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Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine

1,485 episodes - English - Latest episode: 22 days ago - ★★★★★ - 119 ratings

Find your next great audiobook on our podcast, Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine. Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile Editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. All in 6 minutes or less. It’s short, sweet, and just what your ears need. Want more? Listen to our bonus episodes featuring conversations with the best voices in the audiobook industry.

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Episodes

AudioFile Favorites: KING: A LIFE

March 06, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

We’re celebrating the 2024 Audie Awards all this week. Today we’re honoring the winner of the inaugural Best Non-Fiction Narrator award, Golden Voice Dion Graham for KING: A LIFE, by Jonathan Eig. In fact, Dion narrated a whopping three finalists in this category! On today’s episode, we’re sharing a discussion between host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff about this moving biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which Graham narrates superbly. Read the full review of the audiobook on...

AudioFile Favorites: SURRENDER

March 05, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

AudioFile Magazine is celebrating the 2024 Audie Awards all this week. Today’s episode is all about this year’s Audiobook of the Year award winner — SURRENDER: 40 Songs, One Story, written and read by Bono. Listen in on an earlier episode with host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discussing this memoir that blends Bono’s words with singing, music, and sound effects to make for a fascinating listening experience. If you missed the live event, you can visit the APA YouTube to catch all of ...

Celebrating the 2024 Audie Awards

March 04, 2024 10:00 - 11 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb get together to talk all things Audie Awards! This year the Audies are in L.A. and will be celebrated with an in-person gala event, and with a livestream that audiobook lovers can watch from the comfort of their home. Listen in as Jo and Michele discuss some of the changes to the Audies this year and give their insights into the new Best Non-Fiction Narrator and Best Fiction Narrator awards. Follow along with the Audie Awards ceremony tonight. And se...

THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah, read by Julia Whelan, Kristin Hannah

March 01, 2024 19:54 - 7 minutes

The sure touch of Golden Voice narrator Julia Whelan transforms Kristen Hannah’s absorbing novel about Vietnam War combat nurses into an addictive listen. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss this intimate portrait and sprawling account of a searing time. The story focuses on 20-year-old Frances McGrath, who, in 1965, impetuously chooses the Army Nurse Corps over cotillions and marriage. As the novel interweaves historical research with the characters’ Vietnam and post-war lives...

THE NIGHT SHE LIED by Lucy Dawson, read by Rachel Atkins

February 29, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Narrator Rachel Atkins is a gift. Her performance of Lucy Dawson’s suspenseful psychological thriller will seep into listeners’ consciousness. AudioFile’s Robin Whitten tells host Jo Reed about this listen that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Atkins’s talents are showcased immediately in the opening scene in which the protagonist, Jude, stands in a courtroom, awaiting the jury’s decision about her fate. Jude is charged with the murder of a new suitor, Rik, who has a disturbing past with h...

WHAT WILD WOMEN DO by Karma Brown, read by Karissa Vacker, Hillary Huber

February 28, 2024 10:00 - 8 minutes

Karissa Vacker and Hillary Huber deliver excellent performances in this gripping audiobook. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss an audiobook that evokes themes of empowerment, personal growth, and discovery. The story, set in the Adirondacks, depicts emotional insights and decades-spanning intrigue. Vacker voices failed screenwriter Rowan, who discovers a mysterious handbook that may have something to do with a woman who went missing in the woods. Huber voices Eddie, the rich-g...

AUGUST WILSON by Patti Hartigan, read by Dion Graham, Patti Hartigan [Afterword]

February 27, 2024 10:00 - 8 minutes

Dion Graham narrates this biography of playwright and poet August Wilson. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss how Graham excels at performing both as storyteller and actor, for this biography contains not only narrative but also passages from some of his plays. His rich voice carries the biography along nicely, but it is when he recites lines from plays such as FENCES and quotations from figures in Wilson’s past that Graham really shines. The audiobook is an enlightening look ...

CAHOKIA JAZZ by Francis Spufford, read by Andy Ingalls

February 26, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss Andy Ingalls’s narration of a literary detective novel. Ingalls delivers all the nuances of a full cast in Spufford’s story set in an alternate universe. In an authoritative tone, Ingalls brings to life Cahokia, located on the banks of the Mississippi. In the novel, this ancient Indigenous society lives on in the 1920s, seeming to flourish in its diversity. But when Barrow discovers a mutilated body, the community’s facade of racial coexisten...

THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE ALPERTON ANGELS by Janice Hallett, read by Kristin Atherton, Annie Aldington, Nneka Okoye, Gareth Armstrong, Sid Sagar

February 23, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Janice Hallett’s marvelous tale unfolds through a series of emails complete with verbal emojis— a narrator’s challenge. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss this mystery about an investigation of a cult—the Alperton Angels. Kristin Atherton gives a smackdown performance as journalist and true-crime author Amanda Bailey. The narrators all help build up the tension at the heart of this mystery. A superbly choreographed performance and unforgettable ending. Read the full review of t...

ABOVE THE FIRE by Michael O'Donnell, read by Robert Fass

February 22, 2024 10:00 - 6 minutes

Robert Fass captures the natural interplay between a father and son during an emotional struggle for survival. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss Michael O’Donnell’s story of a mountain excursion in New Hampshire. Eight-year-old Tim and his father, Doug, are reeling from the recent death of Tim's mother. News of an unidentified national catastrophe forces the two hikers to seek refuge rather than risk traveling home. Fass demonstrates skill in his voicing of quiet moments of te...

KILL SHOW by Daniel Sweren-Becker, read by Megan Tusing, Desmond Manny, Pun Bandhu, Melissa Redmond, Byron Wagner, Christine Lakin, Stacy Gonzalez, Xe Sands, Fred Sanders, Sara Morsey, Chris McLinden, Robert Fass

February 21, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

An ensemble of wildly talented narrators elevates Daniel Sweren-Becker’s fictional true-crime case, told through first-person interviews. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss a full-cast narration that takes the listener on a rollercoaster ride. The narrators infuse a generous amount of personality and empathy into their portrayals of the community, media, and family involved in the tragic case of a missing teenager. A compelling audio with a winning combination of narrators. R...

FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston, read by Saskia Maarleveld

February 20, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Listeners will be convinced there’s a full cast delivering this fast-paced thriller from Ashley Elston. Yet it’s just one narrator, Saskia Maarleveld, who masterfully voices all of the characters. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss another thrilling mystery. Evie Porter has many names and personas she has adopted for her work for the mysterious Mr. Smith. The narrative goes back and forth in time, revealing the successful and disastrous assignments that have landed her in a sma...

ANNA O by Matthew Blake, read by Dan Stevens, Hannah Curtis, Sarah Cullum, Christine Rendel

February 19, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Hannah Curtis, Sarah Cullum, and Christine Rendel, led by the incomparable Dan Stevens, skillfully deliver this extraordinary twisty novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb Discuss Matthew Blake’s new murder mystery. One night, Anna Ogilvy, a young wannabe writer, inexplicably stabs two people to death while sleepwalking. She hasn’t woken up since the crime. Now Anna’s psychiatrist, Ben, must wake her. Stevens delivers the portrayal of Ben with a cool reserve, allowing the listener's...

ENDANGERED EATING by Sarah Lohman, read by Sarah Lohman

February 16, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Sarah Lohman is an effective narrator of her thoughtful audiobook about vanishing foods. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss how Lohman narrates with a pointed reportorial style and measured cadence that suit her text. Lohman’s forays take her to the Salish Sea to work reef-caught salmon; to a Navajo reservation to help butcher the unique four-horned sheep called Churro; and to Ohio, where she learns about Buckeye chicken. She’s an intrepid eater and energetic narrator. Read t...

THE LAST FIRE SEASON by Manjula Martin, read by Manjula Martin

February 15, 2024 10:00 - 6 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss how Manjula Martin delivers her “personal and pyronatural history” as if reading to a friend. She captures the complications of living in proximity to wildfires in Sonoma County, California, which was devastated by conflagrations in 2020. Her story is part memoir of illness and part accounting of living with massive wildfires and the pandemic. Listeners will learn about the fire itself as well: how it works and how those who deal with it stud...

GET THE PICTURE by Bianca Bosker, read by Bianca Bosker

February 14, 2024 10:00 - 6 minutes

Bianca Bosker narrates her witty audiobook—a remarkable experiential romp through the rarefied air of the contemporary art world—with pizzazz. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss how Bosker comes across as an authentic seeker and enthusiastic learner as she participates in performance art, stretches canvases, hangs out with gallerists and painters, sells art at a posh art fair, and more. Performing in a comic style, she enhances the audiobook’s ironic undertone which suggests t...

