07/31/2017
Radio Talking Book
Radio News
August, 2017
Radio Supervisor Stuart Holland retires
Radio Talking Book supervisor Stuart Holland began working for the department in September, 1975, and has been the supervisor of the radio since 2000. September 5, his last day at SSB, there will be an open house for him from 3 to 6 p.m. All are invited.
Minority Languages Available
There are now recordings available in 4 minority languages on the RTB’s Archive page. The languages are Spanish, Somali, Hmong, and Russian, and you can hear them by clicking on the appropriate button on that page. Call the station for your password to the site.
Weekend Program Books
Your Personal World (Saturday at 1 p.m.) is airing Living from the Center Within, by Michele Rae; For the Younger Set (Sunday at 11 a.m.) is airing The Jumbies, by Tracey Baptiste; Poetic Reflections (Sunday at noon) is airing When We Were Birds, by Joe Wilkins; The Great North (Sunday at 4 p.m.) is airing Warrior Nation: A History of the Red Lake Ojibwe, by Anton Treuer.
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.
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Chautauqua
Tuesday – Saturday 4 a.m.
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Words on the Move, Nonfiction by John McWhorter, 2016. 9 Br. Began July 26. Language is always changing and we tend not to like that. It seems as if the language is deteriorating before our eyes. But the truth is different and less scary – the English language has always been in motion. L - Read by Parichay Rudina.
Smarter Faster Better, Nonfiction by Charles Duhigg, 2016. 11 Br. Begins August 8. The most productive people, companies, and organizations don’t merely act differently. They view the world, and their choices, in profoundly different ways.
Read by Stevie Ray.
A Portable Cosmos, Nonfiction by Alexander Jones, 2017. 14 Br. Begins August 23. A device found on a ship wrecked off the Greek coast around 60 B.C. is the oldest analog computer in the world. Only recently, though, has it been pieced together how it works and all that it could do. Read by Mike Piscitelli.
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Past is Prologue
Monday – Friday 9 a.m.
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The Winter Fortress, Nonfiction by Neal Bascomb, 2016. 15 Br. Began July 17. In 1942, the N***s were poised to develop the atomic bomb. The ingredient they needed was only produced in one plant in Norway, a castle fortress on the edge of a gorge. It took a scientist-turned-spymaster to arrange the operation that ended its development.
Read by Judith Johannessen.
Never a Dull Moment, Nonfiction by David Hepworth, 2016. 12 Br. Begins August 7. 1971 saw an unrepeatable surge of musical creativity, technological innovation, ambition, and good fortune that combined to produce music that still crackles with relevance today. L -
Read by Tom Speich.
How the Post Office Created America, Nonfiction by Winifred Gallagher, 2016. 11 Br. Begins August 23. The postal service had a surprising role in our nation’s political, social, economic, and physical development. Still one of the country’s two major civilian employers, it was the first to hire women, African Americans, and other minorities.
Read by Michele Potts.
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Bookworm
Monday – Friday 11 a.m.
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An Irish Country Love Story, Fiction by Patrick Taylor, 2016. 15 Br. Began July 17. There is love in Ballybucklebo. Love between couples, love of a pensioner for his missing dog, and Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly’s love for his longtime home. Read by Trish Barry.
Before the War, Fiction by Fay Weldon, 2017. 10 Br. Begins August 7. Plain, intelligent, but also wealthy, Vivien is predicted to be a spinster. But she has a plan. She is going to ask for the hand of a handsome man who works for her father. Read by Michelle Juntunen.
Bottomland, Fiction by Michelle Hoover, 2016. 10 Br. Begins August 21. The Hess family attempts to weather the xenophobia after World War I. When the youngest two daughters vanish, they must piece together what happened.
Read by Connie Jamison.
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The Writer’s Voice
Monday – Friday 2 p.m.
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The Six, Nonfiction by Laura Thompson, 2016. 14 Br. Began July 19. The Mitford sisters were the “bright young things” of London society of the ’20s and ‘30s. As Fascism crept over Europe, their differences reflected the political extremes of the era. RE - Read by Esmé Evans.
Casanova, Nonfiction by Laurence Bergreen, 2017. 25 Br. Begins August 8. Casanova became a writer, libertine, and self-invented genius. His birthplace, Venice, was the most debauched city in Europe and Casanova would only enhance that reputation. S - Read by Pat Muir.
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Choice Reading
Monday – Friday 4 p.m.
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The Other Einstein, Fiction by Marie Benedict, 2016. 10 Br. Began July 24. Mileva Maric was always different from other girls, excelling in math and physics at university. But then fellow student Albert Einstein took an interest in her. Is there room for more than one genius in a marriage? Read by Jessica Banks.
A Little More Human, Fiction by Fiona Maazel, 2017. 13 Br. Begins August 7. On weekends, Phil is the superhero Brainstorm, a cover for his ability to read minds. But after a night of drinking, photos show that he assaulted a woman and his gifts fail him. Read by Robb Empson.
