Joel ben Izzy has narrated 4 audiobooks on Listento.it by 1 author, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness.
The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness
Summary
When a storyteller loses his voice, he believes he's lost everything. In fact, he's been given a great gift. Once upon a time, a successful storyteller lost his voice to throat cancer. Deprived of the instrument of his art and his livelihood, he retreated into dark, sullen silence and depression. While searching for a spiritual explanation, he encountered his former mentor, a cantankerous and often drunken old man. Their meetings began a journey into the timeless wisdom of ancient tales: of beggars and kings, monks and tigers, lost horses, buried treasures, and ultimately the secret of happiness. In this altogether original book, Joel ben Izzy shares his personal account of surviving loss, gaining wisdom, and rediscovering one's true purpose. Weaving in tales he's collected over the years from Sufi, Muslim, Chinese, Jewish, Iraqi, Zen Buddhist, Italian, and Indian cultures, he passes along the lessons he has learned. As we travel with ben Izzy from tragedy back into light and sound, we are encouraged to see our own lives as stories, and to open our own hearts to happiness.
©2003 Joel ben Izzy (P)2007 HighBridge Company
How I Learned to Love Liver
Summary
This hilarious collection of tales will take you back to Joel's liver-lovin' days. As long on laughter as they are short on truth, these tales tell the story of Brian, who loved watermelon, and Brian, who hated watermelon. You'll hear the tale of Moose-Turd Pie and a tale of Paula Bunyan - which was her real name. The zaniness of the tales is matched by the music for a collection of stories you'll want to listen to again and again. Winner of Parents' Choice Silver Award.
©1997 jbi (P)1997 jbi
Stories from Far Away
Summary
Joel's first recording will carry you from the old city of Jerusalem to the subways of Tokyo, from the bath houses in Turkey to a village in China, with a detour through Chelm, the mystical Jewish village of fools. The stories are beautifully woven together by clarinet music and strains of laughter. Winner of the American Library Association Notable Recording Award, as well as the Parents' Choice Gold, it has also been chosen as a "Parents' Choice Classic.
©1991 jbi (P)1991 jbi
Dreidels on the Brain
Summary
At last a great American Hanukkah story! This very funny, very touching novel of growing up Jewish has the makings of a holiday classic. One lousy miracle. Is that too much to ask? Evidently so for Joel, as he tries to survive Hannukah 1971 in the suburbs of the suburbs of Los Angeles (or, as he calls it, "The Land of Shriveled Dreams"). That's no small task when you're a "seriously funny-looking" 12-year-old magician who dreams of being his own superhero: Normalman. And Joel's a long way from that as the only Jew at Bixby School, where his attempts to make himself disappear fail spectacularly. Home is no better, with a family that's not just mortifyingly embarrassing but flat-out broke. That's why Joel's betting everything on these eight nights, to see whether it's worth believing in God or miracles or anything at all. Armed with his favorite jokes, some choice Yiddish words, and a suitcase full of magic tricks, he's scrambling to come to terms with the world he lives in - from hospitals to Houdini to the Holocaust - before the last of the candles burns out. No wonder his head is spinning: He's got dreidels on the brain. And little does he know that what's actually about to happen to him and his family this Hanukkah will be worse than he'd feared. And better than he could have imagined.
©2016 Joel ben Izzy (P)2016 Listening Library