Introducing your new a.m. broadcaster
On September 2, Mark Vidas retired after working for the Radio Talking Book since 1987. Mark had worked as the evening broadcaster, the program coordinator, and for the last several years, he had been the Monday through Friday morning broadcaster. Until the new a.m. broadcaster was chosen, we have been using a combination of other broadcasting staff, part-time and fill-in. On September 29, Michael LaFleur begins as your new a.m. broadcaster, moving from his position as weekend evening broadcaster. His former position will now be filled by Brad Bronk. Meanwhile, we are pleased that Mark Vidas intends to continue with the Radio Talking Book as a volunteer, so you will still be hearing his voice on some of the weekly programming.
Weekend Program Books
Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing Recover to Live, by Christopher Kennedy Lawford; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing Goblin Secrets, by William Alexander; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing This Day, by Wendell Berry and Aimless Love, by Billy Collins; The U.S. and Us (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow, by Andy Sturdevant.
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, www.mnbtbl.org, and then clicking on the link Search the Library Catalog. 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.
Audio information about the daily book listings is also on NFB Newsline. Register for NFB Newsline by calling 651-539-1424.
Chautauqua Tuesday, Tuesday – Saturday 4 a.m
Wish You Happy Forever, Nonfiction by Jenny Bowen, 2014. 9 Br. Began September 30. When Jenny Bowen saw how much her adopted daughter had blossomed since leaving her Chinese orphanage, Jenny was inspired to form Half the Sky. Through her work with Half the Sky, she has helped more than one hundred thousand children. Read by June Prange.
Sensation, Nonfiction by Thalma Lobel, 2014. 10 Br. Begins October 14. Physical experiences unconsciously affect your everyday decisions and choices with profound implications for your everyday life. The more you know about how your physical environment influences you, the better you are able to get to where you want to go. Read by Bonnie Smith-Yackel.
Paleofantasy, Nonfiction by Marlene Zuk, 2014. 12 Br. Begins October 28. Our nostalgic visions of an ideal evolutionary past in which we ate, lived, and reproduced as we were “meant to” fail to recognize that we were never perfectly suited to our environment. Evolution is about change, and every organism is full of trade-offs. Read by Marylyn Burridge.
Past is Prologue, Monday – Friday 9 a.m
Jane Austen’s England, Nonfiction by Roy Adkins and Leslie Adkins, 2013. 19 Br. Began October 7. The social hierarchies and anxieties about property and income are some of the primary areas of focus in Jane Austen’s novels. But there was much more happening there in nineteenth century England. Read by Arlan Dohrenburg.
Bookworm, Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
The Invention of Wings, Fiction by Sue Monk Kidd, 2013. 13 Br. Began September 24. When Sarah, from a rich Charleston family, turns eleven, she is given her own slave, Hetty, to be her handmaid. Hetty, also known as “Handful,” yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls of her life. Read by Sue McDonald.
The Crane Wife, Fiction by Patrick Ness, 2014. 10 Br. Begins October 13. George Duncan, owner of a small print shop, is awakened one night by a white crane that had been shot through the wing. He removes the arrow and it flies away. The next morning, a woman comes to his shop asking for help with her artwork: cuttings from what look like slices of feathers.
Read by Connie Jamison.
The Forever Girl, Fiction by Alexander McCall Smith, 2014. 11 Br. Begins October 27. Amanda and David have raised their children in the close-knit community of ex-pats on Grand Cayman Island. It can be ideal for raising children but can be claustrophobic for adults. There are myriad ways in which love shapes our lives. Read by Judith Johannessen.
The Writer’s Voice, Monday, Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
The Burglary, Nonfiction by Betty Medsger, 2014. 27 Br. Began September 8. The 1971 break-in of the FBI offices in Media, Pennsylvania, confirmed what some had long suspected: J. Edgar Hoover was operating his own shadow Bureau of Investigation. L – Read by Tom Speich.
The Second Chance Dog, Nonfiction by Jon Katz, 2013. 9 Br. Begins October 15. When Jon met Maria, the only obstacle was her dog, Frieda, a ferocious Rottweiler-shepherd mix. He realized that to win over Maria, he’d need to gain the dog’s affection, too. Read by Don Gerlach.
Mother of God, Nonfiction by Paul Rosolie, 2014. 11 Br. Begins October 28. In the Madre de Dios region of Peru, the cloud forests fall into the lowland rain forest creating the most biodiverse place on the planet. In 2006, Paul Rosolie embarked on a journey to the western Amazon that would transform his life. Read by Andrea Bell.
Choice Reading, Monday, Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
Vacationland, Fiction by Sara Stonich, 2013. 13 Br. Began September 25. In northern Minnesota at Naledi Lodge, many people cross paths, many memories exist of former days. Meg, who was there as a girl, is now an artist painting images reflected across the mirrors of memory and water. L – Read by Nancy Felknor.
