Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (December 21, 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 December 17, 2023.

New Year’s resolutions, anyone? Whether you’re devising new habits or just recycling (failed) intentions from last year, use this week’s bestsellers list to help you plan (and stick to) your 2024 goals. How to Smile, by Thich Nhat Hanh, offers simple meditation exercises for finding happiness and peace during stressful moments. And in The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin helps readers tap into their artistic side by overcoming expectations and understanding individual responsibilities.

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 Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
3. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
4. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
5. North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House, $28. Read the Alta review.

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
2. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
3. My Name Is Barbra, Barbra Streisand, Viking, $47
4. The Woman in Me, Britney Spears, Gallery Books, $32.99
5. Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, Liz Cheney, Little, Brown, $32.50

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $17
2. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
3. The Alchemist (25th anniversary edition), Paulo Coelho, HarperOne, $17.99
4. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
5. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $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. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Ed Yong, Random House, $20
3. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
4. How to Smile, Thich Nhat Hanh and Jason DeAntonis (illustrator), Parallax Press, $9.95
5. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
2. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Doubleday, $29
3. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper, $30
4. The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese, Grove Press, $32
5. North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House, $28. Read the Alta review.

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
2. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
3. How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David Brooks, Random House, $30
4. Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, Heather Cox Richardson, Viking, $30
5. Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, Rachel Maddow, Crown, $32

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
2. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
3. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $18.99
4. The Best American Short Stories 2023, Min Jin Lee (editor), Mariner Books, $18.99
5. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman, Penguin Books, $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. Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth, $18
3. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
4. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Ed Yong, Random House, $20
5. The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul McCartney, Liveright, $30

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.