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 22, 2026.
Look back on American history with two titles from this week’s bestseller’s list. In The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, author Walter Isaacson examines the opening line of the Declaration of Independence— “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”—in a modern context. In American Struggle, writer Jon Meacham traces the nation’s history from 1619 to today using primary source documents.
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
- Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
- Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, Heather Fawcett, Del Rey, $29
- Operation Bounce House, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $32
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28
- Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30
- The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg—and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema, Paul Fischer, Celadon Books, $32
- One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Knopf, $28
- American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union; An Anthology, Jon Meacham, Random House, $38
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20
- Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
- Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19
- Wuthering Heights (movie tie-in), Emily Brontë, Penguin Books, $18
- Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- The Lion Beneath the Fade, Sebastian Bastian, Advantage Media Group, $19.99
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
- I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon and Schuster, $19.99
Northern California
HARDCOVER FICTION
- The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
- Vigil, George Saunders, Random House, $28
- Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28
- Half His Age, Jennette McCurdy, Ballantine Books, $30
- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Kiran Desai, Hogarth, $32
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
- A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28
- The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, $20
- Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Knopf, $35
- American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union; An Anthology, Jon Meacham, Random House, $38
- Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30
TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
- Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20
- Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99
- Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
- Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $20
- Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19
TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
- Want, Anonymous and Gillian Anderson (editor), Abrams Press, $18
- All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99
- I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy, Simon and Schuster, $19.99
- 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.
