Podcasts
Programming for the Radio Talking Book includes material for people across a wide spectrum of life activities. Some served by State Services for the Blind are people who are looking for employment; and some of the programming on the Radio Talking Book is designed for our customers who are working and those who are looking for work. To better suit the needs of those people, the Radio Talking Book is now making podcasts of some of the articles that appear on the program Career Corner, and those podcasts will be on the website for State Services for the Blind, in the area entitled Employment and Career Services. You can access that site at http://mn.gov/deed/job-seekers/blind-visual-impaired/employment/.
Weekend Program Books
Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing Secrets and Lies, by Jane Isay; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing When You Wish upon a Rat, by Maureen McCarthy, and Travels with Louis, by Mick Carlon; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing Paragon Park, by Mark Doty; The U.S. and Us (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down, by Rachael Hanel, and Vikings Across the Atlantic, by Daron W. Olson.
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
Soil and Sacrament, Nonfiction by Fred Bahnson, 2013. 12 Br. Began June 4. After divinity school at Duke, Bahnson began to find answers not in a pulpit, but at the handle of a plow. Through his journeys to four different faith communities, Bahnson explores the connections between spiritual nourishment and the way we feed our bodies. Read by Sally Browne.
Empty Hands, Open Arms, Nonfiction by Deni Bechard, 2013. 13 Br. Begins June 20. We are all familiar with the challenges of the environment: global warming, overpopulation, accelerating extinction of species, pollution of our own habitat. But one NGO has provided a positive model for postcolonial conservation: the Bonobo Conservation Initiative. Read by Leila Poullada.
Past is Prologue, Monday – Friday 9 a.m
The New York Times: Disunion, Nonfiction edited by Ted Widmer, 2013. 25 Br. Begins June 9. Historian Ted Widmer has selected items written by scholars, journalists, historians, and Civil War buffs – originally appearing in a New York Times blog on the topic. They add considerably to our national discourse on the war. Read by Nancy Bader.
Bookworm Monday, Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
The Lavender Garden, Fiction by Lucinda Riley, 2013. 16 Br. Begins June 10. Emilie inherits the family chateau along with massive debt, and has many questions about her family. Much of the mystery goes back to 1944 when the family was both entertaining German elite and plotting the liberation. S – Read by Sue McDonald.
The Writer’s Voice, Monday, Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
Dancing with the Enemy, Nonfiction by Paul Glaser, 2013. 9 Br. Began June 3. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Paul was shocked to learn of his father’s Jewish heritage. He set out to discover what had happened to his family during World War II and caused the rift between his father and aunt. Read by Don Lee.
Cathedral of the Wild, Nonfiction by Boyd Varty, 2014. 10 Br. Begins June 15. Boyd grew up on Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa where perils exist alongside wonders. He survived many dangers but his biggest challenge was a personal crisis of purpose. Read by Chris Colestock.
To Stir a Movement, Nonfiction by Jeremy Affeldt, 2013. 5 Br. Begins June 30. Jeremy’s life was turned around by his religion. He now plays baseball not just for himself but for the world of the orphan, the widow, the exploited. Read by Denny Laufenberger.
Choice Reading, Monday, Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
The Daring Ladies of Lowell, Fiction by Kate Alcott, 2014. 9 Br. Began June 3. To escape her farm life, Alice Barrow moves to Lowell in 1832 and becomes a “mill girl.” But work conditions become dangerous and she becomes a spokesperson for the workers. In the process, she also becomes attracted to the mill owner’s son. Read by Michele Potts.
Chasing the Moon, Fiction by Carolyn K. Boehlke, 2012. 11 Br. Begins June 16. The only one of her family not caught by the Border Patrol, Nadia makes her way across the country to Minneapolis. Now working as a laundry girl at a downtown hotel, she is torn between going back to family and trying to live her parents’ dream of a better life. Read by Kathy Stults.
PM Report, Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
Smart Cities, Nonfiction by Anthony Townsend, 2013. 14 Br. Began May 27. Today, more people live in cities than in the countryside; mobile broadband connections outnumber fixed ones, and machines outnumber people. But in this era of mass urbanization and technological ubiquity, what happens when computers take over the city? Read by Chris Colestock.
