Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (July 31, 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 July 27, 2025.

Joan Didion is all over this week’s indie bestsellers list. First up is The White Album, Didion’s essential 1979 essay collection, an anthology of reporting on topics ranging from Charles Manson to shopping malls. In addition, there’s The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion’s 2005 memoir written in the wake of the deaths of her husband and daughter. Last, culture reporter Lili Anolik’s Didion and Babitz offers an insider’s look into the fascinating dynamic between the writer and fellow literary icon Eve Babitz. Still want more Didion? Pick up a copy of Alta’s Issue 19—the Didion Issue.

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

Southern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Atmosphere: A Love Story, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $30
2. James, Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28. Read an excerpt in Alta.
3. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V.E. Schwab, Tor Books, $29.99
4. The Wedding People, Alison Espach, Henry Holt and Company, $28.99
5. Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry, Berkley, $29

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. 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
2. Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
3. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28
4. Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, John Green, Crash Course Books, $28
5. I Regret Almost Everything, Keith McNally, Gallery Books, $29.99

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $20
2. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
3. The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon, Vintage, $18
4. Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18. Watch the author speak at a California Book Club event.
5. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $19. Read the Alta review.

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. The White Album, Joan Didion, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $18. Check out Alta’s Didion Issue.
3. Didion and Babitz, Lili Anolik, Scribner, $20. Read the Alta interview.
4. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion, Vintage, $17. Check out Alta’s Didion Issue.
5. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21

Northern California

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong, Penguin Press, $30
2. My Friends, Fredrik Backman, Atria Books, $29.99
3. Atmosphere: A Love Story, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ballantine Books, $30
4. An Inside Job, Daniel Silva, Harper, $32
5. Culpability, Bruce Holsinger, Spiegel & Grau, $30

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. 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
2. Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Avid Reader Press, $30
3. The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, Suleika Jaouad, Random House, $30
4. Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, John Green, Crash Course Books, $28
5. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst, Riverhead Books, $28

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. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $20
4. All Fours, Miranda July, Riverhead Books, $19. Read the Alta review.
5. The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon, Vintage, $18

TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
2. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21
3. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
4. Didion and Babitz, Lili Anolik, Scribner, $20. Read the Alta interview.
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.