Having never heard of Jen Maxfield I was curious about this audiobook but I quickly was wrapped up in this incredible stories that were both heartbreaking and inspirational. Having never been a fan of watching reporters covering breaking news stories I was skeptical about how sincere her connection to each of these amazing people was but by midway through the stories I was convinced that although her job was to tell their story and move on to the next story she truly cared about each of these people.
The audiobook, narrated by Maxfield herself, is a tour de force that gives more credence to viewing reporters in a positive light. It must be difficult for reporters at times with all the negativity about anyone in the media these last few years. The power of Jen Maxfield’s actions and stories has the power to change people’s perceptions of news reporters, as it did my own.
Many thanks to Jen Maxfield and NetGalley for affording me the thought provoking read that changed my perspective on the media.

“More After the Break” was written by New York television reporter Jen Maxfield. In the book, she reflects upon memorable stories from her reporting career and reunites with the subjects of the stories years later to see what happened after the cameras stopped rolling.

I was really excited to read this book after reading the description as it seemed right up my alley, but this book didn’t live up to the excitement for me. Some of the stories were more compelling than others and I had a hard time staying engaged with the first few stories. However, I did feel that the stories became more engaging as the book progressed. I also liked that the audiobook the author narrated the audiobook as her “reporter” voice helped set the tone of the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for the advanced review copy of this audiobook.

New York television news reporter, Jen Maxfield, revisits stories from her career, answering the question of what happened after the broadcast. Heartfelt, inspirational, and hopeful, this book gives wings to the resilience of people. If you are a news “junkie” you’ll enjoy this book!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the audiobook for me to review. Opinions are my own.

More After the Break, a memoir by Jen Maxfield, looks back on ten of of the most memorable stories she was able to report on during her career as local news reporter. Some of her tales include Hurricane Katrina, COVID-19 and a terrorist attack. Her reflections are inspiring and remind readers that tragedy may be a low point, but there is room to recover and use experiences to make positive change in the future. This is an interesting and insightful book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to listen to and review this book.

From a man who lost his legs in a ferry accident to Tiffany who lost her life trying to save a dog even Tamika who is attempted murder was committed by the man who’s baby she had just given birth to all the stories in this book or moving and most of all interesting. It is like what are they doing now for The local NBC news station the Jen Maxfield works for in New Jersey. I thought it was so nice that this news reporter would go back to see how the people whose lives she intervened on at the worst time we’re doing later. I enjoyed the audiobook and her narration and highly recommend it. I am really thinking about buying my own copy as the one I listen to was an arc I received from NetGalley and the publisher. I would love to listen to this again in the future it is that good! Jen Maxfield is so likable and has great people perceptions and insights that you can hear throughout the book. A really great audiobook and one I highly recommend. Please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

A stunning account of the story behind the story. As a journalist by trade, I don't need to know how hard this job is. I know it well. This book is for everyone who doesn't know that. It's for the watchers/listeners who don't believe in "the story", who believe a story is "not that horrible if one can casually talk about it". Jen Maxfield investigates the news pieces that marked her, years after they aired on TV. The years she spent in the media have turned her into a prolific storyteller who can keep her audience enticed for hours on end. The fact that she narrated her own book is an excellent move. Nobody else could have shown genuine emotion during this process. A 10/10

This book was interesting and very well-written. I would likely want to read more from this author and will recommend this to friends.

This audiobook was entertaining. It is read by the author, who is a reporter, so she had a pleasant voice and drew you in. It is based on 10 of her news stories and looking back on them years later. I did not think there was much that was added to them after the fact. A few short interviews or updates was about all. I found the most intriguing stories to be the Staten Island ferry crash, the hit and run and the school bus accident. I went so far as to look up the school bus accident afterwards and the pictures are horrifying.

I would not want Jen Maxfield's job. She needs to encourage people to be interviewed after the worst moments in their lives and then turn it into entertainment. She has many doors slammed in her face and she talks about how it takes a while to get over that. She also talks about how she has reflected and found the need to apologize to some of the people in her stories.

This was outside of my normal reading, but I thought it was pretty interesting. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Very interesting idea to go back and find out what happened after the "story" ended. Each chapter is a different story this author reported on over the years, a story that she held in her heart, wondering what happened to the people afterward.
The stories are varied, some with much happier endings than others, and it was a good insight into the life of a reporter... the hours, the struggles, the horrific things they have to cover, and how those events affect them.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this audiobook that is a good reminder of how everyone we hear about in the news is human, has loved ones who care about them, and their story is never over after the camera is turned off.

Jen Maxfield defies the stereotype of TV news journalists as story hungry predators who trample uncaring over the most intimate details of people’s lives in their feverish pursuit to be first with the soundbite. In her recently published first book “More After the Break: A Reporter Returns to Ten Unforgettable News Stories” it’s obvious she is that rarity, a compassionate and sensitive reporter committed to the highest principles of journalism. In her own words, her mantra is “you’re a human being first and a journalist second”.

In the book Maxfield looks back at ten of the most sensational stories she’s covered in the course of her twenty-year TV news reporting career. What motivated her, she says, is that once the high drama of the unfolding catastrophes and their immediate aftermaths had died down, the stories and the individuals involved haunted her, to the extent she kept wondering what had happened to those people after “the live truck pulled away”. It’s a testament to her humanity that she wrote this book to pay tribute to the heroism, dignity and courage of bereaved families, accident victims and others suddenly wrenched from normality into nightmare, by revisiting these stories, often decades later, when their names had faded from everyone’s memories but hers. What, she wondered, was the rest of the story?

TV news reporting is a profession that from the outside looks impossibly glamorous. Maxfield disabuses us of this notion in no uncertain terms. Her description of a typical day on the job is a frank revelation about what goes on behind the scenes in news reporting. It’s clearly not a workplace for the weak of heart. Unpredictability, urgency, improvisation, impossible deadlines and split second-decision making are non-negotiables. As she describes it, “every day in local news is a fresh challenge, a journey into the unknown. We show up to work not knowing where we will go or who we will meet.” One of the excruciating demands, she explains, is the need to approach someone with a microphone on what was often the worst day of their life. “These people”, she explains “invited me into their homes, into their living-rooms because they trusted me. They trusted me to get their story out into the community”.

Witnessing human misfortune up close, she says, changes those who hold the microphones and the cameras as much as it does the victims and she’s concerned that this is an aspect of journalism that is too often overlooked. The events she reports are harrowing but narrated so vividly that the reader (or listener) is riveted. It’s easy to see why Maxfield is an Emmy Award winning reporter as well as an adjunct professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. Characters featured in the book include a survivor of the Staten Island Ferry Crash who lost both legs, an endurance athlete with stage-four lung cancer, a ten-year old injured in a horrific bus crash while on a school trip, families who lost everything in Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, a young man killed in a terrorist attack while riding his bike in Manhattan and (for me the saddest) a twenty-three year old struck and killed by a drunk driver while helping a dog injured and left for dead in the middle of the road. She acknowledges the extraordinary generosity of people in suffering to speak to her both at the time of the events and later. “Telling stories with care opens up avenues for the families to heal … it allows other people to help and encourages them to support their neighbours”.

As a reporter and anchor for NBC New York since 2013 and with a ten-year background as a reporter with Eyewitness News, Maxfield is eminently well qualified to understand the industry. In her capacity as a local TV news reporter, she estimates she’s interviewed at least ten thousand people on camera for the thousands of news stories she’s filed.

She doesn’t shy away from the obvious questions, for example why journalists invade people’s privacy at a time when they’re least able to cope or why don’t reporters covering a natural disaster just get out of the way and let the emergency teams get on with the real work. Her answers provide credible insight in the face of increasingly harsh criticism of a profession that’s often seen to be nothing but exploitation of the weak for the profit of the strong. She hopes, she says, to shed some clarity on the “moral ambiguities” of journalism. What helps sustain her in covering breaking news stories of human trauma where it would be inevitable not to feel at least some part of the suffering of those involved, is that the people she interviews see what they’re doing as “constructing their legacy … that their story will be an integral part of [their] community’s shared history”.

I listened to this as an audiobook which was narrated by the author herself. Her vitality, engagement, warmth and the particularly authoritative character of her voice added much to the enjoyment of the experience. It’s also a great book title, original and catchy.

Neither the book nor the author has a high profile in Australia, clearly because it focuses on TV news reporting in the US, so I was unsure what to expect. It was a brilliant read (or listen) and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to get to understand why the book is receiving such rave reviews. Like other books describing horrific events, it can be confrontational but this one is worth reading if nothing else for the illustrations of people’s ability to not just survive in the wake of adversity, but thrive – examples, as the author says, of the “triumph of the human spirit.”

Thank you to Greenleaf Book Group for providing me with an advance review copy of the audiobook.

I absolutely loved this book. More After The Break is a strong contender to be my favorite nonfiction read of the year and everyone, no matter their reading preferences, should read it. Jen Maxfield, the author, is a news correspondent for NBC 4 New York. In this book, she "returns" to ten stories that she has reported on during her career, some of which were local to New York and some that were not, to see where the people impacted by these events were now. People are unexpectedly thrown into the spotlight during a tragedy and this title serves as a reminder that they are humans with real lives which keep going after the news crews leave. Maxfield also shines a light on how reporting can help people during a crisis and how this profession serves the public every single day. This is an important book that I truly enjoyed.

An unexpectedly riveting collection of stories.

I didn’t grow up watching the evening news, nor do I watch it now. I had never given much thought to the lives of news anchors. This book is a nuanced revisit to 10 stories in a long career. Maxwell takes time to retell each story and expand on how the subject is doing to this day. She also brings her own reflections in how she felt approaching the subjects and how the overall stories affected her.

One of her 10 covered a school bus accident; I cried at the atmosphere and tension from the upheaval and uncertainty over which children were on the bus, which ones were hurt, and which had passed.

I would definitely recommend this book and audiobook to anyone who likes true crime podcasts.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

More After the Break was interesting but it just didn't draw me in. I'm not sure if it's the story itself or the narration on the audiobook but it just didn't hold my attention that well. The premise of the book is great - the idea of following up on older news stories and the "where are they now" and coming from the point of view of the media personality that first put them in the news. Overall, I rate it good. Not bad, not great - but good.

