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 April 14, 2024.
This week’s list includes Anne Lamott’s new nonfiction book, Somehow: Thoughts on Love. The Northern California author reflects on all types of intimacy: from the connection between a parent and child to the mutual support that forms between members of a community. Another new book, The Familiar, by Los Angeles’s Leigh Bardugo, is a captivating novel set in the Spanish Golden Age. When servant Luzia Cotado’s talent for magic is discovered by her evil mistress, the girl’s gift is exploited for upward mobility—until things take a dangerous turn.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Table for Two: Fictions, Amor Towles, Viking, $32
- The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo, Flatiron Books, $29.99
- The Women, Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, $30
- James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
- North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House, $28. Read the Alta review.
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Anne Lamott, Riverhead Books, $22
- The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides, Doubleday, $35
- Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, James Clear, Avery, $27
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
- The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, Amanda Montell, Atria/One Signal Publishers, $28.99
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Dune, Frank Herbert, Ace Books, $18
- The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, Tor Books, $18.99
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
- Pineapple Street, Jenny Jackson, Penguin, $18
- Just for the Summer, Abby Jimenez, Forever, $17.99
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir, Dolly Alderton, Harper Perennial, $18.99
- The Eater Guide to Los Angeles, Eater, Abrams Image, $19.99
- The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion, Vintage, $17
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
- Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships, Nina Totenberg, Simon & Schuster, $18.99
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
- Table for Two: Fictions, Amor Towles, Viking, $32
- The Women, Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, $30
- The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo, Flatiron Books, $29.99
- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, Riverhead Books, $28
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Anne Lamott, Riverhead Books, $22
- The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides, Doubleday, $35
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
- Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, Fareed Zakaria, W.W. Norton & Company, $29.99
- Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, Kara Swisher, Simon & Schuster, $30
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Dune, Frank Herbert, Ace Books, $18
- The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, Tor Books, $18.99
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
- Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley Books, $19
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
- Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth, $18. Register for Zamora’s California Book Club event.
- The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
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.
