Behind the Mic With Kirkus Reviews

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New Earphones Award Winners

September 10, 2026

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 s...

Detectives on the Case

September 03, 2026

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 Detect...

Made for Listening

August 27, 2026

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 Peei...