Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (August 15, 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 August 11, 2024.

On the bestsellers list are two new charming books that are sure to delight with every page turn. First up is The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, by Evan Friss. Starting with Benjamin Franklin’s first bookstore in Philadelphia, the nonfiction title takes readers on a journey through two centuries of American bookstores. Friss, a history professor at James Madison University, drew on interviews, municipal records, letters, and diary entries during his research for the book. Meanwhile, the novel The Pairing, by Casey McQuiston, recounts the story of Theo and Kit—former lovers and lifelong friends who now find themselves estranged. Owing to poor planning, Theo and Kit must navigate a three-week European tour together and attempt to (somehow) make the situation less awkward.

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. Long Island Compromise, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Random House, $30
5. The Women, Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Art of Power: My Story As America’s First Woman Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Simon & Schuster, $30
2. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
3. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Griffin Dunne, Penguin Press, $30. Read an excerpt in Alta.
4. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown, $35
5. The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, Evan Friss, Viking, $30

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. The Pairing, Casey McQuiston, St. Martin’s Griffin, $20
4. It Ends with Us (media tie-in edition), Colleen Hoover, Atria, $16.99
5. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, Lisa See, Scribner, $18.99. Read an excerpt in Alta.

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
2. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
3. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
4. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron, TarcherPerigee, $19
5. The White Album, Joan Didion, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $18

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. Sandwich, Catherine Newman, Harper, $26.99
4. The Women, Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, $30
5. The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman, Viking, $35

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Art of Power: My Story As America’s First Woman Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Simon & Schuster, $30
2. Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, Anne Applebaum, Doubleday, $27
3. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown, $35
4. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
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. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Vintage, $19
2. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
3. It Ends with Us (media tie-in edition), Colleen Hoover, Atria, $16.99
4. The Pairing, Casey McQuiston, St. Martin’s Griffin, $20
5. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
2. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
3. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
4. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
5. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17

Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance

Elizabeth Casillas

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.