What are some popular books in Japan? (And what are they about?)

I am relearning Japanese and I am going to Little Tokyo in the California in a few weeks. They have a giant bookstore there that has a lot of novels written in Japanese.

I want to start slowly reading one to help boost my vocabulary/kanji knowledge.

I figured it would be nice to find one that is popular currently. I’ve struggled to find on English websites the list of books and a general idea of what they are about. Most are just manga (nothing against manga, but I want word volume).

Thanks in advance.