Thanks to NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for the audiobook ARC!

I can definitely see why the stories related in More After the Break stick with the author for years and years. They are definitely still running around in my head! The concept and premise of the book are really cool, and it shows the author's dedication to her craft that she was able to pull this off so successfully. As she points out many times herself, nobody was forced to talk with her about these tragic and painful events from the past. Kudos to her for doing the legwork to make this work. And kudos also for the fantastic narration. Nicely done all around.

I am into true crime and never really thought about it but the news people are pretty much on the seen first sometimes and those that report on what they see or know are really amazing. I have had a "bad taste in my mouth" as the saying goes about reporters as they sometimes say what they think will sell and not always what the full story is. This book was written with truth and feelings and I appreciate it so much. I was interested till the end and it was like I was there with you on your journey.

4.5 stars

This is not my normal genre to read, but I’m always open to trying new things and I’m so glad that I did!

This book was so interesting, it wasn’t anything like I expected it to be and I mean this in a good way. It was so interesting to listen to the author talk about all of these stories she initially interviewed and covered and the follow up for this book. It was also nice to hear the other side of a journalists point of view while interviewing people in their darkest moments. It made her seem more human and not just out for the story.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book. It was interesting and different and I really needed that!

***Thank you Netgalley for an ARC audio copy in return for an honest review ***

Thank you to NetGalley, Greenleaf Audiobooks, and Jen Maxfield for the opportunity to listen to this book in exchange for an honest review.

The description of this book caught my attention as soon as I read it and I'm very happy to have listened to it. I had never heard of Jen Maxfield prior to reading this since I do not live in the area where she covers the news. Not knowing her did not matter at all. I'm glad she picked stories to revisit that had not been extensively covered in other markets. I loved hearing about many of these stories for the first time and hearing that, for the most part, the subjects of these stories were happy to hear from her years later. I do think that some of these stories could have benefited from having more perspectives but I understand that was probably not always possible if people did not respond to her emails/requests.

Overall, this was very heartwarming and heartfelt. I look forward to hearing more from Jen Maxfield in the future!

In the book, "More After the Break: A Reporter Returns to 10 Unforgettable New Stories," Jen Maxfield revisits some of her most compelling news stories to learn how the major news events altered people's lives. I found that the book was Jen's way of recognizing their triumph and efforts to reclaim and redefine their lives after dreadful and heartbreaking circumstances.

As a reporter, Jen has delivered thousands of news stories and interviews. She often walks into people's lives when they are at a turning point. Some of these events are complex and complicated. Jen points out that too often these types of stories are left as cliffhangers with no follow-up.

In the book, Jen revisits are centered around survival, so it's understandable why she would want to check in on the people who were highly impacted. She wants them to know that they're experience and the lessons learned are worth more than a sound byte or a one-minute news story.

As a journalist, I completely understand the desire to do additional reporting on compelling new stories or major news events. Telling more can provide further information of value that helps people in the story and the viewers. I applaud Jen for using circumstances around the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage her to do a follow-up. Her delivery of the information demonstrates her talent as a news reporter.

In terms of format, I listened to the narration of the book. The only drawback for me was that she read the book as if she were giving a news report. This delivery is great for the introduction. It sets the tone. However, her news cadence took away from some of the emotional scenes that she was constructing. A voice actor would have delivered an emotion like fear with a quaky tone in their voice, which could draw the reader in more and connect with the moment.

Jen shares that she wrote the book for people who want to learn how information becomes a news story and for aspiring journalists. She does provide some tips here and there, but the book is not instructional.

Overall, I would say well done.

When you see human interest stories in the news, or interviews that appear hours after a tragedy, sometimes you don’t stop to think how those have happened. Jen Maxwell takes the reader into the world of a TV reporter, who’s job is to get those instant reactions and get those sound bites on TV straight away.

Maxwell details ten news stories that she has covered through her career, and then updates on what has happened in their lives since the initial reports. These are not happy stories - there are significant injuries and death (including child death) involved in almost all of them. I think what I found most fascinating is how reporters are aware of how awful it is to be requesting interviews from people during such fraught times, but also we as a society expect to have access to this information, sitting at home in front of our TVs. I did also like how each story ended on quite positive notes (some more than others!) and that Maxwell has obviously taken care to try and make sure that doing her job as a reporter hasn’t been more traumatising for all involved.

I listened to the audio of this book, narrated by the author, and you can definitely tell she has experience with speaking/reporting! It was paced really well, and felt like she was telling me stories rather than reading from the page. It was an enjoyable listen.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who’s interested in how reporting works and also in true stories of people working through significant tragedies or events in their lives.

These were well-publicized stories that you may remember from the news in the past. The ones I remembered we’re especially interesting to me. The resilience of people and places is astonishing and motivating. The book was narrated by the author. As a professional news anchor her voice was pleasant.
I was honored to receive an advance copy of the audiobook from GreenLeaf Book Group and NetGalley. The opinions voiced are my own.