Showing posts with label third place books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label third place books. Show all posts

Purchase tickets for Fredrik Backman presentation Sept 8

Tuesday, September 1, 2020


Third Place Books presents Fredrik Backman - Anxious People (Tickets Required!)

Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - 1:00pm

This is a virtual event; tickets are required!
Purchase your ticket here (includes SIGNED copy of ANXIOUS PEOPLE)!

Join Fredrik Backman and Third Place Books to celebrate the launch of Backman's new novel ANXIOUS PEOPLE!

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and "writer of astonishing depth" (The Washington Times) comes a poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.

Looking at real estate isn't usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. 
The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can't fix their own marriage. There's a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can't seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. 
Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment's only bathroom, and you've got the worst group of hostages in the world.

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them- - the bank robber included -- desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.


Rich with Fredrik Backman's "pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature" ( Shelf Awareness), Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope--the things that save us, even in the most anxious times.

Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, and two novellas, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and The Deal of a Lifetime, as well as one work of nonfiction, Things My Son Needs to Know About the World

His books are published in more than forty countries. His next novel, Anxious People, will be published in September 2020. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Connect with him on Facebook or Twitter @BackmanLand or on Instagram @Backmansk.

Tickets are required! Ticket includes a SIGNED copy of ANXIOUS PEOPLE by Fredrik Backman!




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Avid Readers and Gift Givers - Check out Third Place Commons Online Auction launching today

Monday, August 31, 2020


Do you love to read? Got a voracious reader in the family? 

This week’s online fundraising auction for Third Place Commons and the Lake Forest Park Farmers Market is the perfect item for you.

Part of the TPC Awesome Auction-a-thon, today’s auction item is a $100 gift card for Third Place Books! 

As usual, the auction launches at noon today on the Third Place Commons Facebook page and bids will be accepted directly in the comments of the post.

With this week’s prize, you can stock up on the latest bestsellers, dig into the works of a favorite author, or load up on books for the kiddos. Got a favorite pastime? Cooking, gardening, sports? Bid on this gift card and pick up a passport to great books on the topic of your choice, all while supporting the Commons and the market.


Third Place Books sells new and used titles, as well as music and all sorts of fun gift items, so you could even pocket the card and use it for all your gift-giving needs come the holiday season. (Which, alarmingly, will be here before you know it!)

Planning to join the Commons Community Book Club? Use this card to snag all the great titles you’ll be reading with the group.

Remember that these online auctions are fundraisers for Third Place Commons and the LFP Farmers Market to help sustain the Commons and the market through these very trying times. So bidding often and high is the goal.

This is a fantastic chance to donate generously to a vital community nonprofit in its time of need while also getting something fabulous for yourself!


Bidding will continue all week and close on Friday at noon. The highest bidder as of that time will win the card and the pride of knowing they’ve given generously to help the Commons and the market.

There are also two more fantastic items to come in the TPC Awesome Auction-a-thon, so be sure to mark your calendar for these remaining items.
  • Sept. 14 – Waterfront Hyatt Regency Overnight Bed and Breakfast Escape Package (Value: $260)
  • Sept. 28 – Spring Brings Smiles, Original Acrylic Painting (Est: $275)

If you don’t find anything that tickles your fancy in the auction-a-thon, you can always make a gift directly to Third Place Commons here.

Also, be sure to keep an eye on the Third Place Commons calendar for the new line-up of online programs to keep you connected with your Commons community until we can all meet safely again in person at the Commons.

And don’t forget the Lake Forest Park Farmers Market remains open every Sunday, 10am to 2pm, until October 18th. So there’s still plenty of time to enjoy that wonderful market bounty!

Third Place Commons, a community supported 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is celebrating its 20th anniversary of building real community in the heart of Lake Forest Park. In addition to presenting its largest program, the Lake Forest Park Farmers Market, Third Place Commons now also fosters real community in digital space. To learn more, or to make a gift to support the market and the Commons, visit ThirdPlaceCommons.org.




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Third Place Books presents Brad Balukjian in conversation with Larry Stone

Sunday, August 30, 2020


Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - 7:00pm
This is a virtual event! 


Part baseball nostalgia and part road trip travelogue, The Wax Pack follows Brad Balukjian as he tracks down players from a single pack of baseball cards from 1986 that had remained sealed for almost thirty years.

Is there life after baseball? Starting from this simple question, The Wax Pack ends up with something much bigger and unexpected -- a meditation on the loss of innocence and the gift of impermanence, for both Brad Balukjian and the former ballplayers he tracked down.

To get a truly random sample of players, Balukjian followed this wildly absurd but fun-as-hell premise: he took a single pack of baseball cards from 1986 (the first year he collected cards), opened it, chewed the nearly thirty-year-old gum inside, gagged, and then embarked on a quest to find all the players in the pack. 

Absurd, maybe, but true. He took this trip solo in the summer of 2015, spanning 11,341 miles through thirty states in forty-eight days.

Balukjian actively engaged with his subjects -- taking a hitting lesson from Rance Mulliniks, watching kung fu movies with Garry Templeton, and going to the zoo with Don Carman. In the process of finding all the players but one, he discovered an astonishing range of experiences and untold stories in their post-baseball lives, and he realized that we all have more in common with ballplayers than we think. While crisscrossing the country, Balukjian retraced his own past, reconnecting with lost loves and coming to terms with his lifelong battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Alternately elegiac and uplifting, The Wax Pack is part baseball nostalgia, part road trip travelogue, and all heart, a reminder that greatness is not found in the stats on the backs of baseball cards but in the personal stories of the men on the front of them.

