Release Week: 18 April 2023
← Release Week: 11 April 2023Release Week: 25 April 2023 →
Release Week: 18 April 2023
Posted on 2023-04-18 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
No fewer than 44 (45?) books made my stupidly long list this week. (Out of over 1000 audiobook titles vomited into the world, and untold thousands more in print/ebook formats.) I hardly know what to do anymore with this many books, when most can catch my attention for fewer than a few seconds. But my stupid mind makes me at least scan the listings, and I keep regurgitating these stupidly long lists of new books each week. Well, here's another one! From entropy's heart, I stab at thee!
TOP TEN PICKS:
Greek Lessons: A Novel By: Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won, read by Greta Jung and Earl T. Kim for Random House -- "In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight. Soon the two discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it's the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages, and the fear of losing his independence."
The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due, read by Jasmin Walker and William DeMeritt for Recorded Books -- "In her first new book in seven years, Tananarive Due further cements her status as a leading innovator in Black horror and Afrofuturism."
The Haunting of Alejandra: A Novel by V. Castro, read by Raquel Beattie for Random House -- "A woman is haunted by the Mexican folk demon La Llorona in this ravishing and provocative literary horror novel about motherhood, family legacy, and self-discovery."
The Warden by Daniel M. Ford, read by Linsey Dorcus for Macmillan -- "There was a plan. She had the money, the connections, even the brains. It was simple: become one of the only female necromancers, pass as many certifications as she could, get a post near the capital, then… profit. The funny thing about plans is that they are seldom under your control. Now Aelis, a daughter of a noble house and a trained Magister of the Lyceum, finds herself in the far-removed village of Lone Pine. Mending fences and delivering baby goats, serving people who want nothing to do with her. But, not all is well in Lone Pine, and as the villagers Aelis is reluctantly getting to know start to behave strangely, Aelis begins to suspect that there is far greater need for a warden of her talents than she previously thought."
Sing, Nightingale By: Marie Hélène Poitras, translated by Rhonda Mullins, read by Nathalie Toriel for Coach House -- "When the curtain rises on Malmaison, it reveals a once-enchanting estate, quietly falling into darkness and ruin, and at the heart of it, a father, one of a long line of fathers who have flourished at the expense of those around them. The silence seems peaceful, but lurking under it is a deep malevolence, scores of ugly and violent secrets kept by cast-off mistresses and abandoned daughters. Ever-greedy, the father brings in Aliénor, a woman who promises to make the lands give even more of themselves; the plants will flourish, the animals will multiply, each feast will be more sumptuous than the last. The father thinks the stage is set to satisfy his every desire, but Aliénor will bring a new script, one in which the hunters are hunted and a new reign will begin."
Sisters of the Lost Nation By: Nick Medina, read by Elva Guerra, Nick Medina for Penguin -- "A young Native girl's hunt for answers about the women mysteriously disappearing from her tribe's reservation lead her to delve into the myths and stories of her people, all while being haunted herself."
The Marigold By: Andrew F. Sullivan, read by Sean Patrick Hopkins for Penguin -- "In a near-future Toronto buffeted by environmental chaos and unfettered development, an unsettling new lifeform begins to grow beneath the surface, feeding off the past."
Games for Dead Girls By: Jen Williams, read by Mhairi Morrison for Dreamscape -- "For Charlie and her niece Katie, it’s supposed to be a quiet holiday in the peaceful, out-of-the-way seaside town of Hithechurch, England. Charlie is researching a book on the folklore of the area, and the gloomy sea and dangerous caves seem to offer up plenty of material, while Katie is just there to run wild and get some fresh air. But Charlie’s research reveals a deeper, darker secret, one that uncovers her own carefully hidden past."
The Last Animal: A Novel By: Ramona Ausubel, read by Natasha Soudek for Penguin -- "Teenage sisters Eve and Vera never imagined their summer vacation would be spent in the Arctic, tagging along on their mother’s scientific expedition. But there’s a lot about their lives lately that hasn’t been going as planned, and truth be told, their single mother might not be so happy either. Now in Siberia with a bunch of serious biologists, Eve and Vera are just bored enough to cause trouble. Fooling around in the permafrost, they accidentally discover a perfectly preserved, four-thousand-year-old baby mammoth, and things finally start to get interesting. The discovery sets off a surprising chain of events, leading mother and daughters to go rogue, pinging from the slopes of Siberia to the shores of Iceland to an exotic animal farm in Italy, and resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the world—or at least this family."
