1,499 episodes

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.

Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine AudioFile Magazine

    • Arts
    • 4.7 • 121 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.

    OURS by Phillip B. Williams, read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

    OURS by Phillip B. Williams, read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

    Joniece Abbott-Pratt performs this multigenerational novel set over several decades in the American South. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this debut novel from poet Phillip B. Williams. In the 1830s, a mysterious woman named Saint frees enslaved people from plantations and brings them to a town they call Ours, where they find a safe haven from the rest of the world. But when Saint tightens her control of the townspeople, they begin to wonder what it means to be a free Black person in America. Abbott-Pratt’s cadence enthralls listeners, giving weight to this sweeping epic. Her performance is a stunning example of a masterful narrator at her best.
    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Penguin Audio.
    Discover thousands of audiobook reviews and more at AudioFile’s website.
    Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Reba McEntire, Zachary Levi, Kathie Lee Gifford, Max Lucado, Willie Nelson, and so many more!
    This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/AUDIOFILE and get on your way to being your best self.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 7 min
    THIS AMERICAN EX-WIFE by Lyz Lenz, read by Lyz Lenz

    THIS AMERICAN EX-WIFE by Lyz Lenz, read by Lyz Lenz

    Lyz Lenz narrates her memoir about the end of her marriage and the start of her new life as an “ex-wife.” Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this audiobook that alternates between Lenz’s own story of divorce and freedom, and her research on women experiencing divorce. While Lenz had been told that the end of her marriage would be the end of her family, she soon discovered that leaving her unhappy marriage gave her more fulfillment and love than she ever had before. Lenz’s informal and personable delivery works well.
    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Random House Audio.
    Discover thousands of audiobook reviews and more at AudioFile’s website.
    Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus, and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Reba McEntire, Zachary Levi, Kathie Lee Gifford, Max Lucado, Willie Nelson, and so many more!
    This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/AUDIOFILE and get on your way to being your best self.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 7 min
    THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS by Katherine Arden, read by Michael Crouch, January LaVoy, Katherine Arden

    THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS by Katherine Arden, read by Michael Crouch, January LaVoy, Katherine Arden

    January LaVoy and Michael Crouch perform Katherine Arden’s historical novel with a supernatural twist. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss one of the must-listen audiobooks of the season. LaVoy delivers the perspective of Laura, a nurse who has recently returned from a WWI battlefield to her home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Crouch narrates as Laura’s brother, Freddie, a young soldier who has gone missing in Belgium. LaVoy conveys all of Laura's anguish when she receives word that her brother is missing. Crouch captures Freddie’s long hours trekking through the mud, shell-shocked and beyond all hope of getting out of the war alive. A moving and captivating audiobook.
    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Random House Audio.
    Discover thousands of audiobook reviews and more at AudioFile’s website.
    Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus, and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Reba McEntire, Zachary Levi, Kathie Lee Gifford, Max Lucado, Willie Nelson, and so many more!
    This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/AUDIOFILE and get on your way to being your best self.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 8 min
    DINNER ON MONSTER ISLAND by Tania De Rozario, read by Tania De Rozario

    DINNER ON MONSTER ISLAND by Tania De Rozario, read by Tania De Rozario

    Tania De Rozario performs her essay collection, which revolves around her experience growing up as a fat mixed-race queer girl in Singapore. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss how De Rozario’s audiobook is a gem of queer literature. De Rozario narrates each of her essays with emotional depth and understanding, giving grace to her past self while simultaneously acknowledging the growth she has experienced over time.
    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Harper Audio.
    Discover thousands of audiobook reviews and more at AudioFile’s website.
    Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Reba McEntire, Zachary Levi, Kathie Lee Gifford, Max Lucado, Willie Nelson, and so many more!
    This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/AUDIOFILE and get on your way to being your best self.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 8 min
    THE BOOK OF LOVE by Kelly Link, read by January LaVoy

    THE BOOK OF LOVE by Kelly Link, read by January LaVoy

    January LaVoy performs this epic story of three teenagers who are brought back from the dead just long enough to compete in a mysterious game to see who gets to continue to live. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Kendra Winchester discuss this debut novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, who is better known for her short story collections. Here, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves back in Lovesend, Massachusetts, one year after they died. LaVoy captures whimsy and darkness in equal measure, spinning this fairytale-like story into an engrossing audiobook.
    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Random House Audio.
    Discover thousands of audiobook reviews and more at AudioFile’s website.
    Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Reba McEntire, Zachary Levi, Kathie Lee Gifford, Max Lucado, Willie Nelson, and so many more!
    This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/AUDIOFILE and get on your way to being your best self.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 7 min
    Meet Alan Minskoff - Celebrating 1500 episodes of Behind the Mic

    Meet Alan Minskoff - Celebrating 1500 episodes of Behind the Mic

    AudioFile’s celebrating 1500 episodes of our Behind the Mic podcast. Today host Jo Reed talks with Alan Minskoff, a longtime AudioFile reviewer who has excellent insights into audiobooks. Alan tells Jo about how he fits audiobooks into his busy weeks as he commutes to his work at the College of Idaho. He loves to feature audiobooks on food, the environment, and history and the occasional literary fiction on Behind the Mic.
    AudioFile’s podcast honors the work and dedication to the craft of making excellent audiobooks, and features the best in audiobooks each week. Read more about AudioFile Magazine and discover thousands of audiobook reviews at AudioFile’s website.
    Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus, and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Reba McEntire, Zachary Levi, Kathie Lee Gifford, Max Lucado, Willie Nelson, and so many more!
    This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/AUDIOFILE and get on your way to being your best self.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 12 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
121 Ratings

121 Ratings

swinchester90 ,

Fantastic!

Great way to find new books I might not read otherwise.

z77r ,

Sound meter issues

Love the show, but the volume of the speakers is irratic. Not only do the different speakers seem to be set at different sound levels; the same speaker can fade from quiet to loud, as though the speaker is moving her head away from and toward the microphone. Given the title of the podcast, I find the sound production especially annoying.

buddyzakocs ,

Listen to every episode!

Love hearing the reviews and snippets of the audiobook.

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