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 31, 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.
Published just last month, these two books explore the experiences and relationships that shape a life in very different ways. In Matt Haig’s novel The Midnight Train, the recently deceased Wilbur boards a mysterious train that lets him revisit moments from his past. In the essay collection The Land and Its People, David Sedaris finds humor in the everyday absurdities of being human.
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 Midnight Train, Matt Haig, Viking, $30Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It, Brooke Averick, Crown, $28HARDCOVER NONFICTION
Alta
The Land and Its People: Essays, David Sedaris, Little, Brown and Company, $30Famesick: A Memoir, Lena Dunham, Random House, $32Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children, Mac Barnett, Little, Brown and Company, $20London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth, Patrick Radden Keefe, Doubleday, $35TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION
Alta
Project Hail Mary (movie tie-in), Andy Weir, Ballantine Books, $22Theo of Golden, Allen Levi, Atria Books, $20Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman, Ace, $20Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry, Berkley, $20TRADE PAPERBACK NONFICTION
Alta
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Karen Hao, Penguin Books, $20The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron, TarcherPerigee, $24. Read Alta’s feature on the book and the author. Things in Nature Merely Grow, Yiyun Li, Picador, $18The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19Northern CaliforniaHARDCOVER FICTION
Alta
Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke, Alfred A. Knopf, $30The Correspondent, Virginia Evans, Crown, $28The Midnight Train, Matt Haig, Viking, $30The Things We Never Say, Elizabeth Strout, Random House, $29The Calamity Club, Kathryn Stockett, Spiegel & Grau, $35HARDCOVER NONFICTION
Alta
The Land and Its People: Essays, David Sedaris, Little, Brown and Company, $30Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, Belle Burden, the Dial Press, $30Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children, Mac Barnett, Little, Brown and Company, $20Famesick: A Memoir, Lena Dunham, Random House, $32How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, Theo Baker, Penguin Press, $32TRADE 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
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Karen Hao, Penguin Books, $20The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Penguin Books, $19Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $22The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, Hcow They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World, Peter Wohlleben and Jane Billinghurst (translator), Greystone Books, $18.95The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, Michael Finkel, Vintage, $18
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.