Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews

This week Behind the Mic is revisiting favorite audiobooks that are contenders for the 2023 Audie Awards. In today’s episode, host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss MIRACLE AND WONDER, which gives listeners insights into Paul Simon’s professional and private life. Hear all about Simon’s songwriting, in his own words, through hours of conversations with the musician. This audiobook is a...

AudioFile’s Behind the Mic is highlighting audiobooks that are up for the 2023 Audie Awards. Today we’re hearing AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff and host Jo Reed in discussion about THE 1619 PROJECT, Nikole Hannah-Jones’s ambitious work with the New York Times Magazine that tells the story of America through the lens of slavery. It’s a contender for the 2023 Audiobook of the Year and a finalist in the M...

We’re revisiting favorite episodes this week on Behind the Mic, highlighting audiobooks that are up for 2023 Audie Awards. Today host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss a fantastical full-cast audiobook adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s apocalyptic GOOD OMENS. This favorite comic novel gets the all-star treatment with narrators including Michael Sheen, David Tennant, and...

Behind the Mic is sharing episodes this week focused on some of the 2023 Audie Award finalists. Today’s episode is on NIGHTCRAWLING, Leila Mottley’s novel narrated by Joniece Abbott-Pratt. This audiobook is up for the Best Female Narrator Audie this year, and it was also one of AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks of 2022. Listen in to hear host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discussing this pow...

Behind the Mic is revisiting audiobooks that are up for the 2023 Audie Awards. The Audie Awards are the Oscars of audiobooks and shine a spotlight on excellent audiobook performances. We’re starting with an audiobook that has already won a Grammy this year — Viola Davis’s FINDING ME. Davis’s electric memoir is up for an Audie Award in both the Audiobook of the Year and Narrated by the Author categ...

Narrator Brian Nishii’s delivery brings a multicultural finesse to author Cheuk Kwan’s search for Chinese restaurants around the world. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss this culinary journey across Brazil, Mumbai, Saskatchewan, the Caribbean, Israel, and to far flung outposts, all where Chinese restaurants can be found. Using delectable food creations as entry points, this heartw...

Nicol Zanzarella’s crisp narration propels Margot Anne Kelley’s wide-ranging love letter to homegrown food. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss how Zanzarella performs this examination of the historical impulse to live off the land. Kelley looks back at utopian foodways, from failed 19th-century experiments to 20th-century back-to-the-land hippies to current rural escapees. She capt...

Narrator Caroline Shaffer brings the right tone and tempo to Mary Beth Albright’s audiobook on “How Food Supports Emotional Well-Being” that examines the relationships between food and mood. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss this packed audiobook that merges experience with science—and includes recipes. A talented food writer for the WASHINGTON POST, Albright has a gift for simpli...

Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s podcast gives listeners insider access to the world of fine dining. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss the episodes dedicated to eight iconic eateries. Samuelsson and co-host chef Jonathan Waxman regale listeners with tales of famous restaurants including The French Laundry, Spago, and Dooky Chase, as well as Gabrielle Hamilton’s Prune, which shuttered duri...

Paul Bellantoni narrates Ian MacAllen’s witty audiobook with a fine delivery and a rich tone. AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff tells host Jo Reed about an audiobook that will make you want to open a bottle of chianti and pull up a chair for a delicious meal. MacAllen’s history is part celebration of the traditional checkered tablecloth joints and part revelation of the origins of Italian dishes that Amer...

Jesse Nobess gives a contemplative performance of Cree poet Billy-Ray Belcourt’s genre-defying debut novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Kendra Winchester discuss this novel of ideas told from the perspective of an unnamed protagonist writing a novel based on oral histories. Jesse Nobess embodies the unnamed protagonist’s narrative voice. The character talks to many closeted gay Indigeno...

Karen Chilton’s performance of Jamila Minnicks’s debut novel is what happens when an outstanding narrator finds their perfect match in a text. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this historical novel about Alice Young, who in 1957 flees her home in rural Alabama and lands in New Jessup. It’s an all-Black town that has spent generations carving out a place for itself as a safe h...

