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Born to Kvetch
- Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods
- Narrated by: Michael Wex
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
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Publisher's summary
In Born to Kvetch, Michael Wex looks at the ingredients that went into this buffet of disenchantment and examines how they were mixed together to produce an almost limitless supply of striking idioms and withering curses. Born to Kvetch includes a wealth of material that's never appeared in English before.
This is no bobe mayse (cock-and-bull story) from a khokhem be-layle (idiot, literally a "sage at night" when no one's looking), but a serious yet fun and funny look at a language. From tukhes to goy, meshugener to kvetch, Yiddish words have permeated and transformed English as well. Through the fascinating history of this kvetch-full tongue, Michael Wex gives us a moving and inspiring portrait of a people, and a language, in exile.
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- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Words on the Move opens our eyes to the surprising backstories to the words and expressions we use every day. Did you know that silly once meant "blessed"? Or that ought was the original past tense of owe? Or that the suffix -ly in adverbs is actually a remnant of the word like? And have you ever wondered why some people from New Orleans sound as if they come from Brooklyn?
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Review By a Fan
- By Margaret on 09-25-16
By: John McWhorter
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Reading Like a Writer
- By: Francine Prose
- Narrated by: Nanette Savard
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters and discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire listeners to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart.
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Practical, literate, generous
- By Gare on 04-13-08
By: Francine Prose
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More Die of Heartbreak
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Kenneth Trachtenberg, an eccentric and witty native of Paris, travels to the Midwest to spend time with his famous American uncle, a world-renowned botanist and self-described "plant visionary". After numerous affairs and failed relationships, the restless Uncle Benn seeks a settled existence in the form of marriage - but tying the knot again opens the door to a host of new torments.
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A great book
- By John A. on 03-16-22
By: Saul Bellow
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Jewish Comedy
- A Serious History
- By: Jeremy Dauber
- Narrated by: Jeremy Dauber
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In a major work of scholarship both erudite and very funny, Jeremy Dauber traces the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from Biblical times to the age of Twitter. Organizing his book thematically into what he calls the seven strands of Jewish comedy - including the satirical, the witty, and the vulgar - Dauber explores the ways Jewish comedy has dealt with persecution, assimilation, and diaspora through the ages. He explains the rise and fall of popular comic archetypes such as the Jewish mother, the JAP, and the schlemiel and schlimazel.
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Not funny
- By supermantwo on 08-31-20
By: Jeremy Dauber
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Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue
- The Untold History of English
- By: John McWhorter
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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A survey of the quirks and quandaries of the English language, focusing on our strange and wonderful grammar. Why do we say "I am reading a catalog" instead of "I read a catalog"? Why do we say "do" at all? Is the way we speak a reflection of our cultural values? Delving into these provocative topics and more, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue distills hundreds of years of fascinating lore into one lively history.
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Great for casual linguists
- By Bertie on 01-11-10
By: John McWhorter
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Ungovernable
- The Victorian Parent's Guide to Raising Flawless Children
- By: Therese Oneill
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg, Betsy Foldes Meiman
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Feminist historian Therese Oneill is back, to educate you on what to expect when you're expecting...a Victorian baby! In Ungovernable, Oneill conducts an unforgettable tour through the backward, pseudoscientific, downright bizarre parenting fashions of the Victorians.
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Unexpected and Hilarious
- By M. Huber on 05-21-19
By: Therese Oneill
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If All the Seas Were Ink
- A Memoir
- By: Ilana Kurshan
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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This memoir is a tale of heartache and humor, of love and loss, of marriage and motherhood, and of learning to put one foot in front of the other by turning page after page. Ilana Kurshan takes us on a deeply accessible and personal guided tour of the Talmud, shedding new light on its stories and offering insights into its arguments - both for those already familiar with the text and for those who have never encountered it. For people of the book - both Jewish and non-Jewish - If All the Seas Were Ink is a celebration of learning how to fall in love once again.
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Started out interesting, but flagged badly
- By Chana Goanna on 01-27-20
By: Ilana Kurshan
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Where the Past Begins
- A Writer's Memoir
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Amy Tan
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Moving from her childhood in Oakland and growing up with her Chinese parents through her success as a novelist, Amy Tan delves into her creative interests in music, the paralysis of beginning a new project, journal writing, and travelling. Where the Past Begins chronicles the making of a writer. With characteristic humor and poignant observation, Tan weaves a nontraditional introspective narrative that is as complex and vibrant as this beloved American novelist's fiction.
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Narration Issues
- By Sara on 12-14-17
By: Amy Tan
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Poetry in Person
- Twenty-five Years of Conversation with America's Poets
- By: Lucille Clifton, Alexander Neubauer - editor, Eamon Grennan, and others
- Narrated by: Alexander Neubauer
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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This first audio edition of Poetry in Person: 25 Years of Conversation with America’s Poets (Knopf, 2010), invites listeners into an intimate classroom with eight acclaimed poets. Full of compelling, in-depth conversation about manuscripts and drafts by the poets themselves, plus readings of the finished poems, these historic recordings offer one of the most detailed portraits ever produced of how poems are actually made.
