Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (January 15, 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 11, 2026.

This week’s nonfiction bestsellers include personal stories and research-dense texts. Sounds Like a Cult podcast host Amanda Montell returns with her third book The Age of Magical Overthinking, an essay collection that blends memoir with science writing, examining the power of our interior lives. And in Firestorm, MSNBC national reporter Jacob Soboroff describes his reporting on the Palisades fire and its aftermath. The thought-provoking book also explores strategies to avoid similar catastrophes in the future.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. What We Can Know, Ian McEwan, Knopf, $30
2. Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
3. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
4. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
5. The First Time I Saw Him, Laura Dave, Scribner, $29

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28
2. Bread of Angels: A Memoir, Patti Smith, Random House, $30
3. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Knopf, $28
4. Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster, Jacob Soboroff, Mariner Books, $30
5. 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

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99
2. Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $20
3. Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19
4. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
5. Game Changer, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, Amanda Montell, Atria/One Signal Publishers, $19
2. I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon and Schuster, $19.99
3. Fight Oligarchy, Bernie Sanders, Crown, $14.99
4. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
5. How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, David Brooks, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $20

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
2. Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
3. What We Can Know, Ian McEwan, Knopf, $30
4. Dog Show: Poems, Billy Collins and Pamela Sztybel (illustrator), Random House, $20
5. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Kiran Desai, Hogarth, $32

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28
2. Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love, Samin Nosrat, Random House, $45
3. Bread of Angels: A Memoir, Patti Smith, Random House, $30
4. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Knopf, $28
5. 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

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99
2. Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19
3. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
4. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $19
5. Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $20

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor, Riverhead Books, $20
2. I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon and Schuster, $19.99
3. The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, Amanda Montell, Atria/One Signal Publishers, $19
4. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
5. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12

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.