ALL THE WAYS WE LIED by Aida Zilelian, read by Vaneh Assadourian

February 13, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Vaneh Assadourian delivers this novel about a dysfunctional Armenian American family in a knowing style and understanding tone. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss Aida Zilelian’s novel of three daughters and their struggles. Kohar, the eldest, had trouble with fertility; Lucine’s husband takes her money and disappears; and Azad, the youngest, seems lost and incapable of relationships. Assadourian adroitly captures the clipped angry tone of Takouhi, their matriarch. Together th...

TRUE NORTH by Andrew J. Graff, read by Lincoln Hoppe

February 12, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Lincoln Hoppe demonstrates his skill with a stellar narration of Andrew J. Graff’s immersive novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss Hoppe’s ability to subtly shift in tone and tempo from character to character, making this audiobook stand out. In a work with some high-adrenaline white water scenes, Hoppe controls the most intense action. Set in northern Wisconsin in the fictional town of Thunderwater, the story follows a couple’s travails after they leave Chicago to run a r...

YOUR UTOPIA by Bora Chung, Anton Hur [Trans.], read by Greta Jung

February 09, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Greta Jung performs this collection of science fiction short stories from National Book Award finalist duo Bora Chung and translator Anton Hur. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss how these whimsical stories also possess great depth. In one story, an elevator falls in love with one of the residents in its building. In another, a robot tries to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have almost gone extinct. Jung narrates the audiobook with a deep understanding of ...

AGAINST TECHNOABLEISM by Ashley Shew, read by Maria Pendolino

February 08, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss a collection of essays that centers around Dr. Ashley Shew’s concept of technoableism, a type of ableist belief that technology can, and should, “cure” disabled people. Maria Pendolino narrates and keeps listeners’ attention during technical descriptions while also capturing the emotional heart of Shew’s essays. Shew uses her experience as a chronically ill, hard-of-hearing cancer survivor and amputee to illustrate how technology helps as...

SEX WITH A BRAIN INJURY by Annie Liontas, read by Natalie Naudus

February 07, 2024 10:00 - 8 minutes

Natalie Naudus performs this memoir about the author’s experience with a traumatic brain injury and its intense aftereffects. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss how Naudus’s narration enhances an already engrossing story, creating a brilliantly unique listening experience. Annie Liontas receives three concussions in one year, and afterward Liontas grapples with migraines, memory loss, and sensitivity to light and sound. Their relationship with their wife deteriorates, and ...

DIVINE MIGHT by Natalie Haynes, read by Natalie Haynes

February 06, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

In her latest book of essays, Haynes gives a new, more feminist, perspective on many of the goddesses of Greek mythology—including major figures like Athene, Hera, Demeter, Hestia, and Aphrodite. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss how Haynes balances the emotional weight of the stories with a warm and welcoming conversational style. She discusses their roles and how society has viewed them throughout history. Haynes asks listeners to examine our more traditional assumption...

COME AND GET IT by Kiley Reid, read by Nicole Lewis

February 05, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Nicole Lewis performs this sophomore novel from Booker longlisted author Kiley Reid. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester talk about how Reid excels at writing dialogue, and Lewis’s performance of those conversations takes them to a whole new level. Millie Cousins is a senior resident assistant at the University of Arkansas with big dreams, and when a visiting professor and journalist offers her money in exchange for eavesdropping on her dorm’s residents, she takes the risk. As the ...

IRIS KELLY DOESN'T DATE by Ashley Herring Blake, read by Kristen DiMercurio

February 02, 2024 10:00 - 6 minutes

Kristen DiMercurio returns triumphantly as narrator of the third Bright Falls romance. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this excellent conclusion to Ashley Herring Blake’s series. Romance writer Iris Kelly is single, and that’s how she likes it — but she’s struggling to find inspiration for her next book. When she meets Stevie Scott, a cute aspiring thespian with generalized anxiety disorder, they have a disastrous hookup. Life gets more complex when Iris and Stevie end up ...

DON'T WANT YOU LIKE A BEST FRIEND by Emma R. Alban, read by Mary Jane Wells, Morag Sims

February 01, 2024 10:00 - 8 minutes

Two debutantes scheme to get their parents to marry only to stumble into love themselves in this romp of an audiobook. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this fun new historical romance from Emma R. Alban with warm and energetic narrations from Mary Jane Wells and Morag Sims. It’s 1857, and London’s season is about to begin. Wells voices Beth, who is full of unsteady emotion as she enters London society—she must find a suitable match or she and her mother won’t have a home. S...

