State Services for the Blind

Radio News

Radio Talking Book Radio News April 2007

Current Edition: January 2008

Previous News Editions: January 2007, February 2007, March 2007, April 2007, May 2007, June 2007, July 2007, August 2007, September 2007, October 2007, November 2007, December 2007

January 2006, February 2006, March 2006, April 2006, May 2006, June 2006, July 2006, August 2006, September 2006, October 2006, November 2006, December 2006

New from the National Library Service
The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) has been working toward a giant leap into the future with its new Digital Talking Book program. Currently, the Communication Center distributes the Cassette Talking Book machines and the Minnesota Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in Faribault distributes Talking Books on cassettes.
 
New playback equipment is being developed by NLS that will revolutionize the way you listen to books. The new Digital Talking Book (DTB) will be slightly smaller than one cassette tape, but will usually hold the entire book. The Digital Talking Book Machine (DTBM) will be a third of the size and half the weight of current cassette machines and will hold twice the battery charge. The model used by most patrons will be wonderfully simple, with no changing of sides with multiple cassettes. When a cartridge is pulled out of the machine, it will remember where you had stopped your reading and will continue from there.
 
Production of the DTBMs is scheduled to begin in 2007. The first small quantity of machines should arrive in April of 2008. It is anticipated that the transition will take at least four years. Patrons will be allowed to have both a cassette and digital machine during that time since not all books will be available in digital format. We will keep you informed as we monitor the progress of this massive undertaking.
 
Books Available Through Faribault
All books broadcast on the Minnesota Radio Talking Book Network are available through the Minnesota  Library  for  the  Blind  and Physically Handicapped in Faribault. Their phone is 800-722-0550 and hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Their catalog is also online, and you can access it at www.klas.com/mnbph . If you live outside of Minnesota, you may obtain copies of books by contacting your own state's Network Library for the National Library Service.  
 
Review old issues of Radio News on the Internet at www.mnssb.org/radionews .
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Chautauqua
Tuesday - Saturday 4 a.m.
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Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent
Nonfiction by Lyanda Lynn Haupt, 2006.
When Darwin left for the Pacific coast of South America, he was a bumbling neophyte. By the end of his adventures, he was a philosophical and skilled naturalist.
Read by June Prange.
9 broadcasts. Began March 22.

Mockingbird
Nonfiction by Charles J. Shields, 2006.
Though a dedicated writer, Harper Lee’s famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is the only one she ever published. L -
Read by James Keane.
15 broadcasts. Begins April 4.
 
The Only Game in Town
Nonfiction by Fay Vincent, 2006.
Ten great ballplayers remember the heyday of the game in the 1930s and 1940s. It was an era of great change with World War II and integration.
Read by Ray Christensen.
8 broadcasts. Begins April 25.
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Past is Prologue
Monday - Friday 9 a.m.
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Hanging Captain Gordon
Nonfiction by Ron Soodalter, 2006.
Slave trading had been illegal for 40 years before Captain Gordon’s arrest but the law hadn’t been enforced. By 1862, the tides had changed and Gordon was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Read by Steve Waldhauser.
11 broadcasts. Began March 28.

The Faiths of the Founding Fathers
Nonfiction by David L. Holmes, 2006.
Though the founding fathers were religious men, their faith was quite unlike the Christianity of today’s evangelicals.
Read by Bill McNiff.
7 broadcasts. Begins April 12.

The Race for Timbuktu
Nonfiction by Frank T. Kryza, 2006.
The lost city of Timbuktu, Africa’s legendary City of Gold, burned brightly in 19th century European imaginations. In 1824, the French Geographical Society offered a reward to the first to visit it and return.
Read by Richard Klein.
13 Broadcasts. Begins April 23.
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Bookworm
Monday - Friday 11 a.m.
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Dear John
Fiction by Nicholas Sparks, 2006.
On furlough from the army, John met Savannah Lynn, the girl of his dreams. Then came 9/11, and John was forced to choose between love and serving his country.
Read by John Marsicano.
8 broadcasts. Begins April 2.
 
The good good pig
Nonfiction by Sy Montgomery, 2006.
Always more comfortable with animals than people, Sy opened her heart to a sick piglet. When he flourished, it transformed the way she connected in her small town.
Read by Isla Hejny.
8 broadcasts. Begins April 12.
  
Rise and Shine
Fiction by Anna Quindlen, 2006.
Meghan Fitzmaurice has a perfect life. Then she reveals something on her television show that brings an end to an era for her and her younger sister. L -
Read by Marylyn Burridge.
11 broadcasts. Begins April 24.
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Potpourri
Monday - Friday 2 p.m.
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Party of the Century
Nonfiction by Deborah Davis, 2006.
Truman Capote rose to fame and fortune with In Cold Blood. Invitations to the ball he hosted were the most treasured pieces of paper in New York.
Read by Sherri Afryl.
9 broadcasts. Began March 27.

Waking
Nonfiction by Matthew Sanford, 2006.
When his father and sister were killed in an accident, Sanford was left paralyzed. His journey has been to explore what it means to be a “whole” person.
Read by Bill McNiff.
8 broadcasts. Begins April 9.

