Brilliant Books' 2019 Spring Staff Favorites
Each of these titles is personally recommended by one of our Brilliant Booksellers. The list features both newly published and older books and draws from a wide array of writers, styles, and genres; for favorites only available in print, check out our website!
Vita Nostra
A Novel
By Sergiy Dyachenko & Sergey and Marina Dyachenko
Narrated by Jessica Ball / 18 hours 20 minutes
Vita Nostra
“One part coming-of-age parable and one part psychological horror, this book combines dark fantasy with contemporary magical realism, and I can’t stop thinking about the resulting magnificence weeks after finishing it. Beautifully translated from its original Russian, Vita Nostra brilliantly explores the period in early adulthood where we consider the price we’re willing to pay to discover our full potential, and how we make ourselves vulnerable when we strive for outside approval.”
Ilana Darrant, Bookshop Santa Cruz
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
A Novel
By Juliet Grames
Narrated by Lisa Flanagan / 16 hours 57 minutes
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
“Stella Fortuna: With a name like this, she should not be subjected to so many near-death accidents. Is she unlucky or cursed? Juliet Grames does a masterful job of parsing out Stella’s story, from growing up in an isolated mountain village to immigrating to America and navigating the perils of a patriarchal society along the way. This story explores familial bonds, discontentment, betrayal, and the damage of keeping secrets. Readers, get comfortable because you will not want to put this book down. I loved Stella.”
Patricia Moody, The Hickory Stick Bookshop
Same Same
A Novel
By Peter Mendelsund
Narrated by Euan Morton / 13 hours 43 minutes
In the shifting sands of the desert, near an unnamed metropolis, there is an institute where various fellows come to undertake projects of great significance. But when our sort-of hero, Percy Frobisher, arrives, surrounded by the simulated environment of the glass-enclosed dome of the Institute, his mind goes completely blank. When he spills... Read More »
Contact
By Carl Sagan
Narrated by Laurel Lefkow / 14 hours 42 minutes
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cosmos and renowned astronomer Carl Sagan’s international bestseller about the discovery of an advanced civilization in the depths of space remains the “greatest adventure of all time” (Associated Press).
The future is here…in an adventure of cosmic dimension. When a signal is discovered that seems to come... Read More »
Godforsaken Grapes
A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine
By Jason Wilson
Narrated by Jonathan Horvath / 9 hours 30 minutes
There are nearly 1,400 known varieties of wine grapes in the world—from altesse to zierfandler—but 80 percent of the wine we drink is made from only 20 grapes. In Godforsaken Grapes, Jason Wilson looks at how that came to be and embarks on a journey to discover what we miss. Stemming from his own growing obsession, Wilson moves far beyond the... Read More »
Gingerbread
A Novel
By Helen Oyeyemi
Narrated by Helen Oyeyemi / 7 hours 28 minutes
Gingerbread
“To me, any new book by Helen Oyeyemi is a cause for celebration, and Gingerbread is no exception. Harriet Lee is a mother, a daughter, a PTA-wannabe, a tutor, and a gingerbread baker. She is also Druhastranian—a refugee from a country that may (or may not) exist. No one is quite sure where Druhastana is or how to get there, but Harriet’s daughter, Perdita, is determined to find out even if it kills her. While still imbued with Oyeyemi’s trademark fairy tale essence, this novel is a departure into weirder, more uncanny territory. Oyeyemi, who lives in Prague, has finally given us her Czech novel, and it’s perfect.”
Devon Dunn, Book Culture
Figuring
By Maria Popova
Narrated by Natascha McElhone / 21 hours 26 minutes
Figuring explores the complexities of love and the human search for truth and meaning through the interconnected lives of several historical figures across four centuries—beginning with the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, and ending with the marine biologist and author Rachel Carson, who catalyzed the... Read More »
Daisy Jones & The Six
A Novel
By Taylor Jenkins Reid
Narrated by Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer & Pablo Schreiber / 9 hours 3 minutes
Daisy Jones & The Six
“Highly recommend the audiobook. It’s like being in a room with the characters telling you what it was like being in a 70’s Rock ‘n Roll band. (The books’s format is like reading a documentary script.)”
Mollie, HearthFire Books and Treats
The Salt Path
A Memoir
By Raynor Winn
Narrated by Anne Reid / 11 hours 2 minutes
The true story of a couple who lost everything and embarked on a transformative journey walking the South West Coast Path in England.
Just days after Raynor Winn learns that Moth, her husband of thirty-two years, is terminally ill, their house and farm are taken away, along with their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the... Read More »
The Poison Thread
A Novel
By Laura Purcell
Narrated by Jayne Entwistle & Elizabeth Knowelden / 12 hours 53 minutes
"[An] uncanny Gothic mystery... Satisfying."—New York Times Book Review
"A romping read with a deliciously dark conceit at its center... Reminded me of Alias Grace."—Kiran Millwood Hargrave
A thrilling Victorian gothic horror story about a young seamstress who claims her needle and thread have the power to kill
Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy,... Read More »
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