Volunteer Readers Sought
Radio Talking Book seeks volunteers to broadcast from our sites in Rochester and St. Paul. If you know someone who may be interested in volunteering, we’d like to hear from them. Please contact Roberta Kitlinski at 651-539-1423 to learn more.
Radio Talking Book App for Smartphones
Listeners can now enjoy Radio Talking Book on their handheld mobile devices. The SERO app is available on both Apple iOS and Android platforms.
On iOS: go to the App Store and search for Sero. Select the “Serotek Corporation” button and download the app. On Android: go to the Play Store, pick the “Navigation Drawer,” and search for Sero. Select “Sero (formerly iBlink Radio)” and download the app.
On both platforms: run the app and select the “Reading Services” category. Then swipe down to Minnesota Radio Talking Book Network and select it. You’ll need a password to access the stream: call 651-539-2363 or toll-free 1-800-722-0550 to receive one.
Weekend Program Books
Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) presents “How Healing Works” by Wayne Jonas, read by Beverly Burchett. For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) presents “Expelled” by James Patterson and Emily Raymond, read by John Mandeville. Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) presents “Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering” edited by Hal Cannon, read by Scott McKinney. The Great North (Sunday at 4 p.m.) presents “You’re Sending Me Where?” by Eric Dregni, read by John Beal.
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, 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 651-539-2363.
Donate to the State Services for the Blind at mn.gov/deed/ssbdonate.
Chautauqua Tuesday, Tuesday – Saturday 4 a.m
Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History. Nonfiction by Bill Schutt, 2017. Here’s a book to sink your teeth into: an examination of a phenomenon that science recognizes as a commonplace part of nature. Read by Jim Tarbox. 10 broadcasts; beganThursday, May 3.
Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits. Nonfiction by Chip Colwell, 2017. Who owns the past, and the objects that connect us to our history – the museums that care for the objects, or the communities whose ancestors created them? Read by Lannois Neely. 12 broadcasts; begins Thursday, May 17.
Past is Prologue, Monday – Friday 9 a.m
Blitzed. Nonfiction by Norman Ohler, 2017. On the eve of World War II Germany was a pharmaceutical powerhouse with cocaine, opiates, and methamphetamines, reaching all the way to Hitler himself. Read by Arlan Dohrenburg. 11 broadcasts; begins Monday, May 14.
American Sanctuary. Nonfiction by A. Roger Ekrich, 2017. Jonathan Robbins of Connecticut sided with the British during the Revolutionary War. Capital punishment by the British created one of our nation’s first constitutional crises. Read by Stevie Ray. 11 broadcasts, begins Tuesday, May 29.
Bookworm, Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
Harmless Like You. Fiction by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, 2017. A young Japanese woman pursues art in New York, and begins a romance with an older man. Read by Therese Murray. 10 broadcasts; began Thursday, May 3.
A Time of Love and Tartan. Fiction by Alexander McCall Smith, 2017. Residents’ lives intersect at an Edinburgh apartment. Read by Myrna Smith. 9 broadcasts; begins Thursday, May 17.
Anatomy of a Miracle. Fiction by Jonathan Miles, 2017. A man who became paraplegic years ago suddenly rises from his wheelchair. Is it a medical breakthrough, or a miracle? Read by Pat Muir. 17 broadcasts; begins Wednesday, May 30.
The Writer’s Voice, Monday, Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
An American Family. Nonfiction by Khizr Khan, 2017. This memoir by a Gold Star parent is the story of an immigrant family’s pursuit of the American dream. Read by Brenda Powell. 11 broadcasts; begins Tuesday, May 15.
The Milk Lady of Bangalore. Nonfiction by Shoba Narayan, 2018. A writer returns to India from Manhattan, and forms a friendship with the local milk lady. Read by Esmé Evans. 8 broadcasts; begins Wednesday, May 30.
Choice Reading, Monday, Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
The Last Wild Men of Borneo. Nonfiction by Carl Hoffman, 2018. Two modern adventurers sought a legendary jungle treasure. One found riches; the other vanished forever. Read by Neil Bright. 13 broadcasts; began Thursday, May 3.
The Schooldays of Jesus. Fiction by J.M. Coatzee, 2017. Two adults and a young boy become refugees on their way to the city of Estrella. Read by Andrea Bell. 9 broadcasts; begins Tuesday, May 22.
PM Report, Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
What Works. Nonfiction by Iris Bohnet, 2016. While gender equity is both a moral and social imperative, unconscious bias holds us back. Behavioral design offers a solution. Read by Laura Young. 9 broadcasts; begins Thursday, May 10.
Glass House. Nonfiction by Brian Alexander, 2017. Financial engineering seemed a positive development in the 1980s, but instead has ruined companies and towns. Read by Therese Murray. 14 broadcasts; begins Wednesday, May 23.
Night Journey, Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
Threads of Suspicion. Fiction by Dee Henderson, 2017. Detectives Evie Blackwell and David Marshal are assigned to revisit cold cases across Illinois. Read by Nan Felknor. 15 broadcasts; began Monday, April 30.
The Heavens May Fall. Fiction by Allen Eskens, 2016. Detective Max Rupert and attorney Boady Sanden are friends on opposite sides of a controversial murder case. Read by Don Gerlach. 12 broadcasts; begins Monday, May 21.
Off the Shelf, Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
The Drifter. Fiction by Nicholas Petrie, 2016. A troubled veteran seeks seclusion in the mountains. Instead he helps a friend’s widow, entangling him in a complicated plot. Read by Joe Sadowski. 11 broadcasts; began Wednesday, May 9. – V, L, S
My Cat Yugoslavia. Fiction by Patjim Statovci, translated by David Hackston, 2017. A refugee in Finland meets a talking cat, who accompanies him home to Kosovo to confront his demons. Read by Don Lee. 8 broadcasts; begins Thursday, May 24.
Potpourri, Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
The Amorous Heart. Nonfiction by Marilyn Yalom, 2018. A scholar outlines the history of the “heart” symbol across the world’s cultures. Read by Marylyn Burridge. 8 broadcasts; begins Monday, May 14.
The Bridge to Brilliance. Nonfiction by Nadia Lopez, 2016. A woman establishes a middle school, and faces difficult odds beating the downward spiral that traps urban kids. Read by Scott Brush. 9 broadcasts; begins Thursday, May 24.
Good Night Owl, Monday – Friday midnight
The Believer. Fiction by Joakim Zander, 2017. A Swedish woman in New York learns her brother has been radicalized by ISIS. She then meets a human rights worker whose life is in danger. Read by Tom Speich. 12 broadcasts; began Monday, May 7.
The Complete Ballet. Fiction by John Haskell, 2017. The plots of several ballets explain a man’s life in the LA underground. Read by Andrea Bell. 7 broadcasts; begins Wednesday, May 23.
After Midnight, Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.
Bop Apocalypse. Nonfiction by Martin Torgoff, 2016. Disparate elements combine to create the early drug culture. Read by Peter Danbury. 15 broadcasts; begins Thursday, May 17. – V, L, S
Abbreviations:
V – violence
L – offensive language
S – sexual situations
RE – racial epithets
G – graphic descriptions
