Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Audiobook Reviews Find your next great audiobook on Behind the Mic with KirkusReviews. Every Thursday, host Jo Reed and her guests discuss what they’ve been listening to and recommend the very best audiobooks. It’s the perfect way to keep up with new releases and hear about the ones you may have missed. Launched by AudioFile magazine in 2018, Behind the Mic now has its home at Kirkus Reviews, the most trusted voice in book discovery for more than 90 years. Visit us at kirkusreviews.com . Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, or whereveryou get your podcasts.

Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews is a arts podcast hosted by Kirkus Audiobook Reviews, with 1,000 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Kirkus Audiobook Reviews hosts Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews, a arts show with 1,000 episodes published.

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  Episode #1933

  Listening to Contemporary Fiction

  Aug 20, 202624 min

  Host Jo Reed and contributor Leslie Fine explore three distinctive novels and the narrators who shape the listening experience. In Sarah Damoff’s The Burning Side, Stacy Gonzalez, Timothy Andrés Pabon, and Jackie Sanders portray members of a family in crisis, with Sanders’ warm, multidimensional performance as the family matriarch a particular standout. Elizabeth Strout’s extraordinary The Things We Never Say finds an ideal interpreter in Golden Voice Robert Petkoff, whose beautifully restrained Earphones Award–winning performance captures Artie’s loneliness and vulnerability while allowing Strout’s remarkable portrait of community, connection, and ordinary life to speak for itself. And in Emma Straub’s American Fantasy, Marin Ireland brings humanity and personality to three very different characters aboard a boy-band nostalgia cruise, making a light, pleasant novel considerably richer in audio. Jo and Leslie consider what happens when narrators know exactly how much—or how little—to do, and how the right performance can deepen an already exceptional novel or add dimension to a lighter one.   Audiobooks Discussed: The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff, read by Stacy Gonzalez, Timothy Andrés Pabon & Jackie Sanders (Simon & Schuster Audio) The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout, read by Robert Petkoff (Random House Audio) American Fantasy by Emma Straub, read by Marin Ireland (Penguin Audio) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  Episode #1932

  Disability in Three Voices

  Aug 13, 202626 min

  Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Kendra Winchester about three audiobooks that explore disability and offer distinct perspectives on community, resilience, and belonging. They begin with Mother Tongue by Sara Nović, narrated by Lisa Flanagan, a memoir that blends personal experience with Deaf history and culture while using inventive audio production to incorporate ASL into the listening experience. Next is A Way Home by Cinelle Barnes, read by the author, a brilliantly written, emotionally layered memoir that interweaves recovery from a brain aneurysm, an overdue return to the Philippines, and a search for home and self, with Barnes’ authentic narration adding another dimension to the listening experience. They conclude with All My Dead Cats and Other Losses by s.e. smith, performed by Em Grosland, which uses the stories of the author's cats as springboards for a thoughtful exploration of grief, disability, memory, and the many ways we mourn, with Grosland’s restrained, deeply empathetic narration giving Smith's reflections room to resonate. Together, these three audiobooks invite listeners to rethink disability—not as a single experience but as a rich and varied part of what it means to be human.   Audiobooks Discussed Mother Tongue by Sara Nović, read by Lisa Flanagan (Random House Audio) A Way Home: A Memoir of Losing Yourself, and the Beauty of Returning written and read by Cinelle Barnes (Brilliance Audio) All My Dead Cats and Other Losses: Practicing Good Grief in a Culture That Fears Mourning by s.e. smith, read by Em Grosland (Harper Audio) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  Episode #1931

