Shopping for the holidays: SoCal's bestselling books

If you need some help choosing Christmas gifts, here are the most popular books this week at independent bookstores in Southern California. The biggest change since last week: P.D. James claims the top fiction spot with "Death Comes to Pemberley," which the Washington Post reviewer summarizes as "Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' [with] a charming touch of murder." And to note the power of a movie coming out: "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" by John Le Carre and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer both make the lists, along with a certain Swedish girl. Continue to the lists.

Book notes:

Blue Rider Press has acquired "The Lost Daughter," Mary Williams's memoir of her two very different childhoods: "early years being raised by Black Panthers in 1970s Oakland, California, followed by her adoption, at age 14, by Jane Fonda, tracing her life to the present day and including her reconnection -- thirty years in the making -- with her birth mother and biological family." Publishers Lunch
Paddy Calistro and Scott McAuley of Angel City Press (my publishers!) were honored by the Los Angeles City Historical Society Tuesday night "in recognition of the service Angel City Press provides to scholarship, to local history, and to the publishing industry in general...[and] for its special role in bringing the research of local historians to publication."
George Whitman, the American-born owner of Shakespeare & Company bookstore on the Left Bank in Paris, died Wednesday in his apartment above the store. He was 98. NYT

Hardcover Fiction
1. Death Comes to Pemberley
P.D. James, Knopf, $25.95, 9780307959850
2. The Drop
Michael Connelly, Little Brown, $27.99, 9780316069410
3. 1Q84
Haruki Murakami, Knopf, $30.50, 9780307593313
4. V Is for Vengeance
Sue Grafton, Marian Wood Books/Putnam, $27.95, 9780399157868
5. The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes, Knopf, $23.95, 9780307957122
6. The Marriage Plot
Jeffrey Eugenides, FSG, $28, 9780374203054
7. Red Mist
Patricia Cornwell, Putnam, $27.95, 9780399158025
8. The Cat's Table
Michael Ondaatje, Knopf, $26, 9780307700117
9. 11/22/63
Stephen King, Scribner, $35, 9781451627282
10. A Dance With Dragons
George R.R. Martin, Bantam, $35, 9780553801477

Hardcover Nonfiction
1. Steve Jobs
Walter Isaacson, S&S, $35, 9781451648539
2. Then Again
Diane Keaton, Random House, $26, 9781400068784
3. Killing Lincoln
Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard, Holt, $28, 9780805093070
4. Catherine the Great
Robert K. Massie, Random House, $35, 9780679456728
5. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
Mindy Kaling, Crown Archetype, $25, 9780307886262
6. A History of the World in 100 Objects
Neil MacGregor, Viking, $45, 9780670022700
7. Unbroken
Laura Hillenbrand, Random House, $27, 9781400064168
8. Blue Nights
Joan Didion, Knopf, $25, 9780307267672
9. Go the F**k to Sleep
Adam Mansbach, Ricardo Cortes (Illus.), Akashic, $14.95, 9781617750250
10. Jack Kennedy
Chris Matthews, S&S, $27.50, 9781451635089

Trade Paperback Fiction
1. The Tiger's Wife
Téa Obreht, Random House, $15, 9780385343848
2. The Help
Kathryn Stockett, Berkley, $16, 9780425245132
3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson, Vintage, $15.95, 9780307949493
4. A Visit From the Goon Squad
Jennifer Egan, Anchor, $14.95, 9780307477477
5. Cutting for Stone
Abraham Verghese, Vintage, $15.95, 9780375714368
6. An Object of Beauty
Steve Martin, Grand Central, $14.99, 9780446573658
7. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
John Le Carre, Penguin, $16, 9780143119784
8. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer, Mariner, $14.95, 9780618711659
9. Swamplandia!
Karen Russell, Vintage, $14.95, 9780307276681
10. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Helen Simonson, Random House, $15, 9780812981223

Trade Paperback Nonfiction
1. Unlikely Friendships
Jennifer S. Holland, Workman, $13.95, 9780761159131
2. Awkward Family Pet Photos
Mike Bender, Doug Chernack, Three Rivers, $15, 9780307888129
3. The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2012
Sarah Janssen (Ed.), World Almanac, $12.99, 9781600571480
4. F in Exams
Richard Benson, Chronicle, $9.95, 9780811878319
5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot, Broadway, $16, 9781400052189
6. Holidays on Ice
David Sedaris, Back Bay, $10, 9780316078917
7. Zagat Los Angeles/So. California Restaurants 2012
Zagat, $15.95, 9781604784053
8. Just Kids
Patti Smith, Ecco, $16, 9780060936228
9. At Home
Bill Bryson, Anchor, $15.95, 9780767919395
10. Atlantic
Simon Winchester, Harper Perennial, $15.99, 9780061702624

More lists from the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association