Page 3 of posts by: Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

Release Week: 5 May 2026

Posted on 2026-05-05 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

* The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean, read by Natalie Naudus -- "A stunning Gothic tale set in a historical Hong Kong that meshes ancient myths and local legends into a haunting story of ghosts, grief, and women who will not forgive."

* The Republic of Memory: A Novel by Mahmud El Sayed, read by Lara Sawalha and George Greenland -- "A Memory Called Empire meets Children of Time in this Arabfuturist debut set on a generation ship on the brink of revolution as its crew begin to ask why they

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 28 April 2026

Posted on 2026-04-28 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

FICTION WATCH:

• Certainty: A Novel by John Twelve Hawks, read by Scott Brick -- "A masterful journey through the near future of Artificial Intelligence, in which a wise, orphaned ten-year-old girl goes on the run with only her trusty "Interactive Toy" to guide her toward New York City, where a dark landscape, and perhaps a hidden hero, await her."

• If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light by Kim Choyeop, read by Rosa Escoda -- "A stunning and poignant collection of literary speculative fiction stories that

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 21 April 2026

Posted on 2026-04-21 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

I agree it's a neat premise -- my wife's reading it now! -- but that audiobook did come out two weeks ago, not this week.

so far so good!

PICKS:

• The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang, read by Emily Woo Zeller -- "In his training as a spy, Ro was warned: you will always be living a lie. Jumping into a Star Eater's mind in the first place requires a moment of perfect psychic connection, and he has studied all his life to comprehend their species. He admires them, respects them, and is reverent at the idea of

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 14 April 2026

Posted on 2026-04-14 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

• Wife Shaped Bodies: A Novel by Laura Cranehill, read by Cindy Kay -- "Sorrowland meets Manhunt in this literary horror debut in which an isolated newlywed, covered in fungal fruiting bodies, strikes a precarious balance between following her husband's strict rules and pursuing an intense connection with a woman who makes her question everything."

• Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker, read by Natalie Naudus -- "In this lyrical, wildly inventive horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology, two

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 7 April 2026

Posted on 2026-04-07 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

I had not one but TWO pre-orders come in this week:

* The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu, read by Katharine Chin -- "Ellie’s universe—and this one—is falling apart. Her ailing mother is in a coma; her sister, Chris, accuses her of being insufficiently Chinese between assassination attempts; and a shadowy cabal of engineers is trying to hijack the skunkworks, the machinery that keeps the physics of each universe working the way it’s supposed to. Daniel, Ellie's cousin, has found an illicit device in

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 31 March 2026

Posted on 2026-03-31 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

* How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay by Jenny Lawson, read by the author

* The Geomagician by Jennifer Mandula, read by Saskia Maarleveld -- "When a Victorian fossil hunter discovers a baby pterodactyl, she vows to protect him, with the help of a fellow scholar."

YOUNG ADULT WATCH:

* The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst, read by Soneela Nankani -- "A teen girl decides to spend her summer helping her eccentric great aunt manage her quaint Vermont inn—only to discover that the fixer-upper is hiding a

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 24 March 2026

Posted on 2026-03-24 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

* Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar, read by Rachel Elizabeth Smith -- My preorder this week, absolutely stunning: "With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose."

* Python's Kiss: Stories by Louise Erdrich, read by Pallas Erdrich -- "From Pulitzer Prize and

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 17 March 2026

Posted on 2026-03-17 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK:

* Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age by Ibram X. Kendi, read by the author -- This is the most at-length piece the author has read (of which I'm aware) and it isn't a flawless performance. There are some pauses which almost stumble the listener out of the flow of the book. But it also outlines the vocabulary, data, and historical context around the rise of "The Great Replacement Theory" and its causal chain with the rise of authoritarianism around the world.

F

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 10 March 2026

Posted on 2026-03-10 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

* Nonesuch: A Novel by Francis Spufford, read by Lydia Wilson for Simon and Schuster -- "A spellbinding tale about an ambitious young woman who must thwart an occult plot by time-traveling fascists during the chaos of the London Blitz."

* The Natural Way of Things: A Novel by Charlotte Wood (2016), read by Alisa Piper for Penguin -- "When the women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in a broken-down property in the middle of a desert, they have no idea where they are or how

Posted in Release Week

Release Week: 24 February 2026

Posted on 2026-02-24 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

PICKS:

* Brawler: Stories by Lauren Groff, read by the author -- "A stunning, fierce collection from a master of the short story and one of the most important writers of our time."

* Kin: A Novel by Tayari Jones, read by Angel Pean -- "An unforgettable novel that sparkles with wit and intelligence and deep feeling about two lifelong friends whose worlds converge after many years apart in the face of a devastating tragedy."

* Trust No One: A Thriller by James Rollins, read by Simon Vance -- "A shocking new

Posted in Release Week