The NLS Digital Talking Book Players are here!
Over the years, there have been very few changes in programming and those made usually done very gradually. In June, there will be changes in the names of two of the book hours and the shifting of one of them from fiction to nonfiction. The reason for this change is that many more nonfiction books are recorded than given an opportunity to air. Plus there has been a disproportionate number of hours reserved for fiction books. It is hoped that the extra hour of nonfiction books will help to correct this imbalance.
Beginning June 1, the 2 p.m. nonfiction hour labeled Potpourri, one definition of which means a mixture of unrelated items, is going to be renamed The Writer’s Voice. That hour of books has ended up being mostly memoir and biography and the term “writer’s voice” is used by memoirists referring to their writing. However, the hour labeled Evening Odyssey, at 11 p.m. – which has usually been fiction, will now be entitled Potpourri and will feature nonfiction books of a wide variety. It will definitely be a potpourri, a mixture of unrelated items.
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.
Chautauqua
Tuesday – Saturday 4 a.m.
The Greatest Show on Earth, Nonfiction by Richard Dawkins, 2009. In 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species shook society to its core. But there is still controversy raging a century and a half later. Read by Del Adamson. 14 broadcasts. Begins April 29.
The Third Man, Nonfiction by John Geiger, 2009. People at the edge of death often sense an unseen presence beside them encouraging one final effort to survive. The phenomenon is called the “third man factor.” Read by Wally Vavrosky. 9 broadcasts. Begins May 19.
Past is Prologue
Monday – Friday 9 a.m.
Cranioklepty, Nonfiction by Colin Dickey, 2009. For those who desire to own skulls of the brilliant and famous, the lengths they have gone for acquisitions have sometimes been a comedy of the grotesque. Read by Yelva Lynfield. 10 broadcasts. Begins April 26.
The Drillmaster of Valley Forge Nonfiction by Paul Lockhart, 2008. A failure in Europe, the Baron de Steuben was a great success in the New World. After training Washington’s troops, he helped create West Point. Read by Leila Poullada. 12 broadcasts. Begins May 10.
Fatal Journey, Nonfiction by Peter C. Mancall, 2009. Henry Hudson was the first European to navigate the Hudson River. But his 1610 voyage to find a water route across North America didn’t end as well. It proved to be his last. Read by Bonnie Smith-Yackel. 9 broadcasts. Begins May 26.
Bookworm
Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
The Lieutenant, Fiction by Kate Grenville, 2009. Outsider Daniel Rooke sees opportunity when he travels with the British marines in the 18th century, bringing convicts to Australia. He intends to do scientific work but instead begins a relationship with the natives. Read by Natasha DeVoe. 7 broadcasts. Begins May 4.
No Time To Say Goodbye, Fiction by Jacquelyn Mitchard, 2009. The Cappadora family survived having an abducted child, though their son returned as a stranger. Now adults, the children have made their own careers and one son has made a film about abductions. L – Read by Pat Lelich. 8 broadcasts. Begins May 13.
Benny & Shrimp, Fiction by Katarina Mazetti, 2009. Shrimp is a young widowed librarian with a sharp intellect. She has an unlikely love affair with Benny, a gentle, overworked milk farmer who fears becoming the village’s Old Bachelor. Read by Karen Wertz. 5 broadcasts. Begins May 25.
Potpourri
Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
Life List, Nonfiction by Olivia Gentile, 2009. Phoebe Snetsinger had planned to be a scientist but instead became a stay-at-home mother. Isolated, she turned to bird watching. When she was diagnosed with cancer and told she had a year left, she decided to travel the globe to see rare spectacular birds. L – Read by Kristi Sullivan. 12 broadcasts. Begins April 22
Magnificent Desolation, Nonfiction by Buzz Aldrin, 2009. Buzz Aldrin became the second human to stand on the moon, making him one of earth’s most famous people. But his success was followed by incredible challenges. Read by John Hagman. 12 broadcasts. Begins May 10.
Under the Table, Nonfiction by Katherine Darling, 2009. Katherine decided to go to chef school but soon discovered herself the object of scorn and ridicule. Teachers waged psychological warfare over pots of bisque. L – Read by Sue McDonald. 13 broadcasts. Begins May 26.
Choice Reading
Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
Exiles in the Garden, Fiction by Ward Just, 2009. Alec rejects the family business of politics for a career as newspaper photographer. His wife Lucia leaves him when he refuses to cover the Vietnam War. L – Read by John Mandeville. 12 broadcasts. Begins May 3.