  Sports, Belonging, and Growing Up

  Aug 6, 202623 min

  Host Jo Reed and Kirkus young readers’ editor Laura Simeon discuss three audiobooks for young listeners that use sports to explore identity, family, culture, and social change. In Medicine Wheels by Byron Graves, narrator Meegwun Fairbrother captures both the turmoil and the exhilaration of an Ojibwe teenager who discovers skateboarding—and a new connection to his late father. Eva Kaminsky brings clarity and urgency to Elizabeth Rusch’s A Greater Goal, a gripping account of the U.S. women’s soccer team’s fight for equal pay and the solidarity that sustained it. Finally, in Malia Maunakea’s The Shark Prince, narrator Noah Keawekane captures the humor and vulnerability of a Native Hawaiian teenager trying to understand both his changing body and his dangerous inheritance as a descendant of the shark king. Together, these audiobooks move beyond the action of skateboarding, soccer, and surfing to explore family ties, cultural identity, and the power of solidarity.   Audiobooks Discussed: Medicine Wheels by Byron Graves, read by Meegwun Fairbrother (Harper Audio) A Greater Goal: The Epic Battle for Equal Pay in Women’s Soccer—And Beyond by Elizabeth Rusch, read by Eva Kaminsky (Harper Audio) The Shark Prince by Malia Maunakea, read by Noah Keawekane (Listening Library) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  Episode #1930

  The Call of the Wild

  Jul 30, 202624 min

  Three audiobooks explore people whose patience, curiosity, and determination changed how we understand—and protect—the natural world. Contributor Alan Minskoff joins host Jo Reed to discuss Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller by Miriam Horn, a biography of the pioneering wildlife biologist whose decades of patient fieldwork transformed our understanding of animals in the wild. Timothy Andrés Pabon's restrained narration mirrors Schaller's own quiet, methodical approach, allowing the extraordinary scope of his life and work to unfold naturally. Next comes Bernd Heinrich's The Common Uncommon: A Forest Journey, warmly yet authoritatively read by Steve Marvel, which blends memoir, science, and quiet delight in the natural world, inviting listeners to experience it with Heinrich’s infectious sense of wonder. Rounding out the episode is James H. McCommons’ The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds, narrated by Colin White, whose calm, measured narration keeps the focus on the remarkable history of America’s birds, the people who nearly destroyed them, and the unlikely coalition that fought to save them. Together, these audiobooks make a fascinating trio about discovery, conservation, and the enduring rewards of paying close attention.   Audiobooks Discussed: Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller by Miriam Horn, read by Timothy Andrés Pabon & Claudia Dunn (Penguin Audio) The Common Uncommon: A Forest Journey by Bernd Heinrich, read by Steve Marvel (Tantor Media) The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds by James H. McCommons, read by Colin White (Tantor Media) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  Episode #1929

  The Many Faces of Horror

  Jul 23, 202623 min

  Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Alex Richey about three audiobooks whose outstanding narrators bring emotional depth to stories of ghosts, murder, and terrifying change. They begin with The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean, in which Natalie Naudus’ emotionally precise narration guides listeners through a haunting tale set in wartime Hong Kong, balancing gothic fantasy and historical fiction. Next is Craig DiLouie’s The Summer Fun Massacre; here narrator Garrett Michael Brown anchors a grisly summer camp mystery with understated authority, while Elizabeth Cappuccino’s brief appearances as survivors add an intimate counterpoint. Jo and Alex conclude with Luke Dumas's Nothing Tastes as Good, where Graham Halstead’s deeply empathetic performance and an ensemble cast narrating news reports and social media posts transform a horror novel into a thoughtful examination of fatphobia, shame, and public judgment. Whether confronting ghosts, revisiting old crimes, or exploring the consequences of impossible choices, these audiobooks demonstrate how exceptional narration adds emotional depth to even the darkest stories.   Audiobooks Discussed: The Girl With a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean, read by Natalie Naudus (Macmillan Audio) The Summer Fun Massacre by Craig DiLouie, read by Garrett Michael Brown and Elizabeth Cappuccino (Hachette Audio) Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas, read by Graham Halstead with Ali Andre Ali, Raquel Beattie, Cassandra Campbell, and James Anderson Foster (Simon & Schuster Audio) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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