Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (October 24, 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 October 20, 2024.

Two California novelists are spotlighted on this week’s list. First up is Michael Connelly, the California Book Club’s April 2022 author, with a new addition to his Ballard and Bosch series, The Waiting. In this latest installment, Renée Ballard returns to untangle a series of crimes, but Maddie Bosch, Harry Bosch’s daughter and a volunteer on the case, has an ulterior motive. Next is Justin Torres, with his powerful second novel, Blackouts (read the Alta review here). Blending fiction with historical research and interviews, Torres explores themes of erasure and marginalization.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Intermezzo, Sally Rooney, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $29
2. The Waiting: A Ballard and Bosch Novel, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown and Company, $30. Read Alta’s coverage of Connelly’s work here.
3. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.
4. Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner, Scribner, $29.99. Read the Alta review.
5. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates, One World, $30
2. War, Bob Woodward, Simon & Schuster, $32
3. Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir, Ina Garten, Crown, $34
4. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, Yuval Noah Harari, Random House, $35
5. Sonny Boy, Al Pacino, Penguin Press, $35

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Vintage, $19
2. Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower Books, $20.99
3. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
4. North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18. Read the Alta review.
5. Blackouts, Justin Torres, Picador, $20. Read the Alta review.

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
2. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
3. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron, TarcherPerigee, $20
4. The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness, Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, Atria Books, $18.99
5. Down the Drain, Julia Fox, Simon & Schuster, $19.99

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Intermezzo, Sally Rooney, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $29
2. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.
3. Playground, Richard Powers, W.W. Norton & Company, $29.99
4. Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner, Scribner, $29.99. Read the Alta review.
5. The Waiting: A Ballard and Bosch Novel, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown and Company, $30. Read Alta’s coverage of Connelly’s work here.

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. War, Bob Woodward, Simon & Schuster, $32
2. The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates, One World, $30
3. Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering, Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Company, $32
4. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, Yuval Noah Harari, Random House, $35
5. Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir, Ina Garten, Crown, $34

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Vintage, $19
2. North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18. Read the Alta review.
3. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
4. Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower Books, $20.99
5. The Best Short Stories 2024: The O. Henry Prize Winners, Amor Towles (editor) and Jenny Minton Quigley (editor), Vintage, $19

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. The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Kamala Harris, Penguin, $20
4. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99
5. Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein, Picador, $20

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.