Queen’s Gambit, Fiction by Elizabeth Freemantle, 2013. 15 Br. Begins October 14. Widowed for the second time, Katherine Parr falls in love with Thomas Seymour. But Henry VIII wishes to marry her. Aware of the fates of his previous wives, she becomes his sixth queen. Read by Eileen Barratt.
PM Report, Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
This Town, Nonfiction by Mark Leibovich, 2013. 13 Br. Began October 2. Washington might be loathed, yet these are fun and busy days at the nexus of big politics, big money, big media, and big vanity. There are no Democrats and Republicans anymore in the nation’s capital, just millionaires. Read by John Demma.
Bosnia’s Million Bones, Nonfiction by Christian Jennings, 2013. 9 Br. Begins October 21. Identifying the remains of victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre was dubbed “the world’s greatest forensic puzzle.” In 2000, one DNA laboratory run by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Sarajevo set about cracking the code to this puzzle. Since then, this technology has also help Libya, Iraq, Chile, and others to identify their missing persons. V,L – Read by John Potts.
Night Journey, Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
Destroyer Angel, Fiction by Nevada Barr, 2014. 12 Br. Began September 29. On vacation, Anna Pigeon is in Upper Michigan with friends. As she nears camp after a solo canoe ride on their second day, she hears voices – and they aren’t her friends’ voices. L – Read by Isla Hejny.
You Disappear, Fiction by Christian Jungersen, 2014. 13 Br. Begins October 15. Mia’s husband, Frederik, is the headmaster of a private school who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor that is changing his personality. When millions of crowns are missing at the school, he is the obvious culprit. With his new personality, he doesn’t seem to care. L,S – Read by Myrna Smith.
Off the Shelf, Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
The Secret of Magic, Fiction by Deborah Johnson, 2014. 13 Br. Began October 1. Regina Robichard is a young lawyer working for Thurgood Marshall. She is going down South to solve the murder of Joe Howard Wilson, an African American World War II hero. L – Read by John Marsicano.
Alena, Fiction by Rachel Pastan, 2014. 12 Br. Begins October 20. A young curator is offered a job by the founder of a cutting-edge art museum. The deceased chief curator had been his childhood friend and muse. The young curator quickly finds herself out of her depth. L – Read by Nikki LaLiberte.
Potpourri, Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
The Family, Nonfiction by David Laskin, 2014. 14 Br. Began September 23. A century and a half ago, a Torah scribe and his wife raised their children at the edge of the Russian empire, expecting them to carry family traditions into future generations. L – Read by Chris Colestock.
Priscilla, Nonfiction by Nicholas Shakespeare, 2014. 15 Br. Begins October 13. The aunt Nicholas remembered was very different from the morally ambiguous woman who emerged from a trove of documents he discovered. L,S – Read by Natasha DeVoe
Good Night Owl, Monday – Friday midnight
Carthage, Fiction by Joyce Carol Oates, 2014. 21 Br. Began September 15. Zeno Mayfield’s daughter has disappeared into the wilds of the Adirondacks. When the community of Carthage joins in its search for her, they discover an unlikely suspect, a decorated veteran with close ties to the Mayfield family. L – Read by Rachael Freed.
The Days of Anna Madrigal, Fiction by Armistead Maupin, 2014. 9 Br. Begins October 14. Anna Madrigal has constructed a family of supporters dating from years ago when she was a landlady at 28 Barbary Lane in San Francisco. Now she wants to attend to unfinished business from her youth. L,S – Read by Mike Piscitelli.
2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas, Fiction by Marie-Helene Bertino, 2014. 7 Br. Begins October 27. It is the eve of Christmas Eve. After facing down mean-spirited classmates and rejection at school, nine-year-old Madeleine is determined to make her onstage debut as a jazz singer. L,S –
Read by Sue McDonald.
After Midnight, Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.
The Pagan Lord, Fiction by Bernard Cornwell, 2014. 13 Br. Began September 26. At the beginning of the tenth century, Edward is king of Wessex and it survives for the time. But Cnut Longsword and his Vikings are ready to invade. Eventually each Saxon kingdom will be drawn into bloody battle with the Danes. V,L – Read by John Mandeville.
Some Quiet Place, Fiction by Kelsey Sutton, 2013. 11 Br. Begins October 15. Elizabeth doesn’t feel emotions – she sees them in human form. But all the emotions have given up on her except Fear, who torments her or plays her compassionate savior. Read by Cintra Godfrey.
Evening Stars, Fiction by Susan Mallery, 2014. 10 Br. Begins October 30. Nina made a career out of being a caretaker. Now Nina realizes the control she once had is slipping through her fingers. Read by Janelle Mattson.
Abbreviations: V – violence, L – offensive language, S – sexual situations
