It’s shaping up to be a California Book Club week on the bestsellers list, with several familiar names making an appearance. Amy Tan’s The Backyard Bird Chronicles, a journal she began in 2016 as a way to cope with the hatred and misinformation she saw online, continues to resonate with readers. September 2021 book club author, Rebecca Solnit, is also on the list with The Beginning Comes After the End, a collection of essays that urges readers to hold on to hope. And from past California Book Club guest Karen Russell comes The Antidote, a novel about a historic dust storm and its impact on the invented town of Uz.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern CaliforniaHARDCOVER FICTION
Alta
The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28Kin, Tayari Jones, Alfred A. Knopf, $32Vigil, George Saunders, Random House, $28Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28Lost Lambs, Madeline Cash, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28HARDCOVER NONFICTION
Alta
The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love, Alice Hoffman (editor), Scribner, $22Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, Michael Pollan, Penguin Press, $32You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir, Christina Applegate, Little, Brown and Company, $32Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery, Gavin Newsom, Penguin Press, $30TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
Alta
Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $20The Lion Women of Tehran, Marjan Kamali, Gallery Books, $18.99TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
Alta
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown, $22Raising Hare: A Memoir, Chloe Dalton, Vintage, $21The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $16.99The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change, Rebecca Solnit, Haymarket Books, $16.95. Watch the California Book Club event with the author. Northern CaliforniaHARDCOVER FICTION
Alta
The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28Kin, Tayari Jones, Alfred A. Knopf, $32Heart the Lover, Lily King, Grove Press, $28Vigil, George Saunders, Random House, $28Brawler: Stories, Lauren Groff, Riverhead Books, $29HARDCOVER NONFICTION
Alta
A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, Michael Pollan, Penguin Press, $32Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery, Gavin Newsom, Penguin Press, $30The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love, Alice Hoffman (editor), Scribner, $22Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30Good Writing: 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences, Neal Allen and Anne Lamott, Avery, $27TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION 
Alta
Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid, Carina Press, $18.99The Antidote, Karen Russell, Vintage, $19. Watch the author in the California Book Club’s 2021 gathering. TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
Alta
Raising Hare: A Memoir, Chloe Dalton, Vintage, $21The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson, Crown, $2The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change, Rebecca Solnit, Haymarket Books, $16.95. Watch the California Book Club event with the author. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan, Knopf, $36. Read a recap of the California Book Club event. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $12
Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance
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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.