American Tapestry, Nonfiction by Rachel L. Swarns, 2013. 13 Br. Begins June 16. Michelle Obama’s family saga is a remarkable, quintessentially American story – from slavery to the White House in five generations. Rachel Swarns traces that tale uncovering details about Mrs. Obama’s forebearers that even the First Lady didn’t know. Read by Jan Anderson.
Night Journey, Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
A Fatal Likeness, Fiction by Lynn Shepherd, 2013. 14 Br. Began June 3. Investigator Charles Maddox is summoned to the home of the son of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Shelleys have been approached by a stranger offering to sell rare papers alleged to be those of the late poet; they wish to know if they are authentic. Read by Myrna Smith.
What We Saw at Night, Fiction by Jacquelyn Mitchard, 2013. 6 Br. Begins June 23. Because of her allergy to sunlight, Allie lives at night. Her sport is scaling and leaping off tall buildings, which makes her feel alive. But while doing this, she and her friends see what looks to be a murder. Read by Jennie O’Brien.
Off the Shelf, Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
The Aftermath, Fiction by Rhidian Brook, 2013. 12 Br. Began June 2. Overlooking Hamburg’s denazification, Colonel Lewis Morgan could force the German widower and his daughter onto the streets. Instead, he decides he, his wife, and son will cohabit with them. Read by Bob Malos.
Courting Greta, Fiction by Ramsey Hootman, 2013. 13 Br. Begins June 18. Samuel Cooke, prickly computer genius who left his high-paying job to teach programming to high schoolers, is asking out Greta Cassamajor, the tough gym coach that no one dares mock. Samuel doesn’t believe in love and only asks her out to prove that he’s got the guts to do it. But she accepts, which terrifies him. L – Read by Kristi Sullivan.
Potpourri, Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
Gun Guys, Nonfiction by Dan Baum, 2013. 14 Br. Began June 4. Lifelong gun guy, Dan Baum takes us on a guided tour of gun stores and gun shows, shooting ranges and festivals, contests and auctions trying to figure out what draws so many to guns. It is a journey through armed America. L – Read by John Gunter.
Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, Nonfiction by David Sedaris, 2013. 7 Br. Begins June 24. Sedaris’s essays are always turned into a love story of sorts: how it feels to be in a relationship where one loves and is loved over many years, what it means to be part of a family, and how it’s possible to grow to love oneself. L – Read by Mike Piscitelli.
Good Night Owl, Monday – Friday midnight
Nostalgia, Fiction by Dennis McFarland, 2013. 15 Br. Began May 26. In the winter of 1864, Summerfield Hayes enlists in the Union army, leaving his sister at home in Brooklyn. In the midst of a battle, he is deserted by his comrades and struggles to regain his voice, his identity, and place in the world. V,L – Read by John Mandeville.
TransAtlantic, Fiction by Colum McCann, 2013. 10 Br. Begins June 16. Women in one family are caught up in the swells of history – Frederick Douglass visiting Dublin to get support for the abolitionist cause; aviators Alcock and Brown attempting the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic; and Senator Mitchell attempting peace talks in Northern Ireland. L – Read by Esmé Evans.
The Tulip Eaters, Fiction by Antoinette van Heugten, 2013. 10 Br. Begins June 30. Nora de Jong returns from work to find her mother murdered, her infant daughter missing, and an unknown dead man on the living room floor. Piecing together clues from a family diary, she realizes the events may stem from her family’s history during World War II. L – Read by Judy Woodward.
After Midnight, Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.
Freud’s Mistress, Fiction by Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman, 2013. 12 Br. Begins June 6. The sister of Freud’s wife, Minna, was fascinated by his discoveries, while her sister, Martha, was shocked and repulsed. At first, Minna and Sigmund had a meeting of the minds but something deeper was brewing. Read by Audray Rees.
Rocket City, Fiction by Cathryn Alpert, 2012. 15 Br. Begins June 24. Marilee journeys to New Mexico to surprise her fiancé, Larry, who has taken a job on the Alamogordo Air Force Base to gain, in a Zen experiment, an understanding of peace. L,S – Read by Laura Rohlik.
Abbreviations: V – violence, L – offensive language, S – sexual situations
