Release Week: 4 July 2023
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Release Week: 4 July 2023
Posted on 2023-07-04 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
The API changes protest blackout (absolutely necessary!) broke a several-years streak of posting new audiobook roundups for me here, and I just haven't got back "up" for it, you know? Still, hey, why not, incredibly low effort weekly roundup since this is such an insanely quiet week...
PICKS:
Excavations: A Novel By: Kate Myers, read by Joy Nash for Harper -- "On a remote archeological site in Greece, the mythic home of the first Olympics, four women discover an unusual artifact. It’s a piece of history that definitely shouldn’t exist. And for the head archaeologist in charge, a relic himself, it means something’s gone horribly wrong. Elise, Kara, Z and Patty all find themselves digging here together, but they couldn’t be farther apart. Kara’s a polished conservator calling off her wedding. Patty and her bowl cut are desperate for love. Millennial Z just got dumped and fired yet again. And Elise, their star excavator, is a lone wolf about to go rogue. To figure out what they’re really digging for, and to topple the man who wants to hide their history, these dirt-crusted colleagues have to become what they’ve avoided for years—friends. If they put their own messes aside for one summer, they might just make the discovery of a lifetime."
The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt, read by Jim Meskimen for Harper -- "Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed."
Trinity: A Novel by Zelda Lockhart, read by Lynnette R. Freeman for Harper -- "The Hurston-Wright Award Finalist makes her long-awaited return with this electrifying saga that explores three generations of a family trying to overcome trials and trauma and free themselves from the darkness of the past."
BACKLIST:
- The Life You Left By: Carmel Harrington (2014), read by Breffni Holahan for Harper -- "It started out like any other day for Sarah Lawler; getting the kids ready for school, making the pack lunches and juggling baby Ella’s feeds. There was no way of knowing that her husband, Paul, would leave for work that morning and simply not come home. Now the questions are piling up quicker than the unpaid bills and, unable to answer her children’s questions about where their Daddy is, Sarah is getting desperate. But it turns out she isn’t quite as alone as she thought she was. When her beloved childhood friend, Edward, comes back into her life, Sarah thinks she’s finally been thrown a life line. There’s just one problem with Edward: Sarah is the only person who can see him."
TIE-IN:
Mirrorverse: Pure of Heart By: Delilah Dawson, read by Abigail Reno for Disney Press -- "Set in a familiar fantasy land, the story begins as Snow White helps a young deer in the forest. However, this is Snow White as reflected and evolved within the Mirrorverse, with new abilities and items infused with Stellar Magic that she must learn how to wield. Despite her new skills and the strange things happening in her world, Snow White has been carrying on as normal…until now. As she returns to her cottage, Snow is met with seven dark, angry expressions, and glowing white eyes. They surround her, claiming they need to capture "the heart of Snow White." Snow desperately tries to reason with who she thought were her friends, but they refuse to listen to her, and she ultimately must use her newly acquired abilities to defeat them. It is only when Stellar Sorcerer Mickey Mouse arrives and explains that the creatures she defeated were not her friends, but instead a group of evil copies created by Fractured Magic. Snow believes that the evil Queen has taken her friends, and it is up to Snow to retrieve them and the Fractured Stellar Mirror before it can be used to destroy Snow's home world forever. But Snow doesn't need to face the Queen alone. Mickey assigns her a team of fellow Guardians, powerful beings from many different worlds who have committed to thwarting the Fractured and protecting the Mirrorverse from harm. Snow meets Tiana—an potion-maker—Rapunzel—a fighter who knows how to wield a frying pan—Stitch—a chaotic blue alien—Sulley— a monster with a big heart—and Hades—the lord of the Underworld."
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas by Megan Shepherd, read by MacLeod Andrews for Disney Press -- "Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the holiday classic Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas with this stunning collectible novelization, adapted by New York Times bestselling author Megan Shepherd."
SERIES:
Season of Skulls: Laundry Files, Book 12 By: Charles Stross, read by Gideon Emery for Recorded Books -- "Welcome to the sunlit uplands of the 21st century! Britain's avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much."
The Lost Fleet: Outlands: Implacable By: Jack Campbell, read by Christian Rummel for Recorded Books -- "As far from explored space as any human has ever been, Geary and the Alliance fleet are on their own, protecting a diplomatic mission in territory belonging to an alien species with still-unknown motives."
1637: The Coast of Chaos: Ring of Fire, Book 34 edited by Eric Flint (2021), Gorg Huff, and Paula Goodlett, read by George Guidall for Recorded Books -- "It is now five years later, and the effects of the Ring of Fire reach from the Old World to the New. But the course of exploration and colonization will look much different than it did in our timeline. The French bought the English possessions in North America way back in 1633, but have never done much with the uncivilized backwater. Until the new king of France, Gaston I, decides that it's time to seize the territory and establish French control over it."
MISSING:
- Wampus Rumpus: A Bubba the Monster Hunter Novella by John G. Hartness (Falstaff Books) -- "He's back, and he's lost in the woods. Again. You'd think that a dude who spends most of his life running around in the woods hunting monsters would be better at not getting lost. You'd be wrong. Bubba and crew head to Tennessee to hunt down their dream cryptid - a wampus cat. At least, Bubba and Skeeter's dream cryptid. Geri and Amy have never heard of it. But that's okay, because Skeeter has a PowerPoint ready to go, just waiting for the day they got the call to hunt a wampus and make a rumpus!"