Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (August 29, 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 25, 2024.

This week’s titles include two books with California ties. First up is The Book of Bill, by Bay Area native Alex Hirsch, the creator of the animated TV show Gravity Falls. Fans of the series will recognize the book’s narrator, Bill Cipher—the villain from the fictional town of Gravity Falls—who shares his bizarre origin story through journal entries, riddles, and ciphers. And in her fiction debut, The Golden Gate, author Amy Chua captures the political tensions and social dynamics of the city of Berkeley in the 1940s. After a presidential hopeful is murdered, it’s up to detective Al Sullivan to piece the case together.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $30
2. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
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. On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything, Nate Silver, Penguin Press, $35
3. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Griffin Dunne, Penguin Press, $30. Read an excerpt in Alta.
4. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
5. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Doubleday, $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 Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
4. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
5. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman, Penguin, $18

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 Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Kamala Harris, Penguin, $20
4. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner, Vintage, $17
5. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99

Northern 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. The Women, Kristin Hannah, St. Martin’s Press, $30
5. The Book of Bill, Alex Hirsch, Hyperion Avenue, $26.99

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 Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin Press, $30
5. Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, Anne Applebaum, Doubleday, $27

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. It Ends with Us (media tie-in edition), Colleen Hoover, Atria, $16.99
2. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Vintage, $19
3. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
4. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, Penguin Books, $18
5. The Golden Gate, Amy Chua, Minotaur Books, $18

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Kamala Harris, Penguin, $20
2. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
3. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
4. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
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.