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Tag Archives: Talking Books
New Book Available on BARD!
“No Time on My Hands“ by Grace Snyder is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
Snyder grew up on the high plains of Custer County, Nebraska and lived in the western Nebraska all her life. This book serves as her autobiography, a full life in which, “I have been blessed by having no time on my hands.”
“Snyder’s lengthy narrative is filled with humorous incidents, and she rarely fails to see a light side to even the most dreary event. Still the pathos comes through. . . . We realize Snyder’s importance as a folk artist, an outstanding quilter whose work was shown all over the country.”
Denver Post
TBBS borrowers can request “No Time on My Hands,” DBC01997, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Book Available on BARD!
“The Saga of Hugh Glass: Pirate, Pawnee, and Mountain Man“ by John Myers Myers is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
This title relates the adventures of Hugh Glass, who was by turns a pirate, a captive of the Pawnee, and a mountain man who dragged himself 2,000 miles after being left to die in the wilderness.
“There is no story like it in all literature and in all history. . . . The greatest and truest hero of all time was once a buckskin man living on the American frontier. Mr. Myers has done a fine job of scholarly research. He offers many new insights as to the true character of the mountain man. And the bibliography is alone worth the price of admission.”
Frederick Manfred, Chicago News
TBBS borrowers can request “The Saga of Hugh Glass“, DBC01996, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Summer Book Available on BARD!
“Jack and Noah’s Big Day: The Summer When Everything Happened Just Like No One Had Imagined” by Jay Patrick Slagle has been recorded by our Talking Book and Braille Service and is perfect for summer!
Best friends Jack and Noah are facing what promises to be a long boring summer. They decide that Jack needs the world’s greatest birthday party, for which they will need to raise a lot of money. As fundraisers, they start a summer camp, staff a slushie stand, and try to sell glow-in-the-dark necklaces at the city’s July 4th fireworks show. Along the way, a house is blown up; there are visits by police, foremen, and news reporters; and an elephant marches down the driveway.
TBBS borrowers can request “Jack and Noah’s Big Day,” DBC01984, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Autobiography Available on BARD!
“Behind the 8-Ball“ by Nebraska author Tom Frye is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
“This is the story behind all of my stories, starting from when I was a kid growing up in Havelock and moving on through the 45 years I spent in the field of youth work. I may have a wild imagination, but this one is non-fiction and filled with true stories of my life and times.”
Author, Tom Frye
TBBS borrowers can request “Behind the 8-Ball,” DBC01988, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
“Becker’s Farm” Now Available on BARD!
“Becker’s Farm: A Novel” by William Timmons is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
World War II prisoner of war Helmut Sommerfield is interned at a small POW camp in western Nebraska. He soon earns the good will of surrounding farmers as he puts his mechanical skills to work repairing farm equipment. Their admiration for him deepens after Helmut is severely burned while rescuing two farmers trapped in a burning barn. One of the farmers, a recluse, dies, giving rise to a plot to swap Helmut’s identity for the deceased farmer. His chance for a new life is threatened by an escaping POW who knows Helmut’s true identity.
TBBS borrowers can request “Becker’s Farm,” DBC01999, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
2023 One Book One Nebraska Selection available on BARD!
“The Mystery of Hunting’s End” by Mignon G. Eberhart has been recorded by our Talking Book and Braille Service!
Smack in the middle of the Nebraska Sand Hills is Hunting’s End, a weekend lodge owned by the rich Kingery family. Socialite Matil Kingery invites a strange collection of guests — the same people who were at the lodge when her father died of “heart failure” exactly five years ago. She intends to find out which one of them murdered him.
This title has been selected as the 2023 One Book One Nebraska. This dynamic program cultivates a culture of reading and discussion in our state by bringing our diverse state together around one great book by a Nebraska author.
TBBS borrowers can request “The Mystery of Hunting’s End,” DBC02012, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Book Available on BARD!
“Haven’s Wake” by Ladette Randolph is now available on cartridge and download on BARD!
