Podcast Talk With Audiobook Reviews

Podcast Talk With Audiobook Reviews

By Audiobook ReviewsArtsBooksPerforming Arts
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Podcast Talk With Audiobook Reviews episodes

  • Celebrating 1,000 Episodes of Behind the Mic

    Audiobook Review

    Tune in as host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten celebrate 1,000 episodes of Behind the Mic! Listen to hear why we decided to create a podcast to recommend the best audiobooks to listeners. Jo and Robin also share thoughts and highlights from favorite author and narrator interviews from over the years.

    Find thousands of audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com

    Today’s episode is sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks. Listen to Leon Nixon’s AudioFile Earphones Award-winning performance of My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass. In My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) Douglass lays bare his story, illuminating the plight of slaves, the overwhelming prejudices of the time, and the dignity and determination that led to his emancipation. To learn more, visit NaxosAudioBooks.com

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    11 min
  • IMAGINE IF . . . by Ken Robinson, Kate Robinson, read by Kate Robinson

    Audiobook Review

    Kate Robinson, daughter of the late Sir Ken Robinson, narrates this concise version of their strategy to revolutionize education. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss Robinson’s vision to unlock creative energy and human potential. Kate speaks precisely in a standard English accent, but despite the academic nature of the topic, her admiration for her father and her confidence in their educational philosophy ring through. Father and daughter enthusiastically urge academia to cultivate individuality and adopt new educational paradigms designed to empower students to create a sustainable future.

    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Penguin Audio.

    Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com

    Today’s episode is sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks. Margery Allingham, already a successful crime writer, was living quietly in the Essex village of Tolleshunt D’Arcy (‘Auburn’) when the Second World War broke out. Her house became an Air Raid Wardens’ post and a First Aid centre, and Allingham herself became responsible for 275 East London evacuees in a rural community of just over 600. Commissioned by American publishing friends to recount what life was like, she began The Oaken Heart in the autumn of 1940, when the Battle of Britain gave way to the London Blitz. An evocative first-hand account of day-to-day realities in a small community upended, The Oaken Heart is read by Georgina Sutton. To learn more, visit NaxosAudioBooks.com

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    9 min
  • EMILE AND THE FIELD by Kevin Young, read by Kevin Young

    Audiobook Review

    In a warm voice filled with wonder, poet Kevin Young reads his ode to finding peace and belonging in nature. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss the special gift of sharing an audiobook with children. Kevin Young is a celebrated poet, the New Yorker’s poetry editor, and now director of the National Museum of African American Culture in Washington, DC. In this story, Emile is a young boy who falls in love with a field and chronicles its changing seasons as he spends time there. Young listeners should follow along with the picture book to appreciate the illustrations, and to be inspired to seek out their own magical corners of the natural world.

    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Listening Library.

    Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com

    Today’s episode is sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks. Narrated by Adam Sims, Looking Backward is a dynamic rejection of industrial capitalism, and presents a depiction of a socialist utopia. The novel’s protagonist, aristocrat Julian West, falls into a deep hypnotic sleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000 to find a very different Boston from the one he knows. In Dr Leete he finds a guide who explains the humane and efficient society in which he now finds himself – its transformation made possible by political and technological advances. To learn more, visit NaxosAudioBooks.com

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    7 min
  • ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell, read by Rupert Degas

    Audiobook Review

    A gifted mimic and clever narrator, Rupert Degas brings Orwell’s classic satire vividly to life. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Alan Minskoff discuss Degas’s marvelous narration. What stays with the listener is his ability to endow Orwell’s animal characters with their own distinct sounds and accents — their individuality elevates the narration. This witty and engaging send-up of authoritarianism’s perils comes at an opportune time. These days Orwell’s anti-Stalinist fable rings true, and the audiobook satisfies on every level.

    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Dreamscape.

    Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com

    Today’s episode is sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks. The Book of Margery Kempe is the extraordinary account of a medieval wife, mother and mystic from Norfolk. Known as the earliest autobiography in the English language, it contains intimate portraits of people and places, and a remarkable eye for detail, as it traces the transformation of a self-described ‘sinful wretch’ to a holy pilgrim. It is read by Lucy Scott. To learn more, visit NaxosAudioBooks.com

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    7 min
  • THANK YOU, MR. NIXON by Gish Jen, read by Justin Chien, Catherine Ho, Annie Q, Eunice Wong

    Audiobook Review

    A quartet of narrators excels in delivering Gish Jen’s linked stories, which chronicle the years since Nixon’s 1972 visit to China. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Alan Minskoff discuss how each narrator inhabits their characters well, bringing the interwoven stories to life for listeners. Their deliveries of these immersive and clever works match just the right voices, cadences, and tones to their stories. It makes for a rewarding listening experience.

    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Random House Audio.

    Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com

    Today’s episode is sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks. Today in Literary History – April 21, 1816 – Charlotte Brontë is born. The eldest of the three Brontë sisters, her novels include The Professor, Shirley, Villette and Jane Eyre. One of the greatest love stories ever written, Jane Eyre is the tale of a young woman entangled with the powerful Mr Rochester. What lurks in the attic at Thornfield, the ancestral home of the surly Mr Rochester? Will the governess Jane Eyre discover his secret – and having discovered it, live to regret that knowledge? Find out in Amanda Root’s captivating recording. To learn more, visit NaxosAudioBooks.com

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    8 min
  • SAVING YELLOWSTONE by Megan Kate Nelson, read by Cynthia Farrell

    Audiobook Review

    Cynthia Farrell’s crisp voice suits Megan Kate Nelson’s fascinating history of Yellowstone, the world’s first national park. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff discuss Farrell’s intelligent narration of this history of the Reconstruction era. It is told through three central figures: the financier Jay Cooke, the geologist Ferdinand Hayes, and the courageous Sitting Bull, who led his Lakota people in resisting the incursions on their lands. Farrell narrates with intelligence, a careful cadence, and an actor’s dramatic style.

