Release Week: 13 January 2026
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Release Week: 13 January 2026
Posted on 2026-01-13 at 12:00 by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
Hey, out on Friday is absolutely included in what's come out this past week! Congrats!
Thanks for the reminder, I'll take a look this time.
Fixed for next week: https://www.downpour.com/collections/new-releases
No pre-orders for me this week, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of titles to check out.
PICKS:
* Scavengers: A Novel by Kathleen Boland, read by Helen Laser for Penguin -- "After being fired for taking an uncharacteristic risk at her commodities trading job, Bea Macon sublets her New York apartment and books a one-way ticket to stay with her mother, Christy, a free spirit who has been living in Salt Lake City on Bea's dime. Usually the responsible one, Bea isn't about to admit exactly why she's suddenly decided to visit, but she isn’t the only one keeping secrets: Christy has a man. She has a map. She has . . . a username on a forum devoted to unearthing $1 million in buried treasure that an antiquities dealer claims to have hidden somewhere in the western U.S.?"
* The Briars by Sarah Crouch, read by Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Helen Laser, and Jonathan Todd Ross for Simon & Schuster -- "A lush and atmospheric novel of suspense following a young woman whose job as a game warden puts her in the path of a murderer in a small town eager to protect its own."
* The Truth of Carcosa by Jacob Rollinson, read by James Goode, Nneka Okoye, Christopher Tester, and Marc Vietor for Union Square -- "Evil books, shadowy corporations, and interdimensional monster collide in this dark, masterful tribute to Robert Chamber's cult classic, The King in Yellow."
* Pedro the Vast by Simón López Trujillo, read by Lee Osorio for Algonquin -- "In a dry and degraded, fire-prone landscape where humanity has encroached a step too far into the natural world, a deadly fungus mounts its own resistance."
NON-FICTION WATCH:
* The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s by Jason Burke, read by Kristin Atherton for Random House -- "An epic, authoritative, gripping account of the years when a new wave of revolutionaries seized the skies and the streets to hold the world for ransom."
* The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game by C. Thi Nguyen, read by the author for Penguin -- "One of the leading experts on the philosophy of games and the philosophy of data takes us deep into the heart of games, and into the depths of bureaucracy, to see how scoring systems shape our desires."
* Sacred by Vasudha Rai, read by Swasti Sharma for Random House -- "Reminds us of the symbiotic relationship we have with plants, the need for forests and greenery, their medicinal benefits, and environmental advantages that improve soil and air quality."
* The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans by Maya Shankar, read by the author -- "A revelatory exploration of how we can find meaning in the tumult of change, from a renowned cognitive scientist and host of the critically acclaimed podcast A Slight Change of Plans."
* Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China by Jung Chang, read by Adjoa Andoh -- "Chang's epic generation-defining family memoir, Wild Swans, ends in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping opened the door of Communist China, and Jung—twenty-six years old and unstoppably curious, despite years of brainwashing— seized the propitious moment and became one of the first Chinese to leave the tightly sealed country and come to the West. Fly, Wild Swans chronicles her journey and that of her family, along with that of China, as it rose from a decrepit and isolated state to a world power challenging American dominance."
* Winter: The Story of a Season by Val McDermid, read by the author -- "In this radiant work of creative nonfiction, the internationally beloved novelist delivers a dazzling ode to a lost world, ruminating on a single winter in her life as she journeys into the heart of the season's ever-evolving community-based traditions."
BACKLIST WATCH:
* Green Shadows, White Whale: A Novel of Ray Bradbury's Adventures Making Moby Dick with John Huston in Ireland by Ray Bradbury (1992), read by MacLeod Andrews for Simon & Schuster -- A semi-autobiographical "fix-up" novel that tells of this actually wild tale, involving fantastical Irish characters from myth and legend and folklore, the IRA, and "the boyos at Heeber Finn's pub."
* Under Fishbone Clouds by Sam Meekings (2009), read by Austin Ku for Tantor -- "A universal romance, a family saga, and a journey through Chinese history, myth, and culture, following a young couple as their love grows and is tested during Mao's Cultural Revolution."
* Coup De Grâce by Sofia Ajram (2024), read by Graham Halstead for Tantor -- "A mindbending and visceral experimental horror about a young man trapped in an infinite Montreal subway station."
