Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (May 10, 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 May 7, 2023.

This week, 1960s Los Angeles comes to life in the paperback edition of Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles, by Mark Rozzo. Hopper and Hayward created “the era’s unofficial living room” at 1712 North Crescent Heights Boulevard, where everyone who was anyone waltzed through discussing contemporary issues and radical ideas. And for those who lean toward fiction, The Covenant of Water, by Stanford University School of Medicine professor Abraham Verghese, is on the list this week (just five days out from publication). The novel spans the 1900s through the 1970s on South India’s Malabar Coast. Verghese follows three generations of a family jinxed with an unusual curse: in every generation, one person dies by drowning.

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. Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley, $27
3. The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese, Grove Press, $32
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 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. Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir, Lucinda Williams, Crown, $28.99
5. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

Alta

1. The Candy House, Jennifer Egan, Scribner, $17.99
2. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
3. The Last Thing He Told Me, Laura Dave, Marysue Rucci Books, $17.99
4. Pure Colour, Sheila Heti, Picador, $17
5. Circe, Madeline Miller, Back Bay Books, $16.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

Alta

1. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
2. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills, Amber-Allen Publishing, $12.95
3. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
4. The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, Michael A. Singer, New Harbinger Publications, $18.95
5. Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles, Mark Rozzo, Ecco, $22.99

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

Alta

1. The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese, Grove Press, $32
2. Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley, $27
3. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
4. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $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. Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, Malcolm Harris, Little, Brown, $36. Read the Alta review
5. The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, Michelle Obama, Crown, $32.50

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

Alta

1. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
3. The Last Thing He Told Me, Laura Dave, Marysue Rucci Books, $17.99
4. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab, Tor Books, $19.99
5. The Candy House, Jennifer Egan, Scribner, $17.99

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. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
4. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, Anna Lembke, MD, Dutton, $18
5. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20

Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance

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