ACB Convention in Minneapolis
Over 1,000 people attended the National ACB Convention in Minneapolis, held the week of July 4. SSB staff attended and gave a warm welcome on July 4. The SSB booth included braille and large print copies of Minnesota themed recipes and fun facts about Minnesota, as well as SSB tote-bags. Our partner, BlindAbilities, also had a booth and conducted interviews that they have posted as podcasts. Convention tours included a Mississippi riverboat cruise, hot air balloon rides, a Twins game, and the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting at which six of our volunteers have made their Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame. More information about their convention can be found here.
Weekend Program Books
Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing Wake Up Happy, by Michael Strahan; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing Lies Beneath, by Anne Greenwood Brown; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing Turning into Dwelling, by Christopher Gilbert, and May Day, by Gretchen Marquette; The Great North (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing Portage, by Sue Leaf.
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
Adventures in Human Being, Nonfiction by Gavin Francis, 2015. 9 Br. Begins August 10. We assume we know our bodies intimately, but for many of us, they remain uncharted territory. Gavin Francis leads us on a journey to demystify the human body. Read by Yelva Lynfield.
The Art of the Con, Nonfiction by Anthony M. Amore, 2015. 10 Br. Begins August 23. Art scams are so common today that many experts are shying away from the business of authentication. The cons by unscrupulous art dealers are becoming more elaborate. Read by Myrna Smith.
Past is Prologue, Monday – Friday 9 a.m
Eisenhower’s Armies, Nonfiction by Niall Barr, 2015. 21 Br. Begins July 26. Constant tensions and disagreements threatened the Anglo-American relationship during the Second World War. Two very different armies had to learn to live, work, and fight together even in the face of those disagreements. Read by John Potts.
The Witches, Nonfiction by Stacy Schiff, 2015. 21 Br. Begins August 24. The Salem witch trials represent one of the few moments when women played the central role in American history. It began in the midst of a raw winter and ended less than a year later, but not before twenty people had been killed. Read by Rachael Freed.
Bookworm, Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
The Annele Trilogy, Fiction by Anna Brigadere, 2014. 38 Br. Began July 4. Annele lived Latvia when it was a province of czarist Russia in the 1860s and ’70s. The lack of land forced many farmers to seek work in cities. Read by Ilze Klavina Mueller.
Maybe in Another Life, Fiction by Taylor Jenkins Reid, 2015. 10 Br. Begins August 25. After a breakup, Hannah moves to her hometown. To celebrate her first night back, her best friend, Gabby, takes her out to a bar where she sees her old boyfriend. Read by Joan Sanaker.
The Writer’s Voice, Monday, Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
For the Glory, Nonfiction by Duncan Hamilton, 2016. 13 Br. Began August 1. Olympic gold medalist Eric Liddell was mocked for his faith. But in a war camp, he did what he was born to do: practice his faith and his sport. Read by Jim Gregorich.
The Washingtons, Nonfiction by Flora Fraser, 2015. 17 Br. Begins August 18. The Washingtons’ long union began in calm, survived the hardships of war and the presidency, and ended in retirement at Mount Vernon. Read by John Holden
Choice Reading, Monday, Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
The Rabbit Back Literature Society, Fiction by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, 2015. 10 Br. Began August 3. Children’s author Laura White invited only nine people to join her Literature Society. Now a tenth member has been selected. But the Society is not what it seems. Read by Licia Swanson.
Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule, Fiction by Jennifer Chiaverini, 2015. 16 Br. Begins August 17. When Julia Dent met and married Ulysses S. Grant, she kept the slave woman who had been her companion. When Julia’s eyesight failed, Jule became her mistress’s eyes. Read by Michele Potts.
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PM Report, Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
Showdown, Nonfiction by Wil Haygood, 2015. 11 Br. Began July 25. As the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall changed the racial politics of our nation. His was one of the most transformative legal minds of the past one hundred years. Read by Art Nyhus.
The Senator Next Door, Nonfiction by Amy Klobuchar, 2015. 12 Br. Begins August 15. MN Senator Amy Klobuchar has tackled every obstacle with honesty, humor, and pluck. She believes in forging alliances with unlikely partners to solve the nation’s problems. Read by Diane Ladenson.
