Communication Center Books on the National Library Service BARD site
The National Library Service (NLS) online library, BARD (which stands for Braille and Audio Reading Download), is a place for patrons world-wide to search for and download braille and audio books and magazines. Until recently, only NLS professionally produced audio books were allowed on the site. This has changed. Once approved, NLS now allows affiliated libraries to post books. We have been approved and, to date, have posted over 100 books recorded by our volunteers. As of this newsletter, more than 6000 Radio Talking Book recordings have been accessed and more than one of them has made the BARD most downloaded list!
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; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing Selfish, by Albert Goldbarth; The U.S. and Us (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing Degrees of Freedom, by William D. Green.
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
The Toltec Art of Life and Death, Nonfiction by Don Miguel Ruiz and Barbara Emrys, 2015. 15 Br. Begins February 11. In 2002, Don Miguel Ruiz suffered a near-fatal heart attack leaving him in a nine-week coma. As his body lay unconscious, Ruiz dreamed about the people, ideas and events that shaped him. Read by Rachael Freed.
Past is Prologue, Monday – Friday 9 a.m
War of Attrition: Fighting the First World War, Nonfiction by William Philpott, 2014. 22 Br. Begins February 16. The Great War of 1914-1918 was the first mass conflict to fully mobilize resources of industrial powers against one another. It resulted in a brutal, bloody, protracted war of attrition among the world’s great economies. L – Read by Stevie Ray.
Bookworm, Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
We Never Asked for Wings, Fiction by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, 2015. 10 Br. Began February 3. For fourteen years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children, Alex, fifteen, and Luna, six. Now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico and Letty must become a mother for the first time.
Read by Carol Lewis.
In the Unlikely Event, Fiction by Judy Blume, 2015. 15 Br. Begins February 17. In 1987, Miri returns to her hometown to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life. Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Read by Michelle Juntunen.
The Writer’s Voice, Monday, Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
Camp Chemo, Nonfiction by Camille Scheel, 2015. 14 Br. Begins February 16. Camille Scheel began writing when she was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. After multiple surgeries, chemo, and radiation, she came to accept that the cancer isn’t going away.
Read by Carol McPherson.
Choice Reading, Monday, Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
Angels at the Gate, Fiction by T.K. Thorne, 2015. 12 Br. Began February 4.Raised as a boy in her father’s caravan, Adira rejects the changes of womanhood that threaten her nomadic life and independence. With the arrival of two mysterious Northmen, rumored to be holy men, Adira’s world unravels. Read by Carolyn Light Bell.
Succession, Fiction by Livi Michael, 2015. 12 Br. Begins February 22. Margaret of Anjou and Margaret Beaufort both have sons that they will fight for. Margaret of Anjou, married to Henry VI, is the mother of Edward, Prince of Wales. Margaret Beaufort, married to Henry’s cousin Edmund, is the mother of the future Henry VII. This is the Wars of the Roses. Read by Eileen Barratt.
PM Report, Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
Stoned, Nonfiction by David Casarett, M.D., 2015. 9 Br. Began February 4. The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in medical marijuana use, abetted by a new industry of farmers, distributors, manufacturers, and clinics. Does pot really offer the medical benefits its proponents promise? Read by John Demma.
When Globalization Fails, Nonfiction by James Macdonald, 2015. 11 Br. Begins February 17. Global commerce in goods is a mixed blessing; it makes nations wealthier, but also more vulnerable. And while economic interdependence pushes toward cooperation, the sense of economic insecurity pulls in the opposite direction. Read by Art Nyhus.
Night Journey, Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
Mycroft Holmes, Fiction by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse, 2015. 10 Br. Began February 4. Mycroft’s well-ordered existence is upended when his closest friend, Cyrus Douglas, reveals a life-and-death situation in Douglas’s native Trinidad. The two men set out on a journey to the Caribbean that will change them forever. Read by John Holden.
Tenacity, Fiction by J.S. Law, 2015. 14 Br. Begins February 18. Cramped, claustrophobic, and under strict command, the confines of HMS Tenacity are unwelcoming in the best of circumstances. For Dan, the only female aboard, interrogating a tight-knit and hostile crew, it’s her own special place in hell. V,L – Read by Neil Bright.
Off the Shelf, Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
A Good Family, Fiction by Erik Rassnacht, 2015. 18 Br. Began February 1. Henry Brunson is starting to lose himself. Successful sales executive, husband of three decades, father to two adult sons, he’s moving away from what he knows and loves. And the family is being driven apart. L – Read by Tom Speich.
The Fragile World, Fiction by Paula Treick DeBoard, 2014. 12 Br. BeginsFebruary 25. The death of a child changes families. The Kaufmans were always a happy family. Then their son, Daniel, is killed in a freak road accident and the family finds itself falling apart.
Read by Lynda Kayser.
Potpourri, Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
Fractured Land, Nonfiction by Lisa Westberg Peters, 2015. 7 Br. Began February 4. What does an environmentalist do when she realizes she will inherit mineral rights and royalties on fracked oil wells in North Dakota? How does she decide between financial security and living as a committed conservationist who wants to leave her grandchildren a healthy world?
Read by John Potts.
One Million Steps, Nonfiction by Bing West, 2014. 10 Br. Begins February 15. The fifty Marines of the 3rd Platoon fought in Sangin, the most dangerous district in Afghanistan. So heavy were the casualties the Secretary of Defense offered to pull them out. Instead, they pushed forward in search of a ghostlike enemy. V,L – Read by Scott Brush.
Lanterne Rouge, Nonfiction by Max Leonard, 2015. 10 Br. Begins February 29. We know the winners of the Tour de France, but what about those who come in last? Max Leonard reveals the forgotten, often inspirational, and occasionally absurd stories of the last-placed rider. L – Read by Mike Piscitelli.
Good Night Owl, Monday – Friday midnight
Rumble, Fiction by Ellen Hopkins, 2014. 9 Br. Began February 9. Matthew Turner doesn’t have faith in anything. So he’s decided to live large and go out with a bang. But when a horrific event plunges him into a dark place, he hears a rumble that wakes him up. L – Read by Stuart Holland.
Paris Red, Fiction by Maureen Gibbon, 2015. 7 Br. Begins February 22. In Paris, in 1862, Victorine Meurent met Édouard Manet and became his model. As his model, she explored a world of new possibilities and stirred the artist to push the boundaries of painting which scandalized even the most cosmopolitan city. L,S – Read by Isla Hejny.
After Midnight, Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.
The Pierced Heart, Fiction by Lynn Shepherd, 2014. 8 Br. Began February 4.When an Austrian nobleman offers a large donation to the University of Oxford, Charles Maddox is called on to investigate the generous donor. What he finds is a baron who is the subject of whispers and legends. L – Read by Jenny O’Brien.
The Choosing, Fiction by Rachelle Dekker, 2015. 12 Br. Begins February 16.Like all citizens since the Ruining, Carrington Hale knows the importance of this day. But she never expected the moment she’s spent a lifetime preparing for – her Choosing Ceremony – to end in disaster. Read by Patricia Muir.
Abbreviations: V – violence, L – offensive language, S – sexual situations
