Release Week: 1 February 2022
← Release Week: 25 January 2022Release Week: 8 February 2022 →
Release Week: 1 February 2022
Posted on 2022-02-01 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
Recitatif: A Story By: Toni Morrison, read by Bahni Turpin, with and introduction written and read by Zadie Smith -- "In this 1983 short story - the only short story Morrison ever wrote - we meet Twyla and Roberta, who have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other again at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and at each other's throats each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them."
The Violence: A Novel By: Delilah S. Dawson, read by Hillary Huber for Random House -- "Three generations of abused women must navigate their chilling new reality as a mysterious epidemic of violence sweeps the nation in this compelling novel of self-discovery, legacy, and hope."
The Books of Jacob: A Novel By: Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft, read by Allen Lewis Rickman and Gilli Messer for Penguin -- "The Nobel Prize-winner’s richest, most sweeping and ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a mysterious, messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across 18th-century Europe."
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century By: Kim Fu, read by Piper Goodeve, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Samara Naeymi, Gary Tiedemann, and Jeena Yi for Random House -- "In 12 unforgettable tales, the strange is made familiar and the familiar strange, such that a girl growing wings on her legs feels like an ordinary rite of passage, while a bug-infested house becomes an impossible Kafkaesque nightmare."
Redwood and Wildfire By: Andrea Hairston, read by January LaVoy for Random House -- "Blues singers, filmmakers, haints, healers, romance, and magic from Georgia to Chicago at the turn of the 20th century."
Don't Cry for Me: A Novel By: Daniel Black, read by the author for Harlequin -- "A Black father makes amends with his gay son through letters written on his deathbed in this wise and penetrating novel of empathy and forgiveness, for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robert Jones Jr., and Alice Walker."
The Icarus Hunt: A Novel By: Timothy Zahn, read by Marc Thompson for Random House -- "From Timothy Zahn, Hugo Award winner and New York Times best-selling author of two landmark Star Wars series, comes an original new tale featuring a renegade space pilot, his unusual alien partner, and an unknown cargo that can change the course of galactic history."
Hunt the Stars: Starlight’s Shadow, Book 1 By: Jessie Mihalik, read by: Frankie Corzo for Harper — “The critically acclaimed author of Polaris Rising takes listeners on an exciting journey with the start of her brand-new series about a female bounty hunter and the man who is her sworn enemy.”
The Counterclockwise Heart By: Brian Farrey, read by Kirby Heyborne for Workman Audio -- "Time is running out in the empire of Rheinvelt. The sudden appearance of a strange and frightening statue foretells darkness. The Hierophants - magic users of the highest order - have fled the land. And the shadowy beasts of the nearby Hinterlands are gathering near the borders, preparing for an attack. Young Prince Alphonsus is sent by his mother, the Empress Sabine, to reassure the people while she works to quell the threat of war. But Alphonsus has other problems on his mind, including a great secret: He has a clock in his chest where his heart should be - and it’s begun to run backwards, counting down to his unknown fate."
In the Serpent's Wake By: Rachel Hartman, read by: Katharine Lee McEwan for Listening Library — “From the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of Seraphina comes a piercing new fantasy adventure that champions our resilience and humility.”
SERIES WATCH:
Temple of No God: Hall of Smoke, Book 2 By: H.M. Long, read by Samara Naeymi for Recorded Books
Happy: Awaken Online, Book 6 By: Travis Bagwell, read by David Stifel
Midnight Horizon: Star Wars: The High Republic By: Daniel José Older, read by Todd Haberkorn for Disney Lucasfilm -- "After a series of staggering losses, the Republic seems to finally have the villainous Nihil marauders on the run, and it looks like there's light at the end of the tunnel. Until word comes of a suspected Nihil attack on the industrial cosmopolitan world of Corellia, right in the Galactic Core. Sent to investigate are Jedi Masters Cohmac Vitus and Kantam Sy, along with Padawans Reath Silas and Ram Jomaram, all fighting their own private battles after months of unrelenting danger."
MOST MISSING:
- Library of the Sapphire Wind: Over Where, Book 1 by Jane Lindskold (Baen) -- "Instead of mentors, they got monsters . . . That’s what Xerak, Vereez, and Grunwold think when three strange creatures shimmer into being within the circle of Hettua Shrine. Their conclusion is reasonable enough. After all, they’ve never seen humans before."