Radio Talking Book Manager Shares Information About Training

As most of our listeners know training is available for people whose vision is failing them. Whether it’s learning braille, cane travel, or organizing your kitchen, adjusting to blindness doesn’t have to be a solitary endeavor. Manager Stuart Holland recently had a taste of that training but not because he is losing his vision. He did it so he could have a clearer understanding of adaptation techniques and the skills of blindness. Holland reports, “My favorite activity was learning braille. I think it’s because it’s similar to learning a secret code which is something I always loved as a child.” The least favorite? “Probably crossing a busy intersection wearing a sleep-shade and using a white cane as my guide. But I understand many blind people count that as their least favorite challenge as well.” We’re glad that Stuart is back at SSB, working with our volunteers and guiding the Radio Talking Book.

 

Weekend Program Books

Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing Down Size, by Ted Spiker; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing The Eye of Minds, by James Dashner; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing Gabriel, by Edward Hirsch and Blue Horses, by Mary Oliver; The U.S. and Us (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing Minneapolis Madams, by Penny A. Petersen and Stolen from the Garden, by William Swanson.  

 

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 Republic of Imagination, Nonfiction by Azar Nafisi, 2014. 13 Br. Begins June 9. At a time of narrowing expectations of what students should be taught, Nafisi urges us to rediscover the America of our literature. Read by Rachael Freed.

How We Got to Now, Nonfiction by Steven Johnson, 2014. 9 Br. Begins June 26. Innovations over the centuries included six key technologies of modern life. Coming from their creation by hobbyists, amateurs, and entrepreneurs, they had unintended historical consequences. Read by Yelva Lynfield.

 

Past is Prologue, Monday –  Friday 9 a.m

The Secret History of Wonder Woman, Nonfiction by Jill Lepore, 2014. 11 Br. Begins June 8. The origin of one of the most iconic superheroes contains a family story and crucial history of twentieth-century feminism. Wonder Woman’s creator was William Moulton Marston, who was influenced by early suffragists and feminists. Read by Judy Woodward.

Chaucer’s Tale, Nonfiction by Paul Strohm, 2014. 9 Br. Begins June 23. Chaucer had lived a comfortable life in London, writing for a small audience of friends and supporting himself with a bureaucratic job. But eventually he went into exile in Kent, where he began to write for the public and for posterity. Read by Esmé Evans.

 

Bookworm, Monday – Friday 11 a.m.

The Goddess of Small Victories, Fiction by Yannick Grannec, 2014. 15 Br. Begins June 1. Mathematician Kurt Godel’s widow, Adele, is holding onto his records and refuses to let his colleagues have them. Anna Roth is assigned to befriend her to retrieve the documents, but finds her own life changes in the process. Read by Julie Bolton.

I Refuse, Fiction by Per Petterson, 2015. 8 Br. Begins June 22. Thirty-five years ago, Tommy and Jim were everything to each other. But a single incident set them on divergent paths. Now they meet again and wonder if there is anything left to unite them. Read by Don Gerlach.

 

The Writer’s Voice, Monday, Monday – Friday 2 p.m.

The Calling, Nonfiction by Barry Blanchard, 2014. 16 Br. Begins June 1. With heart-pounding descriptions of avalanches and treacherous ascents, Barry Blanchard chronicles his transformation from a poor Native American/white kid from the wrong side of the tracks to one of the most respected alpinists in the world. L, S – Read by Bob Malos.

Breaking the Code, Nonfiction by Pat Matter and Chris Omodt, 2014. 9 Br. Begins June 23. A highly respected Hell’s Angels president and an honest, hard-working cop were on different paths until their worlds collided. L – Read by Dan Sadoff

 

Choice Reading, Monday, Monday – Friday 4 p.m.

The Lobster Kings, Fiction by Alexi Zentner, 2014. 11 Br. Began June 2. The Kings family has lived on Loosewood Island for three hundred years. Now, Woody Kings is the leader of the lobster fishing community and his daughter stands to inherit the crown. S – Read by Pat Lelich.

The Paris Winter, Fiction by Imogen Robertson, 2014. 13 Br. Begins June 17. Maud thinks her solution is at hand when she becomes a live-in companion for a young woman. But she discovers the woman is an opium addict and her brother has an ominous air of intrigue. She is soon caught up in their world of deception and revenge. Read by Michelle Juntunen.

