Audiofile Author Interviews

Books on Tape Featured Authors

Noah Adams

One might expect an experienced radio journalist to make an easy transition to audiobook reader. Not so, says Noah Adams, longtime host of "All Things Considered" and a correspondent for National Public Radio. "It's not radio," he says emphatically. "It's got nothing to do with radio. In fact, everything I learned for radio no longer applies."

Alan Alda

"I'm used to talking for a living, so recording the audiobook of my own writing was not a chore," says award-winning actor, TV and film writer, and now book author Alan Alda. The recently released audiobook of his humorous memoir, NEVER HAVE YOUR DOG STUFFED AND OTHER THINGS I'VE LEARNED, demonstrates in superlative fashion that Alda is a curious and talented guy. So talented, in fact, that in the past year, he had the distinction of being nominated for an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy--and making the New York Times bestseller list--all in the same year.

Isabel Allende

Writing letters provides the source material for many of Isabel Allende’s books. Her first internationally acclaimed bestseller, THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS, began as a letter to her 99-year-old grandfather.

Stephen E. Ambrose

Stephen E. Ambrose is a patriot, arguably the most brilliant, compelling and least abashed patriot publishing history in this country today. He's also a partisan of the spoken word.

Kevin J. Anderson

With over 90 books to his name, Colorado-based sci-fi scribe Kevin Anderson is a self-described write-a-holic. "I'm a storyteller. They keep coming and coming, and I keep writing. I once did 14 books in a single calendar year. I love telling stories."

Maya Angelou

In every sense of the words, Maya Angelou is one of the great voices of contemporary literature. A remarkable Renaissance woman, she’s a poet, educator, historian, bestselling author of more than a dozen books, actress, playwright, civil rights activist, producer, director, and audiobook narrator.

David Bach

It would be hard to imagine a more engaging audio teacher than author and CNN financial commentator David Bach. His books and audios, including THE AUTOMATIC MILLIONAIRE, are among the best financial guides available in any medium. In contrast to losing weight, which he says requires daily discipline, money management can be automatic. “Becoming wealthy is incredibly simple. It’s just not easy. But if I can get you in one hour to do a handful of things that set up automatically, you’re done unless you shut it off. It doesn’t take ongoing motivation.”

David Baldacci

In speaking with author David Baldacci about audiobooks, you soon realize he’s a “stone cold” optimist. “Some authors think that audiobooks detract from book readership,” he says. “I believe that audios add whole blocks of fans.

Roy Blount, Jr.

“I’m a restless person, and I don’t tend to sit still for long.” That uneasy nature and keen eye for the absurdities of life have served humorist Roy Blount, Jr., well. He has composed a large body of work, including plays, screenplays, articles, columns, and now his twentieth book, Long Time Leaving. Though he’s spent a good deal of time in the North, Blount still carries much of his Georgia accent.

Judy Blume

Judy Blume has written numerous books in which she expresses the certainties and uncertainties of childhood and adolescence with wit, understanding and sympathy. . . . Every bit of the warmth, humor and insightfulness of her writing comes across in her reading."

Barbara Taylor Bradford

When she had the idea for her first novel, the rags-to-riches story of the indomitable Emma Harte, Barbara Taylor Bradford sat down and wrote a 12-page outline, which she showed to a friend. By chance, he happened to be seeing an American editor who "was looking for a big, old-fashioned family saga." Bradford met with the editors, who said they wanted 200 pages. When she appeared with two shopping bags and 1,592 pages of manuscript, they were overwhelmed. However, she had to wait only two days before they bought the book. After some editing, A Woman of Substance exploded onto the publishing scene in 1979.

Dan Brown

The son of a mathematics professor and a sacred music professional, Dan Brown has always been fascinated by codes and by the sometimes divergent concepts of religion and science. Several years ago, he decided to explore his interests in a series of thrillers featuring Robert Langdon, a fictional Harvard professor of iconography.

Bill Bryson

The hardest part of recording audiobooks, author Bill Bryson told AudioFile, was learning to keep very still when he speaks. "I tend to gesticulate." The noise of his clothes rustling as he moved was captured on tape. "Each time I did it, I had to go back and repeat," said Bryson, who has now recorded five of his books, including the new IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY, about his Australian travels.

Christopher Buckley

Christopher Buckley is a humorist with a gentle side. In fact, he's almost nostalgic when it comes to Washington, DC, a city he encountered one score years ago. (That's Lincolnese for 20.)

Deepak Chopra, M.D.

One of the world's best-known teachers of mind-body medicine and the author of more than one hundred audio, video, and CD-ROM titles, Deepak Chopra, M.D., has an approach to life that spans many realms. His audio programs encourage that we be guided by the accumulated intelligence in our bodies and a loving connection with the entire fabric of human consciousness.

Mary Higgins Clark

There are few people busier than the "Queen of Suspense." The day of her interview with AudioFile, Mary Higgins Clark enjoyed a special luncheon attended by members of her French book club. That evening she was to have dinner with her editor to talk about her new book.

Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben is as funny in person as his sleuth is on the printed page. The winner of Anthony, Edgar, and Shamus awards, Coben was honored this past March at the Florida Mystery Writers of America "Sleuthfest."

Michael Connelly

These days, Michael Connelly, creator of Harry Bosch, listens to more books than he reads—but they’re "never, never" his own. "I have this image of Harry in my mind; I keep adding to his character as I go along," says the prolific crime writer, who has been on a book tour signing his latest, THE NARROWS.

Bernard Cornwell

“In the end,” says Bernard Cornwell, “we all write what we like to read.”

The prolific author of various fictional series covering the Napoleonic Wars, the American Civil War, Arthurian England, and other historical epochs has a passion for history.

John Dean

Author and political analyst John W. Dean—yes, that John Dean, of Watergate fame—has listened to audiobooks for decades. "I listen all the time," he says. "I listen when I shave in the morning. I listen when I brush my teeth at night. I listen in the car and when I"m exercising." With a gentle laugh, Dean adds, "I guess that makes me an audio bibliophile, or it is biblio audiophile? Or whatever."

Jeffery Deaver

His job is to "scare the socks off readers" and provide lots of surprises and twists, says mystery author Jeffery Deaver. "My books are about misdirection, and I lead the audience through distractions and regressions." That's why he decided to use the world of magic and illusion in his newest Lincoln Rhyme exploit, THE VANISHED MAN.

Frank Delaney

Frank Delaney, author, journalist, and radio broadcast host, was trained in news reading, first as an anchor in Ireland and later with the BBC in London. Delaney’s top-rated weekly show, “Bookshelf,” for BBC Radio 4 in London, de-mystified all writing.

Nelson DeMille

Nelson DeMille is an audiobook fan. He participated in the APA's Audie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles last year and enjoys listening to unabridged fiction when he drives. People don't have time to do everything they want or read all the books that interest them. "Audiobooks make you feel more productive," says DeMille.

Karen DeYoung

For author Karen DeYoung, writing a biography of Colin Powell was a learning experience, as it was the first book for the veteran Washington Post reporter and editor. Being involved in the audio version of the book proved even more eye-opening.

E. L. Doctorow

THE MARCH opens with the advance of Sherman’s army on a Georgia plantation. It is “a creature of a hundred thousand feet,” a “rhythmic tromp,” a “symphonious clamor,” but to the band of slaves waiting outside the plantation house it is the sound of freedom. Like all E.L. Doctorow’s novels, THE MARCH is rich in language, characters, and story lines, and is a feast for the eyes, ears, and imagination.

Nicholas Evans

Producer, screenwriter, and bestselling author of THE HORSE WHISPERER, THE LOOP, and THE SMOKE JUMPER, Nicholas Evans says stories come from "a collision of ideas." He always carries a notebook and clips newspaper and magazine articles. "I store them away and make notes. Usually, these are no more than a fraction of an idea. And then something happens, and two or more of these things collide, and you suddenly realize that out of that collision there is a fusion that might sustain a novel.

Fannie Flagg

Her many years of acting haven't masked Fannie Flagg's accent as much as they have polished it. Flagg left Alabama after college "for dramatic school. Can you believe it?" She now calls Montecito, California, home for much of the year, along with neighbors like mystery master Sue Grafton. That works on her accent, too.

Jane Fonda

Donald Katz of Audible.com interviewed Jane Fonda earlier this spring. A recording of the full interview is available at www.audible.com. Some highlights follow.

Jane Fonda comments on her new memoir—and her life set in historical context.

Alan Furst

“I write out loud,” explains Alan Furst, the master of historical espionage. “I find myself dry-mouthed after a couple of hours of writing. I am writing by the sound of the prose. No other way.”

And so his books, when well performed, do not just satisfy our need to be amused and informed—they delight the ear. Four of Furst’s most recent novels have been read at full length by the Golden-Voiced George Guidall. Two have won Earphones Awards.

Lisa Gardner

When one imagines the type of person who writes dark thrillers about FBI agents and serial killers, abduction, abuse, and violence, Lisa Gardner is not the kind of person who comes to mind. She's the kind of person you'd expect to meet at toddler time.

Elizabeth George

Elizabeth George never listens to her own works on audio. "I imagine very distinct voices for each of my characters," she says, "especially that of Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley. Except for a brief excerpt by Derek Jacobi, I don't listen to my audios because I"m concerned that I would lose the voices I carry in my head."

Julia Glass

Recounted from two sisters’ viewpoints, in alternating chapters, Julia Glass’s novel I SEE YOU EVERYWHERE is ideal for presentation by two narrators. That’s not an uncommon thing, but in this instance those readers are the author herself and a well-known actress/director/producer. That’s not a pairing one sees every day.

Sue Grafton

Instant friendship bloomed in September when, for the first time, author Sue Grafton met actress Judy Kaye, who narrates Grafton's books for Random House Audio. "I"m very fortunate to have Judy Kaye make the books available to the people on the road or who prefer to listen rather than read. She is so smart," says Grafton on the telephone from her farm in Kentucky.

W.E.B. Griffin

“Audiobooks are very important and growing more important all the time—and you may quote me!” says W.E.B. Griffin, speaking dynamically with the same judicious word usage that shows up in his words in print.

Martha Grimes

"Oh, I was inundated with mail after that book," the author says with a throaty chuckle from her home in Washington, DC, where she is stopping between book tours for her newest Richard Jury mystery, THE GRAVE MAURICE. "I got letters from women readers saying "For God's sake, surely you haven't killed Richard Jury." Women told me that they had woken up crying about it." She pauses before adding in a self-deprecating tone, "The power that I have!"

Daniel Goleman

Getting into journalism was a “complete accident,” says the author of SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE, an exhaustive and important study on the neuroscience of human interactions, released last year. After finishing his Ph.D. at Harvard in the 1970s, Daniel Goleman didn’t find a psychology teaching job he really wanted, so he abandoned academia when offered an editor position at Psychology Today. Writing advice from his managing editor led to 12 years as a science writer for The New York Times and seven books, most of which are available on audio.

Pete Hamill

Pete Hamill closed the computer on his new novel, FOREVER, just before midnight on September 10, 2001. Less than 10 hours later, his fresh manuscript, "covering more than 350 years of Western civilization, as recounted through the eyes of its central character, writer Cormac O"Connor," was already outdated, overtaken by events. But as the veteran New York City newspaperman and his wife watched clouds of smoke billow from the World Trade Center, all his reporter's instincts were riveted on getting that story out as thoroughly and vividly as he could.

