Release Week: 24 January 2023
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Release Week: 24 January 2023
Posted on 2023-01-24 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
The White Mosque: A Memoir By: Sofia Samatar, read by the author for HighBridge -- "Samatar discovers a variety of characters whose lives intersect around the ancient Silk Road, from a fifteenth-century astronomer-king, to an intrepid Swiss woman traveler of the 1930s, to the first Uzbek photographer, and explores such topics as Central Asian cinema, Mennonite martyrs, and Samatar's own complex upbringing as the daughter of a Swiss-Mennonite and a Somali-Muslim, raised as a Mennonite of color in America."
Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia By: David Graeber, read by Roger Davis for Macmillan -- The final posthumous work by the coauthor of the major New York Times bestseller The Dawn of Everything: "Pirates have long lived in the realm of romance and fantasy, symbolizing risk, lawlessness, and radical visions of freedom. But at the root of this mythology is a rich history of pirate societies—vibrant, imaginative experiments in self-governance and alternative social formations at the edges of the European empire."
Yellow Rain: Poems By: Mai Der Vang, read by the author for HighBridge -- "In this staggering work of documentary and poetry, Mai Der Vang reopens a wrongdoing that deserves a new reckoning. As the US abandoned them at the end of the Vietnam War, many Hmong refugees recounted stories of a mysterious substance that fell from planes during their escape from Laos in the mid-1970s."
This Other Eden By: Paul Harding, read by Edoardo Ballerini for Recorded Books -- "From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers, a novel inspired by the true story of Malaga Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that became one of the first racially integrated towns in the Northeast."
All Hallows: A Novel By: Christopher Golden, read by Ronnie Butler, January LaVoy for OrangeSky -- "It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, horrifying secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all."
The Faraway World: Stories By: Patricia Engel, read by Gisela Chipé, Frankie Corzo, Inés del Castillo, Cynthia Farrell, Dominique Franceschi, George Newbern, Anthony Rey Perez, Aida Reluzco, Alejandra Reynoso, Gary Tiedemann, and the author for Simon and Schuster -- "An exquisite collection of ten haunting, award-winning short stories set across the Americas and linked by themes of migration, sacrifice, and moral compromise."
The World and All That It Holds: A Novel By: Aleksandar Hemon, read by Aleksandar Mikic for Macmillan -- "As the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives in Sarajevo one June day in 1914, Rafael Pinto is busy crushing herbs and grinding tablets behind the counter at the pharmacy he inherited from his estimable father. It’s not quite the life he had expected during his poetry-filled student days in libertine Vienna, but it’s nothing a dash of laudanum from the high shelf, a summer stroll, and idle fantasies about passersby can’t put in perspective. And then the world explodes. In the trenches in Galicia, fantasies fall flat. Heroism gets a man killed quickly. War devours all that they have known, and the only thing Pinto has to live for are the attentions of Osman, a fellow soldier, a man of action to complement Pinto’s introspective, poetic soul; a charismatic storyteller; Pinto’s protector and lover."
The Red-Headed Pilgrim By: Kevin Maloney, read by Tim Paige for HighBridge -- "On a sunny day in a business park near Portland, Oregon, forty-two-year-old web developer Kevin Maloney is in the throes of an existential crisis that finds him shoeless in a field of Queen Anne's lace, reflecting on the tumultuous events that brought him to this moment. Growing up in the suburbs, young Kevin suffered "a psychological break that ripped me from my humdrum existence" mainlining high fructose corn syrup and episodes of The Golden Girls. Thus begins a journey of hard-earned insights and sexual awakening that takes Kevin from angst-ridden Beaverton to the beaches of San Diego, a frontier-themed roadside attraction in Helena, Montana, and a hermetic shack on an organic lettuce farm. Everything changes when Kevin falls in love with Wendy. After a chance tarot reading lands them on the frigid coast of Maine, their lives are unsettled by the birth of their daughter, Zoë, whose sudden presence is oftentimes terrifying, frequently disturbing, and yet—miraculously—always wondrous."
The Chinese Groove: A Novel By: Kathryn Ma, read by James Chen for Random House -- "Anne Tyler meets Jade Chang in this buoyant, good-hearted, and sharply written novel about a blithely optimistic immigrant with big dreams, dire prospects, and a fractured extended family in need of his help—even if they don't know it yet."