Jeed Saddy performs this dazzling debut essay collection from author Neema Avashina. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss the essays, which explore Avashia’s experience growing up as a queer Indian American woman in West Virginia. Identities are messy, and Saddy’s narration captures the emotional complexity of Avashia’s life. As we follow Avashia through basketball games and Hind...

Tanis Parenteau leaps right into narrating Jessica Johns’s chilling debut horror novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss a story where dreams become horrifyingly real. Mackenzie is a 20-something Cree woman living in Vancouver, and she wakes from a vivid nightmare with a crow’s head clutched in her hand. Parenteau conveys all of Mackenzie’s anxiety and quickens her pace as Ma...

Vidish Athavale draws listeners into this sweeping crime novel set in New Delhi. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Kendra Winchester discuss Deepti Kapoor’s epic story packed with twists and turns. When a speeding Mercedes jumps off the road and kills five people, Ajay takes the fall for his boss, Sonny, the son of a rich man with criminal dealings in the city. Athavale’s narration captures b...

Narrators Joe Jameson and David Stagg tenderly deliver this touching audiobook that’s an essential listen for fans of the Heartstopper series. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this heartfelt novella, full of angst, set after the Heartstopper graphic novels. Charlie is anxious about Nick’s impending departure for university, and what long distance will mean for their relationship...

Narrator Soneela Nankani suffuses Serwa Boateng with strength and passion in Roseanne A. Brown’s fantastic audiobook for middle-grade listeners. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss the fun and thrills of getting to hear Serwa’s story, rooted in Ghanaian folklore. Serwa has spent her life training with her parents to fight deadly adze, fierce vampires. Suddenly, she’s sent to live w...

Five very different students find commonality and friendship in this superb audio adaptation of Christina Diaz Gonzalez and Gabriela Epstein’s bilingual graphic novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss the outstanding full cast, including the animated performances of the five students in all their complexities, in both Spanish and English. The students are all part of a morning v...

Nikki Massoud’s lively voice welcomes listeners to a charming Highlands romance. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this contemporary romance from Rochelle Bilow that provides a delicious escape. Ruby Spencer is desperate to make a change, and she flies off for a year in Thistlecross, Scotland, hoping for inspiration to write a cookbook and find a fresh start. She finds gorgeous c...

Amina Koroma and Jonathan Andrew Hume bring liveliness and charm to an utterly delightful teen romance. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly talk about this wonderful YA debut from beloved British romance author Talia Hibbert. Koroma delivers all of Celine’s snark and wit, while her ex-best-friend-now-rival Brad is narrated with sweet charm by Hume. The two are suddenly spending way more ti...

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten talk about a childhood favorite, WINNIE-THE-POOH, which Golden Voice narrator Barbara Rosenblat enlivens with a magnificent performance. Rosenblat masterfully delights in and embodies wonder, innocence, and imagination in her narration. Children of all ages will enjoy the story of Pooh’s love of honey, the search for Eeyore’s tail, the hunt for a Woozle,...

Sam Heughan, OUTLANDER’s Jamie Fraser, recounts his journey across the 96 miles of Scotland’s West Highland Way. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss how Heughan completely charms listeners with his engaging style and enthusiasm. The story of his journey becomes a metaphor for Heughan’s life as an actor in his atmospheric and absorbing memoir. The inclusion of live recordings made du...

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss Tracy Kidder’s newest audiobook exploring the complex problems of homelessness, and how one person can make a difference. Kidder’s light, somewhat raspy voice unfolds the story of Dr. Jim O’Connell and his clinic partners, who have devoted themselves to bringing comprehensive and compassionate healthcare to those living on the streets of Boston. T...

Stephen Shanahn’s easygoing tone and Australian accent welcome listeners to another Aaron Falk mystery from Jane Harper, this time set in South Australia’s wine country. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss Falk’s missing-person mystery set in a close-knit community harboring many secrets. It’s a story that seems calm and straightforward on the surface but reveals layers of complexit...

Hugh Bonneville’s memoir is funny, personal, informative, insightful, and fun to listen to. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss how the world-class actor tells a marvelous story, making this an excellent listen for any lovers of celebrity memoirs — and the theater. Bonneville is known for his role as the Earl of Grantham on “Downton Abbey” and the stern father on “Paddington” but al...