Robert Harris

When one thinks of ancient Rome, one tends to think of gladiators facing off against wild beasts. But as Robert Harris reminds us in his new historical novel, IMPERIUM, Rome in 1st century B.C. was a hotbed of devious politicians facing off against each other. They may have had names such as Pompey, Caesar, and Marcus Cicero, but their intrigues are familiar to anyone who reads today’s headlines. In IMPERIUM, Harris brings to life the rise of famed orator Cicero and his battle against corrupt politicians, including Julius Caesar.

Joe Hill

It’s easy to understand why writing comes easily for thriller and horror author Joe Hill--it is, after all, the family business. (Hill is the second child of Stephen and Tabitha King.)

Tony Hillerman

The voice over the phone has a lilt and twinkle to it. "Can you take my Okie accent?" novelist Tony Hillerman asks, chuckling across the miles from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he and his wife Marie were reveling in what he describes as "the most dazzling, colorful autumn" along the Rio Grande. Hillerman is, of course, the creator of the popular series of contemporary police procedurals rooted in Navajo society, legend, and customs, which features Officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.

John Irving

Bestselling, critically acclaimed novelist and Oscar-winning screenwriter John Irving wants his readers to know he values their time and makes sure his novels end with a payoff worth their effort.

"Anyone who's a John Irving reader must not only like a long and plotted story, he/she must like the fact that there's going to be some kind of emotional payoff at the end of the long journey. Those are my reasons for putting myself through the journey, and I think those must be the reasons that compel my readers to want to know what happens at the end."

John Jakes

Bestselling historical novelist John Jakes's career began with the spoken word, which, he says, is why he's so pleased to have his works performed as audiobooks. "As a teenager, I worked as an actor in what amounted to public radio in Chicago," he explained in a recent interview.

P.D. James

P.D. James says that the detective novel is the modern equivalent of a medieval morality play. A fearful act, namely murder, is committed, which tears the social fabric and damages individual lives. Through the actions of a judicious investigator, the killer is identified and peace is restored.

J.A. Jance

J.A. Jance's firm and resonant voice, combined with her thoughtful way of considering each question before answering, makes interviewing her a pleasure. Along with her many dedicated fans, she is glad to welcome back world-weary J.P. (Jonas Piedmont) Beaumont, a little older, a bit grayer, but still passionately devoted to finding justice--including solving a fifty-year-old murder case. This author, who divides her time between homes in Seattle and Tucson, obviously cares deeply about her fictional characters, as well as her many audio fans. "I think I was born with a storyteller's bone! And I'm not at all sure that it's something that can be taught in creative writing classes--in fact, those classes may actually detract from natural storytelling.

Iris Johansen

In the early 1980s, with her children leaving home for college, Georgia homemaker Iris Johansen began filling her empty nest with the array of fictional characters who populate the romance novels she wrote for the Bantam Loveswept series..

Robert Jordan

Decorated Vietnam War veteran Robert Jordan began putting quill to parchment in 1977, and hasn't stopped since. Storytelling is in Jordan's blood. The South Carolina native, who taught himself to read at age 4 and began reading Jules Verne and Mark Twain at age 5, has written novels set during the American Revolution, a dozen adventures featuring Robert E. Howard's Conan, and, most notably, 12 epic novels (11 primary novels and one prequel) in his Wheel of Time fantasy series. "The spoken word is the basis for all storytelling," he told us from his 1797 home in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina. "My father and my uncles were storytellers. When we went fishing or hunting, there was always storytelling at night. I grew up with that oral tradition. I've always thought that my writing lends itself to being read aloud for that very reason."

Stuart Kaminsky

"A good reader makes me hear my book in a voice different from my own," says film historian and mystery writer Stuart Kaminsky. "It's like hearing a story written by someone else whom I really like. A good reader makes me like my novel even more than I did when writing or reading it."

Mary Karr

With her Texas twang, easy manner, and earthy language, Mary Karr sounds like someone you might meet on the next barstool, rather than the literary circuit. But don't let that fool you. Karr is a poet, as well as an award-winning author (PEN/Margaret Albrand Award). Her acute sense for language—for the exact right but still surprising word—is evident throughout both her memoirs about growing up in the "50s and "60s—THE LIAR's CLUB, about surviving her dysfunctional family, and her latest work, CHERRY, about her turbulent adolescence.

Jonathan & Faye Kellerman

One might imagine, at first blush, that there's a cottage industry a-plying its trade in the comfortable Beverly Hills home of Faye and Jonathan Kellerman (and their four children)—two of the better-known and more successful current mystery writers.

Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder has been reading aloud for the better part of a day and a half when he stumbles over the words "lymph nodes." "Shoot!" His engaging tenor voice drifts from the speaker in the control room. "I"ll take it again."

Stephen King

"The human voice always adds a dimension to good writing," says Stephen King. In an interview with AudioFile, King talked about his experience narrating his new novel, BAG OF BONES, and why he's so enthusiastic about audiobooks. "It's possible to have a much more intense emotional experience listening to a reading of any work of literature than by reading it to yourself."

Stephen King & Stewart O'Nan

Stephen King's friendship with Stewart O'Nan was born out of a literary dispute. Nine years ago, O'Nan wanted to title his third novel DEAR STEPHEN KING. King says, "I loved the book, hated the title. I felt he was using me." Eventually, O'Nan dropped King's name from the novel. He says he came to realize how many people want a piece of King. "It's a level of celebrity I wouldn't wish on anyone."

Jonathan Kirsch

Writer and attorney Jonathan Kirsch has taken the time that most of us haven't to explore the context of the Old Testament, to discover its meanings, its precedents, its history—and, most of all, to untangle it from censorship and centuries of fallacious accretions. As the Jewish Bible, or Tanakh, forms the superstructure of three major world religions and the core belief systems for most of us on this continent, Kirsch's subject is of importance to us all.

Dean Koontz

In 1988, when the first of his books was produced on audio, Dean Koontz was appalled. "I allowed an abridged version," he says, "and the story became incoherent. I never realized that "abridged" meant as much as 60 percent of the story would be cut!" The bestselling author bought back the audio rights to WATCHERS, the second book in the contract, and has insisted on unabridged recordings ever since.

Beau L'Amour

Like his father before him, Beau L'Amour is a master of detail. Louis L'Amour's legendary and persistently bestselling body of work created a lasting and convincing sense of authenticity by getting the details just right. And it's in the details that one finds good audio drama.

Erik Larson

LAuthor Erik Larson doesn’t listen to audiobooks because when he reads a book in print, he develops a sense of what the characters sound like, and he’s afraid the narrator won’t interpret the characters the same way.

So when his books are published in audio, does he do the narration himself, to capture that sense of voice?

“No way,” he says firmly. “I leave that to the pros.”

Dennis Lehane

You won’t hear Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of MYSTIC RIVER; GONE, BABY, GONE; and his new book, THE GIVEN DAY, read any of his novels on audio, but it’s not for the reason you might think. He has a pleasant bass voice and speaks clearly. “It’s too much work,” he explains.

Jonathan Lethem

GUN WITH OCCASIONAL MUSIC (1994), Jonathan Lethem's first novel, was lauded as a visionary work. His fifth novel, Motherless Brooklyn, a detective story featuring a narrator with Tourette's syndrome, was his first to be adapted for audio, with an unabridged version read by Frank Muller and an abridgment performed by Steve Buscemi. FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE (2003) is an epic tale of race relations, rock music, and two Brooklyn boys with a magical ring.

