Third Place Books Book Club Reads

The Books of Jacob

A Novel

By: Olga Tokarczuk
Narrated by: Allen Lewis Rickman & Gilli Messer
Length: 35 hours 37 minutes

A NEW YORKER “ESSENTIAL READ”

“Just as awe-inspiring as the Nobel judges claimed.” – The Washington Post

“Olga Tokarczuk is one of our greatest living fiction writers. . . This could well be a decade-defining book akin to Bolaño’s 2666.” –AV Club

“Sophisticated and ribald and brimming with folk wit. . . The comedy in this novel blends, as it does... Read more

The Relationship Mechanic

Peach Blossom: Book #2

By: Karmen Lee
Narrated by: Laly Lauret
Length: 7 hours 39 minutes

There’s more than one way to love and more than one place to call home in this rousing small-town romantic comedy that’s sure to charm fans of Hannah Bonam-Young’s Next to You and Ashley Herring Blake’s Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date

There’s no fix for a lonely heart like a little TLC…

Jessica Jae-un Miller came to Peach Blossom, Georgia, for a visit,... Read more

Fresh Water for Flowers

By: Valérie Perrin
Narrated by: Sara Young
Length: 14 hours 41 minutes

Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Casual mourners, regular visitors, and sundry colleagues—gravediggers, groundskeepers, and a priest—visit her to warm themselves in her lodge, where laughter, companionship, and occasional tears mix with the coffee she offers them. Her life is lived to the rhythms of... Read more

The Genesis of Misery

By: Neon Yang
Narrated by: Livvie Lin
Length: 15 hours 8 minutes

An immersive, electrifying space-fantasy, Neon Yang's debut novel The Genesis of Misery is full of high-tech space battles and political machinations, starring a queer and diverse array of pilots, princesses, and prophetic heirs.

It’s an old, familiar story: a young person hears the voice of an angel saying they have been chosen as a warrior to... Read more

A Shore Thing

By: Joanna Lowell
Narrated by: Ros Watt
Length: 13 hours 12 minutes

“Macho bicycle jousting, trans joy, a super steamy bathtub scene, seaweed inspections - what a delight! This charming romp of a queer Victorian romance will have you cycling across the British seaside with an enterprising botanist and the rakish artist she needs to illustrate her upcoming lecture. This is what I love to have in a historical... Read more

A Canticle for Leibowitz

By: Walter M. Miller Jr.
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
Length: 10 hours 56 minutes

“A post-apocalyptic story about progress, regression, violence, ignorance, and the cycles that humanity seems doomed to repeat. After a worldwide catastrophe, a group of monks collects and preserves scientific relics and writings in a quest to rediscover lost, but fundamental scientific theories. The century-spanning story that follows looks at... Read more

The Book Censor's Library

A Novel

By: Bothayna Al-Essa
Narrated by: Cindy Kay
Length: 5 hours 25 minutes

FINALIST, National Book Award for Translated Literature, 2024



A perilous and fantastical satire of banned books, secret archives, and the looming eye of an all-powerful government.



The new book censor hasn't slept soundly in weeks. By day he combs through manuscripts at a government office, looking for anything that would make a book unfit to... Read more

Truly, Madly, Deeply

A Novel

By: Alexandria Bellefleur
Narrated by: Lauren Sweet
Length: 9 hours 33 minutes

“This book has some of the BEST banter I have ever read in a romance. Colin is just swoon-worthy AND HE GETS ON HIS KNEES AND BEGS. I need everyone to read this book because wow, is it HOT. This was definitely a lighthearted romance with little plot besides the romance which is what I want from time to time. This book is also a big F you to... Read more

The Space Between Worlds

By: Micaiah Johnson
Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
Length: 11 hours 46 minutes

“I was thoroughly impressed by this imaginative debut high-concept sci-fi novel about multiverse travel! The protagonist, Cara, is unapologetically Queer, fearless and delightfully snarky! The social commentary is currently relevant and on point! Fans of confronting parallel selves, genre-bending political thrillers and depictions of dystopian... Read more

Triple Sec

A Novel

By: TJ Alexander
Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker
Length: 11 hours 36 minutes

A jaded bartender is wooed by a charmingly quirky couple in this fresh and sizzling polyamorous rom-com, set in the glamorous world of high-end cocktail bars—from the acclaimed author of the “tender, decadent, and sparklingly funny” (Lana Harper, New York Times bestselling author) Chef’s Choice.