 

PM Report, Monday – Friday 8 p.m.

Landslide, Nonfiction by Jonathan Darman, 2014. 15 Br. Began June 8. The mid 1960s were a time of both opportunity and anxiety; Americans were unsure about the future. In three turbulent years two very different visions of the future were put forth by two men. Read by Art Nyhus.

Just Mercy, Nonfiction by Bryan Stevenson, 2014. 12 Br. Begins June 29. Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, who was sentenced to die for a murder he insisted he didn’t commit. Read by Chris Colestock.

 

Night Journey, Monday – Friday 9 p.m.

Dry Bones in the Valley, Fiction by Tom Bouman, 2014. 11 Br. Begins June 1. Henry’s life as the lone policeman in Wild Thyme was spent hunting and fishing. But gas drilling has brought new wealth and a host of drug problems. When a stranger turns up dead, his search for the killer will open old wounds. Read by Neil Bright.

Pardon the Ravens, Fiction by Alan Hruska, 2015. 11 Br. Begins June 16. Young lawyer Alec Brno gets the opportunity to try a huge fraud case. But he risks it all when he falls for a young woman whose estranged husband is the criminal mastermind behind Alec’s case. V, L – Read by Don Lee.

 

Off the Shelf, Monday – Friday 10 p.m.

A History of the Future, Fiction by James Howard Kunstler, 2014. 13 Br. Begins June 1. In a future America, people are doing what they can to get by, pursuing a simpler existence. In Union Grove, New York, people are preparing for Christmas when Daniel Earle arrives back home after two years exploring what is left of the US. Read by Dan Kuechenmeister.

The Silkworm, Fiction by Robert Galbraith, 2014. 18 Br. Begins June 18. When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife thinks he might have just gone off on his own for a bit. But he’s written a manuscript with poison-pen portraits of everyone he knows and there are a lot of people who want to silence him. L – Read by Eileen Barratt.

 

Potpourri, Monday – Friday 11 p.m.    

Thomas Jefferson’s Crème Brulée, Nonfiction by Thomas J. Craughwell, 2013. 7 Br. Began June 8. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson asked one of his slaves, nineteen-year-old James Hemings, to travel with him to Paris to learn the art of French cooking. In exchange for his cooperation, Jefferson would grant his freedom. Read by Sally Browne.

Subway to California, Nonfiction by Joseph di Prisco, 2014. 14 Br. Begins June 17. In 1960, the Di Prisco family fled Brooklyn and the FBI, ending up in California. Joe’s father was a small-time member of a crew of bookmakers. Joe, however, wasn’t called to a life of crime, and sought a different life. L – Read by Peter Danbury.

 

Good Night Owl, Monday – Friday midnight

Betrayed, Fiction by Lisa Scottoline, 2014. 11 Br. Began June 1. Lawyer Judy Carrier suspects foul play when Iris, her aunt’s housekeeper and best friend, is found dead of a heart attack. The circumstances leave Judy with more questions than answers, and never before has murder struck so close to home. Read by Sue McDonald.

Close My Eyes, Fiction by Sophie McKenzie, 2013. 14 Br. Begins June 16. Geniver has never recovered from the stillborn birth of a daughter eight years ago. Her husband, Art, is eager to have another child and to move on. Then a woman claims that Gen’s baby had been born alive and was taken away by the doctor and given to someone else, and that her husband was in on the scheme. Read by Joy Fogarty.

 

After Midnight, Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.

Wildalone, Fiction by Krassi Zourkova, 2015. 14 Br. Began June 3. Away from her European homeland for her freshman year at college, Thea falls into a romantic entanglement with Rhys and his equally handsome and mysterious brother, Jake. She finds herself drawn into a sensual mythic underworld as irresistible as it is dangerous. L – Read by Pat Kovel-Jarboe.

Princess of Thorns, Fiction by Stacey Jay, 2014. 11 Br. Begins June 23. As they race to prevent the fulfillment of a prophecy foretelling the end of life, Aurora and Niklaas learn there are worse things than old curses. Aurora can only love platonically, and Niklaas is looking for her but not in the male guise Aurora wears. Read by Janelle Mattson.

 

Abbreviations: V – violence, L – offensive language, S – sexual situations