hanover Square Press, $19.99

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

Alta

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
2. Sweet Enough: A Dessert Cookbook, Alison Roman, Clarkson Potter, $35
3. Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, Malcolm Harris, Little, Brown, $36. Read the Alta review
4. Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond, Crown, $28
5. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

Alta

1. The Last Thing He Told Me, Laura Dave, Marysue Rucci Books, $17.99
2. Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17
3. The Candy House, Jennifer Egan, Scribner, $17.99
4. Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel, Vintage, $17
5. The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles, Penguin Books, $19

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

Alta

1. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $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. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
5. Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love, Amir Levine, MD, and Rachel S.F. Heller, MA, TarcherPerigee, $17

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

Alta

1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
2. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
3. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
4. Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano, Dial Press, $28
5. Horse, Geraldine Brooks, Viking, $28

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

Alta

1. Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond, Crown, $28
2. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
3. Sweet Enough: A Dessert Cookbook, Alison Roman, Clarkson Potter, $35
4. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27
5. Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, Malcolm Harris, Little, Brown, $36. Read the Alta review

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

Alta

1. The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles, Penguin Books, $19
2. The Candy House, Jennifer Egan, Scribner, $17.99
3. Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17
4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
5. The Maid, Nita Prose, Ballantine Books, $18

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

Alta

1. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
2. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
3. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
4. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
5. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, Anna Lembke, MD, Dutton, $18

Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance

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