As a bartender at Terror & Virtue, a swanky... Read more

Time Shelter

By: Georgi Gospodinov
Narrated by: Jeff Harding
Length: 10 hours 18 minutes

“Ambitious and unique, Time Shelter is a clinic for patients with Alzheimer's that allows patients to immerse themselves in the past. The clinic begins to attract people without Alzheimer's who seek refuge from the anxiety of their own lives. Blending nostalgia, identity, and time, societal shifts begin to impact the past, present, and future. A... Read more

This Is How You Lose The Time War

By: Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell & Emily Woo Zeller
Length: 4 hours 15 minutes

“I was so enchanted by this book that once I finished it, I started it over from the very beginning. I have reread it many times and each time I find something new to marvel. It's beautiful, lyrical, gripping, epic and incredibly romantic, leaving its scent on readers like a fragrance transferred between loves. Read more

Curvy Girl Summer

Curve: Book #1

By: Danielle Allen
Narrated by: Wesleigh Siobhan
Length: 12 hours 23 minutes

“AHMAD IS SUCH A HOT MMC OMFG!!! This book started off with a bang (literally) and had some of the funniest banter I’ve read between love interests. I listened to the audio book of this one and LOVED the narrator, she made this such a fun book to listen to! Aaliyah is determined to find a boyfriend before her 30th birthday, leading to a string of... Read more

Greek Lessons

A Novel

By: Han Kang
Narrated by: Greta Jung & Earl T. Kim
Length: 4 hours 36 minutes

FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
 
“[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize
 
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A dazzling novel about the saving grace of language and human connection, from the “visionary” (New... Read more

Babel

Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution

By: R. F. Kuang
Narrated by: Chris Lew Kum Hoi & Billie Fulford-Brown
Length: 21 hours 45 minutes

“To linguistics what Three Body Problem is to physics, Babel is a wonder. Its extensive research into the etymological backgrounds of multiple languages is topped only by its nuanced, honest exploration of the effects of colonization and white supremacy. I found myself rooting and aching for every character, from the white girl who turns on her... Read more

Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie

A Novel

By: Jackie Lau
Narrated by: Catherine Ho & Feodor Chin
Length: 9 hours 17 minutes

Jackie Lau, author of the “full of heart” (Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author) The Stand-Up Groomsman, returns with a charming rom-com about a young woman’s desperate attempts to fend off her meddling mother…only to find that maybe mother does know best.

Mark Chan this. Mark Chan that.

Writer and barista Emily Hung is tired of... Read more

The Saint of Bright Doors

By: Vajra Chandrasekera
Narrated by: Sid Sagar
Length: 12 hours 20 minutes

“This weird (complimentary), description-defying book is rife with complex characters in a beautifully written world. I cannot stop thinking about this story and the questions it poses about freedom, relationships, and choice. The narration by Sid Sagar is immersive and only added to the experience. Read more

Next To You

A Friends To Lovers Romance

Next

By: Hannah Bonam-Young
Narrated by: Jenn Lee
Length: 10 hours 59 minutes

Two friends (who are totally not in love) work together to renovate a school bus into a home.



Lane is in the middle of an identity crisis. Her friends are all partnered up, her career is leading nowhere, and simply put, she's not happy. So after a night out celebrating (drinking) on her birthday, she makes one hell of an impulsive purchase. A... Read more

A Master of Djinn

Dead Djinn Universe: Book #1

By: P. Djèlí Clark
Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar
Length: 15 hours 37 minutes

“'This is not your grandfather's Cairo.' That's for sure! Clark brings us to his alternate history Cairo where the year is 1912 and djinn roam the earth. When magic is used in a mass murder, Agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities steps in to investigate. So much fun! I've already given this as... Read more

The Only Good Indians

By: Stephen Graham Jones
Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
Length: 9 hours 2 minutes

“I loved this book. Jones has a unique narrative voice, allowing ‘the entity’ to step in and take over unexpectedly, amping up the horror. Also, each character has a distinct voice that brings them to life. Jones combines the culture and traditions of the Blackfeet and Crow people with the social truths of their contemporary life. It is... Read more