Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (November 6, 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 November 2, 2025.

Journalists-turned-authors shine on this week’s bestseller list. In Kingmaker, British reporter Sonia Purnell depicts the nuanced life of political activist and socialite Pamela Harriman. Best-known for being Winston Churchill’s daughter-in-law, Harriman was also a shrewd diplomat and ambitious woman, as Purnell makes clear in the biography. Music writer and filmmaker Cameron Crowe steps into the spotlight with his memoir The Uncool. The inspiration behind the 2000 film Almost Famous, Crowe recounts his childhood in Palm Springs and adventures touring with legendary artists, including Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Black Wolf, Louise Penny, Minotaur Books, $30
2. Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
3. The Widow, John Grisham, Doubleday, $32
4. The Proving Ground, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown and Company, $32. Watch the California Book Club event with the author.
5. Twice, Mitch Albom, Harper, $26.99

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Uncool: A Memoir, Cameron Crowe, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, $35
2. Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Knopf, $35
3. Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm, Charlie Mackesy, Penguin Life, $27
4. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking, $35
5. Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism, Stewart “Brittlestar” Reynolds, Grand Central Publishing, $13

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
2. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, HarperOne, $17.99
3. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $19
4. The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon, Vintage, $18
5. The Princess Bride (Deluxe Limited Edition), William Goldman, Harper Perennial, $22

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David Brooks, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $20
2. Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue, Sonia Purnell, Penguin Books, $22
3. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills, Amber-Allen Publishing, $12.95
4. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
5. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Black Wolf, Louise Penny, Minotaur Books, $30
2. What We Can Know, Ian McEwan, Knopf, $30
3. Shadow Ticket, Thomas Pynchon, Penguin Press, $30. Read the Alta review.
4. The Impossible Fortune, Richard Osman, Pamela Dorman Books, $30
5. The Proving Ground, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown and Company, $32. Watch the California Book Club event with the author.

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Knopf, $35
2. Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm, Charlie Mackesy, Penguin Life, $27
3. Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love, Samin Nosrat, Random House, $45
4. Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy, Joyce Vance, Dutton, $28
5. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking, $35

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $19
2. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
3. Playground, Richard Powers, W. W. Norton & Company, $19.99
4. Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18
5. Intermezzo, Sally Rooney, Picador, $19

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David Brooks, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $20
2. Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue, Sonia Purnell, Penguin Books, $22
3. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
4. Fight Oligarchy, Bernie Sanders, Crown, $14.99
5. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, Yuval Noah Harari, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $25

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.