Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (February 19, 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 15, 2026.

Check out two new February releases featured on this week’s bestsellers list. In The Last Kings of Hollywood, writer Paul Fischer explores how Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg reshaped the American film industry. And in Operation Bounce House, author Matt Dinniman delivers a science fiction thriller. Colonist Oliver Lewis’s peaceful life on the planet New Sonora is shattered when remote-controlled machines—operated by government-sanctioned gamers on Earth—arrive, intent on destroying his home.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Vigil, George Saunders, Random House, $28
2. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
3. Half His Age, Jennette McCurdy, Ballantine Books, $30
4. Operation Bounce House, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $32
5. Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30
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. Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster, Jacob Soboroff, Mariner Books, $30
4. The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg—and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema, Paul Fischer, Celadon Books, $32
5. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Knopf, $28

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99
2. Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20
3. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
4. Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $20
5. Wuthering Heights (movie tie-in), Emily Brontë, Penguin Books, $18

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 Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron, TarcherPerigee, $24
4. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
5. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor, Riverhead Books, $20

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
2. Vigil, George Saunders, Random House, $28
3. Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
4. Operation Bounce House, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $32
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. 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. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator), Scribner, $20
4. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Knopf, $28
5. Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love, Samin Nosrat, Random House, $45

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

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

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
2. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor, Riverhead Books, $20
3. On Love, Joseph Campbell, New World Library, $14
4. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
5. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $36. Read a recap of the California Book Club event.

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.