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Fascinating
- By d on 08-28-16
By: Lucille Clifton, and others
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How Fiction Works
- By: James Wood
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Ranging widely from Homer to David Foster Wallace, from What Maisie Knew to Make Way for Ducklings, Wood takes the reader through the basic elements of the art, step by step. He sums up two decades of insight with wit and concision, resulting in nothing less than a philosophy of the novel, which has won critical acclaim nationwide, from the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times Book Review.
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Educational!
- By Don on 05-04-09
By: James Wood
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Committed
- A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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At the end of her best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who'd been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. But providence intervened one day in the form of the United States government....
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Perfect timing
- By Nancy on 01-15-10
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It's a normal night in August. Literature professor Arne and artist Tove are with their children at the resort in Sørlandet. Their friend, Egil, a driver by day, is staying in a cabin nearby. Kathrine, a priest, is on her way home from a seminar; the journalist Jostein is out on the town; and his wife, Turid, who is an assistant nurse, has a night shift. Above them all, a huge star suddenly appears in the sky. No one, not even the astronomers, knows for sure what kind of phenomenon it is.
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Great read for religious scholars
- By matt m on 01-13-22
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Just Say Nu
- Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do)
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Just say Nu is a practical guide to using Yiddish words and expressions in day-to-day situations. Along with enough grammar to enable listeners to put together a comprehensible sentence and avoid embarrassing mistakes, Wex also explains the five most useful Yiddish words–shoyn, nu, epes, takeh, and nebakh–what they mean, how and when to use them, and how they can be used to conduct an entire conversation without anybody ever suspecting that the listener doesn't have the vaguest idea of what anyone is actually saying.
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Hysterical!
- By Edmond Clement on 04-10-21
By: Michael Wex
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The New Joys of Yiddish
- Completely Updated
- By: Leo Rosten, Lawrence Bush - editor
- Narrated by: Ron Rifkin, Peter Riegert, Harry Goz, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
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More than a quarter of a century ago, Leo Rosten presented 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.
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A must-read for anyone interested in Jewish culture and/or linguistics!
- By Kim on 01-26-23
By: Leo Rosten, and others
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Yiddish
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Here is the remarkable story of how this humble language took vigorous root in Eastern European shtetls and in the Jewish quarters of cities across Europe; how it achieved a rich literary flowering between the wars in Europe and America; how it was rejected by emancipated Jews; and how it fell victim to the Holocaust. And also how, in yet another twist of destiny, Yiddish today is becoming the darling of academia. Yiddish is a history as story; a tale of flesh-and-blood people with manic humor.
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Incredible book. Wonderful narration.
- By Andy on 08-27-21
By: Miriam Weinstein
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I, Claudius
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Here is one of the best historical novels ever written. Lame, stammering Claudius, once a major embarrassment to the imperial family and now emperor of Rome, writes an eyewitness account of the reign of the first four Caesars: the noble Augustus and his cunning wife, Livia; the reptilian Tiberius; the monstrous Caligula; and finally old Claudius himself. Filled with poisonings, betrayal, and shocking excesses, I Claudius is history that rivals the most exciting contemporary fiction.
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Unsurpassed, addictive brilliance
- By Chris on 06-09-09
By: Robert Graves
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How the World Really Works
- The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
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We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don’t know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check—because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.
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Let me save you a credit: progress is hard
- By Dalton on 06-06-22
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The Morning Star
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Great read for religious scholars
- By matt m on 01-13-22
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Just Say Nu
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Just say Nu is a practical guide to using Yiddish words and expressions in day-to-day situations. Along with enough grammar to enable listeners to put together a comprehensible sentence and avoid embarrassing mistakes, Wex also explains the five most useful Yiddish words–shoyn, nu, epes, takeh, and nebakh–what they mean, how and when to use them, and how they can be used to conduct an entire conversation without anybody ever suspecting that the listener doesn't have the vaguest idea of what anyone is actually saying.
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More than a quarter of a century ago, Leo Rosten presented 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.
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A must-read for anyone interested in Jewish culture and/or linguistics!
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By: Leo Rosten, and others
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Here is the remarkable story of how this humble language took vigorous root in Eastern European shtetls and in the Jewish quarters of cities across Europe; how it achieved a rich literary flowering between the wars in Europe and America; how it was rejected by emancipated Jews; and how it fell victim to the Holocaust. And also how, in yet another twist of destiny, Yiddish today is becoming the darling of academia. Yiddish is a history as story; a tale of flesh-and-blood people with manic humor.
