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 March 23, 2025.
Two bestsellers on this week’s list tell supernatural stories in completely original ways. First up is The Antidote, by Karen Russell, in which residents are grappling with the aftermath of a historic dust storm in the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. Survivors include a witch who helps her neighbors by absorbing their unwanted memories, a cursed wheat farmer, and a New Deal photographer with a time-traveling camera. In the novel The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones, the discovery of a hidden diary unearths the chilling tale of a vampire roaming the fields of the Blackfeet reservation in Montana to avenge the 217 Indigenous people who were murdered there.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones, Saga Press, $29.99. Read the Alta review.
- Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Knopf, $32
- The Wedding People, Alison Espach, Henry Holt and Company, $28.99
- The Antidote, Karen Russell, Knopf, $30
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection (signed edition), John Green, Crash Course Books, $28
- Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams, Flatiron Books, $32.99
- The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About, Mel Robbins, Hay House, $29.99
- Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
- The Tell: A Memoir, Amy Griffin, the Dial Press, $29
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
- The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon, Vintage, $18
- North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18. Read the Alta review.
- Orbital, Samantha Harvey, Grove Press, $17
- Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler, Grand Central Publishing, $19.99. Read Lynell George’s reflection on the novel.
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $36
- The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
- Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, Cat Bohannon, Vintage, $20
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
- Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Knopf, $32
- The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $30
- The Antidote, Karen Russell, Knopf, $30
- All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams, Flatiron Books, $32.99
- Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
- Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection (signed edition), John Green, Crash Course Books, $28
- The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About, Mel Robbins, Hay House, $29.99
- The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator), Scribner, $20
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
- North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18. Read the Alta review.
- Orbital, Samantha Harvey, Grove Press, $17
- Funny Story, Emily Henry, Berkley, $19
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
- The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $36
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
- The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
- The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
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.
