Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews

“Her words are candy on my tongue,” says narrator Hillary Huber of author Cathleen Schine. AudioFile’s Jonathan Smith tells host Jo Reed about this fiction audiobook perfect for lovers of words — and great narration. Twin girls are born with a love of language, honed with their parents’ encouragement and centered around the family’s dictionary. Their shared love for the English language draws them...

Dive into the world of art theft with the Met’s former Chief Security Officer. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Jonathan Smith discover the history of famous art heists and discuss how narrator Mark Sanderson’s deep voice lends an authoritative tone to John Barelli’s memoir. Being responsible for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s vast collection meant not only guarding against thieves but also working...

The perfect audiobook if you need a laugh. This 2012 Audie winner for Audiobook of the Year is a great example of how an author narrating their own work can bring that extra something. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile Publisher Michele Cobb chat about how Tina Fey’s challenges as a busy working mother are relatable and her comedy amplified through her perfectly delivered performance. It’s one of AudioFi...

An audiobook you absolutely have to hear. Jo Reed and AudioFile Publisher Michele Cobb express their admiration for the author’s poetic performance of her own work, one of AudioFile’s favorites and a National Book Award and Carnegie Medal winner. Xiomara is a 15-year-old first-generation Dominican-American girl who finds her voice through poetry. Acevedo’s performance chops pull the listener into...

Robin Miles’s narration brings out the heart in a story built on incredible science. Michele Cobb, AudioFile Publisher, and host Jo Reed discuss an AudioFile favorite that went on to become a hit movie. Forget about breaking the glass ceiling — these four black women worked for NASA as “computers” and were instrumental in breaking the sound barrier and paving the way for space exploration. Publish...

“Hamilton: the Musical” is a cultural phenomenon, and the audiobook is a must-listen. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile Publisher Michele Cobb discuss their delight at this Audie Award Audiobook of the Year winner. It’s an AudioFile favorite packed with behind-the-scenes insights into how a Broadway musical gets made. Narrated by superfan Mariska Hargitay along with Lin-Manuel Miranda himself reading the...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning modern classic narrated by author Toni Morrison herself. Jo Reed and AudioFile publisher Michele Cobb start a week of episodes of AudioFile Favorites—audiobooks we love to recommend. BELOVED is a compelling and complicated tale with an emotional punch, where the wounds of slavery run deep. It has controversial characters and a musical pace that will stay with the listene...

With so many historical mysteries to choose from, why does Alan Furst’s WWII noir make the AudioFile Favorites list? Host Jo Reed and Robin Whitten talk about the appeal and compare two versions of the audiobook. In Paris in the late 1930s, journalist Carl Weisz takes over an antifascist newspaper and is swept deeper into the international émigré community and the increasing danger of work for the...

The host of “The Daily Show” gives a candid, unflinching look at his South African childhood. Editor Robin Whitten and host Jo Reed talk about why this author-read memoir is one of AudioFile’s go-to recommendations. Trevor Noah injects his candor and uses his wry humor with his innate storytelling and mimicry to leaven the story commenting on the absurdities of apartheid while giving a stark portr...

The charm of the Italian coast, movie star glamour, hope, and heartbreak are wrapped in a magical narration by Edoardo Ballerini. Editor Robin Whitten and host Jo Reed talk about why this audiobook performance makes the novel one of AudioFile’s Favorites. Listeners start with an Italian innkeeper in the 1960s and and move all the way through present-day Hollywood with dozens of unforgettable chara...

Gaiman’s fantastic worlds are an absolute delight on audio, and listeners are especially lucky to get to experience this Newbery Award-winning middle grade fantasy in Gaiman’s own voice. Host Jo Reed and Editor Robin Whitten chat about why THE GRAVEYARD BOOK is an AudioFile Favorite. Fans of AMERICAN GODS or GOOD OMENS may not know about Gaiman’s children’s audiobooks. This story of an orphaned bo...

A window into Philip Pullman’s fantastic universe is the way many listeners first entered the audiobook world. Editor Robin Whitten and host Jo Reed start a week of episodes of AudioFile Favorites—the audiobooks we always recommend. The first in the His Dark Materials trilogy sets the stage with miraculous creatures—daemons, armored bears, and witches—who join 12-year-old Lyra Belacqua in her ques...

Take a road trip around America with Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile reviewer Jonathan Smith discuss a new American history audiobook. Josh Hamilton narrates the story of Ford, Edison, John Burroughs, and their ten years of summer road trips across the United States in the 1910s and 1920s. But they weren’t simply adventuring—they were working to transform the way we travel...

