Ruby Dee has narrated 9 audiobooks on Listento.it by 5 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 69 ratings. The most-rated is Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Summary
Their Eyes Were Watching God, an American classic, is the luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930s, whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to 70 years. This poetic, graceful love story, rooted in Black folk traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates boldly and brilliantly African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing narrative, it pays quiet tribute to a Black woman who, though constricted by the times, still demanded to be heard. Originally published in 1937 and long out of print, the book was reissued in 1975 and nearly three decades later Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered a seminal novel in American fiction.
©1937 Zora Neale Hurston, Renewed 1965 John C. Hurston and Joel Hurston (P)1997, 2000, 2004 HarperCollins Publishers
The Bluest Eye
Summary
Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison's virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing. Toni Morrison was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature.
©1970 Toni Morrison (P)1994 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
With Ossie and Ruby
Summary
Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee: legendary stars of the American stage, television, and film, a beloved and revered couple cherished not just for their acting artistry but also for their lifelong commitment to civil rights, family values, and the Black community. Now they look back on a half-century of their personal and political struggles to maintain a healthy marriage and to create the record of distinguished accomplishment that earned each a Presidential Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. With Ossie and Ruby overflows with consummate storytelling skill developed by decades in the spotlight. From their early years as struggling actors in Harlem's Black theater to Broadway and Hollywood stardom, they regale the listener with colorful, entertaining tales of the places they've been and the people they've met. But their charming humor is leavened with a more serious side, as they share their experiences of keeping a family together in a world where scandal and divorce is the rule, and of being artists and political activists in an era of intense racial ferment. Born into the struggle, their characters were shaped by the dynamic collisions of life, politics, and art; and from those experiences, they achieved some sense of their worth as married people, friends, and lovers. Warm, positive, and compelling, this is a book that will surprise and challenge listeners everywhere - Black and White, male and female, young and old. Lifting the veil of public image, media hype, and mystique, Ossie and Ruby speak of the real-life dilemmas and rewards of their lifelong search for purpose and value. "They both keep the material fresh, which could be hard to do when talking about one's own life. This is an immensely captivating dual memoir and a real audio treasure, especially poignant since Davis has since passed away. The listener comes away with a true sense of the essence of these lives, the things that were and are important to them, and their accomplishments." (AudioFile magazine) " . . . this is a compelling read, effectively evoking the challenges and rewards that have attended the authors' roles as black leaders . . . " (Publishers Weekly, October 1998) "By turns sassy and sage . . . full of razor-sharp observations on who business, politics, race and love." (Ebony)
©1998 Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. All rights reserved. (P)2006 Time Warner AudioBooks
The Family Comes of Age
Summary
"The Family Comes of Age" is the third part of three in With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee are legendary stars of the American stage, television, and film, cherished not merely for their gifts as actors but also for their lifelong commitment to human rights, family values, and community. Now, in a joint memoir that celebrates half a century of successful marriage, they look back on the extraordinary careers that earned each a Presidential Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. With Ossie and Ruby overflows with consummate storytelling skill, but it's much more than a wonderfully engaging self-portrait. For as they reminisce in alternating chapters, Ossie and Ruby offer a vivid picture of the 20th-century African-American experience, both in the rural South and the urban North. For Ossie and Ruby, stardom and social responsibility were inseparable, so along with their theatrical stories of Broadway and Hollywood, where Black actors fought to escape racial stereotypes, they offer an insider's chronicle of political commitment that drew the wrath of Senator Joe McCarthy and, later, the friendship of both Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. And, perhaps most important to them, here is the story of their private lives and the family whose love and security more than repaid the sacrifices they made. Often funny, occasionally heartbreaking, and always clear-eyed and candid about themselves and the world they helped to shape, Ossie and Ruby have recorded a book sure to win the heart of anyone who cares about American theater, the struggle for civil rights, and the deep, inspiring values that have guided the lives of two great artists who blazed a triumphant trail. For the first time ever, experience this archival tour de force recording.