The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa By: Stephen Buoro, read by Jude Owusu for Bloomsbury -- "Andrew Aziza is an unusually smart fifteen-year-old in Kontagora, Nigeria. He lives with his fiercely protective mother, Gloria, and fantasizes obsessively about white girls—especially blondes. When he's not in church, at school, or hanging about town with his droogs wishing to become one of “Africa’s first superheroes,” he's contemplating the larger questions with his teacher Zahrah and his equally brilliant friend Fatima, a Hausa-Fulani girl who has feelings for him. Together they discuss mathematical theorems, Black power, and what Andy has deemed the Curse of Africa."
NON-FICTION:
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann, read by Dion Graham for Random House -- "On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes–they were mutineers."
Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe by Phil Plait, read by the author for OrangeSky -- "A rip-roaring tour of the cosmos with the Bad Astronomer, revealing the sky as never seen before―from everywhere but Earth."
YOUNG ADULTS:
- If I See You Again Tomorrow By: Robbie Couch, read by Kurt Kanazawa for Simon and Schuster -- "For some reason, Clark has woken up and relived the same monotonous Monday 309 times. Until Day 310 turns out to be…different. Suddenly, his usual torturous math class is interrupted by an anomaly—a boy he’s never seen before in all his previous Mondays."
YOUNG LISTENERS:
The Rhythm of Time by Questlove with S.A. Cosby, read by Kaylor Leigh for Listening Library -- "Seventh grader Rahim Reynolds loves testing out the gadgets invented by his brilliant friend Kasia Collins. First there were the X-ray glasses and all the trouble they caused. Now there’s the new cell phone she built for his birthday, even though his parents won’t let him have one. But Rahim is excited to use the phone to search for videos of his favorite old-school rap group. What he doesn’t know is the phone has a special battery that interfaces with a secret government satellite, which spells trouble when the phone transports him back to 1997. Almost immediately, he learns what every time traveler before him has: Actions in the past jeopardize the future."
Elf Dog and Owl Head By: M.T. Anderson, read by Pete Cross for Dreamscape -- "Clay has had his fill of home life. A global plague has brought the world to a screeching halt, and with little to look forward to but a summer of video-calling friends, vying with annoying sisters for the family computer, and tuning out his parents’ financial worries, he’s only too happy to retreat to the woods. From the moment the elegant little dog with the ornate collar appears like an apparition among the trees, Clay sees something uncanny in her. With this mysterious Elphinore as guide, he’ll glimpse ancient secrets folded all but invisibly into the forest."
BACKLIST WATCH:
The Waves Extinguish the Wind By: Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (1986), translated by Daniels Umanovskis, read by Kevin Pariseau for Blackstone -- "The epic conclusion to the Noon Universe saga, as eighty-nine-year-old Maxim Kammerer looks back at his most earth-shattering investigation, which brought an entire era of human civilization to an end. Searching for evidence that the mysterious alien Wanderers were interfering in Earth’s development, Kammerer and his young trainee Toivo Glumov discovered a deeper and more disturbing secret within humanity itself."
Slippage by Harlan Ellison (1997), read by Cindy Kay and Luis Moreno for Recorded Books -- "With this, his bestselling and most critically acclaimed collection ever, Ellison celebrates four decades of brilliant, outrageous writing. The award-winning novella Mefisto in Onyx is the centerpiece of an irreverent and wildly imaginative book."
The Monsters We Deserve By: Marcus Sedgwick (2018), read by Alan Irving for SAGA Egmont -- "The Villa Diodati, on the shore of Lake Geneva, 1816: the Year without Summer. As Byron, Polidori, and Mr and Mrs Shelley shelter from the unexpected weather, old ghost stories are read and new ghost stories imagined. Born by the twin brains of the Shelleys is Frankenstein, one of the most influential tales of horror of all time. In a remote mountain house, high in the French Alps, an author broods on Shelley's creation. Reality and perception merge, fuelled by poisoned thoughts. Humankind makes monsters; but who really creates who?"
