Alta Journal’s California Bestsellers List (December 5, 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 December 1, 2024.

This week’s standout titles include two highly anticipated celebrity memoirs. In Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the singer and actor shares everything from her chaotic upbringing to her relationship with Sonny Bono. The next installment of this two-part work will be released on November 18, 2025. Also making waves is Greenlights, by actor Matthew McConaughey. Using diary entries dating back to age 14, McConaughey divulges the early experiences that shaped his career.

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 City and Its Uncertain Walls, Haruki Murakami and Philip Gabriel (translator), Knopf, $35
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. Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir, Ina Garten, Crown, $34
2. The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates, One World, $30
3. Cher: The Memoir, Part One, Cher, Dey Street Books, $36
4. Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering, Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Company, $32
5. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator), Scribner, $20

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18. Read the Alta review.
2. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
3. Orbital, Samantha Harvey, Grove Press, $17
4. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin, Vintage, $19
5. The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon, Vintage, $18

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $35
2. Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey, Crown, $20
3. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
4. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
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 City and Its Uncertain Walls, Haruki Murakami and Philip Gabriel (translator), Knopf, $35
3. Intermezzo, Sally Rooney, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $29
4. Playground, Richard Powers, W.W. Norton & Company, $29.99
5. The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny, Minotaur Books, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator), Scribner, $20
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. Ottolenghi Comfort, Yotam Ottolenghi with Helen Goh, Ten Speed Press, $37.99
5. Cher: The Memoir, Part One, Cher, Dey Street Books, $36

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. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
4. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
5. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99

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.