    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Simon & Schuster Audio.

    Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com

    Today’s episode is sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks. Sir Francis Bacon, sometimes known as the father of empiricism, was one of the major political figures of his day. Bacon wrote widely, but it is the Essays for which he is best known. Deftly written and often displaying a cutting wit, they cover a wide range of subjects including death, love, marriage, ambition and atheism. The Essays are read by the celebrated narrator David Timson. To learn more, visit NaxosAudioBooks.com

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    7 min
  • LESSONS FROM THE EDGE by Marie Yovanovitch, read by Marie Yovanovitch

    Audiobook Review

    Former ambassador and long-term Foreign Service officer Marie Yovanovitch narrates with a clear purpose and a sure sense of pacing and timing. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Alan Minskoff discuss Yovanovitch’s narration of her memoir on her 33 year career in the foreign service. He explains that it acts as a kind of primer for recent history, with a focus on Russia and Ukraine. Both authoritative and prescient, she supplies the backstory on how the invasion came to be. It’s a compelling listen.

    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Harper Audio.

    Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com

    Today’s episode is sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks. The Poetic Edda is the most important collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry, covering the creation of the world and the coming of Ragnarok, The Doom of the Gods. The mythological poems are an exploration of the wisdom of gods and giants, and tell of the adventures of the god Thor, against hostile giants, and rivalries amongst the gods. Many of the poems pre-date the conversion of Scandinavia to Christianity and give us a glimpse of the pagan beliefs of the North. Gunnar Cauthery (himself of Icelandic heritage) reads Carolyne Larrington’s revised translation. To learn more, visit NaxosAudioBooks.com

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    7 min
  • THE CANDY HOUSE by Jennifer Egan, read by a Full Cast

    Audiobook Review

    The performance of Jennifer Egan’s new novel is exceptional. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Alan Minskoff discuss this unusual and absorbing audiobook full of interwoven stories. Michael Boatman narrates the opening chapter, capturing the interior life of the enigmatic Bix Boughton who invents a world-altering technology central to the plot. The time-traveling chapters reprise some of the characters from Egan’s award-winning A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD, but this novel has a wider timeframe, a greater trajectory, and a more complex plot.

    Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Simon & Schuster Audio.

    Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com

    Today’s episode is sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks. Leighton Pugh narrates The Republic by Plato. In it Socrates is asked the question ‘What is justice?’ In order to answer this, he draws a long and detailed analogy between the individual and the city. AudioFile said: ‘[The Republic] can be complex, but [Leighton] Pugh’s fine voice, natural pacing and thoughtful expressiveness help keep the meaning clear, and the 19th-century translation is both graceful and lucid. Pugh’s reading demonstrates that philosophy not only can be comprehensible in audio but also enjoyable.' To learn more, visit NaxosAudioBooks.com

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    7 min
  • LOVE & SAFFRON by Kim Fay, read by Kimberly Farr, Cassandra Campbell, Mark Bramhall, Maggi-Meg Reed, Kim Fay [Note]

    Audiobook Review

    Narrators Kimberly Farr and Cassandra Campbell perform most of Kim Fay’s epistolary novel, and they couldn’t be better. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Sandi Henschel discuss this story filled with friendship, love, and deep emotions. Imogen’s column in Seattle’s NORTHWEST HOME & LIFE inspires Joan in L.A. to send a fan letter and a packet of saffron from her travels. Their correspondence grows into a close friendship. Farr gives Imogen a genial voice, and we hear a cheerful smile behind her words. Campbell captures Joan’s youth and enthusiasm. This audiobook is comfort food for difficult times. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Penguin Audio.

    Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com

    Today’s episode is sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks. April 16th marks 60 years since the publication of The Golden Notebook, the breakthrough novel of Doris Lessing, the 2007 Nobel Laureate for Literature. Read by Juliet Stevenson, it is a brilliantly realised narrative of fragmentation – social, political, personal and sexual –, and is considered to be one of the most important books of the growing feminist movement of the 1950s. Learn more at NaxosAudioBooks.com

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    8 min
  • THE LAST CONFESSIONS OF SYLVIA P. by Lee Kravetz, read by Maggi-Meg Reed, Karissa Vacker, Teri Clark Linden

    Audiobook Review

    Lee Kravetz’s fictional account of Sylvia Plath and her circle of confessional poets is wonderfully performed. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Sandi Henschel discuss a story of three notebooks containing handwritten notes of Plath’s THE BELL JAR. Points of view shift between Estee, curator of a contemporary auction house; Boston Rhodes, Slyvia’s literary rival; and Ruth Barnhouse, Plath’s psychiatrist. Reed’s cultured tones provide Estee with intelligence and dignity, while Linden’s voice drips poisonously as Rhodes reveals her venomous side. Vacker’s Dr. Barnhouse is forward-thinking, determined, and sympathetic. Well-written and well-read, this is choice listening. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile’s website. Published by Harper Audio.

    Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com

    Today’s episode is sponsored by Naxos AudioBooks. The Blazing World is part fiction and part feminist text in which a lady is shipwrecked and seeks to ensure that the Blazing World in which she finds herself is transformed into a Utopia – free of war, sexual discrimination and religious discord. Lucy Scott narrates this fascinating and extravagant combination of what the author herself calls ‘romancical’, ‘philosophical’ and ‘fantastical’. Learn more at NaxosAudioBooks.com

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    8 min

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