Radio News
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Radio Talking Book Radio News November 2006 |
Current Edition: December 2006
Next Edition: January 2007
Previous News Editions: January 2006, February 2006, March 2006, April 2006, May 2006, June 2006, July 2006, August 2006, September 2006, October 2006, November 2006
Accessible Voting
In Minnesota last year, legislation was passed which stated “each polling place must have voting equipment that treats every voter in the state equally by permitting every voter to vote independently and privately.” The state of Minnesota chose to use the AutoMARK Voting Machine. Trainings were held at various times and locations throughout the summer, and the first real use of the AutoMARK was during the September primaries.
The machines can display ballot options in large print, or be used in conjunction with headphones for an auditory read-out of ballot options. Users of the AutoMARK mark their choices on the same optical-scan ballots other voters use.
The system is not perfect; the AutoMARK is probably not useable for a person who is deaf and unable to read the large print ballot, and it’s still necessary to have some motor skills to feed the marked ballot into the optical scanner. But for most users, it is an opportunity to vote your choices privately and without assistance.
Jennifer Dunnam, Chairperson of the State Rehabilitation Council for the Blind, and a user of the AutoMARK unit, said, "it’s easy to use; exciting that I don't have to tell someone how I want to vote." Every polling place is supposed to have one AutoMARK Voting Machine. Use it to vote this month!
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/.
Chautauqua
Tuesday - Saturday 4 a.m.
Rousseau’s Dog
Nonfiction by David Edmonds and John Eidinow, 2006.
In 1766, Rousseau was on the run from intolerance. He took refuge in England with David Hume, but the two became deadly foes.
Read by Bill McNiff.
11 broadcasts. Began October 25.
The Great Transformation
Nonfiction by Karen Armstrong, 2006.
In the 9th century BCE, peoples of four regions of the civilized world created the religious and philosophical traditions that nourish us today.
Read by John Mandeville.
23 broadcasts. Begins November 9.
Past is Prologue
Monday - Friday 9 a.m.
The Colony
Nonfiction by John Tayman, 2006.
The Molokai leper colony opened in 1866. Over the next hundred years, 8,000 were sent there with little food, medicine, or hope.
Read by Fred Lyon.
20 broadcasts. Began October 30.
Stalin’s Folly
Nonfiction by Constantine Pleshakov, 2005.
When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, Stalin had been warned of the invasion but refused to believe it. When it happened, he spent a week cowering in his dacha.
Read by Dan Sadoff.
12 broadcasts. Begins November 27.
Bookworm
Monday - Friday 11 a.m.
Dave Barry’s Money Secrets
Fiction by Dave Barry, 2006.
Dave Barry takes the wonder out of money, explaining the U.S. economy. L -
Read by Chris Kelly and Stuart Holland.
6 broadcasts. Began October 25.
The Inheritance of Loss
Fiction by Kiran Desai, 2006.
A judge has found the world too messy for justice and wants to retire. His family is struggling with colonialism, and global conflicts of religion, race and nationalism.
Read by Isla Hejny.
13 broadcasts. Begins November 2.
The Whistling Season
Fiction by Ivan Doig, 2006.
Rose and her brother Morris move to Montana with offers of jobs, but they soon become the local source of education.
Read by Dan Kuechenmeister.
12 broadcasts. Begins November 21.
Potpourri
Monday - Friday 2 p.m.
Fantastic
Nonfiction by Laurence Leamer, 2005.
The life of Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the most extraordinary success stories of our time. He has stepped from one incredible achievement to the next. L -
Read by Laura Kovich.
18 broadcasts. Began October 23.
Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt
Nonfiction by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart, 2006.
Alva and her husband spent large amounts of the family fortune to get to the top of New York society, and to marry their daughter to a good family.
Read by Marylyn Burridge.
22 broadcasts. Begins November 16.
Choice Reading
Monday - Friday 4 p.m.
The Book Thief
Fiction by Markus Zusak, 2006.
Liesel lives with her foster family in Nazi Germany. She steals books and shares them with neighbors and the Jewish man in her basement. L -
Read by Steve Rosenthal.
15 broadcasts. Began October 16.
The Doctor’s Daughter
Fiction by Hilma Wolitzer, 2006.
Alice Brill wakes up one day realizing something is wrong, but doesn’t know what. There is much in her life that doesn’t seem perfect - at least compared to her parents’ lives. S -
Read by Eleanor Berg.
11 broadcasts. Begins November 6.
Arthur & George
Fiction by Julian Barnes, 2006.
George was the son of a Midlands vicar; Arthur grew up in shabby genteel Edinburgh. Their lives would intertwine in a mesmerizing alliance.
Read by James Keane.
21 broadcasts. Begins November 21.
PM Report
Monday - Friday 8 p.m.
State of War
Nonfiction by James Risen, 2006.
Beneath the surface events of the Bush presidency lies a secret history that involves domestic spying, abuses of power, and outrageous operations.
Read by Hugh Jones.
