Our weekend books
The Radio Talking Book has always had some books that air only on the weekend. They fit different genres, and the Sunday afternoon at 4 book should always be interesting to Minnesotans. This month, it is Tony Oliva: The Life and Times of a Minnesota Twins Legend. In the 1960s, Tony Oliva, Cuban by birth, played with the Twins all the way to the World Series, and then, with repaired knuckle and knee, into one of the most dramatic pennant races in baseball history in 1967. We hope you enjoy the book.
Weekend Program Books
Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing Super Better, by Jane McGonigal; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing Will in Scarlet, by Matthew Cody, and Playing with Fire: School for S.P.I.E.S., by Bruce Hale ; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing Empty Chairs, by Xia Liu, and black cat bone, by John Burnside; The U.S. and Us (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing Degrees of Freedom, by William D. Green, and Tony Oliva, by Thom Henninger
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
Sapiens, Nonfiction by Yuval Noah Harari, 2015. 19 Br. Begins April 13. One hundred thousand years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth but only one survived: Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Read by Lannois Neely.
Past is Prologue, Monday – Friday 9 a.m
Eye on the Struggle, Nonfiction by James McGrath Morris, 2015. 15 Br. Begins April 12. The journalist Ethel Payne was an instrument of change for African Americans. Her reporting on the civil rights battles of the 1950s and ‘60s enlightened and activated black readers across the nation. Read by Andrea Bell.
Bookworm, Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
A Place We Knew Well, Fiction by Susan Carol McCarthy, 2015. 10 Br. Begins April 11. Wes Avery had been an Air Force tail-gunner but he is now living the American Dream as loving father and husband, plus owner of a successful Texaco station on Florida’s busiest highway. But as the panic over the Cuban Missile Crisis rises, a long-buried secret threatens to push the Averys over the edge. Read by Lynda Kayser.
River of Painted Birds, Fiction by Tessa Bridal, 2015. 10 Br. Begins April 25. Married at fifteen, Isabel Keating accidentally kills her abusive husband and is forced to flee 18th century Ireland disguised as a man. She boards the Bonaventure, a ship bound for America, only to discover she is not on her way north to Boston, as intended, but south to Uruguay in the Spanish colonies. She joins forces with the ship’s owner and an unconventional priest, making choices that will affect not only their own lives, but the future of Uruguay. Read by Ann Hoedeman
The Writer’s Voice, Monday, Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
Romantic Outlaws, Nonfiction by Charlotte Gordon, 2015. 21 Br. Began April 6. Less than two weeks after giving birth to her daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft died. The daughter she never knew became Mary Shelley. Both women led an audacious path fighting against the injustices women faced and wrote books that changed literary history. Read by Esmé Evans.
Choice Reading, Monday, Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
The King, Fiction by Kader Abdolah, 2014. 14 Br. Begins April 13. The young Shah Naser succeeds to the throne of Persia at a turning point and he feels trapped. He inherits a palace of harems, treasures, secret doors, sudden deaths, and hidden agendas. Outside, all manner of change threatens: industrialization, colonization, and democratic ideals. Read by Dan Sadoff.
Sweet Forgiveness, Fiction by Lori Nelson Spielman, 2015. 12 Br. Begins March 28. The Forgiveness Stones craze is sweeping the nation – a pouch of stones that come with a chain letter and two requests: to forgive and then seek forgiveness. But talk show host, Hannah Farr has privately kept her pouch for two years. L – Read by Judith Johannessen.
PM Report, Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War, Nonfiction by Susan Southard, 2015. 15 Br. Begins April 11. When the bombs fell in Nagasaki, much of the world saw it as the end of a long and costly war. But for tens of thousands of survivors, their new lives as hibakusha (atomic bomb-affected people) had just begun. V – Read by Pat Muir.
Night Journey, Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
Pretty Baby, Fiction by Mary Kubica, 2015. 13 Br. Begins April 13. Heidi has always been a charitable woman. When she brings home Willow and her infant, it horrifies her daughter and husband. But in spite of family objections, Heidi invites Willow and her baby to take refuge in their home. But clues about Willow’s past begin to surface. Willow may be more than she seems. V,L – Read by Nancy Felknor.
Off the Shelf, Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
A Woman Loved, Fiction by Andreï Makine, 2015. 11 Br. Begins April 11. Oleg Erdmann spends decades writing and researching the life of Catherine the Great. Meanwhile, Russia, as he knows it, changes and then ceases to exist. V,L,S – Read by John Mandeville.
Esther, Fiction by Rebecca Kanner, 2015. 14 Br. Begins April 26. When the king’s most trusted adviser promises to pour vast wealth into the treasury if the king allows him to wipe out the Jews, it is up to the queen to stop him. She must violate the king’s law, risk her life, and save her people. Read by Rachael Freed.
Potpourri, Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
The Brain’s Way of Healing, Nonfiction by Norman Doidge, M.D., 2015. 18 Br. Began April 4. For centuries, it was believed that the brain was unable to recover abilities lost to damage or disease. We now know the brain is highly dynamic and able to heal. Read by Stevie Ray.
Phenomenal, Nonfiction by Leigh Ann Henion, 2015. 9 Br. Begins April 28. Convinced that the greatest key to happiness lies in periodically venturing into the wider world beyond home, Henion set out on a global trek to rekindle her sense of wonder. Read by June Prange.
Good Night Owl, Monday – Friday midnight
A Strangeness in My Mind, Fiction by Orhan Pamuk, 2015. 23 Br. Began April 4. Since his boyhood in Central Anatolia, Mevlut Karatas has fantasized about what his life would become. At twelve, he comes to Istanbul and is enthralled by the city. He follows his father’s trade, selling boza and hoping to become rich. Read by Don Lee.
After Midnight, Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.
The Turnip Princess, Fiction by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth, 2015. 7 Br. Began April 8. In the 1850s, Franz Xaver von Schönwerth traversed northern Bavaria recording fairy tales. Most of his work was lost until a few years ago when thirty boxes of manuscripts were found in a German municipal archive. Read by Myrna Smith.
Karen Memory, Fiction by Elizabeth Bear, 2015. 13 Br. Begins April 19. Karen Memery may be orphaned, but she is making the best of her life by working in a high class bordello, the Hotel Mon Cherie. She never thought she’d be helping out a lawman chasing a killer. L,S,RE –
Abbreviations: V – violence, L – offensive language, S – sexual situations
