Spring 2020 - Volume 55, No. 2
- Highlighting — Duplication on Demand
- Calendar - CTBL will be closed on the following days
- From the Director
- Reminder to Graduates - Service for Life
- CANCELLED - Patron Open House
- CTBL Community Reads
- Tech Talk - Apps to Aid the Visually Impaired
- Wanted — Unused playback machines & finished audio books
- Volunteers - Celebrate Service!
- Collection News - Suggestions from New Additions
- Legacy Gifts
- Contributions to the Friends of CTBL
- Amazon Smile
- How to Reach Us
Highlighting — Duplication on Demand
Last Fall we announced the change over to a new way to send books to patrons. We know it has been a challenge for some and a wonderful change for others. We appreciate your patience in learning this new way of listening to books.
The benefits of this change are:
- lots of books with no waiting for a book title
- no due dates for audio books
- privacy protection — no one can see what you are reading
You can have as many books on a cartridge as you would like. Please let a reader advisor know if you want this number changed up or down.
Just as a reminder, you keep the mail card. No need to turn it over to send the container back. The card will have the list of the books on the cartridge.
CTBL will be closed on the following days in 2020:
- May 25th
- July 3rd
- September 7th
From the Director
On March 13th we waved goodbye to Kay Loeber, our reader advisor, and wished her well on her next chapter. On March 31st we welcomed Andrea Loughry as our new Reader Advisor. She volunteered with CTBL for over 10 years working in all areas of the library — the studio, cataloging, rating unrated books and anywhere else where she was needed. Her daughter and husband are both patrons. She has varied library experience even working at the Bodleian Library for several years while living in England.
Check out the Friends of CTBL Facebook page or follow on Twitter.
Debbi
@DebbiMacLeod 
Reminder to Graduates — Service for Life
Congratulations on your graduation! We want you to know that now you have a new chapter in view, your CTBL library service will go along with you. Once you become a patron of CTBL, you have library service for the rest of your life. Just let us know your new address if you move. There is a library like CTBL in every state and we will transfer your service to your new state. If you are just going to college in another state, CTBL will still provide service.
CANCELLED - Patron Open House
The 12th Annual Patron Open House has been cancelled for this year due to the need for social distancing. We will miss the opportunity to visit with everyone in person and are hopeful we will be able to hold the Open House again in 2021.
CTBL Community Reads
Fiction Selection
The Lager Queen of Minnesota — DB095922 & PR029758
Author: J. Ryan Stradal
Narrator: Judith Ivey
Length: 11 hours, 15 minutes
** Los Angeles Times Bestseller
Two sisters, one farm. A family is split when their father leaves their shared inheritance entirely to Helen, his younger daughter. With the money, she builds a successful brewery.
Despite baking award-winning pies at the local nursing home, her older sister, Edith, struggles to make a living. She can’t help wondering what her life would have been like with even a portion of the farm money her sister kept for herself. But when Helen gets in trouble, will Edith help?
Non-Fiction Selection
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know — DB096647 & PR029812
Author and Narrator: Malcolm Gladwell
Length: 8 hours, 44 minutes
** New York Times Bestseller
How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to each other that isn’t true?
Using examples from history and recent headlines, Gladwell argues that something is very wrong with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know. And because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world.
Tech Talk — Apps to Aid the Visually Impaired
WayAround — uses an app and the Near Field Communication (NFC) reader on your phone along with tags you create to label objects around your house. For phones that don’t have NFC, WayAround sells a scanner that connects with your phone via Bluetooth. The tags are about the size of a postage stamp and can be reused. The tags can contain as much or little information as you decide to enter. For instance on clothing you can enter a description with color, style and anything else you’d like to know. Then you can also add washing instructions and other details. The app is free, but you must purchase the tags separately. WayAround website: https://www.wayaround.com/
Seeing AI — a free app that narrates the world around you. Seeing AI can read short text messages, documents, product barcodes and even handwritten text. The app can also identify people, describe the scene around you, describe a perceived color, and generate a tone that corresponds to the brightness in your surroundings. Seeing AI website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/seeing-ai
Zello — a “walkie-talkie app,” which allows users to connect with one other person or up to 1,000 people around the world through a smartphone, tablet or computer. Think of Zello as an audio version of texting and you hear the other person’s voice in real-time. Other walkie-talkie apps include HeyTell and Voxer. Zello website: https://zello.com
Wanted — Unused playback machines & finished audio books
If you have a player that you are not using, please send it back to the library so we can pass it on to another patron. Call the library if you need a post-paid mailing label.
