With reporting from the California Independent Booksellers Alliance, Alta Journal highlights the bestselling books at independent bookstores across Northern and Southern California for the week ending May 24, 2026. This list includes bestselling fiction, nonfiction, and new releases, offering a snapshot of current book trends, popular authors, and must-read titles across California’s literary scene.
This month’s bestsellers list highlights two new May releases. In Michael Connelly’s Ironwood, Detective Sergeant Stilwell, who is stationed on Catalina Island, is drawn into a dangerous drug operation when a late-night sting goes violently sideways. In Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees, the author argues that trees are social beings: communicating with their offspring and sharing nutrients with neighboring trees that are struggling.
For a full list of titles and categories, visit the California Independent Booksellers Alliance.•
Southern CaliforniaHARDCOVER FICTION
Alta
Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke, Alfred A. Knopf, $30The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28John of John, Douglas Stuart, Grove Press, $28The Things We Never Say, Elizabeth Strout, Random House, $29Ironwood, Michael Connelly, Little, Brown and Company, $32. Watch the California Book Club event with the author. HARDCOVER NONFICTION
Alta
Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30Famesick: A Memoir, Lena Dunham, Random House, $32London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth, Patrick Radden Keefe, Doubleday, $35Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children, Mac Barnett, Little, Brown and Company, $20One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, Alfred A. Knopf, $28TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
Alta
Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20Project Hail Mary (movie tie-in), Andy Weir, Ballantine Books, $22Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $20Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99Angel Down, Daniel Kraus, Atria Books, $18TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
Alta
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Karen Hao, Penguin Books, $20The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann, Vintage, $21All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $17.99On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown, $14Things in Nature Merely Grow, Yiyun Li, Picador, $18Northern CaliforniaHARDCOVER FICTION
Alta
Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke, Alfred A. Knopf, $30The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28The Things We Never Say, Elizabeth Strout, Random House, $29John of John, Douglas Stuart, Grove Press, $28The Calamity Club, Kathryn Stockett, Spiegel & Grau, $35HARDCOVER NONFICTION
Alta
London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth, Patrick Radden Keefe, Doubleday, $35Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children, Mac Barnett, Little, Brown and Company, $20How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, Theo Baker, Penguin Press, $32Liar’s Kingdom: How to Stop Trump’s Deceit and Save America, Andrew Weissmann, Little, Brown and Company, $29TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION 
Alta
Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20Project Hail Mary (movie tie-in), Andy Weir, Ballantine Books, $22Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $20James, Percival Everett, Vintage, $20. Read Alta’s feature on the book and the author. TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
Alta
Raising Hare: A Memoir, Chloe Dalton, Vintage, $21Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Karen Hao, Penguin Books, $20All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks, William Morrow, $17.99Things in Nature Merely Grow, Yiyun Li, Picador, $18The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World, Peter Wohlleben, Greystone Books, $18.95
Source: California Independent Booksellers Alliance
Elizabeth Casillas is an associate editor at Alta Journal. A graduate of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, she has previously written for the Poly Post and Enspire Magazine.