Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (June 6, 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 June 2, 2024.

This week’s bestsellers list includes the story of two friends who embark on an adventurous trek across the Grand Canyon. When Kevin Fedarko agrees to join his friend Pete McBride on a hike through the famed canyon, he has no idea how difficult, or how long, the journey will be. Fedarko chronicles the epic expedition in A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon. Also highlighting the beauty of nature is Amy Tan’s The Backyard Bird Chronicles. Here, Tan uses drawings and essays to track the passage of time in the natural world.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

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

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
2. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown Publishing Group, $35
3. The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis, George Stephanopoulos with Lisa Dickey, Grand Central, $35
4. What This Comedian Said Will Shock You, Bill Maher, Simon & Schuster, $30
5. In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face-to-Face with the Idea of an Afterlife, Sebastian Junger, Simon & Schuster, $27.99

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
2. Just for the Summer, Abby Jimenez, Forever, $17.99
3. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Atria Books, $17
4. Beach Read, Emily Henry, Berkley Books, $16
5. Rouge, Mona Awad, S&S/Marysue Rucci Books, $18.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99
2. Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir, Dolly Alderton, Harper Perennial, $18.99
3. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
4. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
5. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills, Amber-Allen Publishing, $12.95

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

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

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. An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Simon & Schuster, $35
3. A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, Kevin Fedarko, Scribner, $32.50
4. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
5. What This Comedian Said Will Shock You, Bill Maher, Simon & Schuster, $30

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
2. Trust, Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, $17
3. The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu and Ken Liu (translator), Tor Books, $18.99
4. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, HarperOne, $17.99
5. Just for the Summer, Abby Jimenez, Forever, $17.99

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. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
5. Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir, Dolly Alderton, Harper Perennial, $18.99

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.