Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (January 8, 2026)

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 January 4, 2026.

Begin the year with two powerful stories featuring women tested by isolation. In Isola, by Allegra Goodman, we meet young Marguerite—a privileged girl who is suddenly orphaned. When Marguerite’s guardian takes her inheritance and abandons her on a small island, she must learn to fend for herself. In Wild Dark Shore, author Charlotte McConaghy tells the story of a family devoted to the preservation of a remote island. When a woman washes ashore under mysterious circumstances, the family must decide whom to trust.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
2. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
3. What We Can Know, Ian McEwan, Knopf, $30
4. Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy, Flatiron Books, $28.99
5. Flesh, David Szalay, Scribner, $28.99

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28
2. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Knopf, $28
3. 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
4. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking, $35
5. Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, John Green, Crash Course Books, $28

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99
2. Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19
3. The Housemaid, Freida McFadden, Grand Central, $18.99
4. I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman and Ros Schwartz (translator), Transit Books, $16.95
5. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Fight Oligarchy, Bernie Sanders, Crown, $14.99
2. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon and Schuster, $19.99
3. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
4. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor, Riverhead Books, $20
5. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron, TarcherPerigee, $24

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
2. Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
3. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Kiran Desai, Hogarth, $32
4. Dog Show: Poems, Billy Collins and Pamela Sztybel (illustrator), Random House, $20
5. Flesh, David Szalay, Scribner, $28.99

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking, $35
2. Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love, Samin Nosrat, Random House, $45
3. Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm, Charlie Mackesy, Penguin Life, $27
4. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator), Scribner, $20
5. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99
2. Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $20
3. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $19
4. Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19
5. Isola, Allegra Goodman, Dial Press Trade Paperback, $19

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor, Riverhead Books, $20
2. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
3. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon and Schuster, $19.99
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.