Brad Balukjian is director of the Natural History and Sustainability Program and teaches biology at Merritt College in Oakland, California. He is also a freelance writer and has published articles in Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Slate, Discover, Smithsonian, Natural History, NOVA Next, and Islands.

Larry Stone is a sports columnist for the Seattle Times, where he has covered the Mariners for more than two decades. He is the co-author of Edgar: An Autobiography now available in paperback.


The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife (Hardcover)
By Brad Balukjian
$27.95
ISBN: 9781496218742
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: University of Nebraska Press - April 1, 2020




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Third Place Books presents Jeff Hobbs, in conversation with Helen Thorpe

Thursday, August 20, 2020


Jeff Hobbs, in conversation with Helen Thorpe - Show Them You're Good
Thursday, August 20, 2020 - 7:00pm
Virtual Event



The bestselling, critically acclaimed, award-winning author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace presents a brilliant and transcendent work that closely follows four Los Angeles high school boys as they apply to college.

Four teenage boys are high school seniors at two very different schools within the city of Los Angeles, the second largest school district in the nation with nearly 700,000 students. Author Jeff Hobbs, writing with heart, sensitivity, and insight, stunningly captures the challenges and triumphs of being a young person confronting the future -- both their own and the cultures in which they live -- in contemporary America.

Filled with portraits of secondary characters including friends, peers, parents, teachers, and girlfriends, this masterwork of immersive journalism is both intimate and profound and destined to ignite conversations about class, race, expectations, cultural divides, and even the concept of fate. Hobbs's portrayal of these young men is not only revelatory and relevant, but also moving, eloquent, and indelibly powerful.

Jeff Hobbs graduated with a BA in English language and literature from Yale in 2002, where he was awarded the Willets and Meeker prizes for his writing. He is the author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace and The Tourists. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Helen Thorpe was born in London to Irish parents and grew up in New Jersey. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York magazine, The New Yorker, Slate, and Harper's Bazaar. Her radio stories have aired on This American Life and Sound Print. She is the author of Just Like Us, Soldier Girls, and The Newcomers and lives in Denver.

Show Them You're Good: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year Before College (Hardcover)
By Jeff Hobbs
$28.00
ISBN: 9781982116330
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Scribner - August 18, 2020





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Third Place Books presents Margaret Owen, in conversation with Tara Sim

Tuesday, August 18, 2020


Margaret Owen, in conversation with Tara Sim - The Faithless Hawk

Tuesday, August 18, 2020 - 7:00pm



Kings become outcasts and lovers become foes in The Faithless Hawk, the thrilling sequel to Margaret Owen's The Merciful Crow. Join us for this virtual launch event!

As the new chieftain of the Crows, Fie knows better than to expect a royal to keep his word. Still she's hopeful that Prince Jasimir will fulfill his oath to protect her fellow Crows. But then black smoke fills the sky, signaling the death of King Surimir and the beginning of Queen Rhusana's merciless bid for the throne.
With the witch queen using the deadly plague to unite the nation of Sabor against Crows--and add numbers to her monstrous army--Fie and her band are forced to go into hiding, leaving the country to be ravaged by the plague. However, they're all running out of time before the Crows starve in exile and Sabor is lost forever.
A desperate Fie calls on old allies to help take Rhusana down from within her own walls. But inside the royal palace, the only difference between a conqueror and a thief is an army. To survive, Fie must unravel not only Rhusana's plot, but ancient secrets of the Crows--secrets that could save her people, or set the world ablaze.

Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow was born and raised at the end of the Oregon Trail and has worked in everything from thrift stores to presidential campaigns. The common thread between every job can be summed up as: lessons were learned. She now spends her days writing and negotiating a long-term hostage situation with her two monstrous cats. In her free time, she enjoys exploring ill-advised travel destinations and raising money for social justice nonprofits through her illustrations. She resides in Seattle, Washington. You can find her on Twitter!

Tara Sim is the author of the Scavenge the Stars duology and the Timekeeper trilogy who can typically be found wandering the wilds of the Bay Area, California. When she’s not chasing cats or lurking in bookstores, she writes books about magic, murder, and explosions. Follow her on Twitter at @EachStarAWorld, and check out her website for fun extras at tarasim.com.

By Margaret Owen
$18.99
ISBN: 9781250191946
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) - August 18th, 2020
206-366-3333



  

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Third Place Books presents Shruti Swamy, in conversation with Angela Garbes

Monday, August 17, 2020



Shruti Swamy, in conversation with Angela Garbes - A House is a Body
Monday, August 17, 2020 - 7:00pm
Virtual Event


"Swamy's A House Is a Body will not simply be talked about as one of the greatest short story collections of the 2020s; it will change the way all stories -- short and long -- are told, written, and consumed. There is nothing, no emotion, no tiny morsel of memory, no touch, that this book does not take seriously. Yet, A House Is a Body might be the most fun I've ever had in a short story collection." --Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

Dreams collide with reality, modernity with antiquity, and myth with identity in the twelve arresting stories of A House Is a Body. In "Earthly Pleasures," a young painter living alone in San Francisco begins a secret romance with one of India's biggest celebrities, and desire and ego are laid bare. 
In "A Simple Composition," a husband's professional crisis leads to his wife's discovery of a dark, ecstatic joy. And in the title story, an exhausted mother watches, hypnotized by fear, as a California wildfire approaches her home. 
Immersive and assured, provocative and probing, these are stories written with the edge and precision of a knife blade. Set in the United States and India, they reveal small but intense moments of beauty, pain, and power that contain the world. A House Is a Body introduces a bold and original voice in fiction, from a writer at the start of a stellar career.


