Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews

Host Jo Reed talks with Kirkus young readers’ editor Laura Simeon about three middle-grade audiobooks that explore difficult subjects with
honesty, empathy, and respect for young listeners. In Phoenix by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, narrator Emma Ladji brings warmth and steadiness to
young Harper’s story as she navigates her parents’ divorce, shifting
friendships, and the rescued horse who becomes central to her new life. Karise Yansen’s calm, measured narration of Matthew Fox’s The Lovely Dark grounds a lyrical story of grief, loss, and the afterlife in vivid emotional reality. And in Tae Keller’s When Tomorrow Burns, a seamless ensemble cast—Eddy Lee, Annie Q. Riegel, Sara Matsui-Colby, Emily Woo Zeller, and Tae Keller—captures the uncertainty and intensity of middle school friendships unfolding against the backdrop of climate anxiety and change. Together, these audiobooks recognize that middle-grade kids confront complicated situations and deserve stories that speak to those uncertainties with honesty and care.

 

Audiobooks Discussed:

Phoenix by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, read by Emma Ladji (Listening Library)

 

The Lovely Dark by Matthew Fox, read by Karise Yansen (Hachette Audio)

 

When Tomorrow Burns by Tae Keller, read by Eddy Lee, Annie Q. Riegel,
Sara Matsui-Colby, and Emily Woo Zeller (Listening Library)

 

 

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

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Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Leslie Fine about three audiobooks that range from memoir to thriller to literary biography. They begin
with Unread: A Memoir of Learning (and Loving) To Read on TikTok
by Oliver James, where narrator James Shippy brings warmth and enthusiasm to the author’s account of achieving literacy as an adult and discovering the enduring pleasures of books. Then, they turn to Tiffany Crum’s This Story Might Save Your Life. Driven by the energetic, emotionally layered narration of Julia Whelan and Sean Patrick Hopkins, its use of podcast clips, voicemail messages, and layered audio production heightens a suspenseful missing-person mystery. And they end with Judy Blume: A Life by Mark Oppenheimer; Molly Ringwald’s warm, quietly authoritative narration guides listeners through the career of an author whose books have shaped generations of readers. Together, these
audiobooks prove that the right narrator can turn a good story into an irresistible listen.

Audiobooks Discussed:

Unread: A Memoir of Learning (and Loving) To Read on TikTok by Oliver James, read by James Shippy (Hachette Audio)

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum, read by Julia Whelan and
Sean Patrick Hopkins (Macmillan Audio)

Judy Blume: A Life by Mark Oppenheimer, read by Molly Ringwald and Mark Oppenheimer (Penguin Random House Audio)

 

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

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On this special sponsored episode of Behind the Mic, Kirkus’ Michele Cobb is joined by acclaimed narrator January LaVoy. Together, they go behind the scenes of recording Freida McFadden’s latest bestseller, The Divorce—without spoilers. The novel explores the unraveling of a marriage, and the audiobook is performed by a trio of narrators portraying the three characters at its center: January LaVoy, Edoardo Ballerini, and Marin Ireland. Michele and January discuss the importance of honoring the author’s words, collaborating with her fellow narrators, and how January created the voice for and built the character of Veronica, the other, younger woman.

 

Audiobook Discussed:

The Divorce by Freida McFadden, read by
January LaVoy, Edoardo Ballerini & Marin Ireland (Dreamscape Media)

 

This episode of Behind the Mic is brought to you by Dreamscape Media

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From haunted New Jersey suburbs to melancholy Irish landscapes to the contested wilds of the American West, Alan Minskoff joins host Jo Reed to discuss three sharply different works of fiction in audio. Tom Perrotta’s Ghost Town, narrated by Robert Petkoff, blends grief, adolescence, and the supernatural through Petkoff’s nuanced character work, while Derbhle Crotty and Darragh Shannon bring quiet emotional precision to The News From Dublin, evoking the atmosphere of longing and displacement in Colm Tóibín’s story collection. The conversation closes with Taylor Brown’s Wolvers, read by Ramiz Monsef, whose vivid performance captures the tensions between ranchers, militias, environmentalists, and wolves in the modern West. These audiobooks may share little besides the genre of fiction, but each narrator creates a fully realized world listeners can step into and stay with long after the final chapter.

 

Audiobooks Discussed:

Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta, read by Robert Petkoff
(Simon & Schuster Audio)

The News From Dublin: Stories by Colm Tóibín, read by Derbhle Crotty and
Darragh Shannon (Simon & Schuster Audio)

Wolvers by Taylor Brown, read by Ramiz Monsef (Recorded Books Inc.)

 

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

 

 

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Three women tell deeply personal stories in audiobooks that gain even more force through performance. Michele Cobb joins host Jo Reed to discuss A Hymn to Life by Gisèle Pelicot, who discovered that her husband had drugged her and arranged to have dozens of men assault her over the course of many years. The book recounts her life, the trial, and the reckoning that followed, all narrated by Emma Thompson with remarkable restraint and empathy. Next comes a discussion of The End of My Life Is Killing Me by Annabelle Gurwitch, read by the author with warmth, comic timing, and mischievous candor as she navigates stage 4 lung cancer and divorce. Finally, they discuss You With the Sad Eyes, written and read by actor Christina Applegate, who reflects on childhood trauma, fame, cancer, and living with multiple sclerosis; her unguarded narration—complete with journal entries, cracked laughter, and tearful moments—gives the book unusual emotional immediacy.  These memoirs don’t offer neat resolutions, but they do reveal the special intimacy that happens when difficult stories are spoken aloud.

 

Audiobooks Discussed:

A Hymn to Life: Shame Has To Change Sides by Gisèle Pelicot with Judith Perrignon; translated by Natasha Lehrer and Ruth Diver; read by Emma Thompson (Penguin Random House Audio)

 

The End of My Life is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker by Annabelle Gurwitch, read by the author and Andie MacDowell (Zibby Books)

 

You With the Sad Eyes: A Memoir written and read by Christina Applegate (Hachette Audio)

 

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