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 21, 2023.
The California Book Club’s July selection, Hua Hsu’s Stay True, returns to the list this week following its winning of the Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography. In this deeply personal book, Hsu recounts his experience as a UC Berkeley student in the 1990s and explores the remarkable friendship he formed with a fellow student. The book serves as a meditation on grief as it considers what has been lost when someone close is murdered. Also on this week’s list is a lighter bit of nonfiction: Samantha Irby’s Quietly Hostile. In this hilarious essay collection, Irby writes about avoiding Hollywood calls, receiving quirky emails, adopting a dog during the pandemic, and being turned away at restaurants for inappropriate attire.
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
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese, Grove Press, $32
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
- The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, Tom Hanks and R. Sikoryak (illustrator), Knopf, $32.50
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
- The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy, HarperOne, $22.99
- I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon & Schuster, $27.99
- King: A Life, Jonathan Eig, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $35
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
- The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, HarperOne, $17.99
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab, Tor Books, $19.99
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- Quietly Hostile: Essays, Samantha Irby, Vintage, $17
- Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann, Vintage, $17
- 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
- The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese, Grove Press, $32
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
- The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, Tom Hanks and R. Sikoryak (illustrator), Knopf, $32.50
- Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley, $27
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
- Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond, Crown, $28
- Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27
- Stay True: A Memoir, Hua Hsu, Doubleday, $26
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
- Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel, Vintage, $17
- The Last Thing He Told Me, Laura Dave, Marysue Rucci Books, $17.99
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- Quietly Hostile: Essays, Samantha Irby, Vintage, $17
- Bay Curious: Exploring the Hidden True Stories of the San Francisco Bay Area, Olivia Allen-Price, Chronicle Books, $15.95
- 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