The winner of two O. Henry Awards, Shruti Swamy's work has appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. In 2012, she was Vassar College's 50th W.K. Rose Fellow, and has been awarded residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts, Blue Mountain Center, and Hedgebrook. She is a Kundiman fiction fellow, a 2017 – 2018 Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University, and a recipient of a 2018 grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. She lives in San Francisco.

Angela Garbes is the author of Like a Mother, an NPR Best Book of 2018 and finalist for the Washington State Book Award in Nonfiction. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Cut, and featured on NPR's Fresh Air. She lives in Seattle.

A House Is a Body: Stories (Hardcover)
By Shruti Swamy
$25.95
ISBN: 9781616209896
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Algonquin Books - August 11th, 2020
206-366-3333




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Third Place Books presents Robin LaFevers, in conversation with Leigh Bardugo - Igniting Darkness

Thursday, August 13, 2020


Saturday, August 15, 2020 - 5:00pm

This is a virtual event! Register for this livestream event here!

Two assassins will risk absolutely everything--even their own divinity--to save the people and the country they love in this lush historical fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Robin LaFevers. Set in the world of the beloved His Fair Assassin series, this smart, sensational follow up to Courting Darkness is perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Holly Black.

When you count Death as a friend, who can stand as your enemy?

Sybella, novitiate of the convent of Saint Mortain and Death's vengeance on earth, is still reeling from her God's own passing, and along with him a guiding hand in her bloody work. But with her sisters on the run from their evil brother and under the watchful eye of her one true friend (and love) at court, the soldier known as Beast, Sybella stands alone as the Duchess of Brittany's protector.

After months of seeking her out, Sybella has finally made contact with a fellow novitiate of the convent, Genevieve, a mole in the French court. But Sybella, having already drawn the ire of the French regent, may not be able to depend on her sister and ally as much as she hoped. Still, Death always finds a way, even if it's not what one expects.

No one can be trusted and the wolves are always waiting in this thrilling conclusion to the Courting Darkness duology, set in the world of Robin's beloved His Fair Assassin trilogy.

Robin LaFevers, author of the New York Times best-selling His Fair Assassin books, was raised on fairy tales, Bulfinch's mythology, and nineteenth-century poetry. It is not surprising that she grew up to be a hopeless romantic. She was lucky enough to find her one true love, and is living happily ever after with him in California. Visit her online at robinlafevers.com and on Twitter @RLLaFevers.

Leigh Bardugo is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of fantasy novels and the creator of the Grishaverse (coming soon to Netflix) which spans the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, the Six of Crows Duology, The Language of Thorns, and the King of Scars duology. Her short stories can be found in multiple anthologies, including Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy. Leigh was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Southern California, and graduated from Yale University. These days she lives and writes in Los Angeles.

The book is in stock at Third Place Books 206-366-3333.




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Third Place Books presents Candace Robb, author of medieval mysteries

Monday, August 10, 2020


Third Place Books presents

Virtual Event - Candace Robb - A Choir of Crows - with Michelle Urberg and Marian Seibert
Thursday, August 13, 2020 - 5:00pm


When two bodies are discovered in the grounds of York Minster shortly before the enthronement of the new archbishop, Owen Archer is summoned to investigate. 
December, 1374. With the great and the good about to descend on York for the enthronement of Alexander Neville as the new archbishop, the city authorities are in a state of high alert. When two bodies are discovered in the grounds of York Minster, and a flaxen-haired youth with the voice of an angel is found locked in the chapter house, Owen Archer, captain of the city bailiffs, is summoned to investigate. 
Tension deepens when an enigmatic figure from Owen's past arrives in the city. Why has he returned from France after all these years - and what is his connection with the bodies in the minster yard and the fair singer? 
Before Owen can make headway in the investigation, a third body is fished out of the river - and the captain finds himself with three mysterious deaths to solve before the all-powerful Neville family arrives in York.


Candace Robb has read and researched medieval history for many years, having studied for a Ph.D. in Medieval and Anglo-Saxon Literature. She divides her time between Seattle and the UK, frequently visiting York to research the series. She is the author of eleven previous Owen Archer mysteries and three Kate Clifford medieval mysteries.

Michelle Urberg is a medieval musicologist, librarian, and champion of research for the public good. She has studied the music, book culture and gender roles of the Birgittine monastic order in-depth and has been active with the community of scholars who study the Birgittines. Michelle lives in Seattle, where she sings in the Medieval Women’s Choir and serves on its Board of Directors.

Marian Seibert is a soloist with the Medieval Women's Choir. She has performed with many local ensembles and organizations, including the Tudor Choir, St. Mark's Cathedral, the Esoterics, Northwest Baroque, the Early Music Guild, St. James Cathedral, the Trinity Consort, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Gallery Concerts, Seattle Opera, Northwest Puppet Center, Seattle Experimental Opera, and the Seattle Academy of Opera. She is a featured soloist on the Medieval Women's Choir's CDs, River of Red and Laude Novella, and serves the choir as rehearsal director.



