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 February 1, 2026.
This week’s bestsellers list features two new releases. George Saunders’s latest novel, Vigil, follows Jill Blaine, a dead woman whose job is to console clients and guide them into the afterlife. When she meets K.J. Boone, a controversial man who believes he has nothing to regret, Jill’s training is put to the test. Also on the list is Strangers, a memoir by Belle Burden. After her husband leaves their 20-year marriage with no explanation, Burden revisits the relationship through her writing, searching for clues about what might have been its undoing.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
- Vigil, George Saunders, Random House, $28
- Half His Age, Jennette McCurdy, Ballantine Books, $30
- Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
- Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy, Flatiron Books, $28.99
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Knopf, $28
- A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28
- Football, Chuck Klosterman, Penguin Press, $32
- Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30
- 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
- Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20
- Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19
- Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99
- Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
- The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $19
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $18
- The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, Amanda Montell, Atria/One Signal Publishers, $19
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
- Vigil, George Saunders, Random House, $28
- Half His Age, Jennette McCurdy, Ballantine Books, $30
- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Kiran Desai, Hogarth, $32
- Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking, $35
- 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
- Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love, Samin Nosrat, Random House, $45
- Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30
- One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Knopf, $28
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20
- Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19
- Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99
- Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
- The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $19
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
- Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts, Oliver Burkeman, Picador, $19
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor, Riverhead Books, $20
Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance
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.
