Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (July 11, 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 July 7, 2024.

Escape the summer heat with this week’s titles. Up first is The White Album, by the ultimate Californian, Joan Didion. In this collection of previously published essays, Didion captures California in the 1960s and ’70s through close observation of events such as the Black Panther movement and the Manson murders. Isabel Allende, the California Book Club’s March 2023 author, is also featured on this week’s bestsellers list. In The Wind Knows My Name, the American Book Award–winning author compares the lives of two young people: Samuel Adler, a five-year-old fleeing Nazi-occupied Austria in the late 1930s, and Anita Díaz, a contemporary young woman embarking on a journey from El Salvador to the United States.

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. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $30
3. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.
4. Funny Story, Emily Henry, Berkley, $29
5. The Midnight Feast, Lucy Foley, William Morrow, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Griffin Dunne, Penguin Press, $30. Read an excerpt in Alta.
2. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin Press, $30
3. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
4. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown Publishing Group, $35
5. On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, Anthony Fauci, MD, Viking, $36

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Vintage, $19
2. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
3. Beach Read, Emily Henry, Berkley, $16
4. Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley, $19
5. Just for the Summer, Abby Jimenez, Forever, $17.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
2. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
3. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99
4. Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir, Dolly Alderton, Harper Perennial, $18.99
5. The White Album, Joan Didion, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $18

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

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

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, Anthony Fauci, MD, Viking, $36
2. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown, $35
3. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin Press, $30
4. The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI, Ray Kurzweil, Viking, $35
5. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Vintage, $19
2. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
3. Happy Place, Emily Henry, Berkley, $19
4. The Wind Knows My Name, Isabel Allende, Ballantine Books, $18. Watch Allende’s California Book Club event.
5. A Court of Mist and Fury, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
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. Solito: A Memoir, Javier Zamora, Hogarth, $18. Watch Zamora’s California Book Club event.
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.