Ridgecrest Books Staff Picks - Fiction

Scattered All Over the Earth

By: Yoko Tawada
Narrated by: Cindy Kay
Length: 7 hours 46 minutes

“Scattered All Over the Earth is a unique novel about a dystopian world brought about by climate change. An ensemble of characters and their interactions brings a lighthearted narrative to life. One of the main characters, Hiruko, is a displaced citizen from Japan living in Scandinavia, where she decides to develop a language called Panska. In... Read more

Our Share of Night

A Novel

By: Mariana Enriquez
Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
Length: 27 hours 16 minutes

“A masterpiece of supernatural horror.”—The Washington Post
“An enchanting, shattering, once-in-a-lifetime reading experience.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)

ONE OF TIME AND THE ATLANTIC’S TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S TEN BEST HORROR BOOKS OF THE YEAR • LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • GOOD MORNING... Read more

Bright Young Women

A Novel

By: Jessica Knoll
Narrated by: Sutton Foster, Imani Jade Powers, Corey Brill & Chris Henry Coffey
Length: 13 hours 17 minutes

“This novel reads like a true crime story! The two narrators telling the different stories were part of the story as a whole was excellent! Read more

The Only One Left

A Novel

By: Riley Sager
Narrated by: Christine Lakin & Dawn Harvey
Length: 12 hours 31 minutes

“I was surprised again and again as the many buried secrets in the Hope family’s story were revealed. Kit knows that the woman in her care is suspected by most everyone of having murdered her parents and sister many years ago. But as Lenora begins to tell her own story, Kit becomes increasingly uncertain about what really happened. Sager weaves a... Read more

Babel

Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution

By: R. F. Kuang
Narrated by: Chris Lew Kum Hoi & Billie Fulford-Brown
Length: 21 hours 45 minutes

“IMHO, the best fantasy books give a reader new insights into our own world. Babel passed that test for me with its grounding in Britain's colonial history with an overlay of magic. I loved R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War trilogy, but this finely wrought novel surpasses it. Highly recommended. Read more

Greek Lessons

A Novel

By: Han Kang
Narrated by: Greta Jung & Earl T. Kim
Length: 4 hours 36 minutes

FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
 
“[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize
 
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A dazzling novel about the saving grace of language and human connection, from the “visionary” (New... Read more

The Liar's Dictionary

A Novel

By: Eley Williams
Narrated by: Kristin Atherton & Jon Glover
Length: 7 hours 55 minutes

“Parallel stories--modern and historical--about the world of words. A bit of mystery, a bit of romance, and a lot of laughs. This is a fun romp of a book for word lovers. Read more

This Thing Between Us

A Novel

By: Gus Moreno
Narrated by: Robb Moreira
Length: 5 hours 56 minutes

"A surreal excursion into heartache and horror narrated by a man undone by grief . . . Along with allusions to Rod Serling and The Exorcist, there are shades of H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, zombie literature and, at least once, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . . . You don't want to read this book right before bed." —Sarah Lyall, The New... Read more

Barn 8

By: Deb Olin Unferth
Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
Length: 7 hours 34 minutes

“When two egg industry auditors devise a plan to steal a million chickens, you won’t think they’re crazy—you’ll be rooting for them the whole way. Barn 8 hits the ground running like a chicken with its head cut off. A colorful cast is brought to life beautifully in the audiobook, and there’s plenty of irony and thoughtfulness. The most emotional... Read more

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

A Novel

By: Angie Cruz
Narrated by: Kimberly M. Wetherell & Rossmery Almonte
Length: 6 hours 16 minutes

“Told in a series of 12 sessions between a career counselor and our narrator, Cara Romero, this is the equally heartwarming, heartbreaking, and laugh-out-loud funny story of Cara's life as a Dominican immigrant in New York. Cara's vivacity and unabashed confidence are infectious, and her growth as she faces her flaws is unexpectedly touching.... Read more

Chain Gang All Stars: A Read with Jenna Pick

National Book Award Finalist

By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Narrated by: Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch & Lee Osorio
Length: 13 hours 38 minutes

“This action-packed dystopian novel mixes real-life facts and horrors of the U.S. Prison Industrial Complex with an imagined and grotesque future. As the story unfolds, and more facts from present day seep into the narrative, that future starts to draw closer than we'd hope. Multiple voice actors and a cinematic narrative voice makes this book... Read more

Moon Witch, Spider King

The Dark Star Trilogy: Book #2

By: Marlon James
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 30 hours 46 minutes

“Masterfully flips the first installment on its head... James makes the mythic tantalizingly real.’” —Esquire
 
"Even more brilliant than the first.” —Buzzfeed

An Instant New York Times Bestseller and NPR Best Book of 2022 pick
 
From Marlon James, author of the bestselling National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the second book in... Read more

Black Leopard, Red Wolf

The Dark Star Trilogy: Book #1

By: Marlon James
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 23 hours 59 minutes

“Black Leopard, Red Wolf is fantastically queer, black, and confounding! It is an enticing read, filled with love, sex, betrayal, and truths that are not so true. Read more