10 broadcasts. Began October 23.
Three Cups of Tea
Nonfiction by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, 2006. In 1993, Pakistani villagers nursed Greg Mortenson back to health after a failed climbing attempt. He vowed to come back and build the village a school.
Read by Scott Ford.
17 broadcasts. Begins November 6.
Absolute Convictions
Nonfiction by Eyal Press, 2006.
The son of an abortion provider looks at both sides of the culture clash that envelops his father’s life. In 1998, one of his father’s colleagues was slain by an anti-abortion activist. The extreme action was a result of heightened passions on both sides.
Read by Fred Lyon.
13 broadcasts. Begins November 29.
Night Journey
Monday - Friday 9 p.m.
The Sacred Cut
Fiction by David Hewson, 2006.
At the Pantheon, a dead woman has a carving in her back. One of the agents has a story tying her to the killer. V,L -
Read by Neil Bright.
16 broadcasts. Began October 16.
Sunstroke
Fiction by Jesse Kellerman, 2006.
Searching for her missing boss, Gloria finds signs her boss is not the man she thought she knew. L - Read by Judy McGuigan.
14 broadcasts. Begins November 7.
Dirty Blonde
Fiction by Lisa Scottoline, 2006.
Cate Fante is a federal judge with a double life. A high-profile case uncovers her secrets and her career hangs in tatters. L,S,
Read by Pat Kovel-Jarboe.
11 broadcasts. Begins November 27.
Off the Shelf
Monday - Friday 10 p.m.
A Long Way Down
Fiction by Nick Hornby, 2005.
It’s New Year’s Eve. Four strangers find themselves on the top of a building, ready to jump. L -
Read by Judy Woodward.
9 broadcasts. Began October 24.
Afterlands
Fiction by Steve Heighton, 2006.
In 1871, nineteen men, women and children spent six months of winter on an ice floe, struggling to survive. S -
Read by Ray Christensen.
15 broadcasts. Begins November 6.
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits
Fiction by Ayelet Waldman, 2006.
Emilia’s loss of a baby is made more complicated with the presence of her stepson. L,S -
Read by Karen Wertz.
10 broadcasts. Begins November 27.
Evening Odyssey
Monday - Friday 11 p.m.
Lunar Park
Fiction by Bret Easton Ellis, 2005.
Bret’s celebrity drowns in a sea of drugs and booze. When he gets a second chance, his new life shatters in days. As he struggles to defend his family against a menace, all insist that his fears are rooted in substance abuse and egomania. L,S -
Read by John Edmunds.
13 broadcasts. Began October 16.
The Attack
Fiction by Yasmina Khadra, 2006.
Dr. Amin Jaafari is a respected Arab surgeon in Tel Aviv. When it is learned that his wife was a suicide bomber, he is torn between memories of her, and the realization that she had a separate life he’d never known. V,L -
Read by Dan Sadoff.
8 broadcasts. Begins November 2.
In the Company of the Courtesan
Fiction by Sarah Dunant, 2006.
The courtesan Fiammetta and her dwarf companion Bucino escape the sacking of Rome in 1527, and head for Venice. They make the perfect partnership. But their rising fortunes are threatened on several fronts. L,S -
Read by Bonita Sindelir.
15 broadcasts. Begins November 14.
Good Night Owl
Monday - Friday midnight
With No One as Witness
Fiction by Elizabeth George, 2005.
When a teen boy’s nude body is found mutilated, it is the fourth such killing. The killer seems to be a psychopath who does not intend to be stopped. New Scotland Yard puts Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley to work on the case. L -
Read by Madeline Hamermesh.
27 broadcasts. Began October 16.
Skinner’s Drift
Fiction by Lisa Fugard, 2006.
When Eva’s father is dying, she returns to South Africa where he had farmed. Ten years before, she fled for the United States, keeping her memories and her father’s secrets private. Now she must come to terms with her family’s violent past. L -
Read by Judy Woodward.
10 broadcasts. Begins November 22.
After Midnight
Tuesday - Saturday 1 a.m.
Passarola Rising
Fiction by Azhar Abidi, 2006.
In 1731, Bartolomeu built an airship to escape the strictures of the Church and Portugal’s stultifying climate.
Read by Richard Klein.
5 broadcasts. Began October 30.
It Happened One Autumn
Fiction by Lisa Kleypas, 2005.
Four young ladies enter London society with one goal: to use their feminine wit and wiles to find a husband. So they band together, and a husband-hunting scheme is born. S -
Read by Barbara Morison.
12 broadcasts. Begins November 6.
Solstice Wood
Fiction by Patricia A. McKillip, 2006.
Sylvia’s grandmother requests she come home, and she does, in spite of the woods near there that both beguiled and frightened her. When she meets the Fiber guild, she learns why her grandmother watches her.
Read by Katja Amyx.
8 broadcasts. Begins November 22.
Abbreviation Code:
V - violence
L - rough language
S - sexual situation