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Third Place Books presents The Port of Missing Men - virtual event Wednesday

Tuesday, July 28, 2020



Third Place Books presents Aaron Goings in conversation with David Price about Goings' new book - The Port of Missing Men

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - 7:00pm

This is a virtual event! Register for this Livestream Event here!


In the early twentieth century so many dead bodies surfaced in the rivers around Aberdeen, Washington, that they were nicknamed the "floater fleet." 

When Billy Gohl (1873-1927), a powerful union official, was arrested for murder, local newspapers were quick to suggest that he was responsible for many of those deaths, perhaps even dozens-- thus launching the legend of the Ghoul of Grays Harbor.

More than a true-crime tale, The Port of Missing Men sheds light on the lives of workers who died tragically, illuminating the dehumanizing treatment of sailors and lumber workers and the heated clashes between pro- and anti-union forces. 

Goings investigates the creation of the myth, exploring how so many people were willing to believe such extraordinary stories about Gohl. He shares the story of a charismatic labor leader-- the one man who could shut down the highly profitable Grays Harbor lumber trade-- and provides an equally intriguing analysis of the human costs of the Pacific Northwest's early extraction economy.

Aaron Goings is associate professor of history and chair of the History and Political Science Department at Saint Martin’s University. He is coauthor of The Red Coast: Radicalism and Anti-radicalism in Southwest Washington and Community in Conflict: A Working-Class History of the 1913–14 Michigan Copper Strike and the Italian Hall Tragedy. His newest book, The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor, and Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest is available now from the University of Washington Press.

David Price is a Professor of anthropology at St. Martin’s University in Lacey Washington. His research uses the Freedom of Information Act, archives, and interviews to document historical interactions between anthropologists and intelligence agencies.

Call Third Place Books to order any book: 206-366-3333.




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Third Place Books presents Kendra Atleework in a Tuesday virtual event


Third Place Books presents Kendra Atleework and her new book Miracle Country in a free virtual event on Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - 7:00pm

Register for this Livestream Event here!


Kendra Atleework grew up in Swall Meadows, in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where annual rainfall averages five inches and in drought years measures closer to zero.

Kendra’s family raised their children to thrive in this harsh landscape, forever at the mercy of wildfires, blizzards, and gale-force winds. Most of all, the Atleework children were raised on unconditional love and delight in the natural world. But it came at a price. 

When Kendra was six, her mother was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, and she died when Kendra was sixteen. Her family fell apart, even as her father tried to keep them together. Kendra took flight from her bereft family, escaping to the enemy city of Los Angeles, and then Minneapolis, land of all trees, no deserts, no droughts, full lakes, water everywhere you look.

But after years of avoiding the pain of her hometown, she realized that she had to go back, that the desert was the only place she could live. Like Wild, Miracle Country is a story of flight and return, bounty and emptiness, and the true meaning of home. But it also speaks to the ravages of climate change and its permanent destruction of the way of life in one particular town.

Kendra Atleework received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. An essay that formed the basis for a chapter of Miracle Country was selected for The Best American Essays 2015. She is the recipient of the Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award and the AWP Intro Journals Project Award.



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Third Place Books presents author Larry Watson

Tuesday, July 21, 2020


Third Place Books presents Larry Watson with his new book The Lives of Edie Pritchard in a virtual event on Friday, July 24, 2020 - 7:00pm

Register to attend this Livestream Event Here!

From acclaimed novelist Larry Watson, a multigenerational story of the West told through the history of one woman trying to navigate life on her own terms.

Edie-- smart, self-assured, beautiful-- always worked hard. She worked as a teller at a bank, she worked to save her first marriage, and later, she worked to raise her daughter even as her second marriage came apart. 
Really, Edie just wanted a good life, but everywhere she turned, her looks defined her. Two brothers fought over her. Her second husband became unreasonably possessive and jealous. Her daughter resented her. And now, as a grandmother, Edie finds herself harassed by a younger man. 
It's been a lifetime of proving that she is allowed to exist in her own sphere. The Lives of Edie Pritchard tells the story of one woman just trying to be herself, even as multiple men attempt to categorize and own her.

Triumphant, engaging, and perceptive, Watson's novel examines a woman both aware of her physical power and constrained by it, and how perceptions of someone in a small town can shape her life through the decades.

Raised in Bismarck, North Dakota, Larry Watson is the author of ten critically acclaimed books, including the bestselling Montana 1948. His fiction has been published internationally and has received numerous prizes and awards. His essays and book reviews have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and other periodicals. He and his wife live in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A film adaptation of Watson's novel Let Him Go is currently in production with Kevin Costner and Diane Lane and due to release in 2020.


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Third Place Books author event with Kelly McWilliams and Jewell Parker Rhodes


Third Place Books presents Kelly McWilliams and Jewell Parker Rhodes - Agnes at the End of the World and Black Brother, Black Brother - in a virtual event on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 - 7:00pm

Register for this Livestream Event here!

Exploring themes of faith and the damage caused by the patriarchy, AGNES AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Kelly McWilliams is set in a cult-controlled and insular community, while the outside world is ravaged by a terrifying virus. A gripping and emotionally powerful story of a young woman and her utter selflessness, this standalone novel will send chills down your spine.

Agnes loves her home of Red Creek-- its quiet, sunny mornings, its dusty roads, and its God. There, she cares tirelessly for her younger siblings and follows the town's strict laws. What she doesn't know is that Red Creek is a cult, controlled by a madman who calls himself a prophet. Then Agnes meets Danny, an Outsider boy, and begins to question what is and isn't a sin. Her younger brother, Ezekiel, will die without the insulin she barters for once a month, even though medicine is considered outlawed. Is she a sinner for saving him? Is her sister, Beth, a sinner for dreaming of the world beyond Red Creek?
As the Prophet grows more dangerous, Agnes realizes she must escape with Ezekiel and leave everyone else, including Beth, behind. But it isn't safe Outside, either: A viral pandemic is burning through the population at a terrifying rate. As Agnes ventures forth, a mysterious connection grows between her and the Virus. But in a world where faith, miracles, and cruelty have long been indistinguishable, will Agnes be able to choose between saving her family and saving the world?

From award-winning and bestselling author, Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful coming-of-age story about two brothers, one who presents as white, the other as black, and the complex ways in which they are forced to navigate the world, all while training for a fencing competition. 

Framed. Bullied. Disliked. But I know I can still be the best. 

Sometimes, 12-year-old Donte wishes he were invisible. As one of the few black boys at Middlefield Prep, most of the students don't look like him. They don't like him either. Dubbing him "Black Brother," Donte's teachers and classmates make it clear they wish he were more like his lighter-skinned brother, Trey. When he's bullied and framed by the captain of the fencing team, "King" Alan, he's suspended from school and arrested for something he didn't do. 
Terrified, searching for a place where he belongs, Donte joins a local youth center and meets former Olympic fencer Arden Jones. With Arden's help, he begins training as a competitive fencer, setting his sights on taking down the fencing team captain, no matter what. As Donte hones his fencing skills and grows closer to achieving his goal, he learns the fight for justice is far from over. 
Now Donte must confront his bullies, racism, and the corrupt systems of power that led to his arrest. Powerful and emotionally gripping, Black Brother, Black Brother is a careful examination of the school-to-prison pipeline and follows one boy's fight against racism and his empowering path to finding his voice.

Kelly McWilliams is a mixed-race writer who has always gravitated towards stories about crossing boundaries and forging new identities. For this and so many other reasons, young adult literature will always be close to her heart. Her upcoming novel, AGNES AT THE END OF THE WORLD, benefitted from a We Need Diverse Books Mentorship. She has loved crafting stories all her life, and her very first novel, DOORMAT, was published when she was just fifteen-years old. Kelly has also worked as a staff writer for Romper, covering issues important to women and families. She lives in Colorado with her partner and young daughter.

Jewell Parker Rhodes is the author of Ninth Ward, winner of a Coretta Scott King Honor, Sugar, winner of the Jane Addams Children's Book Award, and the New York Times-bestselling Ghost Boys. She has also written many award-winning novels for adults. When she's not writing, Jewell visits schools to talk about her books and teaches writing at Arizona State University.

Books can be ordered by calling TPB at 206-366-3333.



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Third Place Books author event with Django Wexler

Monday, July 20, 2020


Django Wexler in conversation with Fonda Lee - Ashes of the Sun

Tuesday, July 21, 2020 - 7:30pm


Long ago, a magical war destroyed an empire, and a new one was built in its ashes. But still the old grudges simmer, and two siblings will fight on opposite sides to save their world in the start of Django Wexler's new epic fantasy trilogy.
Gyre hasn't seen his beloved sister since their parents sold her to the mysterious Twilight Order. Now, twelve years after her disappearance, Gyre's sole focus is revenge, and he's willing to risk anything and anyone to claim enough power to destroy the Order. 
Chasing rumors of a fabled city protecting a powerful artifact, Gyre comes face-to-face with his lost sister. But she isn't who she once was. Trained to be a warrior, Maya wields magic for the Twilight Order's cause. Standing on opposite sides of a looming civil war, the two siblings will learn that not even the ties of blood will keep them from splitting the world in two.

Django Wexler graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with degrees in creative writing and computer science, and worked for the university in artificial intelligence research. Eventually he migrated to Microsoft in Seattle, where he now lives with two cats and a teetering mountain of books. When not writing, he wrangles computers, paints tiny soldiers, and plays games of all sorts.

Fonda Lee is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Jade City and the award-winning YA science fiction novels Zeroboxer, Exo, and Cross Fire. Born and raised in Canada, Lee is a black belt martial artist, a former corporate strategist, and action movie aficionado who now lives in Portland, Oregon with her family.

Order over the phone: 206-366-3333




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Monday author event: Gail Tsukiyama - The Color of Air

Sunday, July 19, 2020



Third Place Books presents Gail Tsukiyama in conversation with Karen Joy Fowler about her new books The Color of Air.

Monday, July 20, 2020 - 7:00pm Virtual Event

Register to attend this Livestream Event Here!

From the New York Times bestselling author of Women of the Silk and The Samurai's Garden comes a gorgeous and evocative historical novel about a Japanese-American family set against the backdrop of Hawai'i's sugar plantations.

