Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (April 17, 2025)

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 April 13, 2025.

Dive into two unique love stories this week. First up is The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley, a new novel about a budding romance between past and present. Our modern-day unnamed narrator, who works as a civil servant, is assigned to look after Graham Gore, an explorer from 1845. Soon, the connection between the two evolves into something deeper than a work relationship. But when the narrator discovers more about the real motives of her employer, she must reckon with her choices. In Broken Country, by Clare Leslie Hall, Beth gets a second chance at love—while still married. When an old flame, Gabriel Wolfe, reenters Beth’s life, she finds herself torn between her current marriage to Frank and her rekindled passion with Gabriel. All the while, she must navigate the secrets and jealousies that threaten to unravel both past and present.

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. Audition, Katie Kitamura, Riverhead Books, $28
3. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.
4. Broken Country, Clare Leslie Hall, Simon & Schuster, $28.99
5. The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami, Pantheon, $29. Read the Alta review.

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About, Mel Robbins and Sawyer Robbins, Hay House, $29.99
2. Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service, Michael Lewis, Riverhead Books, $30
3. Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
4. Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection (signed edition), John Green, Crash Course Books, $28
5. Becoming HER: Straight Talk for Healing, Embodying, and Radiating As Your Most Powerful Self, Monica Yates, Post Hill Press, $28.99

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley, Avid Reader Press, $18.99
2. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
3. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
4. Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus, Vintage, $19
5. I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman and Ros Schwartz (translator), Transit Books, $16.95

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
2. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
3. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
4. Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, Cat Bohannon, Vintage, $20
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. Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Knopf, $32
3. The Wedding People, Alison Espach, Henry Holt and Company, $28.99
4. Say You’ll Remember Me, Abby Jimenez, Forever, $28
5. Audition, Katie Kitamura, Riverhead Books, $28

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About, Mel Robbins and Sawyer Robbins, Hay House, $29.99
2. Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service, Michael Lewis, Riverhead Books, $30
3. Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
4. Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams, Flatiron Books, $32.99
5. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator), Scribner, $20

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley, Avid Reader Press, $18.99
2. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
3. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper Perennial, $19
4. North Woods, Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18. Read the Alta review.
5. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
3. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
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

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.