Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD)
BARD, the National Library Service (NLS) book download site, now has more than 20,000 audio titles and 40 magazines. NLS plans to add braille titles in 2011. To sign up for BARD, the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library (MBTLB) requires you to have high-speed internet connection, an e-mail address, and the ability to navigate the Web, complete forms online, download and unzip files, and transfer files to an external memory device. Register for BARD online at the MBTLB BARD Website. Questions? Call the library at 1-800-722-0550.
Listening to CC Recordings on Digital Players
You can use your NLS digital player to listen to audio recordings produced at the Communication Center. Simply copy the CD to a computer and then copy those files to a thumb or USB flash drive. Place the flash drive into the side of the NLS digital players and listen to the recordings. Many thumb or USB flash drives are compatible with the NLS players. You can also copy the files onto a cartridge for the NLS digital players if you have one. Are you a Victor Stream user? You can easily copy Communication Center audio CDs to the Victor Stream. To learn more, call Audio Services at 1-800-652-9000.
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 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 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 books 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 Invisible Gorilla, Nonfiction by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, 2010. Our minds don’t work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves and the world as they really are, but we’re actually missing a whole lot. Chabris and Simons reveal how faulty intuitions often get us into trouble. Read by June Prange. 10 Br. Begins January 4.
Common as Air, Nonfiction by Lewis Hyde, 2010. Suspicious of the current idea that all creative work is intellectual property, Hyde turned to the founding fathers in search of ways to value the fruits of human wit and imagination. He discovered a rich tradition in which knowledge was assumed to be a commonwealth. Read by Marylyn Burridge. 11 broadcasts. Begins January 18.
Past is Prologue
Monday – Friday, 9 a.m.
The Bonfire, Nonfiction by Marc Wortman, 2009. The struggle for Atlanta culminated in a series of brutal battles to encircle and besiege the city. Both the North and the South followed the vicious fighting every step of the way. V,L – Read by Chris Colestock. 16 broadcasts. Begins January 3.
A Brave Vessel, Nonfiction by Hobson Woodward, 2009. When William Strachey set out in the Sea Venture in 1609, he was leading a fleet of nine to re-provision and strengthen Jamestown. But a hurricane separated them from the fleet and they spent a year on Bermuda. Read by Judith Johannessen. 9 broadcasts. Begins January 25.
Bookworm
Monday – Friday, 11 a.m.
Running before the Prairie Wind, Fiction by Anne Ipsen, 2009. Karen and Peter Larsen deal with suppressed memories in their new lives on the prairie. When tragedy at a neighboring farm brings back ghosts from the past, the help of newfound friends helps overcome lingering guilt. Read by Connie Jamison. 11 broadcasts. Begins January 3.
The Fortunate Ones, Fiction by Frederick W. Noesner, 2010. Amateur historian Frederick W. Noesner imagines life as a blind person living in Philadelphia in the 18th century. Andrew Annaler worked as an armorer until a gunpowder accident left him blinded. Read by Scott Ford. 9 broadcasts. Begins January 18.
Union Atlantic, Fiction by Adam Haslett, 2010. Banker Doug Fanning has built a mansion on land Charlotte Graves’ grandfather donated to the town. She has vowed to oust him. Doug is senior manager of Union Atlantic; Charlotte’s brother is president of the New York Federal Reserve. Read by Peter Danbury. 10 Br. Begins January 31.
Writer’s Voice
Monday – Friday, 2 p.m.
Sophia Tolstoy, Nonfiction by Alexandra Popoff, 2010. As Leo Tolstoy’s wife, Sophia experienced both glory and condemnation during their long marriage. She was admired as his muse and literary assistant. But in Tolstoy’s later years when he founded a new religion, she was scorned for her disagreements with him. Read by Esmé Evans. 13 broadcasts. Begins January 3.
Spoken from the Heart, Nonfiction by Laura Bush, 2010. Born in the boom-and-bust oil town of Midland, Texas, Laura Welch grew up as an only child. When she left West Texas in 1964, she never imagined that her journey would lead her to the world stage and the White House. Read by Natasha DeVoe. 17 broadcasts. Begins January 20.
Choice Reading
Monday – Friday, 4 p.m.
Bloodroot, Fiction by Amy Greene, 2010. Myra Lamb grew up with a gift from her grandmother: the “touch” that could bewitch people or animals. Bloodroot Mountain, where she lives, is a beautiful but unforgiving country. Lives come together only to be torn apart. Read by Ann Hoedeman. 12 broadcasts. Begins January 3.
That Old Cape Magic, Fiction by Richard Russo, 2009. Thirty years before, Griffin and his wife Joy drafted a plan for their lives. Over the course of a year, as he is immersed in images of his past, Griffin learns that it’s not always good to get what you ask for. L – Read by John Ward. 11 broadcasts. Begins January 19.