Woodsburner, Fiction by John Pipkin, 2009. Thoreau was a dreamer who wanted to be more than a pencil designer for his father. One day, he meets with three other dreamers. It’s the day he starts a massive forest fire. Read by Stevie Ray. 14 broadcasts. Begins May 19.
PM Report
Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
Solder from the War Returning, Nonfiction by Thomas Childers, 2009. Contrary to the oft painted picture, World War II vets were not happy, healthy, and well-adjusted. Alcoholism, homelessness, and unemployment were rampant. L – Read by Art Nyhus. 14 broadcasts. Begins May 4.
The Family, Nonfiction by Jeff Sharlet, 2009. The Family is an elite network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful. Their method is backroom diplomacy. Their faith has come to be interwoven with the affairs of nations around the world. Read by Jack Rossman. 18 broadcasts. Begins May 24.
Night Journey
Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
September Fair, Ficition by Jess Lourey, 2009. At the Minnesota State Fair, the newly crowned Milkfed Mary, Queen of the Dairy, a Battle Lake native, is brutally murdered while her likeness is carved in butter. It’s up to Mira James, covering the fair for the Battle Lake Recall to expose the killer. L – Read by Audray Rees. 9 broadcasts. Begins May 4.
13 1/2, Fiction by Nevada Barr, 2009. Some crimes are doomed to repeat themselves. Evil stays the same; only the victims’ names change. Polly Deschamps believes she has made a safe life for her and her two daughters in Rochester, MN. V,L – Read by Nancy Felknor. 10 broadcasts. Begins May 17.
L.A. Outlaws, Fiction by Jefferson Parker, 2008. L.A. is taken with a woman known by the alias Allison Murietta. She steals, invites the media, and then donates her loot to charity. Then a job ends with ten dead. Deputy Charlie Hood discovers the bodies and an eyewitness. And he begins an affair with the witness. V,L – Read by Ray Christensen. 11 broadcasts. Begins May 31.
Off the Shelf
Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
The Lost Symbol, Fiction by Dan Brown, 2009 Robert Langdon is to deliver a lecture in Washington, D.C. when he is presented an invitation in the form of a symbolic object. When his mentor is kidnapped, Langdon accepts the invitation to save him. V – Read by John Beal. 21 broadcasts. Begins May 3.
Evening Odyssey
Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
The Game of Opposites, Fiction by Norman Lebrecht, 2009. Towards the end of a world war, Paul Miller escaped from a labor camp. Taken in and nursed by a woman named Alice, and with no one else to return to, Paul stays where he is, marries Alice, and helps rebuild the village. L,S – Read by Arlan Dohrenburg. 14 broadcasts. Begins May 4.
Rhino Ranch, Fiction by Larry McMurty, 2009. Duane Moore returns home to Thalia, Texas, but finds it has changed considerably. His rich new neighbor is opening a ranch to preserve the black rhinoceros in this old oil town. L – Read by Malcolm McLean. 7 broadcasts. Begins May 24.
Good Night Owl
Monday – Friday midnight
Invisible, Fiction by Paul Auster, 2009. In 1967, a young Adam Walker, aspiring poet and student, meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born and his silent and seductive girlfriend. Before long, he finds himself caught in a perverse triangle. L,S – Read by Dan Sadoff. 9 broadcasts. Began April 27.
Blood’s a Rover, Fiction by James Elroy, 2009. During the summer of 1968, tensions are high because of the King and Kennedy assassinations and the upcoming Democratic Convention. Three lives collide in pursuit of a woman named Joan Rosen Klein. V,L,S – Read by Neil Bright. 31 broadcasts. Begins May 10.
After Midnight
Tuesday– Saturday 1 a.m.
When Will There Be Good News?, Fiction by Kate Atkinson, 2008. Several lives and histories intersect: a thirty-year-old crime witnessed by a child, a missing doctor, and another missing person searched for by Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe. Read by Eleanor Berg. 14 broadcasts. Began April 20.
Incarceron, Book I, Fiction by Catherine Fisher, 2010. Incarceron is a prison unlike any other. Seventeen-year-old Finn intends to escape to Outside Incarceron. He finds a crystal key and a girl named Claudia who is the Warden’s daughter. She asks for his help in exchange for hers. Read by Colleen Matz. 12 broadcasts. Begins May 11.
Remedies, Fiction by Kate Ledger, 2009. Simon and Emily look like the perfect couple – he’s a respected doctor; she’s a successful professional. But their marriage is scarred by old wounds. When a lover from Emily’s past resurfaces, she examines her marriage anew. S – Read by Sue McDonald. 14 broadcasts. Begins May 27.
