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 her books: Katherine Kellgren for five of the six titles, and Fio...
Apr 11, 2025•28 min•Ep. 1783
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 journal. AudioFile’s Michele Cobb and host Jo Reed discuss how both...
Apr 10, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1782
Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss how anyone who has been a member of a wedding party will be captivated by Anne Tyler's latest audiobook, appealingly narrated by J. Smith-Cameron of “Succession” fame. She captures the intonation and Mid-Atlantic accent of 61-year-old Gail, the bride's mother, and keeps listeners oriented as the story shifts from the present-day festivities to flashbacks. Smith-Cameron deftly conveys Tyler's shrewd observations on marriage and family while illumi...
Apr 09, 2025•7 min•Ep. 1781
First-time listeners, as well as those who once treasured this story, will be thrilled by Sutton Foster’s character portrayals. AudioFile’s Michele Cobb and host Jo Reed discuss how Foster’s portrayal of Pippi is central to the audiobook’s success. Her narration crackles with dynamic vibrancy when it comes to Pippi’s dialogue. She depicts the wonder, confusion, and doubt of Pippi’s friends and the consternation of adults whose authority Pippi challenges. But, as it should be, nothing and no one ...
Apr 08, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1780
In her latest memoir, the now 59-year-old actor Brooke Shields candidly narrates her experiences entering middle age, illuminating both her personal experience and research into topics like healthcare, sex, and parenthood. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss the way that Shields's stories—like the ones about her exercise-induced femur break, her journey parenting adult children, and more—are narrated with wry humor and humility and are made all the more powerful by hearing them in ...
Apr 07, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1779
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Apr 04, 2025•12 min•Ep. 1777
Joe Jameson delivers an impressive performance of this comprehensive text. AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff and host Jo Reed discuss how his pace and cadence work well with this fact-filled audiobook. Smil, an energy expert, has long been a student of the planet’s food. He argues astonishingly that with some improvements in diet choices, technology, and wise use of how and where we grow crops, the planet may be able to feed its projected 10 billion inhabitants in 2050. His data-driven focus balances en...
Apr 03, 2025•9 min•Ep. 1777
After MSNBC host Chris Hayes begins his audiobook with what behavioral science knows about voluntary and involuntary attention, he explains how this fundamental human faculty is being hijacked by corporate America and slick political operatives. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss how Hayes is an authentic narrator of his important message. His easy-listening performance conveys a comfortable command of his emotional tone and engagement with his thinking without underplaying the g...
Apr 02, 2025•9 min•Ep. 1776
Author Ewing delivers her introduction, which sets up the arguments. She then turns the body of the text over to Golden Voice narrator Robin Miles. AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff and host Jo Reed discuss how Miles is a gifted performer whose tone, tempo, and cadence enhance the dark truths of this provocative work on the failure of our educational system. Ewing, who is a scholar and poet, indicts American schools as historically rigged against Black and Native American students. Packed with telltale ...
Apr 01, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1775
The tone, tempo, and lilting intonation of all four narrators make this Earphones Award-winning listening experience rewarding. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss how Adichie’s first novel in more than a decade—really four connected, finely crafted novellas—simply engages the listener from the start. Three of the major characters are Nigerian women: a travel writer, a successful lawyer, a powerful business woman—and the fourth, also West African, a maid at a posh hotel. A compell...
Mar 31, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1774
Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Laura Rossi discuss 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 highlight Mary Oliver’s poetry collection DEVOTIONS, read by Kimberly Farr; Karen Thompson Walker’s novel THE STRANGE CASE OF JANE O, read by Jay Myers and Alex Sarrigeorgioiu; and Alton Brown’s essay collection FOOD FOR THOUGHT, which he narrates himself. Th...
Mar 28, 2025•16 min•Ep. 1773
Sebastian Humphreys and Vivien Carter perform this complex story about Hannah, her family, and Max, Hannah’s late boyfriend who’s now haunting their London apartment. After he dies, Max watches Hannah move on with her life and marvels at how much he still had to learn about her. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss how each perspective sounds unique. As the plot unfolds, Carter’s narration maintains the tension leading to every plot twist and holds the listener’s attention to t...