SERIES WATCH:
* The School of Night: The Morning Star, Book 4 by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated by Martin Aitken, read by Rory Alexander for Penguin
And here's what ELSE was on my watch list or caught my eye when scanning through today:
* Weird Tales Magazine No. 372: Cryptids & Urban Legends, read by a full cast for Blackstone Audio -- includes stories by Jonathan Maberry, Keith DiCandido, Scott Sigler, Preston Grassmann, Samantha Underhill, and many others
* Sheer: A Novel by Vanessa Lawrence, read by Brittany Pressley for Penguin -- "Told over nine charged days, the gripping tale of a controversial beauty mogul’s insatiable ambition and the slippery ground between empowerment and abuse of power."
* The Midnight Carousel by Fiza Saeed McLynn, read by Aysha Kala for Harlequin -- "The Night Circus meets Water for Elephants in this enchanting, darkly glittering story of grief, obsession, revenge, and enduring love."
* The Naysayers: A Novel by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, read by Megan Tusing for Brilliance -- "A witty, sharp-edged tale of corporate greed, unexpected romance, and the quiet power of our shared humanity."
* Others by Jared Poon, read by David Lee Huynh for Orbit -- "Benjamin Toh is a middle manager in the Division for Engagement of Unusual Stakeholders (DEUS), and his job is straightforward: keep the supernatural inhabitants of Singapore happy and keep them out of sight. That is, don’t bother the good, normal citizens, and certainly don’t bother the bosses. Sure, he's overworked and understaffed, but usually, people (and senior management) don’t see what they don’t want to see. But when an entire housing estate glitches out of existence on what was meant to be a routine check-in, Ben has to scramble to keep things under control and stop the rest of the city from disappearing."
* The Magic of Untamed Hearts by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, read by Elena Rey for Penguin -- "After several years stuck as a ghost, Sky Flores learns to reconnect with the living again with the help of her handsome neighbor."
* Detour: A Novel by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart, read by Max Meyers for Random House -- "A space shuttle flight crew discovers that the Earth they’ve returned to is not the home they left behind in the first book of this emotional, mind-bending thriller."
* The Book of Blood and Roses by Annie Summerlee, read by Katie Leung for Random House -- "A vampire hunter goes undercover at a mysterious university—and finds herself falling in love with her roommate, an alluring vampire, in book one of a seductive sapphic paranormal fantasy."
* The Last of Earth by Deepa Anappara, read by Rea Malhotra Mukhtyar for Random House -- "A stunning historical novel set in nineteenth-century Tibet that follows two outsiders—an Indian schoolteacher spying for the British Empire and an English “lady” explorer—as they venture into a forbidden kingdom."
* The Bookbinder's Secret by A. D. Bell, read by Olivia Vinall for Macmillan -- "A young bookbinder begins a hunt for the truth when a confession hidden beneath the binding of a burned book reveals a story of forbidden love, lost fortune, and murder."
* Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez, read by Beatrice Granno for Macmillan -- "As a sculptress, Ravenna Maffei has always shaped beauty from stone but she has a terrible secret. Desperate to save her brother, she enters a competition hosted by Florence’s most feared immortal family, revealing a dark power in a city where magic is forbidden. Now a captive in the cutthroat city of Florence, Ravenna is forced into a dangerous task where failure meets certain death at the hands of Saturnino dei Luni, the immortal family's mesmerizing but merciless heir. But as he draws her closer, Ravenna realizes the true threat lies beyond Florence’s walls."
* Godfall: Flyover Fiction by Van Jensen, read by Scott Merriman for Brilliance -- "In this riveting small town thriller, Sheriff David Blunt is faced with a string of murders following the arrival of an alien life form."
* The Old Fire by Elisa Shua Dusapin, read by Elisabeth Lagalee for Simon & Schuster -- "A subtle yet powerful portrayal of family, secrets, and silence set against the backdrop of a crumbling house in the French countryside."
* Into the Midnight Wood by Alexandra McCollum, read by Will Watt for Penguin -- "A whimsical queer romance about two mismatched roommates whose fragile—and definitely not romantic at all—balance is upended by an impending family wedding and an otherworldly danger in the nearby enchanted wood."
* Gaslit by Megan Davidhizar, read by Karissa Vacker -- "A psychological thriller about a night of babysitting that turns fatal and a girl determined to figure out if the gas leak was an accident."