©1998 Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. All rights reserved. (P)2006 Time Warner AudioBooks
Before We Met
Summary
"Before We Met" is the first part of three in With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee are legendary stars of the American stage, television, and film, cherished not merely for their gifts as actors but also for their lifelong commitment to human rights, family values, and community. Now, in a joint memoir that celebrates half a century of successful marriage, they look back on the extraordinary careers that earned each a Presidential Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. With Ossie and Ruby overflows with consummate storytelling skill, but it's much more than a wonderfully engaging self-portrait. For as they reminisce in alternating chapters, Ossie and Ruby offer a vivid picture of the 20th-century African-American experience, both in the rural South and the urban North. For Ossie and Ruby, stardom and social responsibility were inseparable, so along with their theatrical stories of Broadway and Hollywood, where Black actors fought to escape racial stereotypes, they offer an insider's chronicle of political commitment that drew the wrath of Senator Joe McCarthy and, later, the friendship of both Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. And, perhaps most important to them, here is the story of their private lives and the family whose love and security more than repaid the sacrifices they made. Often funny, occasionally heartbreaking, and always clear-eyed and candid about themselves and the world they helped to shape, Ossie and Ruby have recorded a book sure to win the heart of anyone who cares about American theater, the struggle for civil rights, and the deep, inspiring values that have guided the lives of two great artists who blazed a triumphant trail. For the first time ever, experience this archival tour de force recording.
©1998 Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. All rights reserved. (P)2006 Time Warner AudioBooks
With Ossie and Ruby
Summary
Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee are legendary stars of the American stage, television, and film, cherished not merely for their gifts as actors but also for their lifelong commitment to human rights, family values, and community. Now, in a joint memoir that celebrates half a century of successful marriage, they look back on the extraordinary careers that earned each a Presidential Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. With Ossie and Ruby overflows with consummate storytelling skill, but it's much more than a wonderfully engaging self-portrait. For as they reminisce in alternating chapters, Ossie and Ruby offer a vivid picture of the 20th-century African-American experience, both in the rural South and the urban North. For Ossie and Ruby, stardom and social responsibility were inseparable, so along with their theatrical stories of Broadway and Hollywood, where Black actors fought to escape racial stereotypes, they offer an insider's chronicle of political commitment that drew the wrath of Senator Joe McCarthy and, later, the friendship of both Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. And, perhaps most important to them, here is the story of their private lives and the family whose love and security more than repaid the sacrifices they made. Often funny, occasionally heartbreaking, and always clear-eyed and candid about themselves and the world they helped to shape, Ossie and Ruby have recorded a book sure to win the heart of anyone who cares about American theater, the struggle for civil rights, and the deep, inspiring values that have guided the lives of two great artists who blazed a triumphant trail. For the first time ever, experience this archival tour de force recording.
©1998 Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. All rights reserved.; (P)2006 Time Warner AudioBooks
Every Tongue Got to Confess
Summary
Every Tongue Got to Confess is an extensive volume of African American folklore that Zora Neale Hurston collected on her travels through the Gulf States in the late 1920s. The bittersweet and often hilarious tales, which range from longer narratives about God, the Devil, white folk, and mistaken identity to witty one-liners, reveal attitudes about faith, love, family, slavery, race, and community. Together, this collection of nearly 500 folktales weaves a vibrant tapestry that celebrates African American life in the rural South and represents a major part of Zora Neale Hurston's literary legacy.
©2001 Vivian Hurston Bowden, Clifford J. Hurston, Jr., Edgar Hurston, Sr., Winifred Hurston Clark, Lois Hurston Gaston, Lucy Anne Hurston, Barbara Hurston Lewis. John Edgar Wideman (Foreword) Carla Kaplan (Introduction) (P)2001 Harper Audio
Dessa Rose
Summary
This is the story of an extraordinary friendship between two remarkable women, both caught in the shadow of slavery in the 19th-century South. One is an escaped black slave under sentence of death; the other is white, yet committed to end the horrors her neighbors accept as a matter of course. Ruby Dee's passionate and sensitive readings gives a poignant sense of reality to this magnificent novel of courage, daring and love.
©1999 Sherley A. Williams (P)2009 Phoenix
Mules and Men
Summary
In Mules and Men, some of the rich cultural heritage of black America is revealed and preserved. In the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston returned to her home town of Eatonville, Florida, to collect and record the oral histories, songs, and sermons, many dating back to slavery times, that she remembered hearing as a child. These highly metaphorical folktales, "big old lies", and powerful songs helped her to recover her history, and preserve an important part of American culture. The unique heritage of African-Americans, presented here with imagination, humor, and wisdom, has tremendous value for students of cultural history, as well as to anyone who loves a good story well told. This recording features Ruby Dee, a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame and actress in A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.
(P) and ©1992 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved, Caedmon, An Imprint of Harper Audio, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers