Brilliant Books' 2019 Summer Staff Favorites

A Brightness Long Ago

By: Guy Gavriel Kay
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Length: 14 hours 10 minutes

International bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay’s latest work is set in a world evoking early Renaissance Italy and offers an extraordinary cast of characters whose lives come together through destiny, love, and ambition. In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped... Read more

Weird Parenting Wins

Bathtub Dining, Family Screams, and Other Hacks from the Parenting Trenches

By: Hillary Frank
Narrated by: Hillary Frank, Nicola Barber, Dan Bittner, Raphael Corkhill, Ana Isabel, Laura Knight-Keating, Barrie Kreinik, Quincy Tyler Bernstine & Gabra Zackman
Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

Unconventional--yet effective--parenting strategies, carefully curated by the creator of the popular podcast The Longest Shortest Time

Some of the best parenting advice that Hillary Frank ever received did not come from parenting experts, but from friends and podcast listeners who acted on a whim, often in moments of desperation. These "weird... Read more

Tribe

On Homecoming and Belonging

By: Sebastian Junger
Narrated by: Sebastian Junger
Length: 2 hours 59 minutes

We have a strong instinct to belong to small groups defined by clear purpose and understanding--"tribes." This tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, but regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival.

Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing... Read more

The Wolf and the Watchman

1793: A Novel

By: Niklas Natt och Dag
Narrated by: Matt Addis, Casper Rundegren & Clara Andersson
Length: 13 hours 40 minutes

“It’s early to be pegging the year’s best books, but The Wolf and the Watchman, Niklas Natt och Dag’s stunning debut, is sure to be one of them.” —The Washington Post

“What's better than an ornate period piece with style to spare? One that includes a murder mystery. Oh, and boy is it a riveting mystery....A bit of Patrick Süskind’s Perfume and a... Read more

Your Money or Your Life

9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Fully Revised and Updated for 2018

By: Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez
Narrated by: Vicki Robin
Length: 11 hours 21 minutes

Brand new for 2018: A fully revised edition of one of the most influential books ever written on personal finance with more than a million copies sold
 
“The best book on money. Period.” –Grant Sabatier, founder of “Millennial Money,” on CNBC Make It

"This is a wonderful book. It can really change your life." -Oprah
 
For more than twenty-five... Read more

The Gameshouse

Gameshouse

By: Claire North
Narrated by: Peter Kenny
Length: 11 hours 24 minutes

The World Fantasy Award-winning author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August presents a mesmerizing tale of a gambling house whose deadly games of chance and skill control the fate of empires.

Everyone has heard of the Gameshouse. But few know all its secrets. . .

It is the place where fortunes can be made and lost through chess, backgammon... Read more

Recursion

A Novel

By: Blake Crouch
Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom & Abby Craden
Length: 10 hours 46 minutes

“As soon as I saw Blake Crouch’s name, I scooped this book up. As a huge fan of Dark Matter, I knew I was in for a treat. In his newest, Crouch quickly reveals the cause of the ‘fake memories’ that are plaguing the population, but the twists and thrills just keep coming. I haven’t been this satisfied with a book in a long time. Hitting and... Read more

Cari Mora

A Novel

By: Thomas Harris
Narrated by: Thomas Harris
Length: 6 hours 8 minutes

A resilient young woman must outwit a sadistic psychopath in this pulse-pounding thriller from the author of The Silence of the Lambs, a "master still at the top of his strange and chilling form" (Wall Street Journal).

Twenty-five million dollars in cartel gold lies hidden beneath a mansion on the Miami Beach waterfront. Ruthless men have tracked... Read more

Red, White & Royal Blue

A Novel

By: Casey McQuiston
Narrated by: Ramon de Ocampo
Length: 12 hours 15 minutes

“This book was such a comfort read - it felt like a warm hug and a chocolate chip cookie wrapped up into one story! I loved the characters, and I actually laughed out loud at certain points. It follows the life of Alex Claremont-Diaz, the charismatic and handsome son of the United States’ president, Ellen Claremont. Alex is just enjoying himself... Read more

Women Talking

By: Miriam Toews
Narrated by: Matthew Edison
Length: 5 hours 57 minutes

“A carefully woven, rhythmically told tale steadfast in its persistent, hopeful philosophy. This novel is a testament to what community means, and the integral and unrecognized part women play in societies that continue to fail and abuse them. Read more

Thinking in Bets

Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts

By: Annie Duke
Narrated by: Annie Duke
Length: 6 hours 50 minutes

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Poker champion turned business consultant Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with uncertainty and make better decisions as a result in “the ultimate guide to thinking about risk” (Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit).
 
“A big favorite among investors these days.”—The New York Times

“Outstanding.”—Jason... Read more

Underland

A Deep Time Journey

By: Robert Macfarlane
Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
Length: 12 hours 3 minutes

“I don’t think there is a square mile of ground on this planet where Robert Macfarlane couldn’t dig up a new, wondrous story. Underland continues the tradition of profound storytelling, reflection, and, quite simply, gorgeous writing we have come to expect from him. Macfarlane’s ventures into the underworlds of our planet, both mythical and... Read more