Release Week: 6 June 2023
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Release Week: 6 June 2023
Posted on 2023-06-06 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel By: S. A. Cosby, read by Adam Lazarre-White for Macmillan -- "Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. But after years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface. Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon."
Translation State By: Ann Leckie, read by Adjoa Andoh for Orbit -- "Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn't "optimal behavior". I's the type of behavior that results in elimination. But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots—or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him. As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line—the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars."
The Endless Vessel: A Novel By: Charles Soule, read by Barrie Kreinik for Harper -- "A few years from now, in a world similar to ours, there exists a sort of “depression plague” that people refer to simply as “The Grey.” No one can predict whom it will afflict, or how, but once infected, there’s no coming back. A young Hong Kong based scientist, Lily Barnes, is trying to maintain her inner light in an increasingly dark world. The human race is dwindling, and people fighting to push forward are increasingly rare. One day, Lily comes across something that seems to be addressing her directly, calling to her, asking her to follow a path to whatever lies at its end. Is this the Endless Vessel to happiness? She leaves her life behind and sets out through time and space to find out."
The Memory of Animals: A Novel By: Claire Fuller, read by Genevieve Gaunt for Audible -- "In the face of a pandemic, an unprepared world scrambles to escape the mysterious disease causing sensory damage, nerve loss, and, in most cases, death. Neffy, a disgraced and desperately indebted 27-year-old marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial in London—perhaps humanity’s last hope for a cure. Though isolated from the chaos outside, she and the other volunteers—Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper—cannot hide from the mistakes that led them there. As London descends into chaos outside the hospital windows, Neffy befriends Leon, who before the pandemic had been working on a controversial technology that allows users to revisit their memories. She withdraws into projections of her past—a childhood bisected by divorce, a recent love affair, her obsessive research with octopuses, and the one mistake that ended her career."
At the Edge of the Woods by Kathryn Bromwich, read by Gemma Dawson for HighBridge -- "Laura lives alone in a cabin deep within the forest, making her living translating medical documents and tutoring the children of affluent locals. She spends her days climbing the mountains outside her door and roaming the woods, and soon begins a relationship with a waiter some years her junior, which brings new rhythms to her life. But late one night there is a knock on the door, and on the other side stands someone from her past who has finally found her. As the mystery surrounding why she is there comes into focus, Laura is plagued by a fever, and starts to experience flashbacks to her youth, along with an eerie second sight that seems to lift the veil on reality while making astonishing new connections with the natural world around her. In beguiling, lyrical prose we begin to see how Laura's past informs her present and is a shackle she is desperately trying to shed. Before long though the villagers grow wary of the woman in the cabin and of her increasingly odd behavior, and a few decide to take matters into their own hands; to free themselves from the malevolent forces of the strega who lives amongst them."
The Moon Represents My Heart By: Pim Wangtechawat, read by Rebecca Yeo for Blackstone -- "The Wang family is hiding a secret—they all have the ability to time travel. When parents Joshua and Lily depart for the past and never return, their children Tommy and Eva are forced to deal with their grief alone. Eva tries to find her place in the present, while Tommy is pulled further and further into a past that he hopes holds the truth. When he falls in love with a woman from 1930s London Chinatown, his inability to confront his own history has serious ramifications for the people who can truly bring him happiness."
Nothing but the Rain By: Naomi Salman, read by Soneela Nankani for Tantor -- "The rain in Aloisville is never-ending, and no one can remember when it started. There's not much they can remember. With every drop that hits their skin, a bit of memory is washed away. Stay too long in the wet, and you'll lose everything you used to be. By the time Laverne begins keeping a journal, the small town she calls home has been irreparably changed. Every drop of water is dangerous, from leaky faucets to the near-constant rainfall, and a careless trip outside can mean a life down the drain. With mysterious forces preventing escape, calls for rebellion seem to be on every resident's lips. But Laverne has no interest in fighting. She has no interest in rebellion. She just wants to survive."
Open Throat By: Henry Hoke, read by Pete Cross for Dreamscape -- "A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. Lonely and fascinated by humanity’s foibles, the lion spends their days protecting the welfare of a nearby homeless encampment, observing obnoxious hikers complain about their trauma, and, in quiet moments, grappling with the complexities of their gender identity, memories of a vicious father, and the indignities of sentience. “I have so much language in my brain,” our lion says, “and nowhere to put it.” When a man-made fire engulfs the encampment, the lion is forced from the hills down into the city the hikers call “ellay.” As the lion confronts a carousel of temptations and threats, they take us on a tour that spans the cruel inequalities of Los Angeles and the toll of climate grief, while scrambling to avoid earthquakes, floods, and the noise of their own conflicted psyche. But even when salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question: Do they want to eat a person or become one?"
