Help in Getting the Word Out

The Communication Center is working on a plan to get the word out to more people that the State Services for the Blind has many services available for people who are having difficulty reading the printed page. The Radio Talking Book is part of the Communication Center and we can use your help. If you are aware of organizations in your area that are looking for speakers, you could suggest a speaker from State Services for the Blind. If you know of other individuals that could use the radio, please let them know about it. Our Communication Center services are available to anyone with a visual of physical disability which makes reading difficult. We’re available to speak at churches, community groups, or other gatherings. For more information about what we offer, or to arrange for a speaker, call 1-800-652-9000.

 

Weekend Program Books

Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing Ten Years Later, by Hoda Kotb, and Secrets and Lies, by Jane Isay; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing The Elites: Privileged Positions, by Emily Flint and Quinn Xi, and When You Wish upon a Rat, by Maureen McCarthy; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing Ask Me, by William Stafford, and Paragon Park, by Mark Doty; The U.S. and Us (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing Augie’s Secrets, by Neal Karlen, and We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down, by Rachael Hanel..

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 Story of the Human Body, Nonfiction by Daniel E. Lieberman, 2013. 20 Br. Began May 7. Though evolution has taken place over millions of years, it continues to this day. There is increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world, occasioning a paradox of greater longevity but increased chronic disease. Read by Yelva Lynfield.

 

 

Past is Prologue, Monday –  Friday 9 a.m

Sugar in the Blood, Nonfiction by Andrea Stuart, 2013. 17 Br. Began April 29. Andrea Stuart’s earliest known maternal ancestor was a sugar plantation (and slave) owner in 1630’s Barbados. The production of sugar lifted him out of poverty and shaped the lives of his descendants. Read by Bonnie Smith-Yackel.

The Eve of Destruction, Nonfiction by James T. Patterson, 2012. 12 Br. Begins May 22. At the beginning of 1965, America was optimistic. President Johnson succeeded in securing an avalanche of Great Society legislation including Medicare, immigration reform, and a Voting Rights Act. But over the course of the year, that sense of harmony dissipated. Read by Judy Woodward.

 

 

Bookworm Monday, Monday – Friday 11 a.m.

Carissima, Fiction by Rosanna Chiofalo, 2013. 15 Br. Begins May 5. Pia arrives in Queens with a journalism internship at a celebrity magazine. At the same time, Italian movie icon Francesca Donata is staying nearby. Pia convinces the legend to grant her a series of interviews – even traveling to her house in Rome. L – Read by Janelle Mattson.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Fiction by Rachel Joyce, 2013. 11 Br. Begins May 26. Harold Fry has not heard from Queenie Hennessy in twenty years. When she writes to say she is in hospice and wants to say goodbye, he sets off on walking the 600 miles to see her, convinced that as long as he is walking, she will stay alive.  L – Read by Stuart Holland.

 

 

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

Into the Paradox, Nonfiction by Toni A.H. McNaron, 2013. 7 Br. Begins May 8. As practicing Catholic and feminist scholar, Toni McNaron embraces the unresolvable and accepts the paradox arising from her preference for conservative spiritual practices while remaining committed to radical politics. Read by Esmé Evans.

Poor Man’s Feast, Nonfiction by Elissa Altman, 2013. 11 Br. Begins May 19. Elissa was taught that, regarding food, fancy is always best. And she lived her way like that until she met Susan, who had a devotion to simple living. It would change Elissa’s relationship with food, and the people who taught her about it, forever. Read by Andrea Bell.

 

 

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

Astor Place, Fiction by Stephanie Lehmann, 2013. 12 Br. Begins May 1. Amanda Rosenbloom, proprietor of a vintage clothing shop, visits an elderly woman to purchase clothing. She discovers a journal sewn into a fur muff that was written in 1907 by Olive Westcott. The journal changes Amanda’s life.  Read by Holly Sylvester.

