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 31, 2023.
The new year brings new books to discover, and this week, the bestsellers list features two prominent authors with upcoming releases in 2024. First up will be Sarah J. Maas with the third book in her ever-popular Crescent City series, House of Flame and Shadow. Fans of Maas’s fantasy world-building will find a lot to love in the latest installment, out January 30, including a high-stakes romance. And the highly anticipated third book (still unnamed) in Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series will make its debut in December 2024. As you wait, catch up on the previous installments: Fourth Wing and Iron Flame.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper, $30
- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
- North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House, $28. Read the Alta review.
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
- How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David Brooks, Random House, $30
- The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
- Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, Liz Cheney, Little, Brown, $32.50
- My Name Is Barbra, Barbra Streisand, Viking, $47
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
- All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $18.99
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
- The Secret History, Donna Tartt, Vintage, $18
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
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- How to Smile, Thich Nhat Hanh and Jason DeAntonis (illustrator), Parallax Press, $9.95
- Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir, Dolly Alderton, Harper Perennial, $18.99
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
- Iron Flame, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower Books, $29.99
- North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House, $28. Read the Alta review.
- Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper, $30
- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
- How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David Brooks, Random House, $30
- Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, Liz Cheney, Little, Brown, $32.50
- The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
- Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, Rachel Maddow, Crown, $32
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
- All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr, Scribner, $18.99
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Washington Square Press, $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
- The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Picador, $19.99
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
- Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth, $18
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.