Clemente
Nonfiction by David Maraniss, 2006.
At a time when there were no blacks or Puerto Ricans in organized baseball, Roberto Clemente became the greatest Latino player in the major leagues. L -
Read by Bill Studer.
19 broadcasts. Begins April 19.
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Choice Reading
Monday - Friday 4 p.m.
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The Translation of Dr. Apelles
Fiction by David Treuer, 2006.
Dr. Apelles stumbles across an ancient manuscript in a Native American text that only he can translate. He realizes he’s made an unsettling discovery. L,S -
Read by Richard Klein.
12 broadcasts. Began March 20.
 
The Minotaur
Fiction by Barbara Vine, 2006.
Kerstin’s first private nursing job is taking care of an adult member of an aristocratic family. There is madness that runs in the family and there are mysteries in the house as well.
Read by Pat Kovel-Jarboe.
12 broadcasts. Begins April 5.
 
After This
Fiction by Alice McDermott, 2006.
The Keanes are a working-class family caught in the challenges and liberties of the 1960s. Two children experience the sexual revolution, one goes to Vietnam, one tries to stay innocent. L -
Read by Judith Johannessen.
10 broadcasts. Begins April 23.
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PM Report
Monday - Friday 8 p.m.
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American Theocracy
Nonfiction by Kevin Phillips, 2006.
Global overreach, militant religion, diminishing resources, and ballooning debt have come to define America’s political and economic identity at the start of this century. It is a fatal combination.
Read by Audray Rees.
20 broadcasts. Began March 19.

The Greatest Story Ever Sold
Nonfiction by Frank Rich, 2006.
After 9/11, Americans rallied around the new president as he went to war. But his mission was really to consolidate power.
Read by Dan Kuechenmeister.
13 broadcasts. Begins April 16.
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Night Journey
Monday - Friday 9 p.m.
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The Book of Fate
Fiction by Brad Meltzer, 2006.
Ron Boyle was supposedly assassinated. But eight years later, he’s seen alive in Malaysia. What really happened? L -
Read by John Gunter.
16 broadcasts. Began March 12.

Watch Your Back!
Fiction by Donald E. Westlake, 2005.
Thief John Dortmunder is offered a can’t-fail heist: a million-dollar robbery of an art-filled penthouse. But Dortmunder gets distracted. L -
Read by Al Apple.
9 broadcasts. Begins April 3.

The Poe Shadow
Fiction by Matthew Pearl, 2006.
After Edgar Allan Poe dies, people accept that he was a second-rate writer and drunkard. A young lawyer believes otherwise and is willing to risk his career to prove it. L -
Read by Del Adamson.
15  broadcasts. Begins April 16.
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Off the Shelf
Monday - Friday 10 p.m.
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Two Lives
Nonfiction by Vikram Seth, 2005.
Seth’s great-aunt and uncle met during World War II: an Indian studying medicine in Berlin and the daughter of his Jewish landlords.
Read by Diane Ladenson.
17 broadcasts. Began March 20.

The Night Watch
Fiction by Sarah Waters, 2006.
Though London was focused on the war in the 1940s, it didn’t keep people from having emotional inner lives. L,S -
Read by Bonita Sindelir.
18 broadcasts. Begins April 12.
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Evening Odyssey
Monday - Friday 11 p.m.
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The Keep
Fiction by Jennifer Egan, 2006.
Cousins reuniting to renovate a castle, reenact a catastrophic event from their youth with even worse catastrophic results. L -
Read by John Schmidt.
8 broadcasts. Began March 29.

Theatre of Fish
Nonfiction by John Gimlette, 2005.
Gimlette’s ancestor kept a journal of his 1893 travels through Canada. In 2002, Gimlette traced his own travels through the journal’s route. L -
Read by Barbara Struyk.
15 broadcasts. Begins April 10.
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Good Night Owl
Monday - Friday midnight
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The Last Cato
Fiction by Mathilde Asensi, 2006.
Sister Ottavia is charged to retrieve relics from around the globe. The key to finding them is within Dante’s Divine Comedy.  
Read by Laura Kovich.
20 broadcasts. Began March 12.
 
The Tender Bar
Nonfiction by J.R. Moehringer, 2005.
J.R. grew up longing for a vanished father. He substituted the men at the local bar, which became his sanctuary from failure, rejection, heartbreak and reality. L -
Read by Hugh Jones.
18 broadcasts. Begins April 9.
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After Midnight
Tuesday - Saturday 1 a.m.
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The Lies of Locke Lamora
Fiction by Scott Lynch, 2006.
Locke Lamora is an orphan under the control of a priest named Chains, a con artist who leads and protects the orphans who give him power. V,L -
Read by Benjamin Warde.
21 broadcasts. Began March 5.
 
Unplugged
Fiction by Lois Greiman, 2006.
Christina McMullen, psychologist, has problems: needy clients and an on-and-off romance. But her secretary has a problem of a missing boyfriend, and it may be murder. L -
Read by Barbara Morison.
10 broadcasts. Begins April 3.
 
Wintersmith
Fiction by Terry Pratchett, 2006.
Tiffany Aching has accomplished amazing things. But she is now 13, and the Wintersmith has a crush on her. He is winter itself and he wants her to stay with him forever. If she does, spring will never come.
Read by Judith Johannessen.
11 broadcasts. Begins April 17.

Abbreviations: V  - violence, L - rough language, S - sexual situations