Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (November 21, 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 November 17, 2024.

This week brings two must-read titles in fiction and nonfiction. First is Didion and Babitz, by Lili Anolik, a fascinating exploration of the dynamic between literary icons Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. Anolik uses Babitz’s letters and interviews to piece together an editor-writer relationship that was like no other. In the sci-fi world, Samantha Harvey’s Orbital tells the gripping story of six astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Over 24 hours, these women and men from the United States, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan navigate personal and cultural complexities as they circle Earth.

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

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates, One World, $30
2. Didion and Babitz, Lili Anolik, Scribner, $29.99
3. Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir, Ina Garten, Crown, $34
4. Patriot, Alexei Navalny, Knopf, $35
5. Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering, Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Company, $32

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Orbital, Samantha Harvey, Grove Press, $17
2. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
3. North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18. Read the Alta review.
4. The Vegetarian, Han Kang and Deborah Smith (translator), Hogarth, $17
5. Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros, Red Tower Books, $20.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
3. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
4. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
5. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny, Minotaur Books, $30
2. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
3. Playground, Richard Powers, W.W. Norton & Company, $29.99
4. Intermezzo, Sally Rooney, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $29
5. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates, One World, $30
2. Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir, Ina Garten, Crown, $34
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. Patriot, Alexei Navalny, Knopf, $35

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Orbital, Samantha Harvey, Grove Press, $17
2. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
3. North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18. Read the Alta review.
4. The Vegetarian, Han Kang and Deborah Smith (translator), Hogarth, $17
5. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, 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. Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, Heather Cox Richardson, Penguin Books, $18
4. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
5. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12

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.