Please send back old audio books as you finish them.
Volunteers — Celebrate Service!
Every year during April, libraries and non-profit organizations honor the people who give time and energy to support the program’s mission. There are programs in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and most European countries to celebrate the service given by so many selfless people. This year National Volunteer Appreciation Week has taken on even more significance for many programs that rely on Volunteers. Nothing makes us more aware of people supporting people than when a crisis hits unexpectantly.
This year’s theme, “Celebrate Service,” reminds us that our Volunteers come to CTBL to helps us serve our patrons. We celebrated our Volunteers with small gifts, extra treats during break time, and plenty of laughter, and thanks. We are grateful for each person who came and helped us get our books recorded, copied, cataloged, and sent out. So much happens behind-the-scenes at CTBL it is impossible to list each person and their contributions to our mission.
But, this year, we particularly want to send out a special thanks to the volunteers who made extra time to help us catch up after our building was shut-down for the gas leak. And then, what felt like just a few weeks later we had the COVID-19 virus shut down. We know this was and is frustrating for all but we appreciate your understanding and #doingmypartco.
Let's celebrate our CTBL Volunteers!
Collection News — Suggestions from New Additions
New DVDs with Descriptive Video
These videos have audio descriptions embedded in each disc. You can turn on this feature by following the directions starting at the disc’s main menu. Additional titles are available, please contact the library for more information.
DVD’s
- MD00428 — 101 Dalmatians (G)
- MD00425 — An Acceptable Loss (R)
- MD00423 — The Aftermath (R)
- MD00421 — All is True (PG-13)
- MD00409 — The Best of Enemies (PG-13)
- MD00420 — Hellboy (R)
- MD00413 — Hotel Mumbai (R)
- MD00414 — The Hustle (PG-13)
- MD00411 — Little (PG-13)
- MD00419 — Long Shot (R)
- MD00415 — Ma (R)
- MD00422 — Maiden (PG)
- MD00418 — Pokémon Detective Pikachu (PG)
- MD00430 — Ratatouille (G)
- MD00410 — Rocketman (R)
- MD00431 – 437 (6 parts) — The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
- MD00429 — Sleeping Beauty (G)
New Large Print Titles
Bestseller Fiction
- PR029758 — The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
- PR029918 — Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
- PR029897 — Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris
- PR029863 — The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- PR029927 — A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
- PR029839 — The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
- PR030065 — American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
- PR029652 — Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
- PR029911 — Normal People: A Novel by Sally Rooney
Bestseller Non-Fiction
- PR029810 — Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
- PR029831 — Inside Out: A Memoir by Demi Moore
- PR029713 — Me: Elton John Official Autobiography by Elton John
- PR029812 — Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
- PR029898 — Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary Norris
Fiction
- PR029687 — Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber
- PR029657 — Rules for Visiting: A Novel by Jessica Francis Kane
- PR029730 — The Other’s Gold by Elizabeth Ames
- PR029736 — Everything Inside: Stories by Edwidge Danticat
- PR029878 — The Warehouse by Rob Hart
Historical Fiction
- PR029905 — The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
- PR029982 — Africaville by Jeffrey Colvin
- PR029763 — A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier
- PR029728 — The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Humorous Fiction
- PR029771 — You’ve Been Volunteered: A Class Mom Novel by Laurie Gelman
- PR029772 — Honestly, We Meant Well by Grant Ginder
- PR029896 — The Great Unexpected by Dan Mooney
- PR029866 — The Helpline by Katherine Collette
Mystery & Detective Fiction
- PR029800 — Bark of Night. Andy Carpenter #19 by David Rosenfelt
- PR029891 — To the Land of Long Lost Friends. No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency #20 by Alexander McCall Smith
- PR029696 — Haunted House Murder by Leslie Meier
- PR029807 — Land of Wolves. Walt Longmire #15 by Craig Johnson
- PR029830 — Girls Like Us by Cristina Alger
Non-Fiction
- PR029813 — The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience by Hillary Rodham Clinton & Chelsea Clinton
- PR029928 — We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer
- PR029961 — Running with Sherman: The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero by Christopher McDougall
Romance
- PR029781 — Lulu’s Café by T. I. Lowe
- PR029902 — The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
- PR029789 — Alaskan Catch by Sue Pethick
- PR029842 — Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors. The Rajes #1 by Sonali Dev
- PR029908 — Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior
- PR029762 — Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
Westerns
- PR029883 — Frontier America. Preacher & MacCallister #1 by William W. Johnstone
- PR029956 — Massacre at Crow Creek Crossing: A Cole Bonner Western by Charles G. West
- PR029740 — Cheyenne Pass by Lauran Paine
- PR029984 — Yester’s Ride by C. K. Crigger
- PR029912 — Contention and Other Frontier Stories: A Five Star Anthology by Hazel Rumney
Want more large print? Call the library for a list of addition new titles
Local Author Narrates Book
Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time
Written and narrated by Adrian Miller
Miller delves into the influences, ingredients, and innovations that make up the soul food tradition. Focusing each chapter on the culinary and social history of one dish — such as fried chicken, chitlins, yams, and greens — Miller uncovers how it got on the soul food plate and what it means for African American culture and identity. Miller also discusses how soul food has become incorporated into American culture and explores its connections to identity politics, bad health raps, and healthier alternatives. Includes recipes. 2013. DBC03253
Narrator Recommended Audio Book - Colorado Collection
The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone
Authors: Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach
Narrator: Doris Ervin
In this book cognitive scientists Sloman and Fernbach argue that we survive and thrive despite our mental shortcomings because we live in a rich community of knowledge. The fundamentally communal nature of intelligence and knowledge explains why we often assume we know more than we really do, why political opinions and false beliefs are so hard to change, and why individual-oriented approaches to education and management frequently fail. But our collaborative minds also enable us to do amazing things and our true genius can be found in the ways we create intelligence using the community around us. DBC13020
From the Colorado Collection — Audio Books:
Anne Bassett: Colorado’s Cattle Queen
Author: Linda Wommack
Narrator: Andrea Loughry
Biography of Anna Marie Bassett (1878 – 1956), the first white child born in the notorious outlaw region of Colorado known as Brown’s Park. She knew outlaws such as Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and Elza Lay. This account of “Colorado’s Cattle Queen” is told largely in her own words and supported by friends and enemies alike. 2017. Adult Non-Fiction. DBC13032
Mountain Rampage. National Park Mystery; #2
Author: Scott Graham
Narrator: Joel Hinrichs
In the second installment of the National Park Mystery Series, archaeologist Chuck Bender finds himself in the crosshairs of an unknown killer when he defends his brother-in-law from false accusations of murder in the brutal slaying of a resort worker in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Some violence. 2015. Adult Fiction. DBC13059
Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir
Author: Adam Cayton-Holland
Narrator: Shawn Hertel
Unsentimental and darkly funny, this is the story of the “Magnificent Cayton-Hollands,” a trio of brilliant, acerbic teenagers from Denver, Colorado, who were going to change the world. Adam chose to meet life’s realities with stand-up comedy; his older sister, Anna, chose law; while their youngest sister, Lydia, struggled to find her place in the world. As he struggles with disturbing memories of Lydia’s death, he realizes there’s a difference between losing and losing it. Strong language and some violence. 2018. Adult Non-Fiction. DBC13048
Washington’s Providence
Author: Chris Lafata
Narrator: Joel Hinrichs
John Curry has been recruited by a time-travel company to scout the best vantage point for clients to witness the inauguration of the first President of the United States. But, when he arrives in 1789, there is no inauguration and no United States. Few people have even heard of George Washington, and the short-lived American Revolution failed presumably because Washington wasn’t alive to lead it. Some violence and some strong language. Adult Fiction. DBC12927
