Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine AudioFile Magazine

Narrator Adam Lazarre-White draws listeners into the new thought-provoking crime novel from S.A. Cosby. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss this story of Titus Crowne, the first Black sheriff in a small Virginia county. As listeners enter Titus’s world, he is faced with a shooter at a high school, a neo-Confederate group on the march, and a serial killer terrifying the town. This is a gripping, timely tale—beautifully told. Stay tuned for an interview with S.A. Cosby coming June 6, in AudioFile’s articles.
Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Macmillan Audio.
Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com
Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic podcast comes from audiobooks.com. Visit www.audiobooks.com/freeoffer for three free audiobooks with a trial.
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Narrator Eric Mok makes Martha Wells’s wonderfully inventive and diverse fantasy eminently accessible. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss the fun of exploring a fantasy world written by Wells, well known for her MURDERBOT series. Here, Kaiisteron, a demon prince of the underearth with the power to possess other bodies, wakes up imprisoned and confused. When he and his dear friend, the witch Ziede, escape, they set off to find answers—and Ziede’s missing wife. The story jumps between the present timeline and earlier, during a devastating war, and we slowly learn more about Kai’s history. Mok keeps up with the fast-paced action sequences and voices many lovable (and some horrible) characters with skill. Listeners will hope for more stories set in this fascinating world.
Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Macmillan Audio.
Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com
Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic podcast comes from audiobooks.com. Visit www.audiobooks.com/freeoffer for three free audiobooks with a trial.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Avi Roque gives a spirited and deeply emotional performance of Jonny Garza Villa’s queer love story. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this rich and lively audiobook for teens. Nonbinary Mexican American teen Ander is taking a gap year before college, focusing on their art and painting murals across San Antonio. When they fall in love with their family taqueria’s newest employee, an undocumented Mexican boy named Santi, it opens up their world in unexpected ways. Roque’s warm and musical narration is utter perfection, capturing Ander and Santi’s fear with vivid immediacy and infusing their voice with bubbly happiness at the thrill of building this new relationship. A hopeful listen that’s a heartbreaking, joyful love letter to queer Latinx communities.
Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Macmillan Audio.
Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com
Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic podcast comes from audiobooks.com. Visit www.audiobooks.com/freeoffer for three free audiobooks with a trial.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dion Graham is a master of nonfiction narration, and he perfectly complements the flow of Matthew Desmond’s treatise on poverty in America, and how to end it. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss this devastatingly clear and expertly narrated audiobook. Desmond is a professor of Sociology at Princeton and well known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning EVICTED. Here he describes the depth of American poverty, the history and devastating impacts, but he also urges listeners to become poverty abolitionists and end this national disgrace. Graham performs with energy and intensity, matching Desmond’s outrage, and conveys each statistic, quotation, and insight flawlessly.
Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Random House Audio.
Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com
Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic podcast comes from audiobooks.com. Visit www.audiobooks.com/freeoffer for three free audiobooks with a trial.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Poet and author Kwame Alexander joins Behind the Mic host Jo Reed to talk about his new memoir for an adult audience, WHY FATHERS CRY AT NIGHT. Alexander is the author of many award-winning audiobooks for young listeners, including THE DOOR OF NO RETURN, AN AMERICAN STORY, and LIGHT FOR THE WORLD TO SEE. He’s a familiar voice on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” and a Disney+ series based on his book THE CROSSOVER has just been released. In their interview, Alexander shares his thoughts about his parents’ influence, how he came to poetry and to writing books for children and young adults, and his experience narrating this very personal memoir.
Read our review of WHY FATHERS CRY AT NIGHT on our website, along with reviews of more of Kwame Alexander’s many audiobooks for young listeners.
Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic podcast comes from audiobooks.com. Visit audiobooks.com/freeoffer for three free audiobooks with a trial.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Magic flows as Joniece Abbott-Pratt brings to life Angie Thomas’s thrilling first fantasy novel. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Emily Connelly discuss Thomas’s new middle-grade series perfect for family road trips and young fantasy readers. Nic Blake has just turned twelve, and while she gets a pretty amazing gift (her own hellhound puppy!), her dad refuses to start teaching her to use her magical abilities. Nic and her father are Manifestors, able to use magic, though they live outside the Remarkable community and are always on the move. When Nic discovers shocking secrets he’s kept from her—and he’s arrested for a crime he didn’t commit—it’s up to her to find the truth. Abbott-Pratt captures listeners’ attention with her dramatic narration, voicing each character with heart and emotion and leaving listeners eager for the next story in the series.
Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Harper Audio.
Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com
Support for AudioFile’s Behind the Mic podcast comes from audiobooks.com. Visit www.audiobooks.com/freeoffer for three free audiobooks with a trial.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices