Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (November 13, 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 9, 2025.

Check out two memoirs by beloved icons this week. In Bread of Angels, Patti Smith reflects on her postwar childhood, teenage years, and return to music after becoming a widow. And Margaret Atwood’s Book of Lives revisits the author’s unconventional upbringing and identifies the moments that inspired some of her most acclaimed titles.

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. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
3. What We Can Know, Ian McEwan, Knopf, $30
4. The Proving Ground, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown and Company, $32. Watch the California Book Club event with the author.
5. The Secret of Secrets, Dan Brown, Doubleday, $38

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Bread of Angels: A Memoir, Patti Smith, Random House, $30
2. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking, $35
3. Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Knopf, $35
4. Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism, Stewart “Brittlestar” Reynolds, Grand Central Publishing, $13
5. Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts, Margaret Atwood, Doubleday, $35

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $19
2. How About Now: Poems, Kate Baer, Harper Perennial, $18
3. The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon, Vintage, $18
4. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
5. I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman and Ros Schwartz (translator), Transit Books, $16.95

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. Fight Oligarchy, Bernie Sanders, Crown, $14.99
4. How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David Brooks, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $20
5. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $22

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Black Wolf, Louise Penny, Minotaur Books, $30
2. What We Can Know, Ian McEwan, Knopf, $30
3. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
4. The Secret of Secrets, Dan Brown, Doubleday, $38
5. Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Bread of Angels: A Memoir, Patti Smith, Random House, $30
2. Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Knopf, $35
3. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking, $35
4. Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love, Samin Nosrat, Random House, $45
5. Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm, Charlie Mackesy, Penguin Life, $27

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $19
2. Playground, Richard Powers, W.W. Norton & Company, $19.99
3. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
4. The City and Its Uncertain Walls, Haruki Murakami and Philip Gabriel (translator), Vintage, $19
5. Intermezzo, Sally Rooney, Picador, $19

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. Fight Oligarchy, Bernie Sanders, Crown, $14.99
3. How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David Brooks, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $20
4. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, Yuval Noah Harari, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $25
5. Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts, Oliver Burkeman, Picador, $19

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.