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Incredible book. Wonderful narration.
- By Andy on 08-27-21
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Let me save you a credit: progress is hard
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What listeners say about Born to Kvetch
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Margaret
- 09-06-10
Listened to it twice so far!
Really enjoyed this book that I thought was about linguistics, but delivered so much more. The previous mentions of the harsh narration are right, and at first it is pretty hard to take, but I got used to it after awhile. And, there are times when Mr. Wex drops the extreme accent and reveals a pleasant reading voice. The choice not to use that all the time is rather baffling, but the book itself was so enjoyable that I got over it and I didn't even notice how much I was learning. I am still laughing about the place of the chicken in Yiddish culture. Terrific.
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10 people found this helpful
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- W. Peretz
- 04-14-18
It took me a while to get used to Michael’s voice, but when I did...
I totally enjoyed listening and learning and appreciating Yiddish, as a culture, a language, it’s humor, it’s curses and blessings!! Thanks, Michael!! LOVED IT!
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- ross cohen
- 05-07-19
fantastic look into a world that is sadly, nearly
loved it. Wex has great skill as a narrator one you get used to his rhythm and rhyme.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Cindy
- 04-24-17
Great info, nauseating narration.
The information was great. Learned a lot. But the narrators droning, nauseating voice at the end of each sentence made it very difficult to continue reading the book. I think perhaps, a different performer might change the overall acceptance of the material. I do appreciate the Jewish quality of his voice, as I am a Jew too, but the excessive use of drawing out the end of each and every sentence is not an aesthetic that is pleasing to the ear.
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Overall
- Mark Patterson
- 08-28-06
Fascinating and Foul
Wex gives a "warts & all" look into eastern European Jewish culture through its language. The first part of the book made me laugh out loud much to the surprise of fellow commuters. Unfortunately, he soon descended into scatology and profanity.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Tired Wife
- 01-07-17
Accurate & amusing
The author speaks with a drawl often extending the last vowel of each paragraph.
He is however a great story teller who backs up all his ideas with sources.
I spent my listen giggling & going back to relisten to what I missed while laughing.
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Overall
- Michael
- 06-19-06
Yiddish Self Defense Lesson
Having married into a Jewish family understanding a little Yiddish never hurt. It is a private language unto those who still want to keep the goyim on the outside of the circle. To get the full impact of Wex's book you must listen because it is about language. My wife's grandmother was a Russian Jew and for the first time I began to appreciate the historical and religous perspective of Yiddish and the world she left behind.
To keep it fresh Wex integrated all of this into everyday life. On the downside Wex has an annoying cadence in his reading and picks it up so fast as he continues that you can only comprehend a small piece of what he gives you. If you speak German (ich spreche ein bischen) or Polish or some eastern-European dialect, you will be able to follow. Warning to all goys...don't try Yiddish at home, leave it to the professionals.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Martin
- 02-23-09
Something unusual
So much is explained in this wry and hilarious book. All the sayings and tones of voice we've heard smatterings of come sharply into focus. The inflection of the author is mildly annoying at first, but I soon got used to it and eventually grew to like it. It matches the content perfectly.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Philo
- 05-19-18
Brings a smile, in times we can sure use it
I'm just a curious gentile. But I have been bit by the bug. This is the one language I'm aware of where words can be funny, in and of themselves, they can contain in one syllable a sort of capsule cartoon, dripping with wry attitude. So in moments of classroom lecturing I lapse into Yiddish (not purposely!) and it never fails to bring a laugh. All of a sudden I get to be sort of, stand-up, Borscht-Belt. Yeah, teaching law, even. And even youths of an ethnicity that generally might tend not to, laugh too. It's hard to do humor without giving serious offense, and nowadays it can be a minefield. Being around this Yiddish culture in law school and elsewhere, I learned the self-deprecating humor style that makes that possible. It's on great display here. The old ad line was, you don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's, right (whatever that was or is? Disclaimer: Any intellectual property sampled here ham-handedly(!) by me is the property of its rightful owner(s)), and that goes for this stuff too. I have a great affection for it.
I love the author-narrator's sort of laconic speaking style which is a perfect fit. Sometimes authors should stay miles away from their books, but not this fellow. He's the real deal -- a scholar and clearly this is a labor of love.
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Overall
- Abigail
- 08-30-07
Enjoyable, but for the narrator
I quite enjoyed this book. It was full of interesting facts and tidbits along with an interesting and witty take on Jewish culture. The narrator however, has a way of elongating the last sound of the last word in a statement, or emphasizes this sound in place of punctuation (such as commas). If you cannot ignore this inflection it may get on your nerves. It is not subtle. Even so, it did not bother me greatly and I found it a fun listen, perfect for daily commutes in the car (entertaining but wont make you late because you had to sit in the parking lot to hear what happens next).
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10 people found this helpful