A Quick History of Grand Lake: Including Rocky Mountain National Park and the Grand Lake Lodge
Author: Michael M. Geary
Narrator: Moni Monismith
Located at an elevation of 8,369 feet, Grand Lake is Colorado’s largest natural body of water and has been attracting people to its shores for thousands of years. This account focuses on the people and events that have influenced the human history of Grand Lake and its immediate vicinity. 1999. Non-Fiction. DBC12928
The Man Who Thought He Owned Water: On the Brink with American Farms, Cities, and Food
Author: Tershia D’Elgin
Narrator: Patricia Jonietz
The true story of a small family farm in Colorado through the lens of the history of water policy in the state, and the science and law of water resources in the West. Through her family’s story, the author addresses the deepening need for urban-rural cooperation, dispels misconceptions, and shares essential background knowledge about farms, food, and water. Non-Fiction. DBC03282
I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be An Atheist
Author: Norman Geisler
Narrator: Laura Hatch
The authors argue that Christianity is not only more reasonable than all other belief systems, but is indeed more rational than unbelief itself. They guide readers through arguments for the existence of a creator God, as well as an examination of the source of morality and the reliability of the New Testament accounts concerning Jesus. 2004. Non-Fiction. DBC12949
The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies
Author: Jason Fagone
Narrator: Judy Early
In 1916, at the height of World War I, Elizebeth Smith was asked to apply her language skills to an exciting new venture: code-breaking. For the next forty years, Smith and her husband, groundbreaking cryptologist William Friedman, would play an integral role in American history. Smith used her genius to hunt Nazi spies, steal enemy secrets during both world wars, and help invent a powerful new science that shaped the course of history. Adult Non-Fiction. DBC13010
Leaving the Wild: The Unnatural History of Dogs, Cats, Cows, and Horses
Author: Gavin Ehringer
Narrator: Hille Dais
This book explores the ever evolving relationship between humans and domesticated animals. The domestication of animals changed the course of human history. Human values and choices determine an animal’s lot in life even before he or she is born, for good and or ill. Some violence. Adult Non-Fiction. DBC13018
Legacy Gifts
Legacy gifts to the Friends of CTBL are a vital way to ensure ongoing support for all the services the library provides to patrons. The Friends have established Eyes to the Future that honors and recognizes the generosity and vision of patrons, families and friends who have chosen to leave a legacy through their estates or other deferred gifts.
We invite you to become a member of Eyes to the Future. Enrollment in this honorary group is simply a matter of advising us about your plans to make a legacy gift, such as a bequest in a will or living trust, or designating The Friends of CTBL as beneficiary of an individual retirement plan, 401k or life insurance policy. The Friends of CTBL is a public 501 c 3 charity and the tax ID is 23-7243950.
Contributions to The Friends of the Colorado Talking Book Library and The Colorado Talking Book Library
An additional way to contribute to either the Friends or to CTBL is through a charitable bequest as part of a will or through life insurance. You do not have to rewrite your current document but can add a written amendment called a codicil. Such a bequest only becomes irrevocable at your death. Giving to the library helps support the programs and service we provide to our patrons and helps to secure the future.
AmazonSmile
The AmazonSmile Foundation donates 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to charitable organizations. If you make purchases through Amazon, try AmazonSmile and designate The Friends of CTBL as a recipient of charitable donations. Several patrons have already done this. Thanks!
How to Reach Us:
Colorado Talking Book Library
180 Sheridan Blvd.
Denver, CO 80226
303-727-9277—metro Denver
1-800-685-2136—outside Denver
www.myctbl.org
- Katy Anthes, Commissioner of Education
- Nicolle Davies, State Librarian
- Debbi MacLeod, Director, CTBL
Social Media:
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The Colorado Department of Education does not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or age, in access to, employment in, or provision of any of CDE’s programs, benefits, or activities.
This newsletter was published with funding from the Friends of CTBL.
