fantasy

Our Top 10 Books of 2021

Our Top 10 Books of 2021

We asked the booksellers at all three of our locations for their favorite books of 2021. These are the top 10 books that made it onto the majority of those lists.

Check out the list below. All books are also available as digital audiobooks here.

Magical Middle-Grade Books (For Adults Too!)

Magical Middle-Grade Books (For Adults Too!)

As the school year comes to a close and children’s summer reading challenges begin (keep an eye out for TPB’s list), we have a new kind of challenge for you: seek out magic in your everyday life. 

Most people I know fell in love with the magic of reading as a child - engrossed in worlds with endless possibilities. We imagined ourselves flying off to Neverland, sitting for the sorting hat at Hogwarts, training with extraordinary teens at Camp Half-Blood, going on an unexpected journey with a band of dwarves - reading meant endless possibility and discovery. It’s a lot harder to find that same feeling in the pages we read as adults. When we open a book today, we bring all our grown-up anxieties, fears, and unrealized dreams with us, and we’re not always ready to confront them in the fiction we read. When I read, I want to rediscover love and hope and magic - the magic that came so easy as a child.

Happy AAPI Heritage Month! (Adult Books)

Happy AAPI Heritage Month! (Adult Books)

I'm back again folks with more Asian American and Pacific Islander book recommendations to continue celebrating AAPI Heritage Month - and this time we're talking about adult books! I've included a good range of fiction, non-fiction, romance, science fiction, and fantasy so there's all kinds of genres for your perusal.

Though there's a good amount of books on this list, but it only scratches the surface of amazing books by AAPI authors. I definiltey recommend following these authors and more on social media to continue hearing about more book recommendations. And if you have the means, support your local AAPI owned businesses in your community and consider donating to nonprofits that support the AAPI community (such as API Chaya here in Seattle).

Make sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for more book-related fun and if you're looking for the audiobook version of any of these titles, you can head to Libro.fm where you can get audiobooks while still supporting Third Place Books!

High Fantasy to Escape Into

I think at this point we would all be forgiven for wanting to escape 2020, and what better way to do so than to read some high fantasy? 

High fantasy ticks all the boxes for what I need right now: it’s often long, so it fills up many hours; it explores complex ideas and themes for maximum distraction potential; and most importantly, it’s set far, far away from the United States in 2020. 

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