Daniel Abe, a young doctor in Chicago, is finally coming back to Hawai'i. He has his own reason for returning to his childhood home, but it is not to revisit the past, unlike his Uncle Koji. 
Koji lives with the memories of Daniel's mother, Mariko, the love of his life, and the scars of a life hard-lived. He can't wait to see Daniel, who he's always thought of as a son, but he knows the time has come to tell him the truth about his mother, and his father.  
But Daniel's arrival coincides with the awakening of the Mauna Loa volcano, and its dangerous path toward their village stirs both new and long ago passions in their community.

Alternating between past and present-- from the day of the volcano eruption in 1935 to decades prior-- The Color of Air interweaves the stories of Daniel, Koji, and Mariko to create a rich, vibrant, bittersweet chorus that celebrates their lifelong bond to one other and to their immigrant community.

As Mauna Loa threatens their lives and livelihoods, it also unearths long held secrets simmering below the surface that meld past and present, revealing a path forward for them all.

Gail Tsukiyama was born in San Francisco, California, to a Chinese mother from Hong Kong and a Japanese father from Hawaii. She attended San Francisco State University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Master of Arts Degree in English. She is the bestselling author of seven previous novels, including Women of the Silk, The Samurai's Garden, and most recently, A Hundred Flowers, and has received the Academy of American Poets Award and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. She divides her time between El Cerrito and Napa Valley, California.

Karen Joy Fowler is the author of six novels including Booker Prize finalist and international bestseller We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Wit's End, and The Jane Austen Book Club -- which spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, was a New York Times Notable Book, and was adapted as a major motion picture from Sony Pictures. Her novel Sister Noon was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, and her short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Awards. Fowler and her husband, who have two grown children, live in Santa Cruz, California.



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Virtual Event! Erica C. Barnett, in conversation with Paul Constant - Quitter

Friday, July 17, 2020


Third Place Books continues its author events virtually. On Friday, July 17, 2020 - 7:00pm, see Erica C. Barnett, in conversation with Paul Constant about her new book: Quitter


A startlingly frank memoir of one woman's struggles with alcoholism and recovery, with essential new insights into addiction and treatment, from renowned Seattle journalist Erica Barnett.

Erica C. Barnett had her first sip of alcohol when she was thirteen, and she quickly developed a taste for drinking to oblivion with her friends. In her late twenties, her addiction became inescapable. 

Volatile relationships, blackouts, and unsuccessful stints in detox defined her life, with the vodka bottles she hid throughout her apartment and offices acting as both her tormentors and closest friends. 

By the time she was in her late thirties, she had run the gauntlet of alcoholism. She had recovered and relapsed time and again, but after each new program or detox center would find herself far from rehabilitated. "Rock bottom," Barnett writes, "is a lie." 

It is always possible, she learned, to go lower than your lowest point. She found that the terms other alcoholics used to describe the trajectory of their addiction--"rock bottom" and "moment of clarity"--and the mottos touted by Alcoholics Anonymous, such as "let go and let God" and "you're only as sick as your secrets"-- didn't correspond to her experience and could actually be detrimental.

With remarkably brave and vulnerable writing, Barnett expands on her personal story to confront the dire state of addiction in America, the rise of alcoholism in American women in the last century, and the lack of rehabilitation options available to addicts. At a time when opioid addiction is a national epidemic and one in twelve Americans suffers from alcohol abuse disorder, Quitter is essential reading for our age and an ultimately hopeful story of Barnett's own hard-fought path to sobriety.

Erica C. Barnett is a Seattle-based political reporter. She started her career at the Texas Observer, the venerable progressive magazine cofounded by Molly Ivins, and went on to work as a reporter and news editor for the Austin Chronicle, Seattle Weekly, and The Stranger. She now covers addiction, housing, poverty, and drug policy at her blog, The C Is for Crank. She has written for a variety of local and national publications, including The Huffington Post, Seattle Magazine, and Grist. She got sober in February 2015.

Paul Constant has published journalism and cultural criticism at Business Insider, the Los Angeles Times, and BuzzFeed, among others. He writes a monthly bookstore profile column for the Seattle Times and he is a co-founder of the Seattle Review of Books. His first full-length comic book from AHOY Comics, Planet of the Nerds, was recently optioned for a feature film by Paramount Players.

Call Third Place Books to order this book and others! 206-366-3333.




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Third Place Books Virtual Event! Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, in conversation with Richard Chiem - Sleepovers

Monday, July 13, 2020


Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, in conversation with Richard Chiem - Sleepovers

Thursday, July 16, 2020 - 7:00pm
Virtual Event presented by Third Place Books

This is a virtual event! Register for this Livestream Event Here!

"There's some kind of crazy magic at work here-- the way that Ashleigh Bryant Phillips takes all the little pieces of daily life that are there in plain sight just laying around and when she gathers them together they become holy, hilarious, transcendent, and unspeakably beautiful. 
"Her style is utterly her own, with wonderful echoes of Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor and Larry Brown mixed in. Ashleigh Bryant Phillips is shockingly talented. I don't think the voices of her characters will ever leave my head." --Mesha Maren, author of Sugar Run

Hailed by Lauren Groff as "fully committed to the truth no matter how dark or difficult or complicated it may be," Sleepovers, the debut short story collection by Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, takes us to a forgotten corner of the rural South, full of cemeteries, soybean fields, fishing holes, and Duck Thru gas stations. 

