Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (January 18, 2024)

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 January 14, 2024.

This week’s list features titles from (and about) California-based creators. Alta contributor Sam Wasson’s latest chronicle of Hollywood, The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story, traces Coppola’s meteoric rise. Released in late 2023, the biography looks closely at the director’s early production company, American Zoetrope, which was founded with the goal of revolutionizing filmmaking. And for those looking to kick-start their art practice, record producer Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being provides an almost step-by-step process on how to unlock stifled creativity.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
2. The Bee Sting, Paul Murray, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $30
3. North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House, $28. Read the Alta review.
4. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf, $28
5. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
2. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30
3. The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story, Sam Wasson, Harper, $32.99
4. Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, Liz Cheney, Little, Brown, $32.50
5. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Knopf, $28

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
2. A Court of Mist and Fury, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
3. A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara, Anchor, $18
4. The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller, Ecco, $17.99
5. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul McCartney, Liveright, $30
2. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (movie tie-in edition), David Grann, Vintage, $18
3. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Picador, $19.99
4. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
5. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (movie tie-in edition), Daniel James Brown, Penguin, $19

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
2. North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House, $28. Read the Alta review.
3. Iron Flame, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower Books, $29.99
4. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper, $32.50
5. Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower Books, $29.99

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. Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, Liz Cheney, Little, Brown, $32.50
5. Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
2. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
3. A Court of Wings and Ruin, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
4. A Court of Mist and Fury, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
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. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (movie tie-in edition), Daniel James Brown, Penguin, $19
3. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
4. Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth, $18
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.