I just received a list of the bestselling books for the past year in Northern California. The list is compiled from sales figures reported weekly by more than 60 independent bookstores in the region. I don't claim that these titles necessarily represent the best books published last year, but they do reflect what independent booksellers were selling and talking about to their customers.

Below, you'll find two lists - Hardcover Fiction and Hardcover Nonfiction - along with some comments about each list. Next week, Paperback Fiction and Nonfiction. 

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, Crown  

2. The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling, Little Brown    

3. Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon, Harper

4. Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver, Harper

5. Sacré Bleu, Christopher Moore, Morrow

6. A Dance With Dragons, George R.R. Martin, Bantam

7. Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel, Holt

8. Death Comes to Pemberley, P.D. James, Knopf

9. The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes, Knopf

10. This Is How You Lose Her, Junot Díaz, Riverhead

11. The Paris Wife, Paula McLain, Ballantine

12. The Round House, Louise Erdrich, Harper

13. A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers, McSweeney's

14. Shadow of Night, Deborah Harkness, Viking

15. In One Person, John Irving, S&S

There is also a national bestseller list for independent bookstores, and it's interesting to note some of the differences between that list and the one from Northern California. For instance, two Bay Area authors - Michael Chabon and Dave Eggers - do well on the local list, but on the national front, Telegraph Avenue was  #13 and A Hologram for the King failed to make the top 15. It's not uncommon for "local" authors to sell better in their region, especially when they make bookstore appearances and are well-liked by booksellers, so Chabon and Eggers' showing in Northern California is no real surprise.  

Also impressive is the showing made by The Sense of an Ending, which arrived in paperback in the summer and made both the hardcover and paperback list (see next week) in 2012 - no mean feat for a literary novel.

Another interesting note is the appearance (even with a $35 price tag) of A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series.  Dragons was also on the bestseller list for 2011, which shows the staying power of the series, helped hugely by the popularity of a TV version of the first book - A Game of Thrones - on HBO. Look for a paperback edition of A Dance with Dragons in late May and, undoubtedly, its place on next year's Paperback Fiction list. 

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Wild, Cheryl Strayed, Knopf

2. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand, Random House

3. Darth Vader and Son, Jeffrey Brown, Chronicle

4. I Could Pee on This, Francesco Marciuliano, Chronicle

5. Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson, S&S

6. Drift, Rachel Maddow, Crown

7. No Easy Day, Mark Owen, Dutton

8. Help, Thanks, Wow, Anne Lamott, Riverhead

9. Quiet, Susan Cain, Crown

10. Goodnight iPad, Ann Droyd, Blue Rider

11. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo, Random House

12. Killing Lincoln, Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard, Holt

13. Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, FSG

14. Imagine, Jonah Lehrer, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

15. Go the F**k to Sleep, Adam Mansbach, Akashic

The most amazing story on this list is the ongoing sales strength of Unbroken, which was originally published in November 2010. The book has been a bestseller for more than two full years and show no signs of slowing down. The true story of an American soldier in WW II who survives a plane crash in the Pacific and a Japanese POW camp, returns home a bitter and broken man, and resurrects his life through the influence of Billy Graham has captured the hearts and minds of readers of all ages and both genders.

Four of the titles on this list are humor books with a gimmick rather than more traditional nonfiction tales. Darth Vader and Son is shaped like a children's board book and imagines an active father-son relationship between Darth and Luke. I Could Pee on This is a book of funny feline poems, while Goodnight iPad 'updates' the classic Goodnight Moon children's bedtime story and Go the F**k to Sleep offers a very non-PC bedtime plea from (and for) parents.

One book that you'll have trouble tracking down is Imagine, which was recalled by its publisher after author Jonah Lehrer was outed (and fired from The New Yorker) for, among other things, fabricating a quote by Bob Dylan and lying about it when confronted. Ironically, the book's full title is Imagine: How Creativity Works; apparently, Lehrer took it more to heart than his publisher imagined.