The Communication Center has a new Director
On October 7, Brianna Holeman became the Deputy Director of Program Operations at State Services for the Blind, a position that includes overseeing the Communication Center – which is comprised of the Radio Talking Book, the Audio Services Section, the Braille Section, and Engineering – filling a position that had been vacant since 2009. Ms. Holeman comes to SSB from Health East Medical Transportation, where she was an Operations Manager. She is excited about the possibility of working in a position where she has a great impact on our operations. We welcome her to her new position.
Weekend Program Books
Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing Recover to Live, by Christopher Kennedy Lawford; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing A Hero for Wondla, by Tony DiTerlizzi; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing Aimless Love, by Billy Collins; The U.S. and Us (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow, by Andy Sturdevant, and Leaving Rollingstone, by Kevin Fenton.
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
Paleofantasy, Nonfiction by Marlene Zuk, 2014. 12 Br. Began October 28. Our nostalgic visions of an ideal evolutionary past in which we ate, lived, and reproduced as we were “meant to” fail to recognize that we were never perfectly suited to our environment. Evolution is about change, and every organism is full of trade-offs. Read by Marylyn Burridge.
Gulp, Nonfiction by Mary Roach, 2014. 9 Br. Begins November 13. Science writer Mary Roach explores the alimentary canal asking questions like Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? L –Read by Esmé Evans.
Think Like a Freak, Nonfiction by Steve D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, 2014. 7 Br. Begins November 26. Levitt and Dubner offer a blueprint for a new way to solve problems. No topic is off limits as you learn to think more productively, more creatively, more rationally. Read by Stevie Ray.
Past is Prologue, Monday – Friday 9 a.m
Amsterdam, Nonfiction by Russell Shorto, 2013. 15 Br. Began November 3. How much individual freedom can we live with? What are the limits of acceptance? How can people from different parts of the world coexist in increasingly globalized cities? Russell Shorto writes of how the Dutch invented today’s concepts of liberty and tolerance. Read by Tony Lopez.
The Dog Who Could Fly, Nonfiction by Damien Lewis, 2014. 10 Br. Begins November 24. In the winter of 1939, two survivors met and became lifelong friends: an abandoned puppy and a Czech airman who had been shot down over enemy lines. In the following months, the two saved each other’s lives countless times flying over Germany. Read by Scott Long.
Bookworm, Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
The Anatomy Lesson, Fiction by Nina Siegal, 2014. 9 Br. Begins November 11. In 1632, Rembrandt was a young artist when he took as his subject The Anatomy Lesson, commissioned by the Amsterdam Surgeons’ Guild. It would become one of his masterpieces, catapulting him to international fame. Read by Judy Woodward.
A Triple Knot, Fiction by Emma Campion, 2014. 18 Br. Begins November 24. Joan of Kent, niece of King Edward III and daughter of a traitor, gets secretly married to escape royal constraints, and hides it as she is married off to another man. When her first husband dies, she begins an affair with the heir to the throne, Prince Edward, and discovers that a royal life comes with potentially tragic costs. Read by Connie Jamison.
The Writer’s Voice, Monday, Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
The Invisible Girls, Nonfiction by Sarah Thebarge, 2013. 8 Br. Begins November 12. After surviving the treatments for breast cancer, Sarah moved to Portland, Oregon to start over. A chance encounter with an African mother and her daughters transformed her life again. Read by Bonnie Smith-Yackel.
Retail Schmetail, Nonfiction by Sanford Stein, 2014. 12 Br. Begins November 24. Sandy Stein’s family got into retail 100 years ago with a store that resembled a garage sale. They had no formal education. But they had ingenuity, drive, and humor. Read by Alvin Apple.
Choice Reading, Monday, Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
The Sixteenth of June, Fiction by Maya Lang, 2014. 9 Br. Began November 4. On June 16, two brothers and a fiancée are brought together – first for a funeral, then for a party. As tensions rise, they confront their pasts and hopes for the future. Read by Michelle Juntunen.
