Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (August 22, 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 18, 2024.

Catch up on your TBR list with Alta’s excerpts from titles on this week’s bestsellers list. First up is James, by Percival Everett. The May 2023 California Book Club author reimagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the lens of Jim. Read an excerpt of Everett’s adaptation in Alta. Also on the list is The Friday Afternoon Club, by actor, producer, and director Griffin Dunne. In this memoir, Dunne recounts his experience—the good, the bad, and everything in between—of growing up in a family of prominent writers. Read an excerpt of Dunne’s book in Alta.

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. Long Island Compromise, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Random House, $30
3. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.
4. The Women, Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, $30
5. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
2. The Art of Power: My Story As America’s First Woman Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Simon & Schuster, $30
3. On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything, Nate Silver, Penguin Press, $35
4. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Griffin Dunne, Penguin Press, $30. Read an excerpt in Alta.
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. It Ends with Us (media tie-in edition), Colleen Hoover, Atria, $16.99
3. The Pairing (special first edition), Casey McQuiston, St. Martin’s Griffin, $20
4. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
5. Just for the Summer, Abby Jimenez, Forever, $17.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. Vance, Harper, $18.99
2. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
3. The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Kamala Harris, Penguin, $20
4. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
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 God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $30
4. The Women, Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, $30
5. Long Island Compromise, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Random House, $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. On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything, Nate Silver, Penguin Press, $35
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, $35
5. Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, Anne Applebaum, Doubleday, $27

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Vintage, $19
2. It Ends with Us (media tie-in edition), Colleen Hoover, Atria, $16.99
3. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
4. The Pairing (special first edition), Casey McQuiston, St. Martin’s Griffin, $20
5. A Court of Mist and Fury, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
2. The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Kamala Harris, Penguin, $20
3. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
4. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
5. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99

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.