Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews

Host Jo Reed and contributor Alan Minskoff dive into three remarkable audiobooks: Zadie Smith’s Dead and Alive, John Banville’s Venetian Vespers, and Thomas Pynchon’s long-awaited Shadow Ticket. They explore Smith’s incisive essays, read by the author with clarity and authority; Venetian Vespers, with Luke Thompson navigating Banville’s long, sinuous sentences; and Pynchon’s noir caper, handled with virtuosic range by Edoardo Ballerini. It’s a conversation filled with sharp insights into writing, narration, and what makes these audiobooks such compelling listens.

 

Audiobooks Discussed: 

Dead and Alive, written and read by Zadie Smith (Penguin Audio)

Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon, read by Edoardo Ballerini (Penguin Audio)

Venetian Vespers by John Banville, read by Luke Thompson (Random House Audio)

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This week, Michele Cobb joins host Jo Reed to dig into
audiobooks built on backstory, beginning with Expert Witness, where
Gabra Zackman delivers Anne Wolbert Burgess’ account of trauma, justice, and the evolution of expert testimony with clarity and restraint. Next, they turn to A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever, a joyful, detail-packed oral
history of the 1984 film Spinal Tap—an ensemble cast production led by
Rob Reiner, where seemingly spontaneous commentary makes the audiobook the definitive way to experience the story. The episode closes with We Did OK, Kid, a reflective memoir in which Kenneth Branagh’s elegant narration frames Anthony Hopkins’s vulnerable reflections on craft, ambition, and a life shaped by performance. Together these audiobooks show how lived experience—whether in the courtroom, on a film set, or across a lifetime in acting—gains depth and resonance when shaped by a narrator who knows when to be restrained, playful, or quietly vulnerable.

Audiobooks Discussed:

Expert Witness: The Weight of Our Testimony When Justice Hangs in the Balance
by Ann Wolbert Burgess with Steven Matthew Constantine, read by Gabra Zackman

A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap, written
and read by Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry
Shearer 

We Did Ok, Kid: A Memoir by Sir Anthony Hopkins, read by Kenneth
Branagh with the author

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Stephen Cummings joins host Jo Reed to talk about Laurie
Gwen Shapiro’s immersive dual biography of Amelia Earhart and George Putnam, The Aviator and the Showman; Elliot Ackerman’s unlikely and darkly comic caper, Sheepdogs; and Mike Albo’s candid, audio-exclusive memoir, Hologram Boyfriends. Cummings reflects on what surprised him about each audiobook and why these very different works held his attention to the end. Altogether, the conversation highlights how form, tone, and performance shape the listening experience.

 

Audiobooks Discussed:

The Aviator and the Showman by Laurie Gwen Shapiro, read by Stefanie Powers (Penguin Audio)

Sheepdogs by Elliot Ackerman, read by Chris Andrew Ciulla

(Random House Audio)

Hologram Boyfriends, written and read by Mike Albo

(Macmillan Audio)

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Contributor Alex Richey joins Behind the Mic host Jo Reed to talk about three fantastical audiobooks and how their different forms shape the listening experience. The conversation moves from Brandon Sanderson’s
story collection Tailored Realities to two intergenerational stories
centered on daughters—Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite and As
Many Souls as Stars by Natasha Siegel—where voice and perspective carry particular emotional weight. As Alex observes, these audiobooks
demonstrate how narration can enhance both broad narrative structures and more focused, character-driven works.

Books Discussed:

Tailored Realities by Brandon Sanderson, read by
Dion Graham, January LaVoy, Michael Kramer, Ray Porter, Andre Santana, Avi Roque, Dylan Reilly Fitzpatrick, Imani Jade Powers, MacLeod Andrews, Shahjehan Khan, and Stephanie Nemeth Parker

Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite, read by
Weruche Opia, Nnei Opia Clark, and Diana Yekinni

As Many Souls as Stars, written by Natasha
Siegel, read by Kristin Atherton

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AudioFile Magazine is now part of Kirkus Reviews,
and Behind the Mic marks the moment with a conversation with the
magazine’s founder and longtime editor Robin Whitten. Robin reflects on a life spent listening, how audiobooks and audiobook reviewing has evolved, and her excitement that the work begun by AudioFile will continue and flourish at KirkusReviews.
It’s a thoughtful, forward-looking conversation about continuity, change, and the enduring joy of listening.

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