Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (July 3, 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 June 29, 2025.

This week’s bestsellers list has something for everyone. First up is the novel So Far Gone, by Jess Walter. Rhys Kinnick, a former journalist turned recluse, is pulled from his quiet life when his daughter and grandchildren go missing. To find them, Kinnick must leave his remote cabin and reenter a chaotic world. Fans of memoir will enjoy I Regret Almost Everything, by Keith McNally. The legendary restaurateur dives into the gritty, unpredictable events that led him to open some of New York’s most notable restaurants.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Atmosphere: A Love Story, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $30
2. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
3. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V.E. Schwab, Tor Books, $29.99
4. The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong, Penguin Press, $30
5. So Far Gone, Jess Walter, Harper, $30

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. Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
3. I Regret Almost Everything, Keith McNally, Gallery Books, $29.99
4. Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, John Green, Crash Course Books, $28
5. How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir, Molly Jong-Fast, Viking, $28

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $19. Read the Alta review.
2. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
3. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
4. One Golden Summer, Carley Fortune, Berkley, $19
5. Problematic Summer Romance, Ali Hazelwood, Berkley, $20

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Griffin Dunne, Penguin Books, $21. Read Alta’s excerpt and review.
2. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
3. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron, TarcherPerigee, $20
4. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
5. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Rashid Khalidi, Metropolitan Books, $19.99

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong, Penguin Press, $30
2. Atmosphere: A Love Story, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $30
3. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
4. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V.E. Schwab, Tor Books, $29.99
5. My Friends, Fredrik Backman, Atria Books, $29.99

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. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
4. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator), Scribner, $20
5. How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir, Molly Jong-Fast, Viking, $28

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $19. Read the Alta review.
2. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
3. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
4. The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley, Avid Reader Press, $18.99
5. Sandwich, Catherine Newman, Harper Perennial, $18.99

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 Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides, Vintage, $19
5. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Griffin Dunne, Penguin Books, $21. Read Alta’s excerpt and review.

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.