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The week’s bestselling books, Dec. 31

Souther California Bestsellers
(Los Angeles Times)
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Hardcover fiction

1. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Riverhead: $28) The discovery of a skeleton in Pottstown, Pa., opens out to a story of integration and community.

2. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Harper: $30) At a Michigan orchard, a woman tells her three daughters about a long-ago romance.

3. North Woods by Daniel Mason (Random House: $28) A sweeping historical tale focused on a single house in the New England woods.

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4. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Knopf: $28) Lifelong BFFs collaborate on a wildly successful video game.

5. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper: $32) The story of a boy born into poverty to a teenage single mother in Appalachia.

6. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday: $29) In the 1960s, a female chemist goes on to be a single parent, then a celebrity chef.

7. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove: $32) An epic novel follows three generations of a family in southern India from 1900 through 1977.

8. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $30) A family comes apart, financially and otherwise, in post-crash Ireland.

9. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (Atlantic Monthly Press: $26) A family copes with the rise of fascism in a dystopian Ireland.

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10. The Fraud by Zadie Smith (Penguin: $29) The acclaimed novelist’s historical fiction about a big 19th century British trial.

Hardcover nonfiction

1. The Wager by David Grann (Doubleday: $30) The story of the shipwreck of an 18th-century British warship and a mutiny among the survivors.

2. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Penguin: $32) The music producer’s guidance on how to be a creative person.

3. My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand (Viking: $47) The multi-hyphenate icon dishes on her career in music and Hollywood.

4. Prequel by Rachel Maddow (Crown: $32) The MSNBC anchor chronicles the fight against a pro-Nazi American group during World War II.

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5. Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney (Little, Brown: $32) The former GOP representative recounts her fight to impeach and investigate Donald Trump.

6. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (Gallery: $33) The pop star, long confined in a conservatorship, finally tells her full story.

7. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Knopf: $28) The true-crime tale of a genius art thief who kept all the spoils for himself.

8. How to Know a Person by David Brooks (Random House: $30) The New York Times columnist explores the power of seeing and being seen.

9. Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson (Viking: $30) A people’s history of the rise of U.S. authoritarianism and its resisters.

10. Atomic Habits by James Clear (Avery: $27) The self-help expert’s guide to building good habits and breaking bad ones via tiny changes in behavior.

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Paperback fiction

1. Trust by Hernan Diaz (Riverhead: $17)

2. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Penguin: $18)

3. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (Penguin: $18)

4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Washington Square: $17)

5. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Scribner: $19)

6. The Best American Short Stories 2023 by Min Jin Lee, Heidi Pitlor (Eds.) (Mariner: $19)

7. Circe by Madeline Miller (Back Bay: $19)

8. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin: $17)

9. Babel by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager: $20)

10. Normal People by Sally Rooney (Hogarth: $17)

Paperback nonfiction

1. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (Vintage: $18)

2. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (Vintage: $17)

3. The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present by Paul McCartney (Liveright: $30)

4. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (Penguin: $19)

5. How to Smile (Mindfulness Essentials #10) by Thich Nhat Hanh, Jason DeAntonis (Illus.) (Parallax: $10)

6. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen: $13)

7. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi (Picador: $20)

8. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17)

9. An Immense World by Ed Yong (Random House: $20)

10. Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris (Back Bay: $19)

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