Audiobooks narrated by Richard Ferrone

Out of the Fire: How an Angel and a Stranger Intervened to Save a Life

Mike Kinney shouldn’t be alive today. When his truck slammed into a telephone pole and burst into flames, the seventeen-year-old became pinned in the driver seat. Moments before the vehicle was consumed by fire, Mike was pulled from the burning wreckage of twisted metal as his body burned. After his guitar was incinerated in the blaze, Pete Townsend from The Who, a musical inspiration, sent him a new guitar, offering, “This is the Phoenix.” In the wake of his Phoenix moment of rising from the ashes, Mike wanted to believe that his life had been saved for a unique purpose. But along the way—through a brutally painful physical recovery, learning to live with a brain injury, and eventually several vocational disappointments—that purpose to which he believed God had called him seemed in jeopardy. Determined, though, Mike pressed on. Mike Kinney’s life was saved by God from the flames for a unique purpose, and Out of the Fire invites listeners to live out the purpose God has for their lives—even when, and especially when, that purpose seems to be in jeopardy.

Mike Kinney (Author), Richard Ferrone (Narrator)

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Con/Artist: The Life and Crimes of the World's Greatest Art Forger

The world's most renowned art forger reveals the secrets behind his decades of painting like the masters-exposing an art world that is far more corrupt than we ever knew while providing an art history lesson wrapped in sex, drugs, and Caravaggio. The art world is a much dirtier, nastier business than you might expect. Tony Tetro, one of the most renowned art forgers in history, will make you question every masterpiece you've ever seen in a museum, gallery, or private collection. Tetro's "Rembrandts," "Caravaggios," "Miros," and hundreds of other works now hang on walls around the globe. In 2019, it was revealed that Prince Charles received into his collection a Picasso, Dali, Monet, and Chagall, insuring them for over 200 million pounds, only to later discover that they're actually "Tetros." And the kicker? In Tony's words: "Even if some tycoon finds out his Rembrandt is a fake, what's he going to do, turn it in? Now his Rembrandt just became motel art. Better to keep quiet and pass it on to the next guy. It's the way things work for guys like me." The Prince Charles scandal is the subject of a forthcoming feature documentary with Academy Award nominee Kief Davidson and coauthor Giampiero Ambrosi, in cooperation with Tetro. Throughout Tetro's career, his inimitable talent has been coupled with a reckless penchant for drugs, fast cars, and sleeping with other con artists. He was busted in 1989 and spent four years in court and one in prison. His voice-rough, wry, deeply authentic-is nothing like the high society he swanned around in, driving his Lamborghini or Ferrari, hobnobbing with aristocrats by day, and diving into debauchery when the lights went out. He's a former furniture store clerk who can walk around in Caravaggio's shoes, become Picasso or Monet, with an encyclopedic understanding of their paint, their canvases, their vision. For years, he hid it all in an unassuming California townhouse with a secret art room behind a full-length mirror. (Press #* on his phone and the mirror pops open.) Pairing up with coauthor Ambrosi, one of the investigative journalists who uncovered the 2019 scandal, Tetro unveils the art world in an epic, alluring, at times unbelievable, but all-true narrative.

Giampiero Ambrosi, Tony Tetro (Author), Giampiero Ambrosi, Richard Ferrone, Tony Tetro (Narrator)

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Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed

A lively history of American libertarianism and its decay into dangerous fantasy. In 2010 in South Fulton, Tennessee, each household paid the local fire department a yearly fee of $75.00. That year, Gene Cranick’s house accidentally caught fire. But the fire department refused to come because Cranick had forgotten to pay his yearly fee, leaving his home in ashes. Observers across the political spectrum agreed―some with horror and some with enthusiasm―that this revealed the true face of libertarianism. But libertarianism did not always require callous indifference to the misfortunes of others. Modern libertarianism began with Friedrich Hayek’s admirable corrective to the Depression-era vogue for central economic planning. It resisted oppressive state power. It showed how capitalism could improve life for everyone. Yet today, it’s a toxic blend of anarchism, disdain for the weak, and rationalization for environmental catastrophe. Libertarians today accept new, radical arguments―which crumble under scrutiny―that justify dishonest business practices and Covid deniers who refuse to wear masks in the name of “freedom.” Andrew Koppelman’s book traces libertarianism’s evolution from Hayek’s moderate pro-market ideas to the romantic fabulism of Murray Rothbard, Robert Nozick, and Ayn Rand, and Charles Koch’s promotion of climate change denial. Burning Down the House is the definitive history of an ideological movement that has reshaped American politics.

