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 November 26, 2023.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Michael Cunningham (a California Book Club special guest in September 2022) is featured on this week’s bestsellers list for his new book, Day. Day captures the experience of a family over a three-year period that spans the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the unique challenges each member of the household faces. Also set in 2020: Ann Patchett’s novel Tom Lake, which uses a family’s history to examine the current relationships between a mother and her three daughters.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper, $30
- Resurrection Walk, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown, $30. Read Alta’s coverage of Connelly’s work here.
- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
- Day, Michael Cunningham, Random House, $28
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
- My Name Is Barbra, Barbra Streisand, Viking, $47
- Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, Rachel Maddow, Crown, $32
- The Woman in Me, Britney Spears, Gallery Books, $32.99
- The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
- The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides, Celadon Books, $17.99
- My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh, Penguin Books, $17
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (movie tie-in edition), David Grann, Vintage, $18
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul McCartney, Liveright, $30
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
- The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Picador, $19.99
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
- Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower Books, $29.99
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
- The Narrow Road Between Desires, Patrick Rothfuss, Daw Books, $26
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, Rachel Maddow, Crown, $32
- The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
- Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, Heather Cox Richardson, Viking, $30
- How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David Brooks, Random House, $30
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
- All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $18.99
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
- The Way Forward, Yung Pueblo, Andrews McMeel Publishing, $16.99
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (movie tie-in edition), David Grann, Vintage, $18
- Stay True: A Memoir, Hua Hsu, Anchor, $17. Read Alta’s coverage here.
- Braiding Sweetgrass: 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
- An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Ed Yong, Random House, $20
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.