When Haven Grebel dies following a tractor accident on his Nebraska farm, his Mennonite family gathers for the funeral service. Widow Elsa, estranged son Jonathan, and the rest of the family must navigate love, loyalty, and long-buried secrets.
“Haven’s Wake is about memory and silence, and about secrets and the fear of them. But above all, it’s a tale of love and loyalty. At the very heart of this deeply heartfelt novel is the story of the restorative power of family and tradition.”
Timothy Schaffert
This novel is part of the Flyover Fiction series and is listed on the 150 Greatest Nebraska Books list — a list that represents the best literature produced from Nebraska during the past 150 years.
TBBS borrowers can request “Haven’s Wake,” DBC01896, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
William Kloefkorn Book Available on BARD!
“This Death by Drowning” by Nebraska author William Kloefkorn has been recorded by our Talking Book and Braille Service!
“Is there any human corner left to illuminate? To surprise? Absolutely, as these wondrous recollections by poet Kloefkorn prove. This slim volume is filled with provocative perceptions garnered from daily life. . . . After the last line, readers will turn back to page one and start again, slowly.”
Publisher’s Weekly
“This Death by Drowning” serves as Kloefkorn’s personal memoir. It is an artfully assembled collection of reminiscences having to do with water and is listed on the 150 Greatest Nebraska Books list — a list that represent the best literature produced from Nebraska during the past 150 years.
TBBS borrowers can request “This Death by Drowning,” DBC02002, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Nebraska Book on BARD!
“Welcome to Pallywonkersville: My Irreverent, but Humorous, Memories of Growing up in Rural Nebraska” by Nebraska author David Hunt is available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
Hunt shares humorous stories about growing up in Palisade, Nebraska, (population 350), which he refers to as Pallywonkersville. Family, friends, and pranks fill these vignettes of small-town life.
TBBS borrowers can request “Welcome to Pallywonkersville,” DBC01990, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Book available on BARD!
“Not by the Sword: How a Cantor and His Family Transformed a Klansman“ by Kathryn Watterson is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
“Watterson has written one of the most powerful, painful, yet healing stories about our most explosive issue: race. Her book [Not by the Sword] is not only literally true but also symbolically true for us as people — if we acknowledge and transform who and what we are.”
Cornel West, author of “Race Matters”
Grand Dragon of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Nebraska, Larry Trapp was a wheelchair-bound amputee who led a campaign of fear against Jews and other minorities from his cramped apartment in Lincoln. After receiving death threats from Larry, Cantor Michael Weisser and his wife Julie extended friendship to him and later offered to take him into their home. Larry renounced all ties to the Klan, began working with youth groups to educate them about the danger of racist ideology, and, before dying from kidney disease, even converted to Judaism.
TBBS borrowers can request “Not by the Sword,” DBC01995, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
“In Cold Storage” on BARD!
“In Cold Storage: Sex and Murder on the Plains” by Nebraska author James W. Hewitt is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD!
“In 1973 the small southwest Nebraska railroad town of McCook became the unlikely scene of a grisly murder. More than forty years later, author James W. Hewitt returns to the scene and unearths new details about what happened.”
Book Jacket
James W. Hewitt is president of the Friends of the Center for Great Plains Studies and was an adjunct professor of history at Nebraska Wesleyan University and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is the author of “Slipping Backward: A History of the Nebraska Supreme Court” (Nebraska, 2007).
TBBS borrowers can request “In Cold Storage,” DBC01892, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Nebraska Memoir on BARD!
“Our Life Our Way: A Memoir of Active Faith, Profound Love, and Courageous Disability Rights” by Nebraska author William L. Rush and Christine F. Robinson is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD.!
“Our Life Our Way, A Memoir of Active Faith, Profound Love, and Courageous Disability Rights explores an extraordinary love story grown out of engagement with both disability rights advocacy and Christian faith communities. This important memoir contains thoughtful, often-entertaining, and sometimes heart-wrenching anecdotes of a couple’s journey to create their profoundly intimate relationship and Christian marriage, in a world not yet ready for them.”