An audiobook devoted to the semicolon? Hear host Jo Reed and AudioFile reviewer Jonathan Smith discuss this unlikely yet lively audiobook. Narrator Pam Ward’s expressive narration delights as she recounts the history of grammar’s most misunderstood punctuation mark, the semicolon. It’s a listen that’s brisk, witty, and provocative; a genuine pleasure for the ear. Published by Harper Audio. Find mo...

Brace yourself for a roller coaster of a story. AudioFile reviewer Jonathan Smith tells host Jo Reed why NEVER HAVE I EVER is such a captivating thriller. When a newcomer to Amy’s neighborhood starts blackmailing her, she finds herself in a battle to conceal her deepest, darkest secret. Author Joshilyn Jackson is also a skilled narrator—she breathes life into her characters, setting the scene in t...

Dive into a sprawling, incandescent historical novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile reviewer Jonathan Smith share an audiobook recommendation that will see you through any road trip. DEEP RIVER is an engrossing and commanding historical epic about one immigrant family’s shifting fortunes in Washington state. Bronson Pinchot’s extraordinary ear for language and his nuanced delivery enliven the prose a...

Journey to Beijing with this fast-paced thriller. Join host Jo Reed and AudioFile reviewer Jonathan Smith as they recommend BEIJING PAYBACK. This is an audiobook for anyone who likes a great crime novel performed by a truly talented narrator. Ewan Chung smoothly narrates the story of Victor, a Chinese-American college student whose father was just murdered. Published by Harper Audio. Find more aud...

Xe Sands creates a gritty and entirely believable voice for Ivy Gamble, a P.I. who is recounting the investigation of a gruesome murder case at Osthorne Academy for Young Mages. Sands captivates listeners with a fatigued yet steady delivery of the first-person story and creates an atmosphere of intrigue with masterful pacing. Ivy’s anxiety about taking on her first murder case is amplified by the...

Narrator Nicholas Boulton’s rich baritone amplifies the drama and intrigue in this intense medieval romance. Gryff is a Welsh prince in hiding who is captured by violent thieves and kept alive simply because he knows how to care for his valuable hunting falcons. A small, nearly silent, and deadly woman slays his captors, and the pair form an alliance as they travel together. Boulton’s talents are...

Bursting with winsome charm, this audiobook whisks listeners to the cozy coastal community of Port Coral, Florida, where Cuban-American Rosa Santos lives with her abuela, the neighborhood healer. Everyone in Port Coral knows about the curse on Rosa: Since the sea claimed the lives of her father and grandfather, anyone who dates her risks a similar fate. Yet smart, pragmatic Rosa can't help falling...

Fourteen stellar narrators each read one short story in this anthology by a diverse group of authors. The fictional stories all feature ordinary young people performing extraordinary acts of kindness and friendship. Some are large and heroic, and some are seemingly small but still meaningful. Most memorable is “Reina Madrid” by R.J. Palacio, in which narrator Frankie Corzo brings 1970s Queens to l...

Simply put, this audiobook is extraordinary. Narrator Karen Chilton portrays Autumn Spencer, whose twin sister, Summer, has disappeared from the roof of their building without a trace. As Autumn attempts to find out what happened, she becomes obsessed with the way that society treats black women—as if they are invisible and the violence perpetrated against them doesn’t matter. As her mental health...

In a remarkable performance, Steve West becomes Dr. John Watson, Jr., husband of Joanna Blalock, daughter of Sherlock Holmes. West also gives dozens of other characters honest and convincing personalities. In this third adventure John, Joanna, and Dr. Watson, Sr., are called upon to find Alistair Ainsworth, a missing cryptographer who has access to secret government information. It’s 1915. The Ger...

This audiobook is a perfect example of the popular Nordic noir genre. Listeners will be transported to a small fishing village ominously named the Devil’s Fjord on a remote island in the Faroe Islands. It’s a place, as one resident describes it, where you don’t belong unless you can kill. Narrator Saul Reichlin, who is English (as is the author), tells this gritty story in a cordial voice that mak...

It’s as much about the language in Saul Bellow’s 1970 novel as it is about the philosophical, and what better narrator to handle Bellow’s complex characters, ideas, and luscious layering of words than AUDIOFILE Golden Voice George Guidall? Arthur Sammler is a Polish refugee—a Holocaust survivor with only one good eye. But that doesn’t keep him from seeing. Guidall portrays the septuagenarian Samml...