The Steady Running of the Hour, Fiction by Justin Go, 2014. 20 Br. Begins November 17. Ashley Walsingham died on Mount Everest, leaving a fortune to his former lover who could not be found. Eighty years later, the solicitors find American Tristan Campbell, who could be her descendant. Read by Arlan Dohrenburg.
PM Report, Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
The Crash of 2016, Nonfiction by Thom Hartmann, 2013. 11 Br. Began November 3. Hartmann says that the U.S. is in the midst of a major economic implosion. Our once-enlightened political and economic systems have been manipulated to ensure the success of only a fraction of the population at the expense of the rest of us. Read by Ann Reed.
America’s Great Game, Nonfiction by Hugh Wilford, 2013. 15 Br. Begins November 18.Though it seems the CIA makes relations between the U.S. and the Middle East troublesome, it wasn’t always that way. The earliest generation of CIA operatives was actually the region’s staunchest western ally. Read by Leila Poullada.
Night Journey, Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
In Doubt, Fiction by Drusilla Campbell, 2014. 8 Br. Begins November 3. Because she needs the money, Defense Attorney Sophie Giraudo reluctantly takes on the case of a teenager named Donny who is accused of trying to kill the governor. But she has many personal reasons, too. And she suspects Donny is not a killer. L – Read by Diane Ladenson.
The Hidden Child, Fiction by Camilla Läckberg, 2014. 19 Br. Begins November 13. When Erica Falck discovers a Nazi medal in her mother’s possessions, she resolves to find out why. When she questions one of her mother’s friends from that era, he gives evasive answers and two days later, meets a violent death. L – Read by Kristi Sullivan.
Off the Shelf, Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
The Arsonist, Fiction by Sue Miller, 2014. 13 Br. Began November 5. After working in East Africa for fifteen years, Frankie Rowley has come home to her New Hampshire village where her family has always summered. But on her first night back, a house up the road burns to the ground. Then more. And always houses of summer people. L,S – Read by Julie Bolton.
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, Fiction by Darragh McKeon, 2014. 13 Br. Begins November 24. Life in Russia seems to be business as usual, but next door in the Ukraine, a teenage boy wakes to a sky of deep crimson. In the fields, the cattle’s ears are dripping blood. Ten miles away, at the Chernobyl Power Plant, something unimaginable has happened.Read by Tom Speich.
Potpourri, Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
All the Time in the World, Nonfiction by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins, 2013. 8 Br. Began November 3. A mix of anecdotes from an array of cultures and eras, Jessica Kerwin Jenkins brings us forgotten treasures of the past to inspire a passion for good living in the present. Read by Holly Sylvester.
Careless People, Nonfiction by Sarah Churchwell, 2014. 13 Br. Begins November 13. In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald had just finished his fourth book. Living in New York, he lived among the glamorous and reckless. The city was bursting with an expanding economy and growing ambitions. It was also a year known for a horrific murder. L – Read by Ann Hoedeman.
Good Night Owl, Monday – Friday midnight
The Day of Atonement, Fiction by David Liss, 2014. 13 Br. Began November 5. In 1755, Sebastian Foxx arrives in Lisbon. Born Sebastião Raposa, his parents were abducted by the Inquisition. Now trained in the arts of coercion, Sebastian has return to repay old debts and to find the man who killed his father. V – Read by Don Lee.
Cataract City, Fiction by Craig Davidson, 2014. 12 Br. Begins November 24. Owen Stuckey and Duncan Diggs long to escape Niagara Falls, but are caught in their competing love for one woman. When Duncan descends into a world of greyhound races, bare-knuckle brawls, and smuggling, both men must survive the wilderness beyond the city. L – Read by Greg Olson.
After Midnight, Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.
House of Secrets, Fiction by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini, 2013. 13 Br. Begins November 13. Brendan, Eleanor, and Cordelia Walker saw their lives change when the family moved into a house once the home of occult novelist Denver Kristoff. By the time they realize there were sinister plans, they are banished to a primeval forest off the grid. Read by Don Gerlach.
Abbreviations: V – violence, L – offensive language, S – sexual situations
