Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine

Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine

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.

Episodes

DEAR WRITER by Maggie Smith, read by Maggie Smith

May 7, 2025 • 8 mins
Host Jo Reed and AudioFile Editor Robin Whitten discuss this nonfiction audiobook chock full of ideas. Poet Maggie Smith’s newest audiobook offers all kinds of artists helpful advice about what she sees as the 10 essential elements of creativity: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Her light, sweet-sounding voice often assumes a poet’s studied rhythmic cadence as s...
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THE BUSINESS TRIP by Jessie Garcia, read by Andrew Eiden, Dylan Reilly Fitzpatrick, Fred Berman, Gail Shalan, Hillary Huber, Jennifer Pickens, John Pirhalla, Kimberly M. Wetherell, Kirby Heyborne, Tim Campbell

May 6, 2025 • 7 mins
In Garcia’s debut thriller, the listening experience is memorable because each of the narrators is superb. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile Editor Robin Whitten discuss how the ensemble of narrators adds great depth to this audiobook, allowing listeners to immerse themselves in the richness of well-defined characters. A woman is presumably murdered on a business trip. All, of course, is not as it seems, and the mystery deepens with each ...
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THE GHOSTS OF ROME by Joseph O'Connor, read by Stephen Hogan, Barnaby Edwards, Aoife Duffin, David John, Gertrude Toma, Laurence Bouvard

May 5, 2025 • 10 mins
The second novel in Joseph O’Connor’s proposed trilogy bristles with life. AudioFile Editor Robin Whitten and host Jo Reed discuss how superb performances from a talented cast reveal the thoughts and emotions of a group of righteous men and women who saved hundreds from Nazi brutality. An escape line called “The Choir” operates within Vatican walls. The group faces constant danger. The narrators portray ordinary people doing extrao...
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AudioFile Favorites: In Conversation with Golden Voice Kevin R. Free

May 2, 2025 • 43 mins
We’re revisiting host Jo Reed’s conversation with Golden Voice narrator Kevin R. Free. They discuss his impressive audiobook work, his acting career, and being named a 2023 Golden Voice narrator. Kevin is a multiple Earphones Award winner for a wide range of audiobooks, from children’s stories to literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and fantastic science fiction. There are few narrators who can match his versatility and perceptive...
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EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS by John Green, read by John Green

May 1, 2025 • 6 mins
On a visit to Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone, bestselling author John Green met Henry, a charismatic patient who looks much younger than his age due to the ravages of a tuberculosis infection on his body. They established a friendship, and Green's interest in the disease grew, leading him to become a supporter of Partners in Health and an advocate for reducing disparities in treatment. Host Jo Reed and contributor Alex R...
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SUNRISE ON THE REAPING by Suzanne Collins, read by Jefferson White

April 30, 2025 • 8 mins
Jefferson White shows remarkable skill balancing a youthful cast with the sobering reality they must face. Twenty-four years before Katniss’s games, Haymitch, from District 12, must compete in the Hunger Games—with twice the tributes (competitors). AudioFile’s Alex Richey and host Jo Reed discuss how White’s perfect pacing adds intensity to the brutality of the games and lingering melancholy as Haymitch struggles to maintain his in...
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BAT EATER AND OTHER NAMES FOR CORA ZENG by Kylie Lee Baker, read by Natalie Naudus

April 29, 2025 • 8 mins
Natalie Naudus embodies anxiety and fear of the supernatural with razor-sharp precision. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cora Zeng’s sister, Delilah, is murdered in a hate crime: The killer shouts “bat eater” before pushing her in front of a train. Now Cora is a crime-scene cleaner, and she’s noticed an increase in the unexplained murders of Asian women whose bodies are staged with bat corpses. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s ...
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THE RIVER HAS ROOTS by Amal El-Mohtar, read by Gem Carmella

April 28, 2025 • 7 mins
Gem Carmella narrates a magical novella inspired by traditional ballads. Sisters Esther and Ysabel use their musical talents to tend the enchanted willow their family has honored for generations. When an unwanted suitor appears, everything they love is suddenly at risk. AudioFile contributor Alex Richey and host Jo Reed discuss how Carmella’s narration perfectly blends the fantastical elements of fairy tales with the macabre elemen...
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Earphones Award Round Up

April 25, 2025 • 16 mins
Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Laura Rossi highlight three recent Earphones Award-winning audiobooks. AudioFile awards Earphones to exceptional audio experiences—it’s our version of a starred review, specifically for the audiobook. Laura and Jo discuss Rachel Syme’s fun “Guide to Modern Correspondence,” SYME’S LETTER WRITER, read by the author; Curtis Sittenfeld’s short story collection SHOW DON’T TELL, performed by seven narrators i...
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THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones, read by Shane Ghostkeeper, Marin Ireland, Owen Teale

April 24, 2025 • 10 mins
Listeners don't just experience a fascinating historical drama—they also become steeped in a bloody gothic Western. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Stephen Cummings discuss the stellar performances that are the center of this compelling listening experience. Narrator Marin Ireland fully embodies the beleaguered humanities professor who, while deep diving into the campus archive, discovers the story of her ancestors. Complete with crea...
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JUNIE by Erin Crosby Eckstine, read by Angel Pean

