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 October 13, 2024.
October brings new titles from two esteemed authors. Malcolm Gladwell’s Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering offers a guide to understanding two of the most significant crises today: COVID-19 and the opioid epidemic. Through a series of essays, Gladwell explores contagions—both the social and the physical—taking readers around the country, from the streets of Los Angeles to pharmacies in Illinois. Werner Herzog’s memoir, Every Man for Himself and God Against All, begins with vivid descriptions of his poverty-stricken childhood in Bavaria. Herzog includes memories of his past and remarks on present-day Hollywood as he unravels the experiences that shaped his path to becoming a legendary filmmaker.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Intermezzo, Sally Rooney, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $29
- Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner, Scribner, $29.99. Read the Alta review.
- Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout, Random House, $30
- Playground, Richard Powers, W.W. Norton & Company, $29.99
- The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $30
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir, Ina Garten, Crown, $34
- The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates, One World, $30
- Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering, Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Company, $32
- Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, Yuval Noah Harari, Random House, $35
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Vintage, $19
- North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18
- The Housemaid, Freida McFadden, Grand Central Publishing, $12.99
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury Publishing, $19
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99
- Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir, Werner Herzog, Penguin, $20
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- Intermezzo, Sally Rooney, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $29
- James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
- Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout, Random House, $30
- Playground, Richard Powers, W.W. Norton & Company, $29.99
- Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner, Scribner, $29.99. Read the Alta review.
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates, One World, $30
- Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir, Ina Garten, Crown, $34
- Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering, Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Company, $32
- Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, Yuval Noah Harari, Random House, $35
- Ottolenghi Comfort, Yotam Ottolenghi, Ten Speed Press, $37.99
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
- North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Vintage, $19
- Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower Books, $20.99
- The Best Short Stories 2024: The O. Henry Prize Winners, Amor Towles (editor) and Jenny Minton Quigley (editor), Vintage, $19
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
- The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
- The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99
- The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Kamala Harris, Penguin, $20
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance
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.
