Seward Park

Third Place Seward Park is a general-interest bookstore featuring new and used books with a used-book buying counter open seven days a week. We opened our doors in May of 2016 in the Seward Park neighborhood of south Seattle. Our Seward Park location continues the Third Place mission of providing a gathering space for its community by hosting over 200 events a year, including:

  • nationally-touring authors, such as James McBride, Marc Maron, Phoebe Robinson, and Timothy Snyder
  • local authors, such as Anastacia Renee, Garth Stein, and John Medina
  • weekly kids song and story times with PJ Library (every Thursday at 11am)
  • monthly reading by The African-American Writers' Alliance (second Sunday of every month at 7pm)
  • monthly Story Time for Grown Ups (third Sunday of every month at 7pm)

. We also host four monthly bookclubs:

Third Place Books Seward Park shares a space with Raconteur, a full-service restaurant and cafe, as well as a bar serving craft cocktails and beer. Drink specials are available from Raconteur during book clubs and author readings.

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Latest Staff Picks

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The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street Cover Image

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street (Paperback)

By Karina Yan Glaser
$7.99

I'm a Jew who loves a good Christmas story. This being said, while this book does take place during Christmas, it is moreso a story about the warmth of family and community during the holidays. I don't read too much kid-lit, but this book got me. It is sweet, joyful, clever, and beautifully written. I recommend it as a cozy Fall or Winter read (with a warm blanket and hot chocolate).

Picked by Emma
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The Idiot: A Novel Cover Image

The Idiot: A Novel (Paperback)

By Elif Batuman
$16.00

Elif Batuman's debut novel perfectly captures all of the small and daily devastations one experiences when 18 and in love for the first time. More than this, The Idiot shows how absurd and complex the language the mediates our experience can be. Batuman, who loves Russian literature, once expressed in an interview a desire for her novels to be "long and pointless," but I couldn't put this down. A crazy-smart coming of age story.

Picked by Emma
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Devotion (Why I Write) Cover Image

Devotion (Why I Write) (Hardcover)

By Patti Smith
$18.00

Reading a book by Patti Smith is, for me, always an aesthetic experience. Her compelling use of language allows me to enter her worlds easily and fully. Devotion especially left an impression on me for weeks. This is part meditation on craft, part diary, and part Nabokov-esque narrative. Smith weaves them together expertly and beautifully. If you'd like to hear a thousand more reasons why I love this book (and Patti), come find me.

Picked by Emma
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Since I Laid My Burden Down Cover Image

Since I Laid My Burden Down (Paperback)

By Brontez Purnell
$17.95

Black, punk, queer, sharp yet soft, quick yet deep, grown, and funny as all get-out. I love this book so much.

Picked by Shannon
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The Seas Cover Image

The Seas (Hardcover)

By Samantha Hunt, Maggie Nelson (Introduction by)
$19.95

Originally published in 2004, The Seas is not your average twee mermaid affair. Hunt flips reality and language  on their heads in this watery meditation on the "surrender places" of desire, trauma, and grief. A beautiful, if troubled, world beached on the thin space between the conscious and subconscious lies herein..

Picked by Shannon
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A Lucky Man: Stories Cover Image

A Lucky Man: Stories (Hardcover)

By Jamel Brinkley
$26.00

Nine beautiful stories that examine the traditions and consequences of imposed forms of masculinities. Brinkley poses subtlem yet challenging and transformative questions, often feinting one way only to slide to another.

A Lucky Man elegantly synthesizes complicated empathy and accountability with a big heart.

Picked by Shannon
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White Noise: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Cover Image

White Noise: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Paperback)

By Don DeLillo, Richard Powers (Introduction by)
$17.00

White Noise is a postmodern classic that highlights the many strains of postmodernism: the aestheticization of violence, the breakdown of language, the merging of consumer products with identities. Its also a pragmatic love story, and a way to conseptualize what parenting might look like during an apocalyptic event. I had a hard time putting it down.

Picked by Emma
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Black No More Cover Image

Black No More (Paperback)

By George S. Schuyler, Danzy Senna (Introduction by)
$16.00

This book was written during the Harlem Renaissance in 1931, but the aim of its critique is just as germane today, and echoed in films like Get Out and Sorry to Bother You. Part Afrofuturism, part satire, this novel lampoons both the KKK and the NAACP. It highlights the biological artificiality of race, while also making clear the very real ways it acts as a social force. Mostly, this book is hilarious.

Picked by Emma
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A Rule Against Murder: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel Cover Image

A Rule Against Murder: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (Paperback)

By Louise Penny
$17.99

Inspector Gamache is off to his favorite summer retreat, a rustic log lodge by a lake in the forests of Quebec. He and his wife are there to celebrate their anniversary and delighted to be joined by their friends Clara and Peter Morrow, who are there for a family reunion. But the Morrow family has secrets that beg to come to the surface. Sit by the lake with Louise Penny as she unravels the plot of this summer mystery. Recommended for foodies who love a good mystery.

Picked by Bernie
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