Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (May 3, 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 30, 2023.

California Book Club author Rebecca Solnit is featured on the list this week alongside coeditor and climate activist Thelma Young Lutunatabua for Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility. This collection of essays and interviews presents powerful voices encouraging readers to think critically about climate change. Also on the list this week is Oregon native TJ Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets. The novel offers a glimpse of life on Earth in which humans are in hiding and robots are the ones in control. The narrative follows a family unit (consisting of a human and three robots) whose survival is threatened when a well-kept secret resurfaces.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

Alta

1. Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley, $27
2. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
3. Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano, Dial Press, $28
4. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
5. In the Lives of Puppets, TJ Klune, Tor Books, $28.99

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

Alta

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
2. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
3. Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond, Crown, $28
4. Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir, Lucinda Williams, Crown, $28.99
5. Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity, Peter Attia, MD, with Bill Gifford, Harmony, $32

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

Alta

1. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
2. The Candy House, Jennifer Egan, Scribner, $17.99
3. Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel, Vintage, $17
4. Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17
5. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab, Tor Books, $19.99

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. Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice from Dear Sugar (10th Anniversary Edition), Cheryl Strayed, Vintage, $17
4. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills, Amber-Allen Publishing, $12.95
5. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

Alta

1. Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley, $27
2. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
3. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
4. Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano, Dial Press, $28
5. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

Alta

1. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
2. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
3. Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond, Crown, $28
4. Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity, Peter Attia, MD, with Bill Gifford, Harmony, $32
5. The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, Michelle Obama, Crown, $32.50

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

Alta

1. The Last Thing He Told Me, Laura Dave, Marysue Rucci Books, $17.99
2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
3. Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17
4. The Candy House, Jennifer Egan, Scribner, $17.99
5. Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley, Vintage, $17

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. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
4. Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, Rebecca Solnit (editor) and Thelma Young Lutunatabua (editor), Haymarket Books, $16.95
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

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