The Way of the Gun, Nonfiction by Iain Overton, 2016. 13 Br. Begins August 31. More than 4.5 million Americans became victims of gun crime between 2004 and 2013. With the highest global rate of gun ownership, imports, and exports, America is the focus of a growing gun debate. V,L – Read by Chris Colestock.
Night Journey, Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
One Man’s Flag, Fiction by David Downing, 2015. 13 Br. Began July 25. In 1915, Jack McColl is stationed in India, while McColl’s ex-lover, Caitlin Hanley, is in England rebuilding her life after her IRA sympathizer brother’s execution. L – Read by John Gunter.
The Darkness Hunter, Fiction by Christopher Valen, 2015. 12 Br. Begins August 11. St. Paul Homicide Detective John Santana is given a cold case involving the murder of an environmental engineer. As he investigates, he sees connections to another case, the murder of a young Native American woman. L – Read by Neil Bright.
A Death in the Family, Fiction by Michael Stanley, 2015. 10 Br. Begins August 29. Faced with the violent death of his father, Assistant Superintendent David “Kubu” Bengu, is baffled. Who would kill such a frail old man? V,L – Read by Joe Sadowski.
Off the Shelf, Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
The Kaminsky Cure, Fiction by Christopher New, 2016. 14 Br. Began August 9. The narrator’s family is half-Jewish; his mother, Gabi was born Jewish but converted to Christianity in her teens. The father, Willibald, is a Lutheran minister who, while a proud Aryan, is the conflicted father of half-Jewish children. Read by Dan Sadoff.
Under the Influence, Fiction by Joyce Maynard, 2016. 10 Br. Begins August 29. Recovering from addiction and the struggle of not having custody of her son, Helen falls under the influence of Ava and Swift Havilland, wealthy philanthropists. Then she meets Elliott, who is kind, quiet, and not impressed with Helen’s friends. Read by Holly Sylvester.
Potpourri, Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
Cast of Characters, Nonfiction by Thomas Vinciguerra, 2015. 16 Br. Began August 3. From its birth in 1925 to the early days of the Cold War, The New Yorker slowly but surely took hold as the country’s most prestigious, entertaining, and informative general interest periodical. Read by Jeffrey Weihe.
Big Freedia, Nonfiction by Big Freedia and Nicole Balin, 2015. 7 Br. Begins August 25. Freedia grew up in one of the worst neighborhoods in New Orleans, experiencing the loss of loved ones to street violence and jail, and the unimaginable days spent living on her roof after Hurricane Katrina. But Bounce music put her on the map. L,S,RE – Read by Peter Danbury.
Good Night Owl, Monday – Friday midnight
Shame and the Captives, Fiction by Thomas Keneally, 2015. 15 Br. Began July 25. Alice lives on her father-in-law’s Australian farm while her husband is held prisoner in Europe. When Giancarlo, an Italian prisoner-of-war, is assigned to work on the farm, she hopes that being kind to him will influence her husband’s treatment. Read by Michael Piscitelli.
All the Winters After, Fiction by Seré Prince Halverson, 2016. 11 Br. Begins August 15. After his parents and brother were killed in a plane crash, Kache fled Alaska for good. But now his aunt insists on his return. Kache is sure his cabin has decayed into a pile of logs but finds smoke rising from the chimney, and a Russian woman hiding from her own past. Read by Anne Obst.
Tightrope, Fiction by Simon Mawer, 2015. 14 Br. Begins August 30. When special agent Marian Sutro is released from the Nazi concentration camp and returned to England, she struggles to find grounding for her life. Everything has changed. Then she finds a way to make amends for the past and find a new identity. Read by Tom Speich
After Midnight, Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.
Metrophage, Fiction by Richard Kadrey, 2014. 11 Br. Begins August 10. In a future L.A., divided into haves and have-nots, morality is dead and technology rules. Jonny is a streetwise hustler dealing drugs on the black market and looking out for nobody but himself. Until a terrifying plague sweeps the city wreaking death and panic. V,L,S – Read by Peter Danbury.
Station Eleven, Fiction by Emily St. John Mandel, 2014. 13 Br. Begins August 25. It all began when the actor Arthur Leander had a heart attack while playing Lear. When a latter group of actors tours the region, risking all for art and humanity, the actress Kirsten has tattooed on her arm “Because survival is insufficient.” L – Read by Nikki LaLiberte.
Abbreviations: V – violence, L – offensive language, S – sexual situations
