Vol. 48, No. 2
Fall 2018

FROM THE ADMINISTRATOR

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JANET FISHER

Remember that OUR SERVICE IS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE.

We are pleased to provide reading materials to you wherever you are – as a certified patron of our library.

You can read your audio books and magazines in a variety of locations – for example, you can listen to them while you are in your home, while you are in-transit or while you are waiting for an appointment. You can also read library materials on vacation or an extended trip out-of-town. This service is available to you wherever you go.

The Arizona Talking Book Library staff looks forward to assisting you in selecting and/or ordering your next reading material, identifying an audio-described movie from our collection to check out, registering for BARD and Newsline, or helping to provide answers and tips with the digital technology. Remember to contact us for assistance or questions about these services.

When you feel like reading and learning through books and magazines, remember the Arizona Talking Book Library.

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ARIZONA READS FROM YOUR LIBRARY'S RECORDING GROUP

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Did you know that your Arizona Talking Book Library has its own recording studio funded by the Library’s volunteer “Arizona Friends of Talking Books” along with their charity efforts? The recording studio has three recording booths at the Library and one at the Mesa Public Library. In 2008, our studios converted to the new digital format and in 2015 the National Library Service (NLS) started posting our holdings on the national downloadable database known as BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download). Currently we have forty volunteers who dedicate hours of service providing locally produced digital books. Here are some suggestions from this great collection:

Fiction

Lovers Crossing
By James C Mitchell
DBC04999
(Available on BARD)
Narrated by Garth Andrews
(male narrator, 7 hours and 10 minutes)

PI Roscoe Brinker left his work as an INS agent after taking a bullet to the shoulder. Life is generally free of danger until a successful Tucson businessman hires him to investigate the shocking murder of his charitable wife. His search forces him back to the border and back into the sights of the man who shot him. Contains some strong language.

Superstition Murder Club
By Kaine Thompson
DBC05874 (Available on BARD)
Narrated by Susan Stiffler
(female narrator, 5 hours and 15 minutes)

When a dead body is found floating in the pool at the normally quiet retirement community of Superstition Way Resort, Southeast of Phoenix, the ladies from the water aerobics class meddle around in their quest to help Chief of Detectives Magnus Varland solve the crime.

Funeral Hotdish
By Jana Bommersbach
DBC05831 (Available on BARD)
Narrated by Barbara Gering
(female narrator, 9 hours and 20 minutes)

As Phoenix investigative reporter Joya Bonner tries to figure out what Mafia hitman Sammy “The Bull” Gravano – supposedly in a Witness Protection Program – is doing hanging out in a local restaurant, a teenage girl in her Midwest hometown dies of a drug overdose and she discovers a connection between both stories. Some strong language.

Non-Fiction

Arizona’s Hal Empie: his life, his time, and his art
By Evelyn Cooper
DBC05862 (Available on BARD)
Narrated by Brian Blackwell
(male narrator, 7 hours)

Internationally recognized Arizona artist Empie is profiled as a man who was shaped by a place and in turn shaped the world’s conception of that place through his artistic work. Empie (1909-2002) spent his life producing a vast collection of cartoons, drawings, landscapes, and much more, even after being diagnosed with cataracts and macular degeneration in 1995. His advice to other artists in a similar situation “Don’t quit! Don’t ever quit…Paint something, but don’t quit.” – is an inspiration to all. Hal Empie was a patron of the Arizona Braille and Talking Book Library.

Some gave all: forgotten old west lawmen who died with their boots on
By J.R. Sanders
DBC12869 (Available on BARD)
Narrated by Doris Walker
(female narrator, 8 hours and 20 minutes)

A tribute to fourteen forgotten “law dogs” – sheriffs, marshals, and deputies – who perished while bringing law and order to the frontier, from Kansas to California. Some violence.

Shame and endurance: the untold story of the Chiricahua Apache prisoners of war
By H. Henrietta Stockel
DBC04994 (Available on BARD)
Narrated by Gary Weberg
(male narrator, 8 hours and 55 minutes)

Stockel examines a little known part of American history, the fate of the Apache Indians who surrendered with Geronimo in 1886 as Americans pushed into the West. The U.S. government broke many promises as it shifted the prisoners from place to place for many years and even separated families. This is a fascinating story of endurance and survival.

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LET'S READ, LET'S TALK

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Would you like to share a reading experience or talk about books with other people? Book discussion groups give you those options. The Arizona Talking Book Library hosts a book discussion group that offers this opportunity to Talking Book Library members from all over the state!

Members meet with a discussion leader monthly on the telephone. The group meets on the 2nd Thursday morning of each month, except during September and October.

Attendees call in from around the state to participate. It is a great opportunity to talk with others without needing to consider distance or transportation as obstacles to your attendance.

Beginning this fall, the telephone group is being expanded to include both a morning group and an evening group. Discussions will be held from 10:30-11:30 a.m. and from 6-7 p.m. on the 2nd Thursday of each month from November 2018 through August 2019. Both groups will discuss the same book on the same day.