A ROYAL CONUNDRUM: The Misfits, Book 1 by Lisa Yee, read by Cindy Kay

January 31, 2024 10:00 - 8 minutes

Cindy Kay narrates Lisa Yee’s thrilling adventure full of crime-fighting misfits, jewel thieves, and cats! AudioFile’s Emily Connelly tells host Jo Reed about this fun and action-packed caper that makes for ideal family listening. Olive Coben Zang is alarmed when her parents tell her she’ll soon be attending a new school—the mysterious RASCH, a castle on an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. But once she’s there, the timid 12-year-old finds adventures galore. Kay’s dynamic tone and pa...

TO SHAPE A DRAGON'S BREATH by Moniquill Blackgoose, read by Charley Flyte

January 30, 2024 10:00 - 8 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss one of Emily’s favorite fantasy audiobooks of 2023. Charley Flyte narrates with a self-assured tone as Anequs, a teen from Masquapaug island who bonds with a dragon egg discovered near her island. She renews her people’s lost relationship with Nampeshiwe, or indigenous dragons, when she bonds with the hatchling, becoming a Nampeshiweisit (dragoneer). Listeners can hear Anequs’s commitment to her cultural knowledge and traditions as she begin...

PROPHET SONG by Paul Lynch, read by Gerry O'Brien

January 29, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Harrowing, evocative, and timely, Paul Lynch’s 2023 Booker Prize-winning novel is a deep dive into what happens when democracy devolves into totalitarianism. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss Gerry O’Brien’s narration of this tense and unforgettable audiobook. Set in Dublin, the story begins when Eilish Stack finds officers from the secret police at the door looking for her husband. An emergency is happening, and people are rapidly losing their rights as reality shifts under...

BROKEN BAY by Margaret Hickey, read by Henry Nixon

January 26, 2024 10:00 - 8 minutes

Narrator Henry Nixon builds the panic that listeners will feel intensely as characters are trapped in underwater caves and grow desperate for their next breaths. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss Margaret Hickey’s thriller set on South Australia’s Limestone Coast, known for cave diving. While on vacation, Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti is drawn into a complicated investigation that spans decades. The seamless blend of Hickey’s narrative prowess and Nixon’s exemplary performanc...

OATH AND HONOR by Liz Cheney, read by Liz Cheney

January 25, 2024 10:00 - 6 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss Liz Cheney’s memoir about the investigation into the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. It combines an able narration by Cheney with clips of quoted material from news reports and recorded speeches, giving the audiobook a sense of immediacy that can’t be duplicated in print. Because she was a longtime U.S. representative, Cheney knows how to effectively utilize the spoken word, and it makes for an enlightening listen even for well-infor...

MY VENICE AND OTHER ESSAYS by Donna Leon, read by Suzanne Toren

January 24, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Suzanne Toren’s exquisite enunciation and no-nonsense manner meld beautifully with Donna Leon’s sardonic, witty reflections on Venice and its denizens. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile Magazine’s Robin Whitten discuss how American-born Leon has made her home in the watery city for more than 40 years, and the long-running mystery series she’s penned set in Venice. These essays, first published in 2013, explore Venice’s oddity and inscrutability in depth, as well as touching on Leon’s New Jersey chil...

DIVA by Daisy Goodwin, read by Lorelei King

January 23, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Listeners will have a grand time with Daisy Goodwin’s historical novel about famed opera singer Maria Callas, performed with a versatile narration by Lorelei King. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss Goodwin’s imagining of Callas’s glamorous and haunting life. King gives Callas a slightly detached, poised tone as she rehearses and performs, and socializes with the rich and famous of the 1950s and ’60s—including Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, and, of course, her longtime lover, ...

INVITATION TO A BANQUET by Fuchsia Dunlop, read by Fuchsia Dunlop

January 22, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Grab your chopsticks and get ready for a delectable performance by Fuchsia Dunlop. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss Dunlop’s tales of epicurean adventures around China, and the history of Chinese food. Dunlop’s narration imparts wisdom and reverence for Chinese culture and China’s diverse cuisine. Her Mandarin accent and satiny voice add to the lyrical descriptions and intricate history of mouthwatering dishes like steamed reeves shad and places like Dragon Well Village. Re...

NORTH WOODS by Daniel Mason, read by Mark Bramhall, Michael Crouch, Jason Culp, Mark Deakins, Jayne Entwistle, Billie Fulford-Brown, Arthur Morey, George Newbern, Kirsten Potter, Simon Vance

January 19, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss an audiobook where the brilliance of the novel is enhanced by the excellence of the performers. Daniel Mason’s novel is expansive, employing a wide array of audiobook narrators. A secluded spot in Massachusetts becomes home to many over a four-hundred-year span. With each tale of shifting inhabitants, the listener is treated to a performance by one of several gifted narrators. The storytelling itself is original, and each narrator is perfectl...

TREMOR by Teju Cole, read by Atta Otigba, Yetide Badaki

January 18, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Atta Otigba and Yetide Badaki give outstanding performances in Teju Cole’s imagistic, nonlinear novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss this distinctly postmodern work that captures the complexity of love and marriage. Badaki has precise diction and a lovely artistic tone, while Otigba delivers his parts in a powerful and authoritative voice. Both serve as grand guides to a world of art, history, and criticism. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. P...

THE UPSTAIRS DELICATESSEN by Dwight Garner, read by Christopher P. Brown

January 17, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Christopher Brown uses the voice of a confidant for this cornucopia of pleasures—literary and gustatory. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss Dwight Garner’s text crammed with words, quotes, and anecdotes about food and literature. Brown takes on a conversational style for this audiobook rich with literary figures and family members whose food opinions the author shares. Listening to this audiobook is mouthwatering and mind-expanding. Read the full review of the audiobook on Aud...

ORANGES by John McPhee, read by Grover Gardner

January 16, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

AudioFile Golden Voice narrator Grover Gardner comfortably inhabits McPhee’s curious mind and captures the eloquence of his prose in this splendid rendition of ORANGES. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss this short classic that brings together the supreme storyteller and the exceptional story performer. McPhee’s exploration of oranges ranges widely and digs deeply. From grove to glass, McPhee has done the work, and this pleasurable listen is delivered by a master. Read the fu...

THE BEST AMERICAN FOOD WRITING 2023 by Mark Bittman, Silvia Killingsworth [Eds.], read by Elyse Dinh, Will Tulin, Carolina Hoyos, Dylan Moore, Nikki Massoud, Chanté McCormick, Justin Chien, Anthony Rey Perez, Johnny Rey Diaz, Terrence Kidd

January 15, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss a delicious and thoughtful collection of essays narrated by an ensemble cast. Nikki Massoud gives an inspired performance of “Border Lines,” Anya von Bremzen’s nuanced debunking of national dishes. Johnny Rey Diaz uses clear Italian enunciation for John Last’s clever “There is No Such Thing as Italian Food.” Editor Bittman has found remarkable selections from EATER, GRUB STREET, HIGH COUNTRY NEWS, and even the JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. Read ...

ENDEMIC by Monica Gandhi, read by Gabra Zackman

January 12, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss Gabra Zackman’s warm and authoritative narration of Dr. Monica Gandhi’s guide to the COVID-19 pandemic and strategies for managing future pandemics. The audiobook is full of practical research findings and emphasizes the importance of providing harm reduction tools for any virus to make the world more equitable. Zackman’s performance is quietly persuasive, and the clarity of the writing is helped by her pure timbre, natural-sounding diction, a...

SEEK by Scott Shigeoka, read by Scott Shigeoka

January 11, 2024 10:00 - 6 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss a useful and often moving audiobook about promoting curiosity in people, written and read by Scott Shigeoka. His performance is a wonderful vehicle for his altruistic message and charming personal stories. Describing the uses and misuses of inquiry, he shows how we can question the world more intentionally while also being sensitive to others. His examples from the corporate world are especially useful as he details the attitudes and verbal to...

LESSONS FOR LIVING by Phil Stutz, read by JC Mackenzie

January 10, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss a book of essays on improving your life and learning from adversity narrated by JC Mackenzie. L.A. psychotherapist Phil Stutz began his work in prisons, which provided him with fodder for creating an “adversity is good” approach to personal growth and change. JC Mackenzie’s tone connects with the author’s intelligent perspectives on humanity and compassion for the challenges of modern culture. Stutz says living well is less about results and ...

