Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (May 8, 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 May 4, 2025.

We would be remiss not to highlight this week’s standout: James, by Percival Everett, the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction. This bold novel reimagines Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the eyes of Jim. You can read an excerpt from James in Alta and revisit our California Book Club event with Everett, where we discussed his 2020 novel, Telephone. (While you’re at it, don’t miss Alta’s California Book Club coverage of Rita Bullwinkel’s Headshot, which was a finalist for the fiction Pulitzer Prize.) Once you’re done with James, dive into The Book of Alchemy, by Suleika Jaouad. This inspirational and practical guide offers readers tools to lead a more thoughtful, intentional life.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry, Berkley, $29
2. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
3. Audition, Katie Kitamura, Riverhead Books, $28
4. Broken Country, Clare Leslie Hall, Simon & Schuster, $28.99
5. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
2. 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
3. Notes to John, Joan Didion, Knopf, $32. Read Alta’s review.
4. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
5. The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, Suleika Jaouad, Random House, $30

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
2. Orbital, Samantha Harvey, Grove Press, $17
3. The Paris Novel, Ruth Reichl, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $19
4. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
5. Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler, Grand Central Publishing, $19.99. Read Lynell George’s reflection on the novel.

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $36. Register for the California Book Club event.
3. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
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. Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry, Berkley, $29
2. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
3. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $29. Read the Alta review.
4. The Wedding People, Alison Espach, Henry Holt and Company, $28.99
5. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
2. 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
3. Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams, Flatiron Books, $32.99
4. The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, Suleika Jaouad, Random House, $30
5. Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service, Michael Lewis, Riverhead Books, $30

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
2. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
3. The Paris Novel, Ruth Reichl, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $19
4. The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley, Avid Reader Press, $18.99
5. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett, Harper Perennial, $19

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $36. Register for the California Book Club event.
3. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
4. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
5. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18

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.