Andrew Koppelman (Author), Richard Ferrone (Narrator)

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The Death of Learning: How American Education Has Failed Our Students and What to Do about It

The former president of St. Johns College reveals why 2,500 years of learning in the West is of inestimable value to all of us-and why its trashing is a crime of monumental proportions. The liberal arts are dying. They are dying because most Americans don’t see the point of them. Americans don’t understand why anyone would study literature or history or the classics—or, more contemporarily, feminist criticism, whiteness studies, or the literature of postcolonial states—when they can get an engineering or business degree. Even more concerning is when they read how “Western civilization” has become a termof reproach at so many supposedly thoughtful institutions; or how fanatical political correctness works hard to silence alternative viewpoints; or, more generally, how liberal studies have become scattered, narrow, and small. In this atmosphere, it’s hard to convince parents or their progeny that a liberal education is all that wonderful or that it’s even worthy of respect. Over sixty years ago, we were introduced to the idea of “the two cultures” in higher education— that is, the growing rift in the academy between the humanities and the sciences, a rift wherein neither side understood the other, spoke to the other, or cared for the other. But this divide in the academy, real as it may be, is nothing compared to another great divide—the rift today between our common American culture and the culture of the academy itself. So, how can we rebuild the notion that a liberal education is truly of value, both to our students and to the nation? Our highest hopes may be not to “restore” the liberal arts to what they looked like fifty or a hundred years ago but to ask ourselves what a true contemporary American liberal education at its best might look like. Remedying this situation will involve knowing clearly where we wish to go and then understanding how we might get there. For those objectives, this book is meant to be the beginning.

John Agresto (Author), Richard Ferrone (Narrator)

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Conservatism: A Rediscovery

The idea that American conservatism is identical to “classical” liberalism—widely held since the 1960s—is seriously mistaken. The award-winning political theorist Yoram Hazony argues that the best hope for Western democracy is a return to the empiricist, religious, and nationalist traditions of America and Britain—the conservative traditions that brought greatness to the English-speaking nations and became the model for national freedom for the entire world. Conservatism: A Rediscovery explains how Anglo-American conservatism became a distinctive alternative to divine-right monarchy, Puritan theocracy, and liberal revolution. After tracing the tradition from the Wars of the Roses to Burke and across the Atlantic to the American Federalists and Lincoln, Hazony describes the rise and fall of Enlightenment liberalism after World War II and the present-day debates between neoconservatives and national conservatives over how to respond to liberalism and the woke left. Going where no political thinker has gone in decades, Hazony provides a fresh theoretical foundation for conservatism. Rejecting the liberalism of Hayek, Strauss, and the “fusionists” of the 1960s, and drawing on decades of personal experience in the conservative movement, he argues that a revival of authentic Anglo-American conservatism is possible in the twenty-first century.

Yoram Hazony (Author), Richard Ferrone (Narrator)

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Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie

A biography of the spectacular rise and fall of Eddie Antar, better known as "Crazy Eddie," whose home electronics empire changed the world even as it turned out to be one of the biggest business scams of all time Back in the fall of 2016 we heard the news about the passing of Eddie Antar, "Crazy Eddie" as he was known to millions of people, the man behind the successful chain of electronic stores and one of the most iconic ad campaigns in history. Few things evoke the New York of a particular era the way "Crazy Eddie! His prices are insaaaaane!" does. The journalist Herb Greenberg called his death the "end of an era" and that couldn't be more true. What's insane is that his story has never been told. Before Enron, before Madoff, before The Wolf of Wall Street, Eddie Antar's corruption was second to none. The difference was that it was a street franchise, a local place that was in the blood stream of everyone's daily life in the 1970s and early '80s. And Eddie pulled it off with a certain style, an in your face blue collar chutzpah. Despite the fact that then U.S. Attorney Michael Chertoffcalled him "the Darth Vader of capitalism" after the extent of the fraud was revealed, one of the largest SEC frauds in American history after Crazy Eddie's stores went public in 1984, Eddie was talked about fondly by the people who worked for him. They still do--there are myriads of ex-Crazy Eddie employee web pages that still attract fans, and the Crazy Eddie fraud scheme is now taught in every business school across the United States. Many years have passed since the franchise went down in spectacular fashion but Crazy Eddie's moment has endured the way that iconic brands and characters do--one only need Google the media outpouring that accompanied his death. Maybe it's because it crystallized everything about 1970s New York almost perfectly, the merchandise and rise of consumer electronics (stereos!), the ads (cheesy!), the money (cash!). In Retail Gangster, investigative journalist Gary Weiss takes readers behind the scenes of one of the most unbelievable business scam stories of all time, a story spanning continents and generations, reaffirming the old adage that the truth is often stranger than fiction.

Gary Weiss (Author), Richard Ferrone (Narrator)

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100 Turning Points in American History

Arnold J. Toynbee, the most famous professional historian of the twentieth century, is widely quoted as having declared that “History is just one damn thing after another.” This book argues that history is not about “things” at all but is all about turning points—the decisions, acts, innovations, errors, ideas, successes, and failures on which the shape of a nation’s life—our lives—depends. It presents the one hundred points at which America’s path decisively turned on its way to where we find ourselves today. Columbus arrives in the New World The first slaves arrive in America Independence is declared Female suffragists meet in Seneca Falls Fort Sumter falls A transcontinental railroad is completed Edison lights his first electric lamp FDR offers a “New Deal” The B-29 Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon President Nixon creates the EPA 9/11, Obama, Sandy Hook, Russian election “meddling,” and the Age of Trump These and many more are the crucial “plot points” in our grand national story, and bestselling historian Alan Axelrod presents them here.

