Comment on a format change

Radio Talking Book is asking listeners to weigh in ona format change. The information about the number of broadcasts and the beginning date now immediately followthe name and author of the book. This change was suggested by a listener who reads the full newsletter on a closed-circuit television. The Radio Talking Book staff wants to hear public opinions on the change, both for and against. Call manager Stuart Holland, at 651-642-0503, or from outside the Twin Cities, call 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. Phone is 1-800-722-0550 and hours are 7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The catalog is online and can be accessed by going to the main website, http://education.state.mn.us, and then clicking on the link. Persons living outside of Minnesota may obtain copies of books by contacting their home 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 http://www.mnssb.org/rtb. Call the staff at 651-642-0500 for your password to the site. See more information about events on the Facebook site for the Minnesota Radio Talking Book Network. Facebook is a fee social networking web site. Register at www.facebook.comAccessPress is one of the publications featured at 9p.m.

 


Sundays on the program

It Makes a Difference.Weekend Program Books Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing ToHeaven and Back, by Mary C. Neal, M.D., and You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap), by Tammy Strobel; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing The Dragon’s Tooth, by N.D. Wilson, and Magicalamity, byKate Saunders; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing Y, by Leslie Adrienne Miller, and Everyday People,by Albert Goldbarth; The U.S. and Us (Sunday at 4 p.m.)is airing Prairie Silence, by Melanie Hoffert.

 

Chautauqua
Tuesday – Saturday 4 a.m

The Social Conquest of Earth, Nonfiction by Edward O. Wilson, 2012. The fundamental questions of “Where did we come from? What are we? and Where are we going?” can never be sufficiently answered by religion, philosophy, and introspection alone. Only rigorous scientific scholarship can help. Read by Myrna Smith. 11 broadcasts. Began February 19.

Consider the Fork, Nonfiction by Bee Wilson, 2012. 14 broadcasts. Begins March 27. Since prehistory, human shave braved sharp knives, fire, and grindstones to transform raw ingredients into something edible, and sometimes delicious. The tools and tricks we’ve learned have shaped modern food culture. Read by Yelva Lynfield.

Past is Prologue
Monday – Friday 9 a.m.

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, Nonfiction by Adam Hochschild, 2012. World War I stands as one of history’s most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. Why did so many nations get swept up in the violence? Why couldn’t cooler heads prevail? Read by Marylyn Burridge. 19 Br. Began February 5.

Former People, Nonfiction by Douglas Smith, 2012. 18broadcasts. Begins March 19. Two aristocratic familieswere caught in the maelstrom of the Bolshevik Revolutionand the creation of Stalin’s Russia. Some survived.L – Read by John Potts.

Bookworm
Monday – Friday 11 a.m.

The Barbarian Nurseries, Fiction by Héctor Tobar, 2011. Araceli, the live-in maid in the Torres-Thompson household, wakes one morning to find the parents have left and she is the only adult for the two boys that she barely knows. She sets out with the boys on the bus to find their grandfather. Read by Jeffrey Weihe. 19 broadcasts. Began February 5.

Léon and Louise, Fiction by Alex Capus, 2012. Nine broadcasts. Begins March 19. In 1918, Léon and Louise fall in love. Wounded and separated, each believes the other dead. Reunited decades later, they are torn apart again. L – Read by John Mandeville.

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

Most of Me, Nonfiction by Robyn Michele Levy, 2012. Robyn Michele Levy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age forty-three and, eight months later, with breast cancer. In her memoir, she chronicles her life since then dealing with her diverse disease portfolio.  Read by Diane Ladenson. 8 broadcasts. Began February 28.

Floyd Patterson, Nonfiction by W.K. Stratton, 2012.Eight broadcasts. Begins March 12. In 1956, Patterson became the youngest boxer to claim the title of world heavyweight champion at age twenty-one. Known as“the Gentle Gladiator,” he was overshadowed by Ali’s theatrics and Liston’s reputation. Read by Jim Gregorich.

Louis Agassiz, Nonfiction by Christoph Irmscher,2012. 17 broadcasts. Begins March 26. Swiss immigrant Louis Agassiz launched American science 150 years ago, focusing on zoology while also discovering how Ice Age glaciers formed. Invited to lecture in Boston, he never left. Read by Lannois Neely.

Choice Reading
Monday – Friday 4 p.m.