We meet a runaway teen, a mattress salesman, feral kittens, an elderly bachelorette wearing a horsehair locket, and a little girl named after Shania Twain. Here, time and memory circle above Phillips' characters like vultures and angels, as they navigate the only landscape they've ever known. 

Corn reaches for rain, deer run blindly, and no matter how hungry or hurt, some forgotten hymn is always remembered. "The literary love child of Carson McCullers and John the Baptist, Ashleigh Bryant Phillips' imagination is profoundly original and private," writes Rebecca Lee. Sleepovers marks the debut of a fearless new voice in fiction.

Ashleigh Bryant Phillips is from rural Woodland, North Carolina. She's a graduate of Meredith College and earned an MFA from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Her stories have appeared in The Oxford American, The Paris Review and others

Richard Chiem is the author of You Private Person (Sorry House Classics, 2017), and the novel, King of Joy (Soft Skull, 2019), which was long listed for the 2020 PEN Open Book Award. He was named a 2019 Writer to Watch by the Los Angeles Times. He has taught at Hugo House, Catapult, and at the University of Washington Bothell. He lives in Seattle.

Third Place Books is located in Town Center, upper level, intersection of Bothell and Ballinger Way in Lake Forest Park. They can be reached at 206-366-3333.




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Livestream author event Tuesday: How Trump Stole 2020

Sunday, July 12, 2020


Tuesday, July 14, 2020 - 4:00pm
Virtual Event presented by Third Place Books

Tickets are required to attend this livestream event! 
Purchase your tickets here! (Ticket includes 1 copy of Greg Palast's new book, How Trump Stole 2020).

Join Third Place Books, in partnership with Book Passage (Corte Madera, California), Word Up Community Bookshop (Washington Heights, NYC), and Seven Stories Press, for an afternoon with Greg Palast and Noam Chomsky (moderated by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!).

Vote theft is the key issue to the 2020 Election and Palast is the expert to explain why....

Has Trump already stolen the 2020 election? Vote theft was once considered to be a marginal issue that no one wanted to talk about, but as the stakes have risen and the facts have become known-- in large part thanks to this author-- it is now recognized as one of the central issues deciding our presidential elections.

The scope is staggering. In the Georgia 2018 midterm election alone-- the testing ground-- Republican voting officials quietly removed half a million voters from the voter rolls-- including Martin Luther King's ninety-two-year-old cousin Christine Jordan. How Trump Stole 2020 is the story of the racially poisonous schemes to steal the 2020 election, the political operatives behind the trickery-- and the hard right billionaires funding it all, written by the investigative reporter who has been covering this story from the outset.

Greg Palast regularly contributes original reporting to the BBC, The Guardian, Democracy Now, The Young Turks, and other progressive media. He has been featured recently on among others MSNBC's Joy Reid show and in Salon, and in the New York Times and Washington Post for successfully suing the state of Georgia with Stacey Abrams to release voter rolls after she lost a congressional seat to Brian Kemp who was at the time also the overseer of the voter rolls. 

Palast's two-decade hunt of elections chicanery are detailed in his books, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2002), Armed Madhouse (2006), and Billionaires and Ballot Bandits (2012) -- all New York Times bestsellers. 

In 2000, his investigation for the BBC and the Guardian uncovered how the Bush family purged thousands of Black men from Florida voter rolls, falsely labeling them felons, the scheme that won Bush the White House. In 2016, Palast predicted Trump's "surprise" election months earlier in a Rolling Stone exposé detailing exactly how Trump's operatives, in control of voting offices in key states, would bend the election results. Palast lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Noam Chomsky is Professor, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now! An acclaimed international journalist, she has won the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the Alternative Nobel Prize; a lifetime achievement award from Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism; the George Polk Award; Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting; and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award. 

Amy is the New York Times bestselling author, with Denis Moynihan, of The Silenced Majority and Breaking the Sound Barrier; and with David Goodman, of Democracy Now!, Exception to the Rulers, Static, and Standing Up to the Madness. She is a syndicated columnist for King Features.



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Third Place Books: virtual event with three debut novelists

Wednesday, July 8, 2020


Thursday, July 9, 2020 - 7:00pm
Virtual Event

Join Third Place Books and Algonquin Books for a virtual panel with three much-anticipated debut novelists!

This is a Virtual Event! Register for this event here!


Gabriel Bump: Everywhere You Don't Belong

In an alternately witty and heartbreaking debut novel, Gabriel Bump gives us an unforgettable protagonist, Claude McKay Love. Claude isn't dangerous or brilliant-- he's an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures as he steers his way past the signposts of youth: childhood friendships, basketball tryouts, first love, first heartbreak, picking a college, moving away from home. Percolating with fierceness and originality, attuned to the ironies inherent in our twenty-first-century landscape, Everywhere You Don't Belong marks the arrival of a brilliant young talent.

Crissy Van Meter: Winter Island

On the eve of Evangeline's wedding, on the shore of Winter Island, a dead whale is trapped in the harbor, the groom may be lost at sea, and Evie's mostly absent mother has shown up out of the blue. 
From there, in Crissy Van Meter's mesmerizing, provocative debut, the narrative flows back and forth through time as Evie reckons with her complicated upbringing in this lush, wild land off the coast of Southern California. Evie grew up with her well-meaning but negligent father, surviving on the money he made dealing the island's world-famous strain of weed, Winter Wonderland. Although her father raised her with a deep respect for the elements, the sea, and the creatures living within it, he also left her to parent herself. With wit, love, and bracing flashes of anger, Creatures probes the complexities of love and abandonment, guilt and forgiveness, betrayal and grief-- and the ways in which our childhoods can threaten our ability to love if we are not brave enough to conquer the past.