Killingly By: Katharine Beutner, read by Rachel Botchan for Recorded Books -- "Bertha Mellish, “the most peculiar, quiet, reserved girl” at Mount Holyoke College in 1897, is missing. One cold November morning the junior is spotted walking through the Massachusetts woods; then, she vanishes. As a search team dredges the pond where she might have drowned, Bertha’s panicked father and sister arrive at the campus desperate to find some clue as to her fate or state of mind. Bertha’s best friend, Agnes, a scholarly loner studying medicine, might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tightlipped, inciting the suspicions of Bertha’s family, her classmates, and the private investigator hired by the Mellish family doctor. As secrets from Agnes and Bertha’s lives come to light, so do the competing agendas driving each person who is searching for Bertha."
My Murder: A Novel By: Katie Williams, read by Rebecca Lowman for Penguin -- "Lou is a happily married mother of an adorable toddler. She’s also the victim of a local serial killer. Recently brought back to life and returned to her grieving family by a government project, she is grateful for this second chance. But as the new Lou re-adapts to her old routines, and as she bonds with other female victims, she realizes that disturbing questions remain about what exactly preceded her death and how much she can really trust those around her."
The Light on Farallon Island: A Novel By: Jen Wheeler, read by Sarah Zimmerman for Brilliance -- "Thirty miles off the coast of San Francisco lie the Farallon Islands, known to sailors as the Devil’s Teeth. Despite their fearsome reputation, their remote nature appeals to young Lucy Riley, who in 1859 seeks a new start as a teacher to the lighthouse keepers’ children. But Lucy brings treacherous secrets with her, including a name that isn’t hers and a past she can’t escape. On the island, she meets Will Sisson, a mysterious man who seems to recognize her name—but not her face. Wary of Will at first, Lucy slowly starts to trust him. As Lucy embeds herself in the island’s community, she discovers numerous dangers: deadly cliffs, shark-infested waters, and disorienting fogs. A dark presence of another sort, too, disguises an encroaching threat."
NON-FICTION WATCH:
Pageboy: A Memoir By: Elliot Page, read by the author for Macmillan -- "As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent, unsure of what to do, until enough was enough. Full of behind the scenes details and intimate interrogations on sex, love, trauma, and Hollywood, Pageboy is the story of a life pushed to the brink. But at its core, this beautifully written, winding journey of what it means to untangle ourselves from the expectations of others is an ode to stepping into who we truly are with defiance, strength, and joy."
Don't Call It Hair Metal: Art in the Excess of '80s Rock By: Sean Kelly, read by the author for Tantor -- "There may be no more joyous iteration in all of music than 1980s hard rock. It was an era where the musical and cultural ideals of rebellion and freedom of the great rock 'n' roll of the '50s, '60s, and '70s were taken to dizzying heights of neon excess. Attention to songcraft, showmanship, and musical virtuosity (especially in the realm of the electric guitar) were at an all-time high, and radio and MTV were delivering the goods en masse to the corn-fed children of America and beyond."
MORE FICTION:
Lady Tan's Circle of Women By: Lisa See, read by Jennifer Lim and Justin Chien for Simon and Schuster -- "According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient."
The Wind Knows My Name: A Novel By: Isabel Allende, translated by Frances Riddle, read by Edoardo Ballerini and Maria Liatis for Random House -- "Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler is five years old when his father disappears during Kristallnacht—the night his family loses everything. As her child’s safety becomes ever harder to guarantee, Samuel’s mother secures a spot for him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England. He boards alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin. Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Díaz and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. But their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and seven-year-old Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes her tenuous reality through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination. Meanwhile, Selena Durán, a young social worker, enlists the help of a successful lawyer in hopes of tracking down Anita’s mother."
The Whispers: A Novel By: Ashley Audrain, read by Jill Winternitz for Penguin -- "The Loverlys sit by the hospital bed of their young son who is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window in the middle of the night; his mother, Whitney, will not speak to anyone. Back home, their friends and neighbors are left in shock, each confronting their own role in the events that led up to what happened that terrible night: the warm, altruistic Parks who are the Loverlys' best friends; the young, ambitious Goldsmiths who are struggling to start a family of their own; and the quiet, elderly Portuguese couple who care for their adult son with a developmental disability, and who pass the long days on the front porch, watching their neighbors go about their busy lives."
Crow Mary: A Novel By: Kathleen Grissom, read by Carolina Hoyos for Simon and Schuster -- "A sweeping saga inspired by the true story of Crow Mary—an indigenous woman torn between two worlds in 19th-century North America."
