Release Week: 4 November 2025
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Release Week: 4 November 2025
Posted on 2025-11-04 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
PICKS:
The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories By: Salman Rushdie, read by Sanjeev Bhaskar, Nicholas Khan, Sid Sagar, Naveen Andrews, and Neil Shah for Random House -- "A spellbinding exploration of life, death, and what comes into focus at the proverbial eleventh hour of life."
Lightbreakers: A Novel by Aja Gabel, read by Ina Barrón, Jay Myers, and Mirai for Penguin -- "Maya, an artist, and Noah, a quantum physicist, share an insatiable curiosity about the world. But their happy marriage has a shadow over it: Serena, the child Noah had with his first wife, who died before she turned four. When Noah is invited by the Janus Project to unravel the secrets of time travel, he jumps at the opportunity. At a laboratory deep in the Texas desert, he begins participating in a dangerous experiment that could result in something he thought impossible: seeing his daughter again. Meanwhile, Maya embarks on a journey back to her own past in Japan, and to a formative lover who once shattered her heart. As Noah and Maya grapple with hope and despair, new information emerges that the experiments might not be exactly what they seems."
Cursed Daughters: A Novel by Oyinkan Braithwaite, read by Diana Yekinni for Books On Tape -- "A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry, and superstition."
Palaver: A Novel by Bryan Washington, read by André Santana for Macmillan -- "In Tokyo, the son works as an English tutor and drinks his nights away with friends at a gay bar. He's entangled in a sexual relationship with a married man, and while he has built a chosen family in Japan, he is estranged from his mother in Houston, whose preference for the son's oft-troubled homophobic brother, Chris, pushed him to leave home. Then, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, ten years since they last saw each other, the mother arrives uninvited on his doorstep."
Seascraper: A Novel By: Benjamin Wood, read by the author for Simon and Schuster -- "Haunting, timeless, and stunningly atmospheric, Seascraper tells the story of a quiet existence upturned over the span of one day, and a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows."
The Place Where They Buried Your Heart By: Christina Henry, read by Leiana Dooley for Penguin -- "A woman must confront the evil that has been terrorizing her street since she was a child in this gripping haunted house novel."
Fallen City by Adrienne Young, read by Dylan Reilly Fitzpatrick and Leela Bassuk for Macmillan -- "In the great walled city of Isara, political turmoil ignites a rebellion one hundred years in the making. But when a legionnaire falls in love with a Magistrate's daughter, their love will threaten the fate of the city and the will of the gods."
Coldwire By: Chloe Gong, read by Shannon Tyo for Simon and Schuster -- "The start of a daring new dystopian series where humanity has moved to virtual reality to flee their deteriorating world, following two young soldiers who must depend on unlikely allies in their fight for survival."
Son of the Morning: A Novel By: Akwaeke Emezi, read by Indigo Brown for Avon -- "A steamy paranormal romance set in the Black South—a bold new foray that takes us on a journey of magic and fantasy, from the whispering creeks outside the city of Salvation to the very depths of Hell itself."
The King Must Die By: Kemi Ashing-Giwa, read by Soneela Nankani for Simon and Schuster -- "A pulse-pounding science fiction adventure following the daughter of rebel instigators and the heir of a power-drunk ruler who team up to save their empire…or destroy it in the process."
The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer, read by Rebecca Soler for Macmillan -- "The tale of Bluebeard as it's never been told before—a thrilling romantasy and murder mystery."
The Time Traveler's Passport: Six Short Stories by John Scalzi, R. F. Kuang, Peng Shepherd, Kaliane Bradley, Olivie Blake, and P. Djèlí Clark, read by Malcolm Hillgartner, Kristie Lee Walsh, Jonathan Davis, Mirai, David Monteith, and A'rese Emokpae for Amazon Original Stories -- Also available individually.
NON-FICTION WATCH:
We Did Ok, Kid: A Memoir by Anthony Hopkins, read by Kenneth Branagh with the author for Simon and Schuster -- "Academy Award–winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins delves into his illustrious film and theater career, difficult childhood, and path to sobriety in his honest, moving, and long-awaited memoir."
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood, read by the author for Books On Tape -- " How does one of the greatest storytellers of our time write her own life? The long-awaited memoir from the author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, one of our most lauded and influential cultural figures."
The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity by Tim Wu, read by Frits Zernike for Book On Tape -- "Our world is dominated by a handful of tech platforms. They provide great conveniences and entertainment, but also stand as some of the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever invented, seizing immense amounts of money, data, and attention from all of us. An economy driven by digital platforms and AI influence offers the potential to enrich us, and also threatens to marginalize entire industries, widen the wealth gap, and foster a two-class nation. As technology evolves and our markets adapt, can society cultivate a better life for everyone?"
BACKLIST WATCH:
Freezing Point by Anders Bodelsen (1969), translated by Joan Tate, introduction by Sophie Mackintosh, read by Jonah York for Faber and Faber -- "A lost dystopian classic, set in a future without death, introduced by Sophie Mackintosh, for fans of Jeff VanderMeer, Emily St. John Mandel, and Jacqueline Harpman's I Who Have Never Known Men."
Five Ways to Forgiveness By: Ursula K. Le Guin (1995, 2017), read by Michael Crouch and Frankie Corzo for Recorded Books -- "A companion to Ursula K. Le Guin's award-winning Hainish novels—including The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed—Five Ways to Forgiveness tells the story of the planet Werel and its colony planet Yeowe, and how their societies are shaped by the legacies of slavery and revolution."
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (2024), read by the author for Dreamscape -- "December 1962: In a village deep in the English countryside, two neighboring couples begin the day. Local doctor Eric Parry commences his rounds in the village while his pregnant wife, Irene, wanders the rooms of their old house, mulling over the space that has grown between the two of them. On the farm nearby lives Irene's mirror image: witty but troubled Rita Simmons is also expecting. She spends her days trying on the idea of being a farmer's wife, but her head still swims with images of a raucous past that her husband, Bill, prefers to forget. When Rita and Irene meet across the bare field between their houses, a clock starts. There is still affection in both their homes; neither marriage has been abandoned. But when the ordinary cold of December gives way—ushering in violent blizzards of the harshest winter in living memory—so do the secret resentments harbored in all four lives."