Mar 27, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1772
AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester and host Jo Reed discuss how narrator Ailsa Piper evokes the stark Australian Outback in her performance of this captivating novel, shortlisted for the Booker Prize. To escape her busy life in the city, a middle-aged woman visits a small religious community for peace and quiet. Years later, she returns to the community, this time for good. But not long after she joins the nuns in their daily life, a plague of mice descends upon the entire state. As the mice invade e...
Mar 26, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1771
Megan Tooley and Ussani Taylor deliver moving performances of Amanda Peters’s short stories, which explore the Indigenous experience throughout American history. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this new work from the author of THE BERRY PICKERS. Tooley performs most of the stories, using a sweet lilting voice, gentle delivery, and subtle shading of personality. Taylor, who reads four deeply moving, emotionally difficult pieces, gives a tough and perceptive performance. Tog...
Mar 25, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1770
Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss Rebecca Lowman’s evocative performance of this atmospheric novel—with a large dash of fabulism—set in the Alaskan wilderness. Birdie is a single mom who is waitressing at a lodge when a man walks in and changes her life. Arthur is an outdoorsman, a man of few words, but it’s love at first sight. Birdie and her daughter, Emaleen, go to live with Arthur in his remote cabin, spending the summer days basking in the beautiful Alaskan mountains. I...
Mar 24, 2025•7 min•Ep. 1769
Host Jo Reed talks with Ann Powers, critic and correspondent for NPR Music, and editor Alison Fensterstock about collaborating on HOW WOMEN MADE MUSIC, AudioFile’s spring Audiobook Club Pick. A mosaic of essays with archival recordings of the artists, HOW WOMEN MADE MUSIC: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music is an Earphones Award winner and was one of AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks of 2024. Alison and Ann talk about the origins of this vibrant and ambitious project, the use of archival audio, wh...
Mar 21, 2025•35 min•Ep. 1768
Carson’s SILENT SPRING has been the gold standard of the environmental movement for more than 50 years. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss how narrator Susie Berneis is more than up to the task of making the complex workings of the natural world easy for the average person to follow. Berneis truly excels when her narration mirrors the emotion Carson made so evident in her work. She is by turns passionate, saddened, uplifted, and furious at the history and impact of synthetic pest...
Mar 20, 2025•10 min•Ep. 1767
Golden Voice narrator Gerard Doyle once again brings the quirkiness and erudition of D.I. Sean Duffy to life as he takes on a case that his boss, who is away on vacation, can’t handle. It’s 1992 in Belfast, and the murder of an IRA assassin means that Duffy must clock more time hunting for the killer despite his efforts to cut back as he nears retirement. AudioFile’s Robin Whitten and host Jo Reed discuss how Doyle’s slyly humorous tone makes the story feel like a caper at times as he revels in ...
Mar 19, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1766
Teen listeners are given a well-rounded portrait of the leading figure in the Civil Rights movement, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King—fleshed out by fascinating and coherent accounts of the events of the day and the people around him. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss how Golden Voice Dion Graham masterfully portrays the voices and emotions of Dr. King’s orations. This production succeeds at reinforcing the fact that the inspiring civil rights leader “is a person, not just a ...
Mar 18, 2025•12 min•Ep. 1765
AudioFile’s Robin Whitten and Host Jo Reed discuss this 2025 Audie Award winner for Audio Drama, which is also an Earphones Award winner and was one of AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks of 2024. Andrew Garfield and Cynthia Erivo lead a crew of inspired English actors in creating a full-cast, filmlike 21st-century reimagining of one of the twentieth century's most important novels. The production is peppered with eerie urban soundscapes and a haunting musical score. Andrew Scott gives a terrific turn a...
Mar 17, 2025•9 min•Ep. 1764
A full cast of narrators, including the author, delivers this enchanting collection of short stories about love, magic, and betrayal. AudioFile’s Alex Richey and host Jo Reed discuss how each of the 14 stories is tenderly delivered by an emotionally committed narrator. Some standouts include Stephanie Németh-Parker as a woman who grants wishes at a bridge during the full moon and David Monteith portraying a man who accidentally kills the woman he intends to marry, only for her to come back and h...
