Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (May 30, 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 May 26, 2024.

On the list this week is the California Book Club’s June pick, Solito, by Javier Zamora. The memoir recounts nine-year-old Zamora’s difficult and dangerous journey from El Salvador to the United States. Join the book club on Thursday, June 20, for a conversation with author Zamora and host John Freeman. Also on the list is The Guest, by Emma Cline. When Alex’s boyfriend kicks her out of his Long Island home, she drifts in and out of parties and houses looking for food and shelter, quietly leaving behind a trail of destruction.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
2. Funny Story, Emily Henry, Berkley, $29
3. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.
4. Table for Two: Fictions, Amor Towles, Viking, $32
5. The Women, Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown Publishing Group, $35
2. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
3. Rebel Girl: My Life As a Feminist Punk, Kathleen Hanna, Ecco Press, $29.99
4. What This Comedian Said Will Shock You, Bill Maher, Simon & Schuster, $30
5. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $30

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
2. The Guest, Emma Cline, Random House, $18
3. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, HarperOne, $17.99
4. Kairos, Jenny Erpenbeck and Michael Hofmann (translator), New Directions, $16.95
5. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir, Dolly Alderton, Harper Perennial, $18.99
2. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
3. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
4. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99
5. Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice, Cristina Rivera Garza, Hogarth Press, $18

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Women, Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, $30
2. Table for Two: Fictions, Amor Towles, Viking, $32
3. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.
4. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
5. You Like It Darker: Stories, Stephen King, Scribner Book Company, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown, $35
2. What This Comedian Said Will Shock You, Bill Maher, Simon & Schuster, $30
3. Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Anne Lamott, Riverhead Books, $22
4. Rebel Girl: My Life As a Feminist Punk, Kathleen Hanna, Ecco Press, $29.99
5. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin Press, $30

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
2. Kairos, Jenny Erpenbeck and Michael Hofmann (translator), New Directions, $16.95
3. Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley Books, $19
4. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman, Penguin Books, $18
5. The Postcard, Anne Berest, Europa Editions, $18.95

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
2. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99
3. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
4. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
5. Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth, $18. Register for Zamora’s California Book Club event.

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.