Don’t Tell Me You’re Afraid, Fiction by Giuseppe Catozzella, 2016. 7 Br. Begins August 24. Samia was set on representing Somalia as a runner in the Olympics. But as war raged and political tensions escalated, it looked less and less likely. RE - Read by Susan Niefeld.
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PM Report
Monday – Friday 8 p.m.
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To Protect and Serve, Nonfiction by Norm Stamper, 2016. 12 Br. Begins August 3. There has been a vast increase in police aggression, misconduct, and militarization. Our police officers have grown more and more alienated from the people they’ve been hired to serve. Read by John Demma.
The Blood of Emmett Till, Nonfiction by Timothy B. Tyson, 2017. 10 Br. Begins August 21. In 1955, white men in the Mississippi Delta lynched a fourteen-year-old from Chicago named Emmett Till. What led to Emmett’s death was a fabricated tale. Read by Stevie Ray.
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Night Journey
Monday – Friday 9 p.m.
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Traces of Guilt, Fiction by Dee Henderson, 2016. 12 Br. Began July 20. Evie Blackwell is helping launch a task force on unsolved crimes. She’ll be working with the sheriff on the most troubling missing person cases, and she finds surprising connections. Read by Laura Young.
Every Man a Menace, Fiction by Patrick Hoffman, 2016. 10 Br. Begins August 7. Raymond is sent by his boss to check on an erratic dealer; a middle-man in Miami has fallen in love; and someone in Bangkok is about to make a dangerous phone call. L - Read by Neil Bright.
The Hanged Man, Fiction by Gary Inbinder, 2016. 10 Br. Begins August 21. Inspector Achille Lefebvre is looking forward to a summer holiday from Paris when a shocking new case interferes. He is drawn into an underworld of international intrigue, espionage, and terrorism.
Read by Rachael Freed.
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Off the Shelf
Monday – Friday 10 p.m.
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The Wangs vs. the World, Fiction by Jade Change, 2016. 14 Br. Begins August 3. Charles Wang has made a fortune in the U.S. but the financial crisis has ruined him. He wants to get the family back to China, but others have different ideas. L,S – Read by Sue McDonald.
The Vanishing Year, Fiction by Kate Moretti, 2016. 11 Br. Begins August 23. Zoe seems to have a charmed life with the finest of everything. People don’t know that five years ago, her life was in danger and she wasn’t Zoe at all. L - Read by Myrna Smith.
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Potpourri
Monday – Friday 11 p.m.
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All the Things That I’ve Done, Nonfiction by Matt Pinfield, 2016. 8 Br. Begins August 2. Matt Pinfield is the ultimate music fan. Rock music inspired his career, fueled relationships, and sometimes became his life raft. In his memoir he shares his five decades of stories from the front lines of rock ‘n’ roll. L - Read by Dan Sadoff.
The Story of Hebrew, Nonfiction by Lewis Glinert, 2017. 10 Br. Begins August 14. Hebrew has had an extraordinary hold on Jews and Christians who invested it with a symbolic power beyond any other language in history.
Read by Rachael Freed.
Humble Roots, Nonfiction by Hannah Anderson, 2016. 6 Br. Begins August 28. Hannah Anderson meditates on the pursuit of peace and its natural companion, humility. She reveals how cultivating humility – not scheduling or increased productivity – leads to true peace.
Read by June Prange.
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Good Night Owl
Monday – Friday midnight
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Good on Paper, Fiction by Rachel Cantor, 2016. 9 Br. Began July 25. Shira’s life has stalled. A single mom, living with her daughter and her gay friend Ahmad, she’s waiting for a job as a translator when her big break comes. But the work is impossible to translate. L - Read by Mary Hall.
Ni****ne, Fiction by Nell Zink, 2016. 10 Br. Begins August 7. When Penny’s dad dies, she decides to fix up her father’s childhood home in New Jersey. She finds it full of squatters, and one of them she falls in love with. L,S - Read by Toni McNaron.
Enigma Variations, Fiction by André Aciman, 2017. 12 Br. Begins August 21. Paul’s loves are as consuming and covetous in adulthood as they were in his teens. His hopes, denials, fears, and regrets are always ready to lay their traps. S -
Read by Arlan Dohrenburg.
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After Midnight
Tuesday – Saturday 1 a.m.
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Deja Who, Fiction by Mary Janice Davidson, 2016. 9 Br. Begins August 4. Leah is an Insighter and reincarnation is her business. You can’t arrest someone for murder if he killed in his last life. But you can spot them and watch them.
Read by Carol McPherson.
The Family Plot, Fiction by Cherie Priest, 2016. 11 Br. Begins August 17. Dahlia is in charge of the salvage of the Withrow estate. But Augusta Withrow left a lot unsaid about it. The property is empty, but it isn’t abandoned. Something inside is angry and lost. L - Read by Anne Obst.
Abbrev.: V – violence, L – offensive lang., S - sexual situations, RE – racial epithets.
The Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library (MBTBL), located in Faribault, Minnesota, provides direct library service to pre-school age children to seniors with visual, physical and reading disabilities for whom conventional print is a barrier to reading.