Book Jacket
This memoir was written by a husband and wife, and is narrated by Christine Robinson, it is the sequel to Rush’s autobiography, “Journey Out of Silence,” which is also available on BARD and cartridge.
TBBS borrowers can request “Our Life Our Way,” DBC01986, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Nebraska Book Available on BARD!
“Journey Out of Silence: An Autobiography” by Nebraska author William L. Rush is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD.!
Bill Rush’s exceptional journey continues to encourage and inspire all who aspire to live fully and contribute to society. Bill lived with a significant disability of quadriplegic cerebral palsy. He did not have use of his arms, hands or voice. Society’s prejudices proved to be a greater obstacle than his disability in attaining his first life’s goal of completing college. William (Bill) L. Rush chronicled his extraordinary life from childhood until graduation from the University of Nebraska -Lincoln in Journey Out of Silence, first published in 1986.”
Book Jacket
This humble and uplifting autobiography is a window into the world of people with disabilities. It’s narrated by Scott Scholz, who is a past director of Talking Book and Braille Service at the Nebraska Library Commission.
TBBS borrowers can request “Journey Out of Silence: An Autobiography,” DBC 01985, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
Roger Welsch Book Added to BARD!
“It’s Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See It From Here: Tales of the Great Plains” by Nebraska author Roger Welsch has been recorded by our Talking Book and Braille Service!
“In this rather slight collection of monologues, stories and essays, Welsch–a regular on CBS’s Charles Kuralt show, a columnist and collector of Great Plains lore–celebrates small-town America’s leisurely pace, human scale and the ordinary man or woman who “moves mankind and shapes destiny.”
Publisher’s Weekly
The book is a collection of stories which demonstrate that small-town Nebraska life is filled with color and variety, ideas and humor, wit and warmth. Some pieces are short narratives; others are descriptions of characters. The book was previously recorded in the TBBS studios and has been reformatted for national distribution.
TBBS borrowers can request “It’s Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See It From Here,” DBC 01987, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. Another Welsch title available for download is “Mister, You Got Yourself a Horse: Tales of Old-time Horse Trading,” DBC 13621. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
New Book on BARD!
Just in Time for the Holidays!
One of the first works by Willa Cather has been recorded by our Talking Book and Braille Service! “The Burglar’s Christmas” was originally published in the December 1896 issue of The Home Monthly under the pseudonym Elizabeth L Seymour.
“William Crawford has failed at one enterprise after another. No job, no money, no food, he desperately decides to try being a thief – and gets caught. “
This is a short but powerful read, just right for the holidays. TBBS borrowers can request “The Burglar’s Christmas,” DBC 01980, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
NLC Staff: Meet Amy Irons
Questions and Answers with Talking Book and Braille Circulation Technician, Amy Irons. She started working with the NLC in August of 2019. Take a few minutes and get to know her better with a few fun questions!
What was the last thing you googled?
Horse Creek Adventures
What advice would you give your 21 year old self?
It’s okay if you don’t have it figured out yet
What’s your ideal vacation?
Mountains and forest
What do you do to relax?
Art: paint, draw, sew, cross stitch
Describe your first car?
A 1987 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser Station Wagon with wood paneling. It was white and her name was Billy
What was the first concert you remember attending?
All for One at the Nebraska State Fair
What movie can you watch over and over again?
Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping, The Princess Bride
What was the last book you read?
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
What was the last movie you watched?
Birds of Prey
What is your proudest handyman moment?
I installed ceiling fans
Three words that describe you?
Weird, silly, and kind
What smell brings back great memories?
Pine trees and Christmas
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
The power to heal
What’s the last thing you do before you got to bed?
Make the rounds in my house to make sure all the doors and windows are locked and then snuggle with my dog
Do you have any tattoos?
Yes – seven
What is your favorite comfort food when you are sick?
Miso soup
What words or phrases do you overuse?
She was not fragile like a flower, she was fragile like a bomb
What’s your most treasured possession?
My son – Bodhi – age 11
What posters did you have on your wall as a kid?
Lisa Frank’s unicorns and dolphins
Do you love or hate rollercoasters?
Love
Do you have any pets?
One fat unruly cat named Girl Girl and a dog named Cora who is the sweetest girl that ever lived.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Taco Bell
Favorite technology you could not live without?
The Internet
If you could get rid of one holiday – which one would you abolish?
Columbus Day
If you could only eat one kind of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Sushi
If you could call anyone in the world and have a one-hour conversation, what would you call?
Lizzo
What do you get every time you go to the grocery store?
Mio
NLC Staff: Meet Matt Hier
Questions and Answers with NLC’s Audio Production Studio Manager, Matt Hier. He started working with the NLC in our Talking Book & Braille Department in October 2019. Take a few minutes and get to know him better with a few fun questions!
What was the last thing you googled?
I was unfamiliar with shoepeg corn that appeared in a recipe
What’s your ideal vacation?
Traveling to cities – New York, Chicago, and Seattle are my favorites
What do you do to relax?
Curl up with a cup of coffee and a good book
Describe your first car?
Red 1989 Ford Probe
If I weren’t working in a library, I’d be …
Working in a radio station
What was the first concert you remember attending?
Sweet 98’s Sweetstock at Westfair Amphitheater in Council Bluffs
What movie can you watch over and over again?
Back to the Future
What was the last book you read?
Normal People by Sally Rooney
What was the last movie you watched?
The Matrix
What is a quote you live by?
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Three words that describe you?
Reserved, hardworking, and empathetic
What smell brings back great memories?
Scents of fall: apple cider, caramel corn at a pumpkin patch, cinnamon
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
To fly
What’s the last thing you do before you got to bed?
Read
If you had a warning label, what would it say?
Less cranky than appears
Do you have any tattoos?
No, I’m not opposed to them but I am indecisive and would almost certainly regret my decision
What is your favorite comfort food?
Mac and cheese
What words or phrases do you overuse?
Fantastic
On what occasion do you lie?
Only when it will hurt someone’s feelings if I tell the truth and it does not matter
Do you love or hate rollercoasters?
I love theme parks but not giant rollercoasters
Do you have any pets?
No
What is your guilty pleasure?
80’s pop music
Favorite technology you could not live without?
Streaming television shows and movies
If you could get rid of one holiday – which one would you abolish?
4th of July because I don’t like loud noises
If you could only eat one kind of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Italian food
If you could call anyone in the world and have a one-hour conversation, who would you call?
Michael J. Fox
What do you get every time you go to the grocery store?
Frozen pizza
NLC Staff: Meet Holly Atterbury
Questions and Answers with NLC Reader’s Advisor, Holly Atterbury. She started working with the NLC in our Talking Book & Braille Department in August 2018. Take a few minutes and get to know her better with a few fun questions!
Last thing you googled?
Nebraska Primary
What’s your ideal vacation?
Driving up the Pacific West Coast Highway in Oregon, staying in cabins in state parks.
What do you do to relax?
Embroidery – right now working on something my grandmother started to give to my mom for her upcoming birthday.
If I weren’t working in a library, I’d be …
in school to become a professor teaching Creative Writing
What movie you can watch over and over again?
Mad Max: Fury Road
What was the last book you read?
Underland by Robert Macfarlane
What was the last movie you watched?
The Half of It
Three words that describe you?
Funny, charismatic, and interesting
What smell brings back great memories?
An early summer morning with dew on the grass and a cool breeze – this reminds me of my childhood
If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Shapeshifting
What’s the last thing you do before you go to bed?
Pet my cats
If you had a warning label, what would it say?
Caution – may contain many tangents
Do you have any tattoos?
Not yet
What is your favorite comfort food when you’re sick?
Chicken noodle soup
What’s your most treasured possession?
I love my 1988 Ford Ranger truck with almost 400,000 miles on it (the engine was rebuilt!).
What posters did you have on your wall as a kid?
Art posters of dragons, dolphins, and wolves
Do you love or hate rollercoasters?
I have a love/hate relationship with roller coasters – because I almost passed out on a roller coaster once
Do you have any pets?
Two cats – Bourbon and Edgar
What is your guilty pleasure?
Reality TV dating shows
Favorite technology you could not live without?
My cell phone
If you could get rid of one holiday, which one would you abolish?
Arbor Day and Columbus Day
If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Oreo Milkshakes
What do you get every time you go to the grocery store?
Cheese
#BookFaceFriday “Let’s Be Reasonable”
This is a #BookFaceFriday to make Grant Wood proud.
Is there anything more iconic Midwestern than American Gothic? We got the chance to create our own with this week’s #BookFace selection “Let’s Be Reasonable” by Joel Sartore (Unversity of Nebraska Press, 2011). That’s the Nebraska photographer/author himself on the book cover with his wife Kathy. If you’re not familiar with this book of short essays and photography, you should really change that. It’s a must read.
“For this collection of essays and images, photojournalist Santore drew on various subjects encountered in his travels on assignment for CBS Sunday Morning and National Geographic magazine. By turns quirky, candid, whimsical and moving, they cover a wide range of topics, including endangered species, the power of laughter, state-fair food, mud, money, conspicuous consumption, and his own life and family at home in Nebraska.”—Neil Pond, American Profile(Neil Pond American Profile 2011-09-05)
We pulled this from our Talking Book & Braille (TBBS) collection. It was recorded by NLC in 2016, and narrated by Alice Timm. It’s a part of our collection of Nebraska books and publications made available to Nebraska TBBS customers. It was recently added to TBBS’s Duplication on Demand service. You can learn all about the new Duplication on Demand service in next week’s episode of NCompass Live: Talking Books and Duplication on Demand!
Imagine if there were no books on your library shelves, and instead books were custom-made for every patron, printed and conveniently bound together during their visit. Something along those lines is being implemented with the digital talking books circulated at the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service. Tune in to find out about the technology behind this change, and its advantages and disadvantages for patrons and staff as we begin this adventure together!
Join Scott Scholz, Director of our Talking Book and Braille Service, and Christa Porter next Wednesday, Dec. 26th at 10:00 am Central Time. Register here!
Scott also happens to be one of this week’s #BookFace models!
Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!
Talking Book & Braille Service Volunteer Celebration
The Nebraska Library Commission’s Talking Book and Braille Service celebrated the work of our volunteers at a luncheon on April 18, 2018. Volunteers are indispensable in serving Nebraskans who use Talking Books. Of the 35 active volunteers, many record magazines and books of regional interest. Others prepare national books for check out.
The Nebraska Library Commission’s Talking Book and Braille Service thanks all the volunteers who play an integral part in serving Nebraskans with disabilities. We provide free audio books and magazines and braille reading materials. Nebraskans receive reading selections through the mail or digital download. The service is available to individuals with a visual or physical condition, or a reading disability, which limits the use of regular print.
Nebraska Library Commission Director Rod Wagner presented a special recognition to three volunteers:
- Norman Simon started volunteering with Talking Book and Braille Service shortly after 9-11. He began as a narrator, went through training, and became a producer in the recording studios. During the volunteer luncheon on April 18, 2018, Rod Wagner presented Norman an Admiralship in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska in appreciation of 15 years as a volunteer with us.
- Jane Hood was recognized for five years as a volunteer narrator.
- Amy Eidenmiller’s graduation from Doane University was also celebrated. At Talking Books, she prepares a variety of materials for mailing.
For more information, see http://nlc.nebraska.gov/tbbs/. To volunteer, contact Annette Hall, Volunteer Services Coordinator, 402-471-4033, 800-742-7691, email.