The Mouse-Proof Kitchen, Fiction by Saira Shah, 2013. 11 Br. Begins May 19. Anna is a planner. When she discovers she’s pregnant, she prepares for a perfect new life in Provençe, France, with her perfect new baby-to-be. All of that changes when the baby is born less than perfect. L – Read by Sue McDonald.

 

 

PM Report, Monday – Friday 8 p.m.

The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay, Nonfiction by Hooman Majd, 2013. 11 Br. Begins May 12. When Brooklyn resident Hooman Majd decided to take his blond Midwestern wife and infant son to spend a year in Iran, the land of Majd’s birth, he had no idea what would be involved. L – Read by Dan Sadoff.

Smart Cities, Nonfiction by Anthony Townsend, 2013. 14 Br. Begins 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.

 

 

Night Journey, Monday – Friday 9 p.m.

Seven for a Secret, Fiction by Lyndsay Faye, 2013. 15 Br. Began April 28. In the new NYPD, Officer Timothy Wilde is approached by a woman reporting that her family was stolen. They were sold to the South as run-away slaves. It plunges Timothy into a slave world where police are complicit. L – Read by Pat Kovel-Jarboe.

Before I Burn, Fiction by Gaute Heivoll, 2013. 11 Br. Begins May 19. In 1970s Norway, an arsonist targets a small town for one long, terrifying month. One by one, buildings go up in flames. Suspicion spreads among the neighbors as they wonder if one of their own is responsible.  L –Read by Neil Bright.

 

 

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

The Labyrinth of Osiris, Fiction by Paul Sussman, 2012. 24 Br. Began April 29. Jerusalem Detective Arieh Ben-Roi is investigating the murder of Israeli journalist Rivka Kleinberg. What she was writing about was an ancient Egyptian labyrinth of incredible riches, spoken of by Herodotus. L – Read by Isla Hejny.

 

 

Potpourri, Monday – Friday 11 p.m.    

Overdressed, Nonfiction by Elizabeth L. Cline, 2013. 10 Br. Began May 5. Cheap fashion has changed the way most Americans dress. Stores now offer the latest trends at unprecedentedly low prices, made possible because the retailers are producing clothes at enormous volumes to push up profits. They have turned clothing into a disposable good. But what are we doing with all these cheap clothes? And what are these cheap clothes doing to us, our society, our environment and our economic well-being?   Read by Jeanne Burns.

Lasting City, Nonfiction by James Court, 2013. 12 Br. Begins May 19. Enjoined by his dying mother to “tell everything,” James McCourt was liberated by this deathbed wish to do just that. The result? McCourt’s memoir is ostensibly an account of his first seven years, but it expands into a philosophical exploration of memory. He tells his own story, his mother’s, his family’s, and that of a lost New York. It is a heartfelt aria to a lost time and to an eternal city.  L – Read by Tom Speich.



Good Night Owl, Monday – Friday midnight

Paris Was the Place, Fiction by Susan Conley, 2013. 15 Br. Began May 5. When Willie Pears agrees to teach at a Parisian center for immigrant girls who have requested French asylum, she has no idea it will change her life. As Willie becomes more involved with the girls, the lines between teaching and mothering become blurred. Read by Judith Johannessen.

Nostalgia, Fiction by Dennis McFarland, 2013. 15 Br. Begins 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.

 

 

After Midnight, Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.

The Screaming Staircase, Fiction by Jonathan Stroud, 2013. 10 Br. Begins May 2. Ghosts and spirits are appearing throughout London and only young people have the psychic abilities required to get rid of them. Lucy, Anthony, and George, are going to take part in the investigation of one of the most haunted houses in England. Read by Jenny O’Brien.

My Notorious Life, Fiction by Kate Manning, 2013. 15 Br. Begins May 16. Based on a true story, Axie Muldoon, daughter of immigrants, becomes a successful and controversial midwife known as Madame X. She discovers that the right way is not always the way of the law. Read by Diane Ladenson.

 

 

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