Programming change
Sunday night programming has a few programs that focus on blindness and disabilities. One of those that we receive from elsewhere has shifted their production so that we need to shift our programming. Beginning on Sunday, May 7, our first and third Sundays will still feature Main Menu, and our final Sunday of the month will still be Speaking for Ourselves. But on the second Sunday (and the fourth Sunday of months that have five Sundays), we will feature Blind Abilities, programming of podcasts mostly consisting of interviews with people of significant interest to our audience. We hope you like the change.
Weekend Program Books
Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing The Little Book of Hygge, by Meik Wiking; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing The Keepers, by Ted Sanders; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing Blackacre, by Monica Youn, and Whereas, by Layli Long Soldier; The Great North (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing Everybody’s Heard about the Bird, by Rick Shefchik.
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
Luxury, Nonfiction by Peter McNeil and Giorgio Riello, 2016. 12 Br. Began May 4. From early Romans to the present, the story of luxury is an ever-changing story of extravagance and indulgence. Today’s obsession is with brands and services, but luxury has assumed many forms in various cultures. Read by Pat Kovel-Jarboe.
The Hidden Half of Nature, Nonfiction by David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé, 2016. 15 Br. Begins May 19. Montgomery and Biklé first discovered the power of microbes when they transformed their barren yard into a garden by feeding it organic matter. They further discovered microbes’ importance when Anne was diagnosed with cancer.
Read by Yelva Lynfield.
Past is Prologue, Monday – Friday 9 a.m
Heaven’s Ditch, Nonfiction by Jack Kelly, 2016. 14 Br. Began May 2. The technological marvel of its age, the Erie Canal grew out of a fit of inspiration; they built a 360-mile waterway entirely by hand and mostly through wilderness. It became the scene of the most striking outburst of imagination in American history.
Read by Bonnie Smith-Yackel.
Suspected of Independence, Nonfiction by David McKean, 2016. 10 Br. Begins May 22. Thomas McKean lived a radical, boisterous, politically intriguing life as one of the most influential and enduring of the Founding Fathers. America’s creation was full of dangers and strife, backstabbing and bar-brawling, courage and stubbornness. Read by Robb Empson.
Bookworm, Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
News of the World, Fiction by Paulette Jiles, 2016. 6 Br. Began May 9. After the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd makes a living reading the newspaper to audiences. At Wichita Falls, he is offered money to deliver a young orphan to her relatives near San Antonio and he agrees to do it. Read by Carolyn Light Bell.
The Grand Tour, Fiction by Adam O’Fallon Price, 2016. 12 Br. Begins May 17. Richard Lazar has had a mediocre career as a novelist, but when he writes a memoir, it’s a great success. Setting off on a book tour, he meets his biggest (and only) fan who offers to drive him for the rest of the tour. L – Read by Jim Tarbox.
The Writer’s Voice, Monday, Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
My Life with Wagner, Nonfiction by Christian Thielemann, 2016. 10 Br. Begins May 16. Over a career conducting some of the world’s finest orchestras, Thielemann has earned a reputation as the leading modern interpreter of Richard Wagner. Read by Arlan Dohrenburg.
Choice Reading, Monday, Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
The Gustav Sonata, Fiction by Rose Tremain, 2016. 9 Br. Began May 9. In spite of his mother’s anti-Semitism, Gustav Perle has an intense friendship with a Jewish boy, Anton Zweibel. Their relationship is lost, transformed, and regained as the two follow different careers: one a hotel owner, the other a concert pianist. L,S –
Read by Myrna Smith
Cruel Beautiful World, Fiction by Caroline Leavitt, 2016. 12 Br. Begins May 22. Sixteen-year-old Lucy Gold is about to run away with a much older man to live off the grid in rural Pennsylvania, a rash act that will have vicious repercussions for both her and her older sister, Charlotte. Lucy’s dreams of a rural paradise will turn into a nightmare. Read by Judy Woodward.
PM Report, Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
Thank You for Being Late, Nonfiction by Thomas L. Friedman, 2016. 23 Br. Began May 1. Friedman says that to understand the twenty-first century, you need to understand that the three largest forces are accelerating all at once. Those are technology, globalization, and climate change. Read by Rachael Freed.
Night Journey, Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
What Remains of Me, Fiction by Alison Gaylin, 2016. 13 Br. Began May 3. Kelly Michelle Lund went to prison for the murder of Oscar-nominated director John McFadden. There was much that she never shared with anyone. Five years after her release from prison, Kelly’s father-in-law, a movie legend, is killed in the same manner. Some believe she’s innocent of both crimes.
L – Read by Jeffrey Weihe.
So Say the Fallen, Fiction by Stuart Neville, 2016. 10 Br. Begins May 22. Henry Garrick took his own life. Or so it seems. But something doesn’t feel right to detective Serena Flanagan, despite the fact that there is no evidence of foul play. The people around the deceased are all keeping secrets. L – Read by Isla Hejny.
Off the Shelf, Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
All That Man Is, Fiction by David Szalay, 2016. 13 Br. Begins May 15. Nine men, each of them striving to understand what it means to be alive, here and now. The men paint a sorry picture of modern manhood in an increasingly globalized Europe. L – Read by Don Lee.
Potpourri, Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
Lingo, Nonfiction by Gaston Dorren, 2015. 8 Br. Begins May 15. Most European languages are descended from a single ancestor, but the continent’s ever-changing borders and cultures have given rise to a linguistic and cultural diversity often forgotten. A country’s history has impact on its language, languages influence their neighbors, and less-spoken languages are under threat of extinction.
Read by Esmé Evans.
Originals, Nonfiction by Adam Grant, 2016. 10 Br. Begins May 25. How can we stand up for new ideas, policies, and practices without risking our reputations, relationships, and careers? Author Adam Grant debunks the idea that nonconformists are born leaders who boldly embrace risk.
Read by Susan Niefeld.
Good Night Owl, Monday – Friday midnight
Medicine Walk, Fiction by Richard Wagamese, 2016. 9 Br. Began May 9. When Franklin Starlight is summoned by his ailing father, Eldon, Franklin’s sense of duty clashes with the deep resentment he feels. Still, he agrees to his father’s final wish to be buried in the warrior way in rugged backcountry. V,L,S – Read by John Mandeville.
Genius, Fiction by Thomas Rayfield, 2016. 8 Br. Begins May 22. Kara has escaped from her family and Witch’s Falls, only to return to small town life and home with a diagnosis of cancer. She is subject now to her mother’s suffocating care, her brother’s love life, the local doctor’s meddling, and the pull of her obsession, Christy. Read by Brenda Powell.
After Midnight, Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.
Daughters of the Bride, Fiction by Susan Mallery, 2016. 13 Br. Began May 4. Three adult sisters, with their own relationships to romance, are planning the wedding of their mother. It reveals a hidden relationship, a surprise proposal, and an ex who wants a second chance. L,S –
Read by Beth Marie Hansen.
The Gradual, Fiction by Christopher Priest, 2016. 13 Br. Begins May 23. Alesandro is a composer living in a fascist state constantly at war. Occasionally he catches glimpses of islands in the far distance and they feed into the music he composes. Read by Joe Sadowski.
Abbreviations: V – violence, L – offensive language, S – sexual situations
