September 2023 Earphones Award Winners

Six narrators add unique layers to this well-researched novel featuring Surrealist artist Remedios Varo, a refugee who is fleeing Europe during WWII. Each narrator takes on a different point of view. With her warm tone and rich timbre, Aida Reluzco sets a captivating mood in the chapters involving Remedios. Between each chapter, Erin deWard delivers a mesmerizing Tarot card... Read More

Nancy Wu steps gracefully into the prestigious role of Avatar Yangchen in this prequel to the beloved series. Yangchen, an air-nomad avatar prior to Aang, is the glue holding four nations together. But a powerful enemy, Chaisee, threatens the balance. In her attempt to restore peace, Yangchen seeks help from Kavik, an old friend turned betrayer. While the story appears to... Read More

The vibrant, assured voice of Tavia Gilbert guides listeners through a family story about the trauma of mental illness affecting generations in both Germany and America. In a youthful voice Gilbert portrays 9-year-old Heidi Phillips, who describes life in the small town of Alamo, Michigan, in 1970. She recounts fun at the county fair, camping trips, and other good times, but... Read More

Josephine Huang's and David Lee Huynh's earnest performances delight in this winning YA rom-com. Huang's spirited narration embodies the optimistic 18-year-old Clementine Chan, who writes as Hibiscus in her blog, which provides news and reviews on Chinatown. Huynh's deep tones and pacing clearly portray the cranky Danny Mok, a.k.a. BobaBoy888. Mok thinks Hibiscus's... Read More

Nadia Verde and Brian Thomas Abraham team up to narrate this creative fantasy to great effect. Abraham begins each chapter with deviously petty instruction from "The Dark Traditions." His lovely baritone and classic English accent amplify the hilarious absurdity. Verde aptly narrates the majority of the story. Kayla, an adopted 14-year-old, is visiting the state fair when she... Read More

Zadie Smith expertly performs her historical novel inspired by true events. It's 1873, and Mrs. Eliza Touchet, a Scottish housekeeper, is watching the trial of a working-class Australian man who claims to be the true inheritor of a great estate and title. Mrs. Touchet begins thinking about her cousin William Ainsworth, a formerly great novelist now down on his luck who she... Read More

This fantasy with captivating world-building and characters requires an expert emotional performance--and Kit Griffiths delivers. After Kissen's family is murdered by followers of a reckless fire deity, she dedicates her life to hunting gods. But her path changes when she meets Inara, a young heiress who is mysteriously connected to a small god of white lies. Traveling together... Read More

Justine Lupe brings a beloved Stephen King character, Holly Gibney, vividly to life with her narration. When a distraught mother with a missing daughter calls Holly's investigative agency for help, quirky, brilliant Holly takes the case. She soon finds connections to other missing people and is slowly drawn into a world of pure evil. Lupe conveys the depravity of the... Read More

This thrilling audiobook, delivered by a stunning ensemble of voices, will hook listeners through each twist to the very end. Jane, portrayed by Yu-Li Alice Shen, is a self-described sociopath. Shen's deep voice and acerbic tone perfectly convey Jane's spontaneous violent thoughts and obsessions, especially toward the irresistible Thalia. Thalia takes Jane under her wing during... Read More

Narrators Frankie Corzo and Shane East fully immerse listeners in this small-town enemies-to-lovers soccer romance. After an altercation with the Miami Flames' soccer team mascot goes viral, Adalyn Reyes is banished by her father, the Flames' owner, to a North Carolina backwoods town to turn around a struggling youth soccer team for girls. Her first encounter with the Green... Read More

This mystery opens with the chance meeting of two women. Alix is a successful podcaster, a seemingly happily married mother of two who is living a carefree life. Josie appears at first to be an awkward, sheltered woman with a disturbing past. As Josie makes her way into Alix's life, her disturbing past takes on an entirely different angle. The performances of Nicola Walker, as... Read More

Paterson Joseph's remarkable performance of Kate Atkinson's newest book transmutes the whimsical, witty, and absurdist stories from adroit to splendid. The acclaimed British actor's light, engaging baritone and exquisite delivery offer pleasure and comfort in equal measure as he guides us through narratives that truly do not follow normal rules. They include talking animals,... Read More

Nicola Barber's crisp British accent and tone of self-doubt work well in depicting Abigail Rook. Abigail has recently inherited the psychic abilities of her employer, R.F. Jackaby, the protagonist of four previous mysteries. No longer an assistant, Abigail must now take the lead in the firm's supernatural detective work. Barber shifts smoothly to Jackaby's American accent and... Read More

This audiobook demonstrates yet again that history's footnotes often have the most revealing and important stories to tell. Narrated in a perfect tone and mix of emotions by Lisa Flanagan, the work focuses on how a German agent, a prominent American's wife, and Mussolini's daughter, Edda Ciano, worked to transfer the diaries of Edda's husband, Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo... Read More

Robert Petkoff is the perfect narrator for this quirky heist novel. Despite his Harvard law degree, Jack Betancourt is a people mover. When questionable people like mobsters, crooks, or others in dire straits need to disappear, Jack is their go-to guy. His ex-girlfriend, Elena, herself a shady operator, returns to Onset, Jack's tiny Massachusetts beach town, with a daring plan... Read More

Guy Lockard is the energetic and enthusiastic heart of this new Stuntboy adventure, narrated by a talented cast with lively music and goofy sound effects. All action takes place in Portico's building, where he lives with his parents and Gran Gran. At least, they used to all live together--now Portico's parents have split up. While on his way from his mom's apartment to his... Read More

January LaVoy gives a breathtaking narration of an astonishing historical novel. Listeners meet a servant girl in the winter of 1609 as she escapes certain death by fleeing into the unknown dangers of the forest. What follows is a beautifully wrought story of survival, narrated with precision, emotion, and a keen sense of the drama that unfolds. The girl's past is slowly... Read More

A beautiful narration by Rebecca Mozo brings this new sci-fi offering to life. Kel Garda and her mates seek to find and destroy the long dormant war machine that is suddenly devastating the peaceful planet of Loth, where Kel has found refuge in her anonymity. Mozo delivers individual tones and pitches for the various characters; voices range from Kel's no-nonsense contralto to... Read More

Journalist Meg Kissinger gives a stellar narration of her extraordinarily affecting memoir about growing up in the 1960s in a close-knit Irish-Catholic family of eight children, many of whom were afflicted with mental illness. Kissinger's father suffered from bipolar disorder, her mother was hospitalized for depression during Kissinger's childhood, and she lost a brother and... Read More

This audiobook perfectly captures the extraordinary Project C, the ten- week campaign to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, which was crucial to the subsequent success of the 1963 March on Washington. Jaime Lincoln-Smith's performance is exceptional. He complements the book's historical precision with his delivery of the memorable voice of Martin Luther King, Jr., while... Read More

Olivia Dowd is so good at delivering this history that it's like listening to a historical novel set in the sixteenth century. Dowd gives each woman a unique voice in this true account of the lives of Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France; her daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, Queen of Spain; and Catherine's daughter-in-law, Mary, Queen of Scots. The production provides 24 hours... Read More