Bereft, Fiction by Chris Womersley, 2012. Sergeant Quinn Walker fled his home after being falsely accused of a horrific crime. He returns home after the Great War to convince his mother of his innocence and finds she is dying of the flu. Read by Charles Torrey. 10 broadcasts. Began February 18.

The Life of an Unknown Man, Fiction by Andrei Makine,2012. Seven broadcasts. Begins March 25. Shutov, a disenchanted writer, is inspired by Volsky, an old man he meets in St. Petersburg. Shutov feels like just another unknown man, but Volsky has known great happiness in spite of a life of suffering. L – Read by Phil Rosenbaum.

 

PM Report
Monday – Friday 8 p.m.

Drift, Nonfiction by Rachel Maddow, 2012. In 1792, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “One of my favorite ideas is, never to keep an unnecessary soldier.” Neither Jefferson nor other founders could have envisioned the modern national security state. Rachel Maddow says we have drifted away from America’s original ideals and become a nation at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails. Read by Malcolm McLean. 10 broadcasts. Began February 18.

The Passage of Power, Nonfiction by Robert A. Caro,2012. 36 broadcasts. Begins March 20. By 1958, LyndonJohnson had become the greatest Senate Leader in history.He traded that to become the powerless vice presidentunder John F. Kennedy in an administration thatdisdained and distrusted him. But it was that role thatput him in line for the presidency. L – Read by LeilaPoullada.

Night Journey
Monday – Friday 9 p.m.

Fireproof, Fiction by Alex Kava, 2012. Special Agent Maggie O’Dell is called in to investigate an act of arson with a human casualty. It seems the work of a serial arsonist. A reporter makes her part of his news story, bringing up parts of her past she’d like to forget. Maggie’s half-brother is often called in to help fight these fires and, as the acts of arson become more brazen, Maggie’s professional and personal worlds begin to collide  Read by Nancy Felknor. 9 broadcasts. Began February 9.

You Don’t Want to Know, Fiction by Lisa Jackson, 2012.18 broadcasts. Begins March 20. Ava’s son, Noah, hasbeen missing for two years but his body was never found.But she still hears him crying in the nursery and has seenhim walking near the dock. Read by Amy Morris.

Off the Shelf
Monday – Friday 10 p.m.

The Ordinary Truth, Fiction by Jana Richman, 2012. When Nell buried her husband in 1975, she also buried her relationship with her daughter and a number of secrets. Now her granddaughter wants to unbury the past and repair those relationships.  Read by Connie Jamison. 13 broadcasts. Began February 18.

The Technologists, Fiction by Matthew Pearl, 2012. 20broadcasts. Begins March 25. In 1868, the latest war isone between tradition and technology. There is resistanceas the Massachusetts Institute of Technologyopens its doors to harness science for the benefit of all.L – Read by Neil Bright.

Potpourri
Monday – Friday 11 p.m.

Presumed Guilty, Nonfiction by Jose Baez, 2012. Caylee Anthony was reported missing in July 2008. Jose Baez captured national attention when he won a not-guilty verdict for Casey Anthony, a woman the nation had assumed was guilty of her daughter Caylee’s death. Read by Tom Speich. 17 broadcasts. Began February 14.

Good Night Owl
Monday – Friday midnight

The Frozen Rabbi, Fiction by Steve Stern, 2010. Teenaged Bernie Karp discovers a secret in a block of ice that has survived pogroms, a trans-Atlantic voyage, a New York ice-house fire, and a train ride to Tennessee. The discovery will have miraculous and disastrous consequences. L,S – Read by Tony Lopez. 18 Br. Began February 13.

It’s Fine by Me, Fiction by Per Petterson, 2012. Sevenbroadcasts. Begins March 25. Audun Sletten, working class teen in Oslo, sees himself like the tough characters in Jack London and Ernest Hemingway novels. Hechafes at the limitations of school and looks forward to a time of greater independence. Audun lives with his mother and delivers papers to keep the family solvent.When his alcoholic father reappears in his life, Audun sets out to see what else life has to offer. Read by Arlan Dohrenburg.

After Midnight
Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.

Shades of Desire, Fiction by Virna DePaul, 2012. 11broadcasts. Begins March 19. Natalie Jones, lucky survivor of a killer who preys on young women, is now paralyzed by fear and failing vision. Special Agent Liam“Mac” McKenzie has scars of his own. Despite the attraction between the two of them, he needs Natalie’s help to catch a predator. She uses her camera and imagines a life with Mac, never guessing that the clues in her photographs are drawing them into a confrontation with a madman. L, S – Read by Beth Marie Hansen.

 

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