Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (October 25, 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 October 22, 2023.

Get ready for Halloween by picking up a suspense novel from the bestsellers list. John Grisham’s new legal thriller, The Exchange: After The Firm, is guaranteed to keep your mind (and heart) racing. Mitch McDeere is back, and he finds himself right in the middle of a wicked conspiracy threatening those he loves. And for an oldie but goodie: Donna Tartt’s The Secret History follows a group of students in New England navigating the intricacies of friendship—and a murder.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper, $30
2. The Exchange: After The Firm, John Grisham, Doubleday, $29.95
3. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
4. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
5. Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower Books, $29.99

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
2. Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, Michael Lewis, W.W. Norton & Company, $30
3. Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, Rachel Maddow, Crown, $32
4. Enough, Cassidy Hutchinson, Simon & Schuster, $30
5. Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, $35

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
2. The Secret History, Donna Tartt, Vintage, $18
3. Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, Shane Hawk (editor) and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (editor), Vintage, $17
4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
5. A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara, Anchor, $18

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (movie tie-in edition), David Grann, Vintage, $18
2. Stay True: A Memoir, Hua Hsu, Anchor, $17. Read Alta’s coverage here.
3. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
4. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
5. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside, Nick Offerman, Dutton, $18

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
2. The Exchange: After The Firm, John Grisham, Doubleday, $29.95
3. Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower Books, $29.99
4. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper, $30
5. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, Rachel Maddow, Crown, $32
2. Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, Michael Lewis, W.W. Norton & Company, $30
3. Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, Heather Cox Richardson, Viking, $30
4. Enough, Cassidy Hutchinson, Simon & Schuster, $30
5. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
2. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
3. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
5. The Way Forward, Yung Pueblo, Andrews McMeel Publishing, $16.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (movie tie-in edition), David Grann, Vintage, $18
2. Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth, $18
3. How We Live Is How We Die, Pema Chödrön, Shambhala, $21.95
4. Stay True: A Memoir, Hua Hsu, Anchor, $17. Read Alta’s coverage here.
5. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17

Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance

Elizabeth Casillas

Elizabeth Casillas is an associate editor at Alta Journal. A graduate of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, she has previously written for the Poly Post and Enspire Magazine.