Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (June 20, 2025)

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 June 15, 2025.

Start your summer with a little magic. The classic 1988 novel The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, is back on the list this week. This iconic tale follows a young shepherd named Santiago as he travels from Spain to Egypt in search of treasure and meets a magical cast of characters along the way. Also on the list is the new release Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by V.E. Schwab, a novel narrated from multiple perspectives. Schwab brings to life the centuries-spanning story of three lesbian vampires who defy societal norms.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong, Penguin Press, $30
2. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V.E. Schwab, Tor Books, $29.99
3. Atmosphere: A Love Story, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $30
4. Nightshade, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown and Company, $30. Watch the California Book Club event with the author.
5. My Friends, Fredrik Backman, Atria Books, $29.99

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
2. Steve Martin Writes the Written Word: Collected Written Word Works by Steve Martin, Steve Martin, Grand Central Publishing, $30
3. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
4. How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir, Molly Jong-Fast, Viking, $28
5. Is a River Alive?, Robert Macfarlane, W.W. Norton & Company, $31.99

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
2. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
3. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $19. Read the Alta review.
4. One Golden Summer, Carley Fortune, Berkley, $19
5. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, HarperOne, $17.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron, TarcherPerigee, $20
2. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
3. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
4. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
5. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, David Lynch, Tarcher, $20

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong, Penguin Press, $30
2. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V.E. Schwab, Tor Books, $29.99
3. Atmosphere: A Love Story, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $30
4. My Friends, Fredrik Backman, Atria Books, $29.99
5. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
2. Mark Twain, Ron Chernow, Penguin Press, $45
3. A Different Kind of Power, Jacinda Ardern, Crown, $32
4. 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
5. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator), Scribner, $20

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
2. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
3. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $19. Read the Alta review.
4. The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley, Avid Reader Press, $18.99
5. Sandwich, Catherine Newman, Harper Perennial, $18.99

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides, Vintage, $19
3. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
4. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $20
5. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $36. Register for 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.