New Employees in Audio Services
Two new employees are answering phones in the Audio Services section at the Communication Center. Customer Service Representative Chris Schmiesser retired last summer. The new voice you will hear is that of Michelle Thomas. Michelle has been a State employee for over three years, coming here from South Minneapolis Vocational Rehab Services. She is the one who handles equipment problems and questions, and registers people for services. Her phone is (651) 642-0885.
The other new employee is Dan Gausman. New to State service, Dan has replaced Maureen Creason as the Library Technician in Audio Services. This position processes print materials for transcription into audio formats. Call Dan for any transcription needs for textbooks, vocational, leisure, or other reading needs at (651) 649-5903.
Weekend Program Books
Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing Passages in Caregiving, by Gail Sheehy, and Healing at the Speed of Sound, by Don Campbell and Alex Doman; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing Tyger Tyger, by Kersten Hamilton; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing Midnight Lantern, by Tess Gallagher; The U.S. and Us (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing North Country, by Mary Lethert Wingerd.
Books Available Through Faribault
Books broadcast on the Minnesota Radio Talking Book Network are available through the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library in Faribault, MN. Their phone is 1-800-722-0550 and hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Their catalog is also online, and you can access it by going to the main website, http://education.state.mn.us, and then clicking on the link. If you live outside of Minnesota, you may obtain copies of our books via an inter-library loan by contacting your own state’s Network Library for the National Library Service.
Listen to the Minnesota Radio Talking Book, either live or archived programs from the last week, on the Internet at www.mnssb.org/rtb. Call the staff at the Radio for your password to the site.
See interesting information about current RTB events on the Facebook site for the Minnesota Radio Talking Book Network. Register for Facebook at www.facebook.com.
Chautauqua
Tuesday – Saturday 4 a.m
The Social Animal, Nonfiction by David Brooks, 2011. The unconscious mind is most of the mind, the realm of emotions, intuitions, biases, longings, genetic predispositions, personality traits, and social norms. It is where our most important life decisions are made. L – Read by Sally Browne. 20 Br. Began March 22.
Science Secrets, Nonfiction by Alberto A. Martinez, 2011. The history of science is full of myths. Some are partly true, others are mostly false. Yet all illuminate the tension between the need to fairly describe the past and the natural desire to fill in the blanks. Read by Jeanne Burns. 11 broadcasts. Begins April 19.
Past is Prologue
Monday – Friday 9 a.m.
The Warmth of Other Suns, Nonfiction by Isabel Wilkerson, 2010. From 1915 to 1970, the decades-long migration of black citizens fleeing the South for a better life changed the face of America. Read by Judy Woodward. 23 broadcasts. Began March 12.
First Family, Nonfiction by Joseph J. Ellis, 2010. Over the decades, John and Abigail Adams were separated nearly as much as they were together. Both prolific letter writers, they exchanged more than twelve hundred letters which give us an account both intimate and panoramic of their lives. Read by Sherri Afryl. 12 broadcasts. Begins April 12.
Love and Capital, Nonfiction by Mary Gabriel, 2011. Karl Marx was a student without wealth or future when Jenny von Westphalen, daughter of a Prussian baron, fell in love with him. Together they journeyed through Europe, on the run from those alarmed by Marx’s revolutionary ideas. Read by Lannois Neely. 31 broadcasts. Begins April 30
Bookworm
Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
The Endless Forest, Fiction by Sara Donati, 2010. The spring of 1824 is challenging for Paradise, New York, when a flood devastates the village. But for Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner, it’s a time of reunion as their children return home. Another who arrives is their ward’s long-absent mother, bringing anger and secrets. Read by Jenny O’Brien. 21 broadcasts. Began March 14.
Paper Angels, Fiction by Billy Coffey, 2011. Not all angels look like cherubs. Andy’s personal angel looks like an old man. His Old Man has been advising him since he was ten and encouraging him to collect mementos of people important to him. Now, Old Man is leaving. Read by John Beal. 9 broadcasts. Begins April 12.
Falling Together, Fiction by Marisa de los Santos, 2011. Marisa de los Santos creates a portrait of people growing and learning to live their lives with joy. “Falling Together” is an uplifting and powerful story of friendship, finding love, and looking at the world each day with the idea of living the moment for its beauty. L – Read by Sherri Afryl. 15 broadcasts. Begins April 25.
The Writer’s Voice
Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
A Singular Woman, Nonfiction by Janny Scott, 2011. The mother of Barak Obama was an unconventional woman from a conventional era. She crossed borders and cultural boundaries and defied the rules of race, motherhood, and gender. Her values and choices shaped the man her son is today. Read by Mary Hall. 12 Br. Began April 2.
