Ron Rifkin has narrated 8 audiobooks on Listento.it by 7 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 185 ratings. The most-rated is The Giver.
The Giver
Summary
December is the time of the annual Ceremony at which each twelve-year-old receives a life assignment determined by the Elders. Jonas watches his friend Fiona named Caretaker of the Old and his cheerful pal Asher labeled the Assistant Director of Recreation. But Jonas has been chosen for something special. When his selection leads him to an unnamed man, the man called only the Giver, he begins to sense the dark secrets that underlie the fragile perfection of his world. Told with deceptive simplicity, this is the provocative story of a boy who experiences something incredible and undertakes something impossible. In the telling it questions every value we have taken for granted and reexamines our most deeply held beliefs.
©1993 Lois Lowry (P)1993 Random House, Inc., Listening Library, An Imprint Of Random House Audio Publishing Group
Milkweed
Summary
He's a boy called Jew. Gypsy. Stopthief. Runt. Happy. Fast. Filthy son of Abraham. He's a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He's a boy who steals food for himself and the other orphans. He's a boy who believes in bread and mothers and angels. He's a boy who wants to be a Nazi someday, with tall, shiny jackboots and a gleaming Eagle hat of his own. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind. And when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto of the damned, he's a boy who realizes it's safest of all to be nobody. Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli takes us to one of the most devastating settings imaginable - Nazi-occupied Warsaw of World War II - and tells a tale of heartbreak, hope, and survival through the bright eyes of a young orphan.
©2003 Jerry Spinelli (P)2015 Listening Library
The New Joys of Yiddish
Summary
More than a quarter of a century ago, Leo Rosten published the first comprehensive and hilariously entertaining lexicon of the colorful and deeply expressive language of Yiddish. Said to "give body and soul to the Yiddish language", The Joys of Yiddish went on to become an indispensable tool for writers, journalists, politicians and students, as well as a perennial best seller for three decades. Rosten described his book as “a relaxed lexicon of Yiddish, Hebrew, and Yinglish words often encountered in English, plus dozens that ought to be, with serendipitous excursions into Jewish humor, habits, holidays, history, religion, ceremonies, folklore, and cuisine - the whole generously garnished with stories, anecdotes, epigrams, Talmudic quotations, folk sayings, and jokes.” To this day, it is considered the seminal work on Yiddish in America - a true classic and a staple in the libraries of Jews and non-Jews alike. With the recent renaissance of interest in Yiddish, and in keeping with a language that embodies the variety and vibrancy of life itself, The New Joys of Yiddish brings Leo Rosten’s masterful work up to date. Revised for the first time by Lawrence Bush in close consultation with Rosten’s daughters, it retains the spirit of the original - with its wonderful jokes, tidbits of cultural history, Talmudic and Biblical references, and tips on pronunciation - and enhances it with hundreds of new entries and thoughtful commentary on how Yiddish has evolved over the years.
©2001 The Rosten Family LLC (P)2001 Random House, Inc.
Cloud of Sparrows
Summary
“Exotic, entertaining . . . [an] exceptional first novel.” (San Francisco Chronicle) The year is 1861. After two centuries of isolation, Japan has opened its doors to the West. And as foreign ships threaten to rain destruction on the Shogun’s castle in Edo, a small group of American missionaries has arrived to spread the word of their God. They have yet to realize that their future in Japan has already been foreseen. For a young nobleman has dreamt that his life will be saved by an outsider in the New Year . . . and it is said that Lord Genji has the gift of prophecy. What happens next - when the handsome lord meets an appa rently reformed gunslinger and a woman in flight from her own destructive beauty - sets the stage for a remarkable adventure. For as this unlikely band embarks on a journey through a landscape bristling with danger, East and West, flesh and spirit, past and future, collide in ways no one - least of all Genji - could have imagined.
©2002 Takashi Matsuoka (P)2019 Random House Audio
The Paris Letter (Dramatization)
Summary
The latest work from one of America's most important young playwrights and creator of the current hit TV series, "Brothers and Sisters". Financial powerhouse Sandy Sonnenberg finds his personal and professional life threatened by unraveling secrets from his past. A tragic game of financial and moral betrayal plays out over four decades, with an exacting price - family, friends, love and marriage. Starring members of the original Off-Broadway production.
©2009 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2009 L.A. Theatre Works
Three Hotels
Summary
Masterfully written by one of America’s most lauded playwrights, this deeply human story unfolds in three hotel rooms in Morocco, the Virgin Islands, and Oaxaca, Mexico, as a married couple reflect on their lives as players in the game of international business. A devastating tour-de-force of humor, tragedy, and penetrating insight from one of America’s premier playwrights. An L.A. Theatre Works performance featuring Christine Lahti and Ron Rifkin.
©1990, 1992, 1993 Available Light Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. (P)2007 L.A. Theatre Works
The Substance of Fire
Summary
Jon Robin Baitz's commanding drama is about a New York publisher and Holocaust survivor whose decision to publish obscure political tracts threatens the future of both his company and his family.
©2007 LA Theatre Works (P)2007 LA Theatre Works
The Interpretation of Murder
Summary
The Interpretation of Murder opens on a hot summer night in 1909 as Sigmund Freud arrives in New York. Among those waiting to greet him is Dr. Stratham Younger, a gifted physician who is one of Freud's most ardent American supporters. And so begins the visit that will be the great genius' first and only journey to America. The morning after Freud's arrival, in an opulent penthouse across the city, a woman is discovered murdered: whipped, mutilated, and strangled with a white silk tie. The next day, a rebellious heiress named Nora Acton barely escapes becoming the killer's second victim. Yet, suffering from hysteria, Miss Acton cannot remember the terrifying incident or her attacker. Asked to consult on the case, Dr. Younger calls on the visiting Freud to guide him through the girl's analysis. The Interpretation of Murder is an intricately plotted, elegantly wrought entertainment filled with delicious surprises, subtle slights of hand, and fascinating ideas. Drawing on Freud's case histories, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and the rich history of New York, this remarkable novel marks the debut of a brilliantly engaging new storyteller.
©2006 Jed Rubenfeld (P)2006 Random House Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House Inc.