Brilliant Books Staff Favorites Summer 2023

Bridge

A Novel of Suspense

By: Lauren Beukes
Narrated by: Lisa Cordileone
Length: 13 hours 27 minutes

In this reality-bending thriller from the author of The Shining Girls, a grieving daughter’s search for her mother becomes a journey across alternate realities.It was a game they played; the other worlds, the other lives. It was part of her mom’s grand delusions. It wasn’t real. Unless it was… 

Bridget Kittinger has always been paralyzed by... Read more

Slewfoot

A Tale of Bewitchery

By: Brom
Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
Length: 14 hours 14 minutes

“Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom is *the* witchy cold weather read. It's spooky and atmospheric, and the epitome of a Good For Her book. Read more

Four Thousand Weeks

Time Management for Mortals

By: Oliver Burkeman
Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
Length: 5 hours 53 minutes

“Burkeman’s title emphasizes that if we make it to 80 years of age, we live roughly four thousand weeks. That intro alone sounds pretty sobering, but Burkeman takes us through philosophers’ and scientists’ wisdom across centuries with conclusions that are very optimistic. Burke reassures us with stories such as the American who in 1969 went... Read more

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

A Novel

By: Shannon Chakraborty
Narrated by: Lameece Issaq & Amin El Gamal
Length: 16 hours 59 minutes

“I loved the setup of her being pulled in for 'one last job' and all the illusions to Middle Eastern Mythology. Plus, pirates! The narrator had the perfect air of wry humor to embody Amina, and her asides where she steps away from the microphone as if she's actually talking to someone else are a nice touch that make it feel as if she's actually... Read more

The House on Mango Street

By: Sandra Cisneros
Narrated by: Sandra Cisneros
Length: 2 hours 17 minutes

In hardcover for the first time--on the tenth anniversary of its initial publication--the greatly admired and bestselling book about a young girl growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous, this novel depicts a new American landscape through its multiple characters. Read more

Cult Classic

A Novel

By: Sloane Crosley
Narrated by: Sloane Crosley
Length: 8 hours 9 minutes

“I'm a little in love with Sloane Crossley after this book. It's like a NYC-based, feminist version of Less by Andrew Sean Greer. Lola is 40 and engaged after a long and complicated dating history. Out with friends, she runs into an ex-boyfriend, then another, then another. As she tries to find closure with her love life, wonderfully bizarre and... Read more

Lapidarium

The Secret Lives of Stones

By: Hettie Judah
Narrated by: Nina Wadia
Length: 8 hours 43 minutes

Inspired by the lapidaries of the ancient world, this audiobook is a beautiful collection of true stories about sixty different stones that have influenced our shared history

The earliest scientists ground and processed minerals in a centuries-long quest for a mythic stone that would prolong human life. Michelangelo climbed mountains in Tuscany... Read more

Night's Edge

By: Liz Kerin
Narrated by: Chase Sui Wonders
Length: 8 hours 9 minutes

This audiobook is narrated by actor Chase Sui Wonders, known for her work on Genera+ion, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and the upcoming Apple TV original City On Fire

“This one’s a killer.” —Erika T. Wurth, author of White Horse

Liz Kerin’s Night’s Edge is a sun-drenched novel about the darkest secrets we hide and how monstrous we can be to the ones we... Read more

The Salt Grows Heavy

By: Cassandra Khaw
Narrated by: Susan Dalian
Length: 2 hours 54 minutes

“This brief and gruesome fiction demands words seldom used in reviews: limpid, vitreous, filigreed, ghastly, profuse and riotous. Think Hans Christian Anderson turned inside out folk-horror-wise and served by Madeline Miller, with a garnish of Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Fascinating! Read more

Bad Gays

A Homosexual History

By: Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller
Narrated by: Ben Allen
Length: 13 hours 31 minutes

We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those 'bad gays' whose un-exemplary lives reveal more than we might expect? Too many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs but, as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and dastardly deeds have been... Read more

The Order of Time

By: Carlo Rovelli
Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
Length: 4 hours 19 minutes

“I was drawn to this book, the third in Rovelli's recent series of short introductions to the mind-blowing propositions of modern physics, by its inexhaustibly poignant and fascinating subject: time. He spends the first half of the book explaining why time doesn't exist, and the second half explaining why, at least for us lesser mortals, it does.... Read more

Witch King

The Rising World

By: Martha Wells
Narrated by: Eric Mok
Length: 13 hours 9 minutes

“This is true high fantasy complete with a diverse character list, explanations of magics used, descriptions of the world and the different factions operating to bring about events...The narrator speaking with Kai's POV was fantastic. His voice was perfect and conveyed real feeling through the words. I feel I liked this one so much because I... Read more