Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews

Narrator Jeanette Illidge’s impressive vocal versatility perfectly suits Monica Brashears’s debut novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this gothic novel featuring Southern and Appalachian folklore. Magnolia’s grandmother dies, leaving her alone at 19 with a predatory landlord and a job that pays poorly. When a white man offers her a strange but lucrative modeling job, she...

Ashraf Shirazi reads Lamya H’s extraordinary debut memoir with the perfect mix of tenderness and ferocity. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss Lamya H’s memoir, where they use stories and verses from the Quran to reflect on their life as a queer Muslim immigrant. Shirazi’s narration is searching, conversational, and often humming with emotion. Her voice flows naturally, drawing...

Milton Barnes, Tymika Tafari, and Wesley French perform this historical novel set in Canada in the 1800s. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Kendra Winchester discuss this story within a story, where listeners receive a new piece of the puzzle with each chapter. Lensinda, a free Black woman working as a researcher for a Black journalist, interviews an older woman arrested for shooting a slave...

George Newbern performs this memoir by a journalist who became famous after he wrote about President Biden’s stutter and how he overcame it. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss John Hendrickson’s memoir that explores both the author’s own experiences with a stutter and the experiences of others. Newbern’s performance capures Hendrickson’s deep anguish from internalized ableism a...

Deepti Gupta performs Aanchal Malhotra’s lush historical novel set against the backdrop of the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Kendra Winchester discuss Deepti’s skill at giving voice to the dozens of characters in this multigenerational family saga. A Hindu teen named Samir, who is working in his family’s perfume shop in 1930s Lahore, falls in love...

Simon Vance and Neil Patrick Harris combine their narrative talents to present an unusual mystery set in a 1950s school instructing students how to “morally” murder—and get away with it. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss Rupert Holmes’s fun and over-the-top mystery audiobook. Listeners meet three students at this unusual school. In addition to learning methods to inventively delete...

Golden Voice narrator JD Jackson acts out William Kent Krueger’s dramatic audio-original novella. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss this AudioFile Earphones Award-winner set in Mississippi in 1927. Listeners learn of a potential breach of a levee, the only thing holding back torrents of water during unprecedented flooding of the lower Mississippi River. Four men arrive by boat and...

Hear all about the 2023 Audie Awards from AudioFile’s Michele Cobb and host Jo Reed! Listen in as they highlight the winners of Audiobook of the Year, Best Male and Best Female narrators, and more. You can visit www.theaudies.com for a full list of the Audie Award winners and finalists — and if you want to catch up with the full livestream of the event, visit the APA website. Congratulations to al...

Fans of comic, commentator, and actor Michelle Buteau will laugh out loud through her frank essays. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss Buteau’s lively narration—and her upcoming role as host of the 2023 Audie Awards. Michele and Jo discuss Buteau’s essay collection that highlights key moments in her life, written and narrated in her fun and brash style. A stellar example of an enter...

Julia Whelan is the perfect narrator for Monica Heisey’s emotional novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss how her performance enhances the engaging journey of Maggie, a nearly 30-year-old graduate student whose life isn’t going as planned. At first, Maggie thinks the amicable ending of her short marriage as a modern uncoupling, but eventually she realizes she’s fallen into unheal...

Vico Ortiz narrates an action-packed fantastical pirate adventure with gusto. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss the excitement of listening to Gabe Cole Novoa’s thrilling YA audiobook. Sixteen-year-old Mar has to hide twice over—they wear a chest binder, and they have strong magical control over fire and ice that demands to be used. Slipping seamlessly between English and Spanish...

Chris Lew Kum Hoi brings an incredible range of languages and voices to life for listeners in this sharp fantasy from R.F. Kuang. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss the skilled narration of this breathtaking alternate history. Orphaned and taken from China to be raised in England, Robin Swift trains for years to join the Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford, housed in its Babe...

Mark Sanderlin narrates this charming romance set on the Pacific Crest Trail with the perfect mix of emotion and humor. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this hiking romance full of beautiful vistas, surprise rattlesnakes, and trail magic. Alexi and Ben set out to hike the PCT for very different reasons, but when they meet each other on the trail and decide to be hiking partners,...