A Killer's Game: Daniela Vega, Book 1 By: Isabella Maldonado, read by Almarie Guerra, Feodor Chin for Brilliance -- "FBI agent and former military codebreaker Daniela “Dani” Vega witnesses a murder on a Manhattan sidewalk. The victim is chief of staff for a powerful New York senator. The assassin turned informant is Gustavo Toro. His code: hit the target and don’t ask questions. When Dani suspects a complex conspiracy, the only way to take down the mastermind is from the inside, forcing her to partner with Toro. Together they must infiltrate the inner circle at a remote facility. Except it’s a trap. For all of them."
MORE SCI-FI and FANTASY:
Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella, read by Anthony Nyro for WF Howes -- "Brian, an aimless slacker, works doubles at his shift job, forgets to clean his room and lays about with his friends Nik and Darby. He's been struggling to manage his transition to adulthood almost as much as his monthly transitions to a werewolf. Really, he is not great at the whole werewolf thing, and his recent murderous slip-ups have caught the attention of Tyler, a Millennial were-mentor determined to take the mythological world by storm."
Shanghai Immortal By: A. Y. Chao, read by Mei Mei Macleod for Hodder and Stoughton -- "Pawned by her mother to the King of Hell as a child, Lady Jing is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit and all sasshole. As the King's ward, she has spent the past ninety years running errands, dodging the taunts of the spiteful hulijing courtiers, and trying to control her explosive temper - with varying levels of success. So when Jing overhears the courtiers plotting to steal a priceless dragon pearl from the King, she seizes her chance to expose them, once and for all."
The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong, read by Emily Woo Zeller for Dreamscape -- "There is a restaurant in Toronto. Its entrance is announced only by a simple unadorned wooden door, varnished to a beautiful shine but without paint, hidden beside dumpsters and a fire escape. There is no sign, no indication of what lies behind the door. If you do manage to find the restaurant, the décor is dated and worn—homey, if one were to be generous. The service is atrocious; the proprietor, a grouch. The regulars are worse: silent, brooding, and unfriendly to newcomers. There is no set menu, alternating with the whim and whimsy of the owner. The selection of wine and beer is sparse or nonexistent at times, and the prices are outrageous. There is a restaurant in Toronto that is magically hidden, whose service is horrible and whose food is divine."
A Thousand Recipes for Revenge: Chefs of the Five Gods, Book 1 By: Beth Cato, read by Elizabeth Knowelden for Brilliance -- "A world on the brink of war and a mother and daughter on the run, in a thrilling novel of swashbuckling adventure, culinary magic, and just desserts."
Hammer of Fate: The Rune Song Trilogy, Book 1 by G.N. Gudgion, read by Matt Addis for Hachette UK -- "With 20 enemy swords at their backs and a broken bridge ahead, the last knights of an outlaw order turn to fight. A young woman with forbidden magic joins their final stand. And as blade meets blade, she starts to sing."
Cassandra in Reverse By: Holly Smale, read by Kristin Atherton for Harlequin -- "Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend, Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order…until now. She's just been dumped. She's just been fired. Her local café has run out of banana muffins. Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated, but soon she'll discover she's trying to fix all the wrong things."
Mortal Follies: A Novel By: Alexis Hall, read by Nneka Okoye for Random House -- "t is the year 1814, and life for a young lady of good breeding has many difficulties. There are balls to attend, fashions to follow, marriages to consider, and, of course, the tiny complication of existing in a world swarming with fairy spirits, interfering deities, and actual straight-up sorcerers. Miss Maelys Mitchelmore finds her entry into high society hindered by an irritating curse. It begins innocuously enough with her dress slowly unmaking itself over the course of an evening at a high-profile ball, a scandal she narrowly manages to escape. However, as the curse progresses to more fatal proportions, Miss Mitchelmore must seek out aid, even if that means mixing with undesirable company."
BACKLIST WATCH:
On Fragile Waves By: E. Lily Yu (2021), read by Jeed Saddy for Recorded Books -- "Firuzeh and her brother Nour are children of fire, born in an Afghanistan fractured by war. When their parents, their Atay and Abay, decide to leave, they spin tales of their destination, the mythical land and opportunities of Australia. As the family journeys from Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, heading toward a hope of home, they must rely on fragile and temporary shelters, strangers both mercenary and kind, and friends who vanish as quickly as they’re found. When they arrive in Australia, a seemingly stable shore gives way to treacherous currents. Neighbors, classmates, and the government seek their own ends, indifferent to the family’s fate. For Firuzeh, her fantasy worlds provide some relief, but as her family and home splinter, she must surface from these imaginings and find a new way."
