Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (September 20, 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 September 17, 2023.

This week’s bestsellers list features Lauren Groff’s latest novel, The Vaster Wilds. The story follows a girl fleeing a colonial settlement and heading out into the wilderness. To thrive in this new environment, she must adapt and transform, a process that challenges everything she has learned before. Also on the list is Oprah Winfrey’s collaboration with Arthur C. Brooks, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. Both authors draw upon their personal experiences and share emotional-management techniques to help readers on their path toward happiness.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Holly, Stephen King, Scribner, $30
2. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper, $30
3. The Fraud, Zadie Smith, Penguin Press, $29
4. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
5. The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff, Riverhead Books, $28

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, $35
2. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
3. Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $30
4. Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey, Portfolio, $30
5. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
2. Babel, R.F. Kuang, Harper Voyager, $20
3. A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara, Anchor, $18
4. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, HarperOne, $17.99
5. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa, Harper Perennial, $16.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann, Vintage, $17
2. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Vintage, $25
3. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Ed Yong, Random House, $20
4. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron, TarcherPerigee, $19
5. 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

1. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper, $30
2. The Fraud, Zadie Smith, Penguin Press, $29
3. The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff, Riverhead Books, $28
4. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
5. The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese, Grove Press, $32

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, $35
2. Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey, Portfolio, $30
3. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
4. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
5. Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $30

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
3. Babel, R.F. Kuang, Harper Voyager, $20
4. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
5. Lucy by the Sea, Elizabeth Strout, Random House, $18

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann, Vintage, $17
2. Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth, $18
3. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Vintage, $25
4. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
5. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17

Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance

Elizabeth Casillas

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.