Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews

Host Jo Reed and contributor Leslie Fine discuss three new works of fiction that take listeners from 1980s New York to midcentury Florida and, finally, to a complicated homecoming in the present-day Adirondacks. Dion Graham returns to Ray Carney’s world in Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine,
bringing rhythm, humor, and depth to Ray’s divided life in Harlem. Amanda
Stribling gives Laura Moriarty’s novel Sunlight Finds You the intimacy
of a memoir, subtly carrying Nora from childhood into adulthood while grounding the novel’s larger emotional turns. And Richard Russo’s Under the Falls unfolds through an ensemble cast whose performances keep this story of a musician’s uneasy return home engaging as old relationships, resentments, and secrets begin to surface. Together, the three audiobooks show just how much the meeting of narrator and novel can shape the listening experience.



Audiobooks Discussed:

Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead, read by Dion Graham (Random
House Audio)

Sunlight Finds You by Laura Moriarty, read by Amanda Stribling (Penguin
Audio)

Under the Falls by Richard Russo, read by Zachary Chastain, Emma
Ladji, Matt Godfrey, Fred Berman & Leeanna Albanese (Random House
Audio)



This is the final episode of Behind the Mic. Many thanks to everyone who made this podcast possible, both in front of and behind the mic—and, of course, to everyone who has been listening. Continue following Kirkus’s flagship podcast, Fully Booked, hosted by Megan Labrise, for the conversations and insights that will help you find your next great book, whether you’re reading or listening.

Support for Kirkus’s Behind the Mic comes from Harper Audio, producer of audiobooks by HarperCollins Focus and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite authors, including Reba McEntire, Bob Goff, Savannah Guthrie, Max Lucado, Lysa TerKeurst, and so many more!



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Jo Reed talks with contributor Alan Minskoff about three memoirs shaped by home and the complicated question of where we belong. In All That’s Unseen, Emilee Hackney narrates the story of her journey from an insular Pentecostal community in Southwest Virginia to Harvard University, with
an Appalachian accent that keeps her connection to home unmistakably present, even as her world expands. Vincent Coppola’s Gowanus Crossing, narrated by Paul Bellantoni, takes listeners to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Coppola’s childhood, capturing its Italian American families, Catholic schools, street life, and the rough world surrounding the Gowanus Canal. Earphones Award winner Bellantoni particularly shines when he takes on the voices and rhythms of the neighborhood. And in Scavenging Beauty, Angelica Glass narrates her account of walking nearly 2,900 miles through Santa Cruz County, using the landscape and the act of walking to look back at a difficult childhood. Three lives become stories about the places that form us—and how we carry those places with us as we move on.



Audiobooks Discussed:

All That’s Unseen, written and narrated by Emilee Hackney (Penguin Audio)

Gowanus Crossing: A Brooklyn Boyhood by Vincent Coppola, read by Paul
Bellantoni (Macmillan Audio)

Scavenging Beauty, written and read by Angelica Glass (Penguin Audio)



Support for Kirkus’ Behind the Mic comes from Harper Audio, producer of audiobooks by HarperCollins Focus and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite authors, including Reba McEntire, Bob Goff, Savannah Guthrie, Max Lucado, Lysa TerKeurst, and many more.

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Jo Reed talks with Laura Rossi about three Earphones
Award–winning audiobooks that showcase the range and power of great narration. In Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear, Rebecca Lowman gives surprising dimension to a deeply unlikable trad-wife influencer whose carefully constructed life takes an unexpected turn. Jenny Jackson’s The Shampoo Effect, read by Marin Ireland, follows four complicated women through a summer in coastal Massachusetts, with Ireland making each character distinct through subtle shifts in rhythm, pitch, and attitude. And in Transcendent, Laverne Cox narrates her own story with vulnerability and candor, sharing painful experiences from her childhood and reflecting on gender, race, and the struggle to live as her authentic self. Three very different audiobooks, each offering its own reminder of what makes listening such a distinctive experience.



Audiobooks Discussed:

Yesteryear
by Caro Claire Burke, read by Rebecca Lowman (Random House Audio)

The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson, read by Marin Ireland (Penguin Audio)

Transcendent: A Memoir written and read by Laverne Cox (Simon & Schuster Audio)



Support for Behind the Mic with Kirkus Reviews comes from Harper Audio, producer of audiobooks by HarperCollins Focus and HarperCollins Christian Publishing, publishers of some of your favorite authors, including Reba McEntire, Bob Goff, Savannah Guthrie, Max Lucado, Lysa TerKeurst, and so many more!

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Jo Reed and Michele Cobb dig into three Earphones Award–winning police procedurals, each pairing a compelling investigator with a
narrator who knows how to build suspense. In Missing by E.A. Jackson,
Nicola Walker’s understated, magnetic performance and English accent capture Detective Inspector Martha Allen’s intelligence and persistence as a decades-old case pulls her back in. Dervla McTiernan’s Three Reasons for
Revenge, read by Alison McGirr and set in Melbourne, Australia, follows
Detective Sergeant Judith Lee through a brutal, psychologically driven
investigation, with McGirr handling both the emotional stakes and the novel’s mounting tension. And in Michael Connelly’s Ironwood, narrator Will Damron returns as Detective Sergeant Stilwell, bringing a steady sense of urgency to an investigation on Catalina Island—with welcome appearances from Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch. Three very different detectives, three accomplished narrators, and three mystery audiobooks that earned their Earphones Awards.



Audiobooks Discussed:

Missing by E.A. Jackson, read by Nicola Walker (Simon & Schuster Audio)

Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan, read by Alison McGirr (Harper Audio)

Ironwood by Michael Connelly, read by Will Damron (Hachette Audio)

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Jo Reed talks with contributor Stephen Cummings about three
memoirs created with audio at their center, using performance, archival clips, live recordings, and the human voice to tell their stories. Billy Eichner looks back at his Queens childhood, his rise through Billy on the Street, and the creation of the film Bros in Billy on Billy, an audio-only memoir that mixes his narration with clips from his career and reveals a more
reflective side of the famously confrontational comedian. In Peeing in an
Empty Bottle, comedian Roz Hernandez takes listeners along on a solo tour through the South and Midwest, combining exuberant narration with live performances and recorded conversations that explore comedy, community, and the realities of traveling through America as a transgender woman. Voice actor Billy West draws on his extraordinary vocal range in Voice-A-Versa, a memoir in which his honesty is as striking as his virtuosity. West moves from a painful childhood to the many characters he created for dozens of commercials and TV programs such as The Ren & Stimpy Show and Futurama (among many others), as well as his years on The Howard Stern Show. Together, the three audiobooks show what happens when memoir is conceived for the ear, making the voices, performances, and sounds of a life part of the storytelling itself.



Audiobooks Discussed:

Billy on Billy: An Audio Memoir, written and read by Billy Eichner (Macmillan Audio)

Peeing in an Empty Bottle (And Other Glamorous Shenanigans of an Almost-Famous Transgender Comedienne on the Road), written and read by Roz Hernandez (Simon & Schuster Audio)

Voice-A-Versa: Finding My Voice(s) Behind the Mic, written and read by Billy West (Recorded Books Inc.)

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