Mar 13, 2025•7 min•Ep. 1762
Liz Femi is the primary narrator of this meta-narrative about a paraplegic Nigerian American woman and her unexpected rise to fame. Suddenly unemployed, Zelu risks writing a novel unlike any she’s ever written before, a futuristic sci-fi epic about androids who exist after humanity becomes extinct. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alex Richey discuss how Femi’s distinct voices and the rest of the narrators’ performances complement each character's personality, thoroughly enriching this Earphones Awa...
Mar 12, 2025•7 min•Ep. 1761
AudioFile’s Alex Richey and host Jo Reed discuss how this fantastic ensemble of narrators excel equally at emotionally connecting to complicated emotional characters, elevating colloquial language, and enhancing mysterious, violent horrors. Kristolyn Lloyd portrays 25-year-old Calla as she struggles to hold her life together. Calla would do anything to keep her brothers alive and safe, but neither sibling listens to her. When Calla’s brutal nightmares come to life, the siblings must escape to a ...
Mar 11, 2025•7 min•Ep. 1757
Narrator Rong Fu returns in the next audiobook in the Iron Widow series. Zetian has awakened Qin Zheng, legendary emperor of Huaxia from centuries past. He desires a complete overhaul of Huaxia to eliminate corruption and misogyny, but despite a common goal, it is still one Zetian is forced into. AudioFile’s Alex Richey and host Jo Reed discuss how Rong Fu skillfully adjusts her accent when voicing Qin Zheng, using a British accent most of the time, and switching to a different accent as he chan...
Mar 10, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1756
Author Marshall Karp and narrator January LaVoy join AudioFile’s Michele Cobb for a conversation about Marshall’s latest novel, DON’T TELL ME HOW TO DIE - a mystery-turned-thriller where January LaVoy’s superb talent brings an array of dimension to Karp’s carefully crafted characters. Marshall is the author of over a dozen crime fiction novels - including the popular NYPD Red series, co-written with James Patterson - and January is an award-winning narrator who has voiced books by Nora Roberts, ...
Mar 07, 2025•31 min•Ep. 1758
Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss the 2025 winner for Best Fiction Narrator, awarded this week at the 30th annual Audie Awards. Listen to hear their conversation and a clip from the winner! You can catch up with the Audie Awards ceremony livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/DZ6KZvPtgEA And see the full list of this year’s finalists at the Audio Publishers Association website: https://www.audiopub.org/2025audies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 06, 2025•7 min•Ep. 1760
Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb discuss the 2025 winners for Audiobook of the Year and the Best Nonfiction Narrator, awarded at last night’s Audie Awards gala. Listen to hear their conversation and a clip from the winner! And you can catch up with the Audie Awards ceremony livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/DZ6KZvPtgEA And see the full list of this year’s finalists at the Audio Publishers Association website: https://www.audiopub.org/2025audies Learn more about your ad choices. V...
Mar 05, 2025•11 min•Ep. 1756
Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Michele Cobb preview the 2025 Audie Awards! This year the Audies’ 30th anniversary will be celebrated with a gala event in New York City, and with a livestream that audiobook lovers can watch from the comfort of home. Listen in as Jo and Michele discuss some of the highlights to watch for in this year’s Audie Awards. Follow along with the Audie Awards ceremony tonight: https://www.youtube.com/live/DZ6KZvPtgEA And see the full list of this year’s finalists at the Audi...
Mar 04, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1755
Richard Powers’s PLAYGROUND is a 2025 Audie Award Finalist for Audiobook of the Year. We’re revisiting host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff’s discussion of how the six narrators' words flow forth, immersing the listener in four central characters and the minute details that comprise their respective worlds. Sections lack titles or labels, so the distinct voice of each narrator is key to distinguishing which story is which. The performances of narrators Edoardo Ballerini, Robin Siegerman, E...
Mar 03, 2025•8 min
Adjoa Andoh narrates a short story collection of speculative fiction by Ann Leckie. We’re revisiting host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discussion of this 2025 Audie Award Finalist in Science Fiction. This collection includes works in the worlds of the Imperial Radch and the Raven Tower, as well as stand-alone pieces. Andoh’s stellar skills are on display in every piece, making the stories of gods, humans, and other assorted beings incredibly compelling. A stunning performance by a mast...
Feb 28, 2025•8 min•Ep. 1753