The Return By: Walter de la Mare (1910), read by Stefan Rudnicki for Blackstone -- "While wandering the local graveyard on behalf of his wife, whom he can sense wishes him out of the house for a bit, exceedingly ordinary Arthur Lawford comes across the grave of Nicholas Sabathier and experiences a nasty shock that feels something like a heart attack. But when he wakes back up in the graveyard the next morning, he returns home, goes to his bedroom, and turns to the mirror only to see that a dead Frenchman is staring back at him from the looking glass."
Wendy, Darling By: A. C. Wise (2021), read by Ella Lynch for Blackstone -- "A lush feminist re-imagining on what happened to Wendy after Neverland."
Hooked by A.C. Wise (2022), read by Joel Froomkin for Blackstone -- "A dark, gorgeous reimagining about what happened to Captain Hook after Neverland."
In the Ruins: Crown of Stars, Book 6 by Kate Elliott (2005), read by Shiromi Arserio for Tantor -- "The lost land of the Aoi has returned to the earth from which it was cast forth millennia ago. And though the battle for survival must be the primary focus, there are always those eager to seize power."
MORE FICTION:
Trace Evidence By: Charif Shanahan, read by the author for HighBridge -- "In Trace Evidence, the urgent follow-up to his award-winning debut Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing, Charif Shanahan continues his piercing meditations on the intricacies of mixed-race identity, queer desire, time, mortality, and the legacies of anti-Blackness in the US and abroad."
Brother & Sister Enter the Forest By: Richard Mirabella, read by Eve Passeltiner for Dreamscape -- "After years of severed communication, Justin appears on his sister’s doorstep needing a place to stay. The home he's made for himself has collapsed, as has everything else in his life. When they were children, Willa played the role of her brother’s protector, but now, afraid of the chaos he might bring, she’s reluctant to let him in."
Silver Alert By: Lee Smith, read by Caitlin Davies for Algonquin -- "This funny and endearing novel of family, secrets, and aging follows an elderly man who heads off on a joyride with a new young friend—who may have some secrets of her own."
MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:
Flux: A Novel by Jinwoo Chong, read by David Lee Huynh for Tantor -- "A blazingly original and stylish debut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his mysterious employers have inadvertently discovered time travel—and are using it to cover up a string of violent crimes."
The Reinvented Heart edited by Cat Rambo and Jennifer Brozek, read by Krystal Hammond for Tantor -- "What happens when emotions like love and friendship span vast distances—in space, in time, and in the heart?"
Five First Chances By: Sarah Jost, read by Amy Scanlon for Recorded Books -- "Lou feels like she is stuck on the wrong path: alone, in a city far from home, watching other people be happy. When the man she’s in love with announces his engagement to someone else, Lou is consumed by what-ifs. That’s when she finds herself slipping back in time to a night two years ago, where one small decision changed everything. Suddenly, Lou has a chance to fix her mistakes. But as her choices lead her down roads she never could have imagined, she finds herself stuck in a time loop of her own making. And with each slip, Lou notices her life intersecting with one person again and again."
SERIES WATCH:
City of Dreams: City on Fire, Book 2 By: Don Winslow, read by Ari Fliakos for Harper -- "Following the epic, ambitious, instant New York Times bestseller City on Fire, “The Godfather for our generation” (Adrian McKinty), comes the dramatic second novel in an epic crime trilogy."
Furious Heaven: The Sun Chronicles, Book 2 by Kate Elliott, read by Natalie Naudus for Macmillan -- "The action-packed sequel to bestselling author Kate Elliott's thrilling space adventure The Unconquerable Sun, a genderspun Alexander the Great."
The Blood Gift: The Blood Gift Duology, Book 2 By: N. E. Davenport, read by Jeanette Illidge for Harper -- "Elite warrior Ikenna and her rogue cohort must outrun bounty hunters, their former comrades, and a megalomaniacal demi-god, all in the hopes of saving their friends and enemies from the racist and misogynistic oppression that threatens the continents from all sides."
Talos: Book 2 By: Brian D. Anderson, read by Bradford Hastings for Blackstone -- "Recovered from his wounds, James Talos is more determined than ever to find his family and spirit them away to safety. But the road ahead is long and fraught with peril. Killer clones, feral cannibals, and murderous bandits are only the beginning of the dangers he must face. And should he find a way to stay alive, what will he discover? What truth lies beneath the layers of lies and deceit?"
The Bone Shard War: The Drowning Empire, Book 3 by Andrea Stewart, read by Natalie Naudus, Feodor Chin, and Emily Woo Zeller for Orbit -- "The fate of Lin Sukai—and her family’s dynasty—lay in her hands in this action-packed, magic-laced epic fantasy."
For the First Time, Again: Take Them to the Stars, Book 3 by Sulvain Neuvel, read by Imogen Wilde, Kevin Shen, Kristin Atherton, Lance C. Fuller, and Rory Alexander for Macmillan -- "Against the backdrop of authentic historical events, Sylvain Neuvel concludes his acclaimed Take Them to the Stars series with a biting satire on the role of authority in all its guises, bringing us a truly breathtaking science fiction trilogy that spans the ages."
The Secret Service of Tea and Treason: Dangerous Damsels, Book 3 by India Holton, read by Elizabeth Knowelden for Penguin -- "Two rival spies must brave pirates, witches, and fake matrimony to save the Queen."
The Valley: A Lee Harden Novel by D.J. Molles, read by Christian Rummel for Audible -- "It has been six years since plague, famine, and war ravaged the planet. World powers have collapsed. The human population has been reduced by 90 percent, and those who survived must always contend with a novel apex predator: human beings whose very DNA has been radically altered by the plague."
INDIE WATCH:
Groom Lake By: S. E. England, read by Siobhan Waring for Tantor -- "Lauren Stafford, a traumatized divorcee, decides to rent a cottage on the edge of a beautiful ancestral estate in the Welsh Marches. But from the very first day of arrival she instinctively knows there's something terribly wrong here—something malevolent and ancient—a feeling the whole place is trapped in a time warp. She really ought to leave. But the pull of the lake is too strong, its dark magic so powerful it crosses over into dreams . . . turning them into nightmares. What lies beneath its still black surface? And why can't Lauren drag herself away? Why her? And why now?"
The Tempest: First Contact by Peter Cawdron, read by Kaleo Griffith and Caitlin Davies for Podium -- "Marc and Emma are on the graveyard shift onboard the Sycorax, an interstellar spacecraft bound for New Haven, a colony world fifty light years from Earth. For the crew of the Sycorax, interstellar flight is boring—that is, until they run into a tempest. Before long, they find themselves on a crippled spacecraft falling toward a black hole, but that's the least of their problems..."
Mageling: Millennial Mage, Book 1 by J.L. Mullins, read by Tess Irondale for Mountaindale Press -- "The Wilds relentlessly reclaim all things. Humanity shelters within their ever-dying cities. Mages create the only path forward."
MOST MISSING:
The Iron Children by Rebecca Fraimow (Rebellion) -- "Asher has been training her entire life to become a Sor-Commander. One day, she'll give her soul to the gilded, mechanical body of the Sor and become a commander to a battalion of Dedicates. These soldiers, encased in exoskeletons, with extra arms, and telepathic subordination to the Sor-Commanders, are the only thing that's kept the much larger Levastani army of conquest at bay for decades."
The Other Lives Of Miss Emily White by A.J. Elwood (Titan) -- "1864. Banished from her parents' farm to a boarding school for young ladies, Ivy feels utterly alone. In a crumbling and isolated seminary that has seen better days, she is shunned by the other pupils for her working-class origins, and mourns for her sister, who died not long after she was sent away. Hope comes in the form of a new teacher, Miss Emily White, but almost immediately, suspicions are raised that she is not all she should be. Ivy is captivated, yet as her devotion grows, odd reports begin to circulate that Miss White has been glimpsed in the garden picking flowers whilst also teaching a class, leaving the school but stalking the halls at the same time."
Goblins and Grimalkin: the Tooth of the Troll by Joe M. McDermott -- "Rambol goblin is determined to be the greatest sneak thief of all goblin-kind, not a tree-sniffer like his parents. He wants his statue forever on display in the Goblin Hall of Greatness and Their Great Goings On, and that means he must do an exceptional act of thievery, like taking the tooth of a living troll. The path is perilous, and the danger vast. But, he does not go alone into the grimalkin kingdoms, where giants live among the roads and buildings."