Following Atticus, Nonfiction by Tom Ryan, 2011. After a close friend dies of cancer, overweight, tough-as-nails newspaperman Tom Ryan decides to take his miniature schnauzer and climb all forty-eight of New Hampshire’s peaks to raise money for charity. The experience changed him. Read by Jim Gregorich. 10 Br. Begins April 18
Choice Reading
Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
Percival’s Planet, Fiction by Michael Byers, 2010. Clyde Tombaugh longs to look at the stars from a better place than his Kansas yard. A chance letter brings him to the Lowell Observatory in Arizona where the staff is looking for Percival Lowell’s missing Planet X. Read by Jack Rossman. 19 broadcasts. Began April 3.
The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, Fiction by Melanie Benjamin, 2011. She was two-foot eight-inches tall, but her legend persists more than a century later. Lavinia “Vinnie” Bump reached out to the impresario P. T. Barnum, married the tiny superstar General Tom Thumb in the wedding of the century, and transformed into the world’s most unexpected celebrity. Read by Maria Rubinstein. 12 Br. Begins April 30
PM Report
Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
Unnatural Selection, Nonfiction by Mara Hvistendahl, 2011. In some Chinese cities, the gender ratio for children under five is 163 boys for every 100 girls. In twenty years, this skewed sex ratio will pose a major challenge. Read by Ilze Mueller. 13 broadcasts. Began April 4.
That Used to Be Us, Nonfiction by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, 2011. America faces four major challenges on which our future depends: globalization, the revolution in information technology, chronic deficits, and excessive energy consumption. Read by John Demma. 16 Br. Begins April 23.
Night Journey
Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
Death of the Mantis, Fiction by Michael Stanley, 2011. In the southern Kalahari, a ranger named Monzo is found dying, surrounded by three Bushmen. Detective David “Kubu” Bengu is on the case. When a second and a third murder point to the Bushmen, Kubu must travel into the Kalahari. L,S – Read by John Mandeville. 13 broadcasts. Began March 26.
Double Cross Country, Fiction by Joan Murphy Pride, 2011. Watching the Birkebeiner ski race, Amy is given a task by her friends’ boss. Trying to accomplish it, she is on skis when the person next to her is killed. Read by Carol Lewis. 7 broadcasts. Begins April 12.
Two for Sorrow, Fiction by Nicola Upson, 2011. Josephine Tey decides to write a mystery based on murderers of the past. Her research will entangle her in the desperate search for a modern-day killer. Read by Isla Hejny. 15 broadcasts. Begins April 23.
Off the Shelf
Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
The Healing, Fiction by Jonathan Odell, 2012. Amanda Satterfield’s grief over her lost daughter crosses into madness. She takes a newborn slave child as her own and names her Granada. Disturbed by his wife’s behavior, Master Satterfield purchases Polly Shine, reputed to be a healer. Read by John Marsicano. 11 broadcasts. Began April 2.
Sanctus, Fiction by Simon Toyne, 2011. A man climbs a cliff face on a mountain known as Citadel, a city-state in contemporary Turkey. This dangerous, symbolic act is witnessed by the world, evidence that a new beginning is at hand. L – Read by Dan Kuechenmeister. 14 broadcasts. Begins April 17.
Potpourri
Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
Crude Awakening, Nonfiction by Amanda Coyne and Tony Hopfinger, 2011. In Alaska, politics and oil began breeding corruption the day wildcatters struck it big at Prudhoe Bay in 1968. Oil companies and the federal government kept the state living high and wild with the old guard running the show. L – Read by Art Nyhus. 13 Br. Began April 2.
The Icarus Syndrome, Nonfiction by Peter Beinart, 2010. On the eves of World War I, Vietnam, and Iraq, American leaders decided they could remake the world in their image. Each time, leading intellectuals declared that history was over and the spread of democracy was inevitable. L – Read by John Potts. 20 broadcasts. Begins April 19.
Good Night Owl
Monday – Friday midnight
The History of History, Fiction by Ida Hattemer-Higgins, 2011. Margaret stumbles out of a German forest remembering nothing of the previous few months. Two years later, she is summoned to a doctor’s appointment and her life is transformed. L – Read by Carolyn Light Bell. 13 broadcasts. Began April 9.
Everybody Sees the Ants, Fiction by A.S. King, 2011. In Lucky’s dreams, he has met his long-lost POW/MIA grandfather and bullies can’t make him feel that life isn’t worth living. L,S – Read by Scott Brush. 8 Br. Begins April 26.
After Midnight
Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.
Dead in the Family, Fiction by Charlaine Harris, 2010. Sookie is reeling after the Fae War and the torture by her enemies. But she is in love with vampire Eric Northman. V,L,S – Read by Kara Greshwalk. 11 Br. Began March 28.
The Kingdom, Fiction by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood, 2011. Sam and Remi Fargo accept the plea of an oil baron to help find his father. What they find is beyond what they could have imagined. Read by John Gunter. 12 broadcasts. Begins April 12.
Abbreviations: V – violence, L – offensive language, S – sexual situations