The House at the End of the World By: Dean Koontz, read by Natalie Naudus for Brilliance -- "In retreat from a devastating loss and crushing injustice, Katie lives alone in a fortresslike stone house on Jacob’s Ladder island. Once a rising star in the art world, she finds refuge in her painting. The neighboring island of Ringrock houses a secret: a government research facility. And now two agents have arrived on Jacob’s Ladder in search of someone—or something—they refuse to identify. Although an air of menace hangs over these men, an infinitely greater threat has arrived, one so strange even the island animals are in a state of high alarm. Katie soon finds herself in an epic and terrifying battle with a mysterious enemy. But Katie’s not alone after all: a brave young girl appears out of the violent squall. As Katie and her companion struggle across a dark and eerie landscape, against them is an omnipresent terror that could bring about the end of the world."
Episode Thirteen By: Craig DiLouie, read by Gregory D. Barnett, Sam Slade, Kimberly Bonny, Louis B. Jack, James Lewis, and Jay Aaseng for Redhook -- "From the macabre mind of a Bram Stoker Award-nominated author, this heart-pounding novel of horror and psychological suspense takes a ghost hunting reality TV crew into a world they could never have imagined."
Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage By: Jeff Guinn, read by Jacques Roy for Simon and Schuster -- "The definitive account of the disastrous siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, from former investigative reporter Jeff Guinn, bestselling author of Manson and The Road to Jonestown."
BACKLIST WATCH:
The Nightrunners By: Joe R. Lansdale (1987), read by Brad Sanders for Tantor -- "In the field of country noir—the dark side of rural and small-town America—Lansdale staked his claim to East Texas with The Nightrunners. A '66 Chevy bears down on the countryside, with a carful of vicious teenagers and evil of Biblical proportions, in this terrifying morality tale of sex and violence."
The Devil Makes Three By: Lucy Blue (2021), read by Inger Tudor for Tantor -- "In 1837, Briarwood Plantation was abandoned when Ezra Woodbine slaughtered his fiancee's entire family. After nearly two centuries, life returns to Briarwood. But for how long?"
SERIES WATCH:
Ravensong: Green Creek, Book 2 By: TJ Klune, read by Kirt Graves for Macmillan -- "The Bennett family has a secret: They're not just a family, they're a pack. Ravensong is Gordo Livingstone's story."
The Infinite: The Outside, Book III By: Ada Hoffmann, read by Nancy Wu for Recorded Books -- "Time is running out for the planet Jai. The artificially intelligent Gods who rule the galaxy have withdrawn their protection from the chaos-ravaged world, just as their most ancient enemy closes in. For Yasira Shien, who has devoted herself to the fragile planet's nascent rebellion, it's time to do or die—and the odds are overwhelming."
The Praxis Triad: Investments, The Stickpin, and Impersonations By: Walter Jon Williams, read by Stefan Rudnicki for Skyboat Media -- "After bringing listeners The Dread Empires Fall Trilogy (The Praxis, The Sundering, and Conventions of War), Skyboat Media and Blackstone Publishing come together again to present The Praxis Triad, an original audiobook compilation of three novellas from Walter Jon Williams’s Praxis universe."
Body, Inc.: The Tipping Point Trilogy, Book 2 By: Alan Dean Foster (2012), read by David Colacci for Tantor -- "Foster has always been on the cutting-edge of science fiction. In Body, Inc., he creates a tomorrow where genetic manipulation has become ubiquitous, and the very meaning of what it is to be human is undergoing drastic transformation."
The Devil's Ransom: Pike Logan, Book 17 By: Brad Taylor, read by Rich Orlow
MOST MISSING:
Glitches and Stitches: Death Violations, Book 1 by Nicole Givens Kurtz (Mocha Memoirs Press) -- "Suffering PTSD from her past cases, Inspector Regulator Fawn Granger is exhausted with her job and she can’t wait to move to the Southwest Territories, when another death violation drops into her lap."
Dark Yonder: Issue 1 edited by Katy Munger and Eryk Pruitt (Thalia Press) -- "This is not your grandfather’s noir. Forget middle-aged alcoholics in bad jackets roaming the mean streets of L.A. in search of redemption and a bonus roll in the hay with a duplicitous dame. The debut issue takes a look at the dark side of modern life, including sibling rivalry, the shelf life of marriage, our culture of greed, violence as entertainment, child soldiers, obsessive love gone wrong, and so much more."
That'll be in the series watch for next week! It was only released (in the US at least) today (Thursday).