ALL IT TAKES IS A GOAL by Jon Acuff, read by Jon Acuff

January 09, 2024 10:00 - 6 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss an audiobook all about setting goals. Productivity expert Jon Acuff narrates his audiobook with an infectious spontaneity and energy. His hero’s journey is full of optimism and will sound familiar to listeners. His core ideas about goal setting may not be revolutionary, but he adds creative strategies and colorful rationales that will speak to anyone who wants to create a better life. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s websi...

DIALED IN by Dana Sinclair, read by Eunice Wong, Dana Sinclair [Intro.]

January 08, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

AudioFile’s Michele Cobb and host Jo Reed discuss a week of new and favorite personal development and business books, beginning with DIALED IN. After coach Dana Sinclair delivers her introduction with inviting sincerity, Eunice Wong performs the bulk of this captivating audiobook with the perfect blend of authority and spirit. The majority of the power of the audiobook can be found in the success stories that build the credibility of the author’s message: Guidance and support, as well as a st...

ALL THE LITTLE BIRD-HEARTS by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow, read by Rose Akroyd

January 05, 2024 10:00 - 8 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this Booker Prize-longlisted novel. Rose Akroyd performs as Sunday Forrester, an autistic woman navigating a neurotypical world as a single parent. Sunday lives a quiet life in rural England with her daughter. When a middle-aged couple moves into the neighborhood, Sunday and her teenage daughter become smitten with these sophisticated city people who seem to live much more glamorous and full lives. Akroyd captures Sunday’s straightforward...

THE REFORMATORY by Tananarive Due, read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

January 04, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Joniece Abbott-Pratt masterfully re-creates a 1950s Florida reformatory in this story based on a relative of author Tananarive Due and other actual people and events. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this painful but essential story. Listeners meet 12-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr. after he’s arrested for defending his sister Gloria from a white boy. While in the segregated reform school, Robbie experiences and witnesses unfathomable punishment. Abbott-Pratt expertly port...

THE BEE STING by Paul Murray, read by Heather O'Sullivan, Barry Fitzgerald, Beau Holland, Ciaran O'Brien, Lisa Caruccio Came

January 03, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss Paul Murray’s Booker-shortlisted novel of an Irish family falling apart at its seams, performed by a talented ensemble. Ciaran O'Brien performs the perspective of Dickie, a car salesman whose business is going under after the financial crash. Beau Holland narrates the perspective of Dickie’s shopaholic wife with a scheme to save her husband’s business. The couple’s children, performed by Heather O’Sullivan and Barry Fitzgerald, each have ...

HOW TO SAY BABYLON by Safiya Sinclair, read by Safiya Sinclair

January 02, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Author/narrator Safiya Sinclair emphasizes the poetry of her words as she narrates her memoir. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this powerful memoir. Sinclair begins by defining “Babylon,” the term that Rastafarians coined to refer to the corrupting influences of Western culture—white oppression, in particular. Her father, a musician, became a strict Rastafarian, and when Sinclair reaches puberty, her rageful father turns on her and rains down abuse. The memoir’s through...

DAY by Michael Cunningham, read by Julianne Moore

January 01, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes

Julianne Moore performs this pandemic novel told in three sections. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester start the new year with this moving family story. Each section is set on April 5th of a different year. In 2019, we meet Isabel; her husband, Dan; and her brother, Robbie—who are all living together in New York City. Each section reveals more about the family members, weaving together the threads of their lives. Moore’s narration is engrossing and moves easily among the different...

KING: A LIFE: AudioFile Favorites

December 29, 2023 10:00 - 7 minutes

Today’s episode revisits a favorite biography from this year’s 2023 Best Audiobooks. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss this Golden Voice narrator’s captivating performance. Dion Graham captures the Civil Rights leader’s deep, resonant tone; deliberate ministerial intonation; and during offstage moments, his world-weariness. Author Jonathan Eig renders King as a great but flawed man. A monumental biography performed exquisitely. Be sure to listen to our interview with Dion Gra...

A RAKE OF HIS OWN: AudioFile Favorites

December 28, 2023 10:00 - 7 minutes

We’re revisiting favorite listens from our 2023 Best Audiobooks. Today’s episode features a discussion about a fantastical romance from A.J. Lancaster, read with skill by Golden Voice narrator Nicholas Boulton. It’s part fantasy, part murder, part romance, and a total delight. When botanical scholar Marius encounters a murdered colleague in his greenhouse, the enthralling fae, Prince Rakken, is there to investigate. Amid more dead colleagues and adventures in various realms, Marius and Rakke...