Alan Axelrod (Author), Richard Ferrone (Narrator)

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Hotel California: An Anthology of New Mystery Short Stories

Featuring a new Jack Reacher story by Andrew Child! A dangerous drifter, a hired gun, a grisly corpse—you never know who you’ll run into at the Hotel California. Eight deliciously talented mystery authors have lent their skills of crafting murder and suspense to this collection of gripping short stories. Each of these eight provocative tales is designed to entertain and mystify—and maybe even chill you to your core. Get lost in the wild imaginations of such New York Times bestselling writers as Andrew Child, Heather Graham, Reed Farrel Coleman, and John Gilstrap, plus authors Rick Bleiweiss, Jennifer Graeser Dornbush, Amanda Flower, and Don Bruns. From the titular tale “Hotel California” to a new, original Jack Reacher adventure, these stories have a little something for every mystery lover. Go ahead. Check in, enjoy some room service, and stay until the very last tantalizing page. Just don’t forget to search the closet or behind the curtains.

Don Bruns (Author), Hillary Huber, James Patrick Cronin, January Lavoy, Joe Barrett, Joe Hempel, Richard Ferrone, Scott Brick, Sophie Amoss (Narrator)

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The Grace Message: Is the Gospel Really This Good?

Grace. It’s a word we all know, yet do we really believe in God’s grace? Grace is both essential and dazzling. It raises eyebrows. It begs questions. Grace turns everything upside down. A radical and inspiring book, The Grace Message invites you to get in on the best flavor of Christianity and celebrate the good news of the Gospel like never before. Andrew Farley’s no-nonsense straight talk will awaken you to a revolutionary perspective every healthy Christian should have. Life is too short to miss out on God’s best, and what you don’t know about God’s grace can hinder you from experiencing Jesus in every area of your life. So, if you’ve been weighed down by ruthless religion or you’ve been searching for that high-octane version of the Gospel that you know must exist, this is it. Get ready to be boosted into a remarkable, new confidence. This thought-provoking book will challenge you to dismiss the lies you’ve believed and to make up your own mind about how big God’s grace really is.

Andrew Farley (Author), Richard Ferrone (Narrator)

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Brainstorm: An Investigation of the Mysterious Death of Film Star Natalie Wood

The crime The motives The cover-up The 1981 drowning death of award-winning actress Natalie Wood off the coast of Catalina Island, California, has become one of Hollywood's most controversial unsolved mysteries. After an in-depth five-year investigation, Sam Perroni has completed the most far-reaching and superbly executed examination of the case to date. In his pursuit of the truth, the author exposes the cover-up orchestrated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and powerful Hollywood insiders in 1981 as well as the façade surrounding the agency's "reopening" of the case in 2011. Perroni uncovers persuasive evidence-corroborated by key witnesses-of marital discord, suspicious jealousy, and even darker motives that provide an answer to the ultimate question: Was Natalie Wood's death an accident ... or murder?

Sam Perroni (Author), Richard Ferrone, Suzanne Toren (Narrator)

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Godzilla vs. Kong: The Official Movie Novelization

The official novelization of the biggest battle in movie history, Godzilla vs. Kong, the latest film in the Monsterverse franchise Humanity fights for its future as Godzilla and Kong embark on a path of destruction that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in an all-out war! Writer Greg Keyes returns once again to the Monsterverse and takes listeners deeper into the worlds of Monarch, the Titans, and so much more.

Greg Keyes (Author), Richard Ferrone (Narrator)

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Lieberman's Day

A Chicago cop is out to avenge his nephew's murder in this 'masterly creation' that puts the Edgar Award-winning author in 'the Parker/Paretsky league' (Chicago Tribune). When you're a sixty-two-year-old cop with bad knees, most days feel pretty long. But the longest day of Abe Lieberman's life begins just after midnight when he learns his nephew David has been shot dead and David's pregnant wife has been gravely injured by two gunmen trying to rob the couple. Now Carol is barely clinging to life, and it's up to Lieberman to track down the killers. With the help of his partner, the troubled alcoholic Bill Hanrahan, Lieberman will turn the city upside down to find the men who stole his nephew's bright future. But as they step out into the howling Chicago wind, it's clear both partners will need to fight to survive the day that started out terrible and is about to get a lot worse. This day in the life of two veteran Chicago cops is 'beautifully rendered . . . Kaminsky is extraordinarily attuned to the domestic minutiae of his detectives' lives' (The New York Times Book Review).

Stuart M. Kaminsky (Author), Richard Ferrone (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Richard Ferrone