By Raven's Call: The Blackwing Cycle, Book 1 By: J. A. Devenport (2018), read by Caleb Anderton -- "Faced with increasing pressure from rebels, the tyrant king of Dargenn must force a war with the rival nation of Relan to unite the country behind him. To help create chaos, he turns to the most feared assassin in the world, the Raven, a man cursed by ancient demons and forced to kill at their whim; if he fails, he dies. Using his knowledge of the Raven's masters, the king forces the assassin into a contract to kill the only individual who might threaten his plans, a powerful sorcerer and scholar named Enias."
Kill the Dragon, Get the Girl By: Cheston Hervey and Darren Doane (2017), read by Belle Iverson for Canon Press -- "Lacy is the sole survivor of a freak accident that took 11 of her friends and the use of her legs. It left her with night terrors, and though no one will say it to her face, everybody thinks she might have gone a little crazy. Lacy's younger brother Tommy has no such problems, although having the largest vocabulary in your class and being constantly preoccupied with medieval weaponry comes with its own set of difficulties. But when Lacy and Tommy and their friend Wayne (big belt buckle, big hat, wishes he could do 200 pull-ups) are forced to confront a suspicious recluse named Verdell Graham, things go from bad to worse. The kids are sucked into an adventure that challenges their perception of reality, and demands that they face what they fear most."
The Weavers of Saramyr: Braided Path, Book 1, The Skein of Lament: Braided Path, Book 2, and The Ascendancy Veil: Braided Path, Book 3 by Chris Wooding (2010), read by Imogen Church for Gollancz -- "A richly textured, darkly evocative fantasy set in a beautifully realised fantasy world, the Saramyr trilogy tells the story of an empire that rules over a land being overwhelmed by evil."
NEW EDITION WATCH:
- The Dragon Reborn: Wheel of Time, Book 3 By: Robert Jordan, read by Rosamund Pike for Macmillan -- "Winter has stopped the war—almost—yet men are dying, calling out for the Dragon. But where is he?"
MOST MISSING:
The Master of Samar by Melissa Scott (Candlemark and Gleam) -- "Rejected by his aristocratic family, Gil Irichels has been content to make his living as a traveling cursebreaker, working with his lover, the feral mage Envar Cassi, and their bodyguard, swordswoman Arak min’Aroi. After a series of deaths leave him the sole heir to the family’s house and fortune, Irichels’s main concern is to do whatever he must to settle the estate and return to his previous life. But these is something very wrong in seaborne Bejanth, starting with the deaths of his kin and spreading into the complex web of politics and magic that holds the city together. As he struggles to discover the truth behind his family’s losses, he realizes that there is more at stake than the fall of one house. Someone is unraveling the web of curses on which the city depends, and Irichels is the only person who can stop them—if it’s not already too late."
Wild: A Fantastical Baseball Novel by Will McIntosh (Finch Hill Press) -- "Very strange things are happening to the Manhattan Knights, and Jason Cutty, a pitcher on the team, appears to be responsible. One player, for example, cries every time he sets foot on the field. Another can’t reach base no matter how hard he hits the ball. The infield floods on sunny days. Cutty himself has become hopelessly wild. He can’t throw strikes, at all, and is in danger of being released by the team. How is Cutty responsible for all of this weirdness? That depends on who you ask. Cutty believes there’s a rational explanation, while his grandfather and the record store-owning Asian-American Buddhist he’s in love with believe he has offended the game of baseball itself. What did Cutty do to potentially offend the game of baseball itself? The answer involves the first openly-gay player in major league history, a beanball, the top of the Statue of Liberty, and a long-dead baseball legend."
The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar by Indra Das (Subterranean Press) -- "Ru is a boy from nowhere. Though he lives somewhere—the city of Calcutta—his classmates in school remind him he doesn’t look like them, and must come from somewhere else. When Ru asks his parents, they tell him they are descended from nomads. But even nomads must come from somewhere. The question, forever on the mind of the boy from nowhere, is where. Ru dreams things that wouldn’t seem out of place in the fantasy novels his father read to him when young. Fragments of a culture that doesn’t exist in this world, but might in another, where sky and sea are one, and humans sail this eternal ocean on the backs of divine beasts. Ru dreams of dragons, of serpents impossible. Perhaps Ru remembers dragons. Alone in a city that’s home but doesn’t feel like it, Ru befriends Alice, his neighbor from the nearby Chinatown. As they grow with their friendship, Ru finds that Calcutta may yet be a home for him. But with his best friend starting to realize that Ru’s house and family hide a myriad of secrets, the question haunts him still—where is his family from? Are they truly from nowhere, migrants to this reality? And if so, what strange wings brought them across the vast reaches of impossibility to here—and what is their purpose?"