Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (July 10, 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 July 6, 2025.

Add these two titles to your summer TBR list: If you’re in the mood for insightful nonfiction, check out Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. In this letter to his son that’s also a powerful reflection on what it means to be Black in America, Coates blends personal history with sharp reporting to explore how we got here and where we go next. For fiction fans, there’s Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir, in which a lone astronaut wakes up with no memory of who he is or why he’s in space—and has to piece together his mission to save humanity.

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. The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong, Penguin Press, $30
3. Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry, Berkley, $29
4. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
5. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V.E. Schwab, Tor Books, $29.99

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. Wealthy and Well Known: Build Your Personal Brand and Turn Your Reputation into Revenue, Rory Vaden and AJ Vaden, Mission Driven Press, $26.99
4. Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism, Stewart “Brittlestar” Reynolds, Grand Central Publishing, $13
5. Mark Twain, Ron Chernow, Penguin Press, $45

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
2. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $19. Read the Alta review.
3. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $20
4. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
5. The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley, Avid Reader Press, $18.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
2. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Griffin Dunne, Penguin Books, $21. Read Alta’s excerpt and review.
3. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
4. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
5. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates, One World, $20

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. Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, John Green, Crash Course Books, $28
4. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator), Scribner, $20
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. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
3. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $20
4. The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley, Avid Reader Press, $18.99
5. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $19. Read the Alta review.

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Griffin Dunne, Penguin Books, $21. Read Alta’s excerpt and review.
3. The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides, Vintage, $19
4. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
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.