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 May 19, 2024.
Two new books featuring strong female subjects debut on the list this week. Miranda July (the California Book Club’s May 2022 special guest) explores menopause, parenting, and female sexuality in the novel All Fours, in which an unnamed narrator rediscovers herself on a two-week trip that helps separate her from her roles as a wife and mother. Musician Kathleen Hanna’s memoir, Rebel Girl: My Life As a Feminist Punk, touches on similar themes. Hanna talks candidly about her childhood and college experiences, including early shows with her band Bikini Kill. She recounts the challenges of being a “rebel girl” as well as her journey with Lyme disease, and how she channeled those hardships into her art and music.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Watch Alta’s California Book Club event with the author.
- Funny Story, Emily Henry, Berkley, $29
- 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
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown Publishing Group, $35
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
- Rebel Girl: My Life As a Feminist Punk, Kathleen Hanna, Ecco Press, $29.99
- Fire in the Hole! The Untold Story of My Traumatic Life and Explosive Success, Bob Parsons with Laura Morton, Forefront Books, $29
- Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Anne Lamott, Riverhead Books, $22
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
- Rouge, Mona Awad, S&S/Marysue Rucci Books, $18.99
- The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu and Ken Liu (translator), Tor Books, $18.99
- Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley Books, $19
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Ed Yong, Random House, $20
- 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
- The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
- Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles, Rosecrans Baldwin, Picador, $19. Read Baldwin’s recent Alta essay.
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Watch Alta’s California Book Club event with the author.
- James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
- The Women, Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, $30
- Funny Story, Emily Henry, Berkley, $29
- Table for Two: Fictions, Amor Towles, Viking, $32
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown, $35
- Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Anne Lamott, Riverhead Books, $22
- Rebel Girl: My Life As a Feminist Punk, Kathleen Hanna, Ecco Press, $29.99
- An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Simon & Schuster, $35
- The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin Press, $30
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
- Horse, Geraldine Brooks, Penguin, $19
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
- Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
- A Court of Wings and Ruin, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance
Elizabeth Casillas is an associate editor at Alta Journal. A graduate of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, she has previously written for the Poly Post and Enspire Magazine.
