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 June 4, 2023.
Alta contributor Claire Dederer’s Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, a book that wrestles with separating artists’ immoral and offensive actions from their art, is on the list this week. The work picks up where Dederer’s acclaimed Paris Review essay on the same topic left off, adding nuance to this ongoing debate. Elise Loehnen’s On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good is also on the list this week. The Los Angeles–based author explores how so-called cardinal vices and outdated expectations of women continue to shape society.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese, Grove Press, $32
- Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley, $27
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- Yellowface, R.F. Kuang, William Morrow, $30
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
- King: A Life, Jonathan Eig, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $35
- On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good, Elise Loehnen, the Dial Press, $28
- Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, Claire Dederer, Knopf, $28
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
- The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller, Ecco, $17.99
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- Daisy Jones and the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $17
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
- Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann, Vintage, $17
- Quietly Hostile: Essays, Samantha Irby, Vintage, $17
- Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris, Little, Brown, $18.99
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese, Grove Press, $32
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
- 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
- Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, Malcolm Harris, Little, Brown, $36. Read the Alta review
- Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27
- Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond, Crown, $28
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
- The Last Thing He Told Me, Laura Dave, Marysue Rucci Books, $17.99
- The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller, Ecco, $17.99
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
- Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris, Little, Brown, $18.99
- Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann, Vintage, $17
- 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
Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance
Elizabeth Casillas is an assistant editor at Alta Journal. A graduate of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, she has previously written for the Poly Post and Enspire Magazine.