Phillip Margolin

Phillip Margolin brings things to his legal thrillers that few other authors can claim. During his 25 years as a criminal defense attorney, Margolin represented 30 homicide cases, including 12 death penalty cases. His clients included serial killers and heads of drug cartels, as well as battered wives. "So when I"m writing about something to do with law," he told AUDIOFILE just hours before heading off on a month-long book tour, "it's probably something that I"ve actually done in real life.

Daniel Mason

Author Daniel Mason spent a year doing research on malaria in Thailand and Myanmar before returning to attend medical school. "When I came back to the U.S., I was so affected by the experience I didn't want to forget it. I was trying to readjust and get ready for going to school." His original impulse was just to write something down'to preserve memories. The early parts of the book were just descriptions of things I"d seen."

Peter Mayle

Peter Mayle, bestselling author of A YEAR IN PROVENCE, TOUJOURS PROVENCE, and ENCORE PROVENCE, offers some advice, when asked, to dreamy readers who want to follow in his footsteps by moving to France. "For people who want to live in the country," he says, "I suggest going over in November and renting something for the winter. If you like it then, you'll love it the rest of the year.

Ed McBain

Ed McBain is a man who knows no rest. With more than 80 novels to his name—50 that have been adapted to audio-book—he continues to put in a full day's work despite having recently completed his latest book, Candyland, co-written with another award-winning author, Evan Hunter. What makes this collaboration unique is that Ed McBain and Evan Hunter are the same person.

Todd McCaffrey

Fans of science fiction queen Anne McCaffrey, whose tales of the dragons of Pern have delighted audiences since 1968, were pleased when she took on a new co-author. That collaborator, who debuted with 2003's DRAGON'S KIN, is her son Todd, whose contributions spark hopes that characters such as Halla, Pellar, and Zist will be around long after the elder McCaffrey retires.

Marcia Muller

"My father was a great storyteller," Marcia Muller told us from her home in California's Sonoma County. "Every evening he would tell me a story when I went to bed. He'd make up fantastic stuff. He would act out different roles—it was really funny." It was this early love of stories, and her experience listening to them, that helped the Anthony and Shamus Award-winning Mystery Grandmaster learn to structure stories and keep them moving.

Jacquelyn Mitchard

Jacquelyn Mitchard's third novel was supposed to be a ghost story. "And it was a real good ghost story, too," she says. But she ultimately abandoned that project when a dramatic legal case in Wisconsin that raised questions about family and family bonds began to haunt her. The new novel, A THEORY OF RELATIVITY, tells the story of 24-year-old Gordon McKenna, who is devastated when his beloved sister and her husband are killed in a car accident, leaving behind a baby girl.

Edmund Morris

Edmund Morris has spent the past generation—give or take a few years—delving into the life, career, papers, and aura of Theodore Roosevelt, who towered over American society during the final decade of the nineteenth century and the opening of the twentieth. Morris, the premier biographer of TR, believes that this giant of a public figure was as talented a writer ("he had a marvelously acoustic, aural quality") as he was a politician and global statesman.

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison reads her work in a certain way-the way she hears it. The way the sentences were shaped in her mind. "When I read in public, I never vary from the rhythm or the accent or the emphasis. I worked very hard in the writing to make the work have a presence that was quiet on the page, but at the same time to have an oral quality. I leave certain things out and shape the sentences for sound, as well as meaning."

Sherwin B. Nuland

Sherwin B. Nuland, clinical professor of surgery at Yale University and a prolific writer on medical and bioethical matters, has never listened to an audiobook other than the ones he's narrated—namely his own. Reading those texts, including HOW WE DIE and THE WISDOM OF THE BODY, has come easily to him until now.

Joyce Carol Oates

"Audiobooks are wonderful inventions," says the award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates. "People are often so enthralled by them that they’re disappointed when their trips end. I’ve often sat in our driveway listening to the ending of something—reluctant to break the spell. Obviously, we all love to be told stories, especially by skilled professional storytellers."

Judith Orloff, M.D.