April 23, 2025 • 7 mins
Narrator Angel Pean's stand-out performance is essential here. AudioFile’s Stephen Cummings and host Jo Reed discuss how her storytelling skill fully embodies these characters and the detailed and occasionally magical world they inhabit. Junie, an enslaved girl in 1800s Alabama, lives with the loss of her sister, Minnie, whose death is a weight on her conscience. An encounter with Minnie's ghost changes Junie's life, opening a new ...
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THE FAVORITES by Layne Fargo, read by Christine Lakin, Louisa Zhu, Amy Landon, Elena Rey, Valerie Rose Lohman, Suzanne Toren, Graham Halstead, Julia Emelin, Layne Fargo, Eric Yang, Johnny Weir

April 22, 2025 • 8 mins
Listeners don't need to be superfans of ice skating to be drawn into this audiobook. The world of pairs skating competition provides the setting for a story of young, elite athletes who are fighting for Olympic gold. AudioFile’s Stephen Cummings and host Jo Reed discuss how the narrations are uniformly exceptional in this audiobook structured as an oral history. Standouts include Christine Lakin as the complicated lead; her voice c...
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BEEN WRONG SO LONG IT FEELS LIKE RIGHT by Walter Mosley, read by Dion Graham

April 21, 2025 • 8 mins
Host Jo Reed and contributor Stephen Cummings discuss how Dion Graham continues his stellar work with Mosley's Joe King Oliver series, bringing heart and rough edges in equal measure. Here, the private investigator's Grandma B has a dying wish: Locate her long-missing son. Oliver's complicated relationship with his father is heightened as the search brings new insights into the man. Graham, in top form, captures the grit of this Ne...
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Parking Lot Classics: A STUDY IN SCARLET WOMEN

April 18, 2025 • 13 mins
AudioFile’s Aurelia Scott and host Jo Reed discuss this clever historical mystery with a fabulous twist. It’s centered around Charlotte Holmes, a young woman with a gift for "discernment" and getting into trouble, who has secrets worth protecting. Golden Voice Narrator Kate Reading is masterful in her portrayals. Reading's aristocratic British voices are spot-on, and her acting is outstanding. She depicts all types of characters—fu...
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DREAM STATE by Eric Puchner, read by MacLeod Andrews

April 17, 2025 • 8 mins
This audiobook begins with plans for a wedding and goes on to include . . . nearly everything else. AudioFile’s Leslie Fine and host Jo Reed discuss MacLeod Andrews’s excellence as a narrator: gentle, funny, sharp, and intuitive. When Cece and Charlie's special day—officiated by Charlie's troubled friend, Garrett—moves in an unexpected direction, Andrews captures the characters' interactions without dramatic excess. Andrews maintai...
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THE HARDER I FIGHT, THE MORE I LOVE YOU by Neko Case, read by Neko Case

April 16, 2025 • 8 mins
Singer-songwriter Neko Case narrates her memoir, and host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Leslie Fine discuss the way she brings to it a vitality and dynamism that give the listener a sense of actually being with her as she falls victim to manipulation by her mother, beginning at age 8. Case allows us to feel the tumult and trauma of impoverishment, neglect, and a steady stream of dislocations and relocations. The passion with which Case e...
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DEVOTIONS by Mary Oliver, read by Kimberly Farr

April 15, 2025 • 7 mins
AudioFile reviewer Leslie Fine and host Jo Reed discuss Kimberly Farr’s narration of this collection of Mary Oliver’s poems. Many of Oliver’s poems are about God or nature, and sometimes it’s difficult to find the line between them. Her world was full of many delights and, had she lived to hear them, Farr’s interpretations of her poems would have been among them. There is some melancholy in this collection—although not much—and Far...
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UNDER THE SAME STARS by Libba Bray, read by January LaVoy, Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Major Curda

April 14, 2025 • 8 mins
Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Leslie Fine discuss how a trio of narrators portray teens from different eras and settings: from Hanna and Sophie, two Polish teens, in 1939, to 1980 West Berlin, where Jenny adjusts to her family’s move from Dallas, to Brooklynite Miles, who solves the mysterious disappearances of two girls sixty years earlier. Narrators January LaVoy, Jeremy Carlisle Parker, and Major Curda heighten their performances...
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AudioFile Favorites: Talking with Author Maryrose Wood

April 11, 2025 • 28 mins
We’re revisiting our conversation between host Jo Reed and children’s book author Maryrose Wood. Maryrose is the author of, most recently, BAD BADGER, a charming fable about friendship, as well as ALICE’S FARM, and The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series that listeners can enjoy in six brilliant audiobooks. In this conversation, Maryrose shares her insights about the special relationships she has had with the narrators of ...
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THE STRANGE CASE OF JANE O. by Karen Thompson Walker, read by Jay Myers, Alex Sarrigeorgiou

April 10, 2025 • 8 mins
Jay Myers and Alex Sarrigeorgiou keep listeners hooked throughout this haunting, Earphones Award-winning audiobook. Psychiatrist Dr. Henry Byrd is faced with a perplexing case. His newest patient, Jane O., normally can recall every detail from the events of her life. However, she cannot remember what happened in the previous 25 hours, after having blacked out. The mysterious story unfolds through Dr. Byrd’s case notes and Jane’s jo...
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