Kimi Eisele: The Lightest Object in the Universe

Carson is on the East Coast when the electrical grid goes down. Desperate to find Beatrix, a woman on the West Coast who holds his heart, he sets off along a cross-country railroad line, where he encounters lost souls, clever opportunists, and those seeking salvation. 

Meanwhile, Beatrix and her neighbors begin to construct a cooperative community, working to turn the end of the world into the possibility of a bright beginning. Without modern means of communication, will Beatrix and Carson be able to find their way to each other? The answer may lie with one fifteen-year-old girl, whose actions could ultimately decide the fate of the lovers. The Lightest Object in the Universe by Kimi Eisele is a moving story about adaptation and the power of community, imagining a world where our best traits, born of necessity, can begin to emerge.



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Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team - virtual event with author Wednesday



Wednesday, July 8, 2020 - 5:00pm
Third Place Books Virtual Event 

Join Elise Hooper (author of LEARNING TO SEE and THE OTHER ALCOTT) for an evening of stories, history, and Olympic trivia to celebrate the release of her new novel FAST GIRLS! Hooper will be joined by Kate Quinn, Tara Conklin, Jennifer Robson, Jillian Cantor, Kerri Maher, Heather Webb, Jane Healy, and Susie Orman Schnall.

Acclaimed author Elise Hooper explores the gripping, real life history of female athletes, members of the first integrated women's Olympic team, and their journeys to the 1936 summer games in Berlin, Nazi Germany. Perfect for readers who love untold stories of amazing women, such as The Only Woman in the Room, Hidden Figures, and The Lost Girls of Paris.

In the 1928 Olympics, Chicago's Betty Robinson competes as a member of the first-ever women's delegation in track and field. Destined for further glory, she returns home feted as America's Golden Girl until a nearly-fatal airplane crash threatens to end everything.
Outside of Boston, Louise Stokes, one of the few black girls in her town, sees competing as an opportunity to overcome the limitations placed on her. Eager to prove that she has what it takes to be a champion, she risks everything to join the Olympic team.
From Missouri, Helen Stephens, awkward, tomboyish, and poor, is considered an outcast by her schoolmates, but she dreams of escaping the hardships of her farm life through athletic success. Her aspirations appear impossible until a chance encounter changes her life.
These three athletes will join with others to defy society's expectations of what women can achieve. As tensions bring the United States and Europe closer and closer to the brink of war, Betty, Louise, and Helen must fight for the chance to compete as the fastest women in the world amidst the pomp and pageantry of the Nazi-sponsored 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

A New Englander by birth (and at heart), Elise Hooper lives with her husband and two young daughters in Seattle, where she teaches history and literature.

Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team (Paperback)
By Elise Hooper
$16.99
ISBN: 9780062937995
Availability: Third Place Books, call 206-366-3333
Published: William Morrow Paperbacks - July 7, 2020



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Third Place Books children’s book buyer shares open letter and petition on diversity in publishing

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Rene Holderman at Third Place Books

Rene Holderman, Head Children’s Book Buyer at Third Place Books, has penned an open letter to publishers demanding an improvement in diversity and transparency in Children’s Literature, and has launched an online petition to call for booksellers to consciously stock children’s books by BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) authors.

“I am writing,” Holderman says in her letter, “to express my frustration at how the publishing industry has chosen to handle the lack of diversity in children’s literature.”

In the letter, Holderman, who has worked in children’s books for over 20 years, explains that publishers have responded to a demand for diverse children’s books in part by publishing books featuring diverse characters, but written by white authors.

This practice, she notes, is especially prevalent in the categories of illustrated books, and Graded and Early Chapter Books.

“My frustration stems not only from a severe lack of these particular books,” Holderman writes, “but from the consistent release of Black stories from white authors and white illustrators in the last few years. I would perhaps not be so discouraged if these attempts at diversity did not feel so deceptive...  
"The fact that the book jacket does not make this information blatantly apparent indicates that the publishers are disingenuous in their contributions to true literary diversity.” 

Citing a recent survey published in School Library Journal, which found that the book industry remains 70% white and that no significant improvements in industry diversity have been made since 2015, she writes

“it is crucial to pay BIPOC authors and illustrators for authentic representations of their experiences and communities. We can't keep allowing the publishing industry to profit off of Blackness while saying "Black Lives Matter" if they refuse to make significant strides to actually hire Black creators.”

As Children’s Book Buyer, Holderman is responsible for selecting the titles carried in Third Place Books’ Children’s section. She says that she is committed to prioritizing new titles by BIPOC authors and illustrators in her ordering, and she is urging other booksellers to follow suit.

Holderman’s petition, which was published on Change.org on Friday, June 26, demands that publishers match this effort by making concrete efforts to publish and highlight more books by BIPOC creators.

“I want the children's publishing industry to acknowledge their lack of honest Black representation,” Holderman says, “and going forward [I want publishing] to be transparent about who the author is. Most importantly, children's publishing needs to make a conscious effort to hire and promote Own Voices authors and illustrators.”

Read Holderman’s letter in full, and sign the petition HERE




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