Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (February 12, 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 February 8, 2026.

This Valentine’s Day, celebrate with two epic love stories. First is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, a classic novel recently repopularized in director Emerald Fennel’s new film adaptation, which premieres this week. The novel chronicles Catherine and Heathcliff’s intense romance, and the class differences and family pressures that pull them apart. Also on the list is The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai, a novel which follows two young lovers as they build a life together while facing the pressures that race and family pose to their relationship.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
2. Vigil, George Saunders, Random House, $28
3. Half His Age, Jennette McCurdy, Ballantine Books, $30
4. Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
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. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking, $35
3. Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $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. Game Changer, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99
3. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë, Penguin Books, $18
4. Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20
5. Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon and Schuster, $19.99
2. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
3. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
4. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
5. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion, Vintage, $18. Check out Alta’s Didion Issue.

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
2. Vigil, George Saunders, Random House, $28
3. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Kiran Desai, Hogarth, $32
4. Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
5. Half His Age, Jennette McCurdy, Ballantine Books, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking, $35
2. 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
3. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Knopf, $28
4. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28
5. Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20
2. Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19
3. The God of the Woods, Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $19
4. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
5. Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
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. Want, Anonymous and Gillian Anderson (editor), Abrams Press, $18

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.