Intuitive healer and university psychiatrist Judith Orloff, M.D. talks to us from a Portland, Oregon, hotel about the audio of her latest book, POSITIVE ENERGY. “It’s been amazing. I feel like I’m being lifted by a wave of positive energy everywhere I go.”

Robert Parker

Like Spenser, the ex-boxer turned private eye, played on television by Robert Urich and then Joe Mantegna, Robert B. Parker seems tough, mysterious, and hard-edged. But very quickly, appearances give way to the twinkle in his eye and the sincerity behind his tight-lipped smile. "I started being a storyteller when I started writing. I don't recall being a verbal storyteller prior to that time. When I was a little kid, though," he muses, "I used to write comic books.

Michael Pollan

“My first reaction was, well, I want to do it myself,” Michael Pollan recalls about the news that his books would be recorded. “But then they told me what was involved. It would mean coming to New York and being in a studio for weeks. And, they wouldn’t sell.”

Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

"Reading out loud is the purest and most ancient form of storytelling," says Douglas Preston, half of the Preston-Child team that has so far created nine novels. Their books cross the boundaries from thriller to horror to science fiction to mystery, creating a challenge for booksellers to pigeonhole them into a single genre. Co-author Lincoln Child explains, "In difficult times people seem to frequently turn away from real horrors to invented ones--horrors they can switch off when they feel like it. Our books aren't horror; they're techno-thrillers with a frisson of the supernatural."

Anna Quindlen

"It was a nightmare," says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anna Quindlen, of recording her collection of essays. "It was going on a 100-mile hike in the desert. It was physically exhausting. There are all kinds of ways you make unwanted noise, pop your "P"s. You can lose focus. I have so much respect for the people who do this."

Ian Rankin

Sound emanates from Ian Rankin’s novels, whether in print or on audio. His books, featuring Detective Inspector John Rebus, are dark and edgy police dramas set in the author’s native Scotland. But instead of bagpipes you’re more likely to hear the Rolling Stones or The Cure.

Ruth Reichl

"One of my favorite things to do in the whole world is to spend a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon listening to an audiobook while I cook," says Ruth Reichl in the same warm, confiding voice with which she reads from her bestselling memoirs. "I listen to tons of audiobooks while I cook. This is for me the conjunction of my two favorite things: cooking and reading."

Ruth Rendell

There’s no mystery about how celebrated mystery writer Ruth Rendell feels about audiobooks: “I think they’re wonderful.” But there’s a mystery surrounding the future of Rendell’s most famous creations, Kingsmarkham--that’s a small town south of London--and Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford, the main character in her long-running series of police procedurals.

Nora Roberts

According to PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Nora Roberts has written more bestsellers than anyone in the world. How does she do it? "Reading is the best writer's tool in the box," Roberts says. "I did plenty of that as a child. I think sometimes you"re just a born storyteller.

Jeff Shaara

The historical novels by Jeff Shaara adapt well to audio in part because they depict action, dialogue and interior monologues. But this approach doesn't guarantee that his books will be successful in audio, the author readily admits. "It all depends on the reader," Shaara says.

Anita Shreve

Author Anita Shreve told AudioFile that when she writes, she hears the language—the dialogue of her characters—in her mind. Whether it's nineteenth-century voices and language, foreign accents or broken English, her muse communicates aurally, giving the author the rhythm and patterns of speech. The scenes and relationships she creates are vivid and uncontrived. The dialogue flows. This perhaps explains why Shreve's books, and in particular FORTUNE's ROCKS, set at the end of the nineteenth century in a New England seaside community, have such a finely tuned sense of time and place. They succeed as audiobooks because of these origins.

Dan Silva

Daniel Silva was a happy camper in Washington in the mid-1990s with a "really interesting" job as a CNN producer, after years covering a range of Middle Eastern conflicts as a wire service correspondent based in Cairo. Married to NBC News correspondent Jamie Gangel (they met on separate assignments in the Persian Gulf and married in 1988), and a new father of twins, he decided to take a shot at writing fiction—"in secret," as he describes it—for a couple of hours every morning before work.

Karin Slaughter

Mystery writer Karin Slaughter, whose latest is BEYOND REACH, wanted her Grant County series to have a Southern narrator who didn’t sound like a hillbilly. “Joyce Bean’s narration,” she says, “is close to the voices that I heard in my head. She does well with the subtleties of colloquialisms and accents. And she doesn’t make anyone sound like they’re from a trailer park.”

Jane Smiley

Have you heard that TEN DAYS IN THE HILLS by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley is about sex? Of course you have. Every reviewer says so. A Boston radio interviewer even asked her how she could describe so many different sexual encounters. How, he wanted to know, had she done her research?

Martin Cruz Smith

Martin Cruz Smith had no intention of writing about Chernobyl when he began WOLVES EAT DOGS, his latest Arkady Renko epic, a couple of years ago—more than 15 years after the 1986 nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union. But then a light went on in his mind, and he began focusing on the incident and was swept away.

Wilbur Smith

Historical novelist Wilbur Smith is “riding high on the wave” of popular and critical response following the release of THE QUEST, the latest in his bestselling Egyptian series.

Sarah Susanka

Architect Sarah Susanka began the Not So Big House series nine years ago when she introduced her revolutionary book, THE NOT SO BIG HOUSE. Building on the concept that bigger is not necessarily better, Susanka embraced the idea of customizing personal space without getting caught up in building to impress others.

Deborah Tannen

Deborah Tannen is probably the most famous linguist of our time; her reputation is on par with Margaret Mead's stature in the field of anthropology, according to one publication. Though she's a highly respected professor at Georgetown University and has written many scholarly books, her bestsellers, THAT's NOT WHAT I MEANT and YOU JUST DOn't UNDERSTAND, put her on the map as someone with keen insights about language and relationships.

Donna Tartt

The formal portrait-like photograph on the jacket of Donna Tartt's books belies the warm, friendly tone that caThe formal portrait-like photograph on the jacket of Donna Tartt's books belies the warm, friendly tone that came through in her recent telephone interview with AUDIOFILE.

Adriana Trigiani

Novelist Adriana Trigiani narrated her bestselling Big Stone Gap trilogy, her informed depictions of twentieth-century first-generation Italian-American life, as well as THE QUEEN OF THE BIG TIME. Mira Sorvino read a fifth Trigiani novel, LUCIA, LUCIA. And now, the decks have been cleared for Mario Cantone to narrate ROCOCO, set in the fictitious town of Our Lady of Fatima.

Calvin Trillin

Audiobook fanatics are often forced to choose between authenticity and excellence. Do they prefer a writer/reader or a talented actor? With Calvin Trillin as narrator, they can have their cake and eat it, too. Or rather, their fish brain soup, since Trillin is a gourmand. Or their duck tongues. "I hadn't even realized that ducks had tongues," admits Trillin, in a voice that finds humor in every straight line.

Scott Turow

Scott Turow remembers being surprised, as a first-time novelist in the late 1980s, when his agent, Gail Hochman, called to see whether he wanted to sell the audio rights to PRESUMED INNOCENT. "What's a book on tape?" he asked. A couple of prospective publishers sent him samples, which he listened to with swiftly increasing respect.

Marianne Williamson

It would be hard to find a more prominent teacher of the Course in Miracles than Marianne Williamson. She first heard the course—a grassroots nondenominational guide to spiritual psychotherapy—in Los Angeles in the late 1970s. As a student of philosophy, she was looking for something she didn’t find in any of the jobs and careers she’d tried.

Tom Wolfe

It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall—or on the leaf of a tree—a few years ago when novelist-essayist-social analyst Tom Wolfe strolled through the dorms and along the verdant terrain of a handful of university campuses to research I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS, his latest dissection of American society.

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