PM Report
Monday – Friday, 8 p.m.
Horse Soldiers, Nonfiction by Doug Stanton, 2009. Following 9/11, a small band of Special Forces soldiers secretly entered Afghanistan to battle the Taliban. Hailed as liberators, they were then ambushed and ended up fighting for their lives in a medieval fortress. L – Read by Del Adamson. 14 broadcasts. Began December 21.
Enough, Nonfiction by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman, 2009. More than natural disaster or legacy of war that produces famine, it is the result of bad policies across the political spectrum that allows 25,000 people a day to die of hunger and malnutrition. Read by Ilze Mueller. 14 broadcasts. Begins January 11.
Googled, Nonfiction by Ken Auletta, 2009. Only eleven years old, Google has transformed the way we live and work, changing how we access information and disrupting the way entire industries operate. L – Read by Lannois Neely. 16 broadcasts. Begins January 31.
Night Journey
Monday – Friday, 9 p.m.
The Fleet Street Murders, Fiction by Charles Finch, 2009. It is 1866. Amateur sleuth Charles Lenox is celebrating Christmas, his engagement, and a run for Parliament when he hears of the death of two journalists. Read by Charles Torrey. 10 broadcasts. Began December 27.
The Red Door, Fiction by Charles Todd, 2009. Inspector Ian Rutledge must solve two mysteries before he can bring a killer to justice. One is an unexplained death of a woman waiting for her husband; the other of a man’s disappearance that turns his family against each other. Read by Bonita Sindelir. 12 broadcasts. Begins January 10.
Woman with Birthmark, Fiction by Håkan Nesser, 2009. A mother’s dying wish becomes a deadly promise of revenge by the daughter. The murder that follows leaves the Inspector bewildered because of the dullness of the victim. L – Read by Judy Woodward. 8 broadcasts. Begins January 26.
Off the Shelf
Monday – Friday, 10 p.m.
36 Arguments for the Existence of God, Fiction by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, 2010. Cass is a celebrity atheist. But each new encounter with significant people reinforces his theory that religious impulse spills over into life at large. L – Read by Maria Rubinstein. 13 Br. Begins December 21.
Rough Country, Fiction by John Sandford, 2009. While at a fishing tournament, Virgil Flowers is asked to investigate a murder at a nearby women’s resort. He finds connections there that make the arrows of suspicion point in many directions. L – Read by Dan Kuechenmeister. 11 Br. Begins January 10.
Elegies for the Brokenhearted, Fiction by Christie Hodgen, 2010. There are five people Mary Murphy will never forget. In five elegies to lost friends and relatives, Mary tells us the story of her life. By the time she leaves for college, she has no one to write home to. L – Read by Pat Lelich. 9 broadcasts. Begins January 25.
Potpourri
Monday – Friday, 11 p.m.
Getting Ghost, Fiction by Luke Bergmann, 2010. Luke Bergmann returned to Detroit to study the incarceration of inner-city youth. He became more than an observer, intervening with a probation officer and being another’s contact when he fled the city. V,L,S – Read by Dan Sadoff. 13 Br. Began December 29.
Surviving the Dragon, Nonfiction by Arjia Rinpoche, 2010. Ordained as a reincarnate lama at age two, Arjia Rinpoche fled Tibet 46 years later. Between those times, his fortunes ebbed and flowed with Chinese politics. Read by Stuart Holland. 11 Br. Begins January 17.
Good Night Owl
Monday – Friday, Midnight
A Week in December, Fiction by Sebastian Faulks, 2010. Sebastian Faulks follows seven diverse people over seven days, including a Tube train driver whose train joins these lives together. L – Read by Jim Gregorich. 14 broadcasts. Began December 20.
The Lock Artist, Fiction by Steve Hamilton, 2010. Traumatized at age eight, eighteen-year-old Michael hasn’t uttered a word in ten years. But there is something he does better than anyone else: open locks. It’s a talent that is popular with the wrong people. L – Read by Dave Schliep. 13 Br. Begins January 10.
If the Dead Rise Not, Fiction by Philip Kerr, 2010. Bernie Gunther is a detective in 1934 Berlin caught between warring factions of the Nazi apparatus. Then twenty years later, he is in Havana where a vicious killer from his Berlin days shows up – then gets murdered. V,L,S – Read by Don Lee. 17 broadcasts. Begins January 27.
After Midnight
Tuesday– Saturday, 1 a.m.
Angelology, Fiction by Danielle Trussoni, 2010. Sister Evangeline was a girl when she came to live with the Franciscan Sisters. Now 23, her discovery of secret letters plunges her into an ancient history, a conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim. Read by Isla Hejny. 22 broadcasts. Begins January 4.
