Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (July 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 July 13, 2025.

This week’s picks spotlight unforgettable characters, both real and imaginary. In A Marriage at Sea, author Sophie Elmhirst tells the true story of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey. In 1972, the couple sold their house, quit their jobs, and set sail only to find themselves adrift on a rubber raft for 118 days after their boat was damaged by a whale. For fiction fans, Gary Shteyngart introduces the eccentric Bradford-Shmulkin family in Vera, or Faith, a story told through the eyes of 10-year-old Vera. Full of heart, the novel follows the family and the absurdity of their day-to-day lives.

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. Vera, or Faith, Gary Shteyngart, Random House, $28
3. The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong, Penguin Press, $30
4. My Friends, Fredrik Backman, Atria Books, $29.99
5. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.

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. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
4. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28
5. Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism, Stewart “Brittlestar” Reynolds, Grand Central Publishing, $13

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
2. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $20
3. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
4. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $19. Read the Alta review.
5. I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman and Ros Schwartz (translator), Transit Books, $16.95

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Griffin Dunne, Penguin Books, $21. Read Alta’s excerpt and review.
2. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
3. The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides, Vintage, $19
4. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
5. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills, Amber-Allen Publishing, $12.95

Northern 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. My Friends, Fredrik Backman, Atria Books, $29.99
4. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V.E. Schwab, Tor Books, $29.99
5. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.

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 Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, Suleika Jaouad, Random House, $30
4. Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, John Green, Crash Course Books, $28
5. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
2. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $20
3. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $19. Read the Alta review.
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. 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. The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides, Vintage, $19
4. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, Griffin Dunne, Penguin Books, $21. Read Alta’s excerpt and review.
5. Sociopath: A Memoir, Patric Gagne, PhD, Simon & Schuster, $19.99

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.