Santino Fontana and Stephanie Einstein lead a full-cast performance of Cara Bastone’s newest audio-first romance. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss the fun and joy of listening to one of Bastone’s romances. Robbie and Marigold are two older college students working on a group project for their psychology class exploring whether love at first sight exists. Listeners hear their liv...

Narrators Keylor Leigh and Malik Rashad work together beautifully to deliver this heartwarming slow-burn romance from Kristina Forest. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this story of two twenty-somethings who fall for each other twice over — once over a months-long email conversation, and once when they serendipitously wind up as neighbors. Lily and Nick form an easy connection a...

Based on Pádraig Ó Tuama’s popular podcast, “Poetry Unbound,” this audiobook is a fine anthology of poetry, and a very good introduction to how to think about poetry itself. Ó Tuama is an especially good interpreter of poetry, both as a critic and as a reader, and he narrates brief and insightful essays about each of the fifty poems included in the collection. Each poem is read with thoughtfulness...

Peter May’s excellent mystery pairs an outstanding performance by narrator Peter Forbes with a riveting story set in near-future Scotland. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss this environmental sci-fi thriller set in the year 2051. Forbes is extremely easy to listen to, and he handles both dialogue and narration with aplomb. In this story, Detective Inspector Cameron Brodie is dispa...

The life of groundbreaking nuclear physicist Lise Meitner (1878-1968) is given voice by narrator Sandy Rustin. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss how this inspiring audiobook will be available for free for teen listeners this summer through AudioFile’s SYNC program. Marginalized by sexism, Meitner, an Austrian Jew, struggled to pursue the field she loved, eventually earning her col...

Edoardo Ballerini provides a gripping performance that captures the backdrop of historical events in Armando Lucas Correa’s novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss this Golden Voice narrator’s skill at engaging listeners in a multi-generational saga that moves from Germany to Cuba to New York, encompassing war and revolution, family secrets, and devastating truth. Read the full r...

Private detectives Lillian Pentecost and Willowjean Parker are back! Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss a new mystery audiobook from Stephen Spotswood, with a smashing performance by Kirsten Potter. It’s New York City in 1947, and Holly Quirk, writer of gruesome murder stories for STRANGE CRIMES magazine, hires detectives Pentecost and Parker after discovering that three murders fr...

Author Nic Stone and narrator Dion Graham give voice to Shelbi and Andy, two teens who form an unexpected connection. Graham provides a multilayered portrayal of 18-year-old Andy, whose drinking is largely in response to trouble processing his younger sister’s death. Stone portrays Shelbi, a 16-year-old just released from a mental health facility for self harm. Together the narrators explore their...

Investigative journalist Jim Popkin takes listeners on an incredible journey through the life of Ana Montes, possibly the most damaging female spy in America’s history. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss a story where truth is stranger than fiction. Montes, the government’s top Cuba expert, worked closely with the intelligence community in the Castro years. She had top-secret cleara...

Narrator Barton Welch keeps Benjamin Stevenson’s entertaining, highly original mystery light and lively, even during its most intense moments. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss a listen all about a family of killers (some more culpable than others). Ernie Cunningham self-publishes books on writing, and he speaks directly to listeners. Each chapter is dedicated to a family member re...

Julia Whelan’s performance is so consistently gripping that listeners might attempt to finish Rebecca Makkai’s entire audiobook in a single sitting. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss an audiobook all about a true-crime podcaster. Bodie has returned to her boarding school alma mater to teach a few courses in her area of expertise, podcasting, and is encouraged by her students to re-...

Kashana Cauley’s satirical comedy about survivalists, gun dealing, and finding happiness is masterfully narrated by Bahni Turpin. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss this lively and surprising audiobook. Aretha, an up-and-coming attorney, falls for Aaron, and when she moves in, Aretha discovers another side of him. Aretha’s life is thrown into chaos when she’s fired for missing a day...