We hope you will be interested in joining with others to talk about ideas and books. Your choices through the Arizona Talking Book Library, once again, are:

• Every month, November through August, on Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. on the telephone. Register by calling the library at 602-255-5578.

• Every month, November through August, on Thursdays at 6 p.m. on the telephone. Register through the library at 602-255-5578.

We look forward to your participation!

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http://www.azfotb.org

Congratulations to the Arizona Friends of Talking Books on a successful Whine and Cheese fundraiser in September 2018, and to the generous sponsors and donors. Contributions from this event support the recording program, volunteers and work of the Arizona Talking Book Library.

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The Arizona Friends of Talking Books is a 501(c)(3)non-profit organization that assists with development, advocacy, and outreach in support of the Arizona Talking Book Library. (Tax ID: 86-1008453)

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MAGAZINE NEWS

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The National Library Service (NLS) has recently added Reader’s Digest to its selection of audio magazines, beginning with the November 2018 issue. It was previously produced by American Printing House for the Blind (APH). For those who have already been reading this magazine, you may notice that the color of the mailing container will change from yellow to red. It will also no longer be included on the Arizona magazine cartridges since it is now available direct from NLS. The other APH magazine, Newsweek, is no longer available.

If you would like to subscribe to Reader’s Digest or another publication, please call the library at 602-255-5578 within Phoenix or 1-800-255-5578 outside of Phoenix. Many magazines are also available through BARD, so please let us know if you’d like to download books and magazines using a computer or a mobile device.

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THE SEASON FOR GIVING

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Do you ever wonder how the Arizona Talking Book Library does so much for our community? I have the answer to that question – our friends group and our volunteers. The Arizona Friends of Talking Books and the great volunteers at the Talking Book Library go above and beyond for the Library and its patrons. Both groups put efforts into building up resources and supporting the library.

One way that others can provide assistance is to donate and encourage people they know to also donate. The library and the Friends have several paths for these contributions.

For example, Facebook is doing a great promotion with non-profits where you are able to pick a nonprofit group and you can ask your friends to donate to that group for your birthday.

We recently had a volunteer who donated to our Friends through Facebook and encouraged others to donate too. She was able to raise almost $500.00 for the Library. What a charitable thing for a volunteer to do, in addition to giving their time.

You do not need to be a volunteer to use this feature of Facebook. Anyone can use Facebook to hold a Fundraiser for the Arizona Friends of Talking Books.

Donations can also be made to the Arizona Friends of Talking Books (Tax ID: 86-1008453) or to the Arizona Talking Book Library throughout the year. Donations made directly to the Arizona Talking Book Library are put in the library’s donation fund and support the general work of the library.

Donations to our Friends organization, the Arizona Friends of Talking Books, help support the work of the library relating to the recording of audio books, the library’s volunteers, and special projects not covered through state funding.

Other opportunities for giving:

If you shop at a Fry’s supermarket, you could also enroll in the Fry’s Community Rewards program to earn rewards for the Arizona Friends of Talking Books (NPO #90668). You do not pay any additional money to sign up for this program.

You could link your Amazon account to the AmazonSmile program (http://smile.amazon.com) and designate the Arizona Friends of Talking Book as a recipient of charitable donations. A percentage of the purchase price of eligible products (0.5%) will be donated by Amazon Smile. You do not pay any additional money to provide this donation.

Employees of some corporations and businesses are encouraged to donate time and/or money to charitable causes. Please check to see if your employer supports the Arizona Talking Book Library or the Arizona Friends of Talking Books.

In addition, donations can be made to the Friends or to the library through a charitable bequest as part of a will, living trust 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 services we provide to our patrons and helps to secure the future. Your donation can also specifically stipulate how you would like the money to be spent, such as to provide the salary for a reader advisor, purchase equipment for the recording of books, or other items.

Please check with your estate planner and/or financial advisor and add as little as one sentence to ensure that we continue our mission to provide reading materials for those individuals with temporary or permanent low vision, blindness, or a physical disability that prevents them from reading or holding the printed page.

As the holidays approach, we think about helping others and supporting those programs that benefit the community and provide value to our lives and the lives of others. Thank you for considering a contribution to support talking books.

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VOLUNTEER NEWS

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KENT MONKEN -- RECORDING STUDIO NARRATOR

I have been reading books for the Arizona Talking Book Library since 2012, and I’m now reading my twenty-third book. A year or so ago one of my friends asked me how I liked reading books and what did I think it took to be a good reader? That made me pause and think, “What does it take to be a good reader?”

First and foremost, I believe you need to read and love books. I’ve been a reader my whole life. Reading opens the reader to new ideas, new places, and life lessons.

Secondly, if you are going to read a book to someone you need to make certain that you entertain or inform, and put your heart and soul into the effort. I study the night before and practice the material, so the session can be the most productive it can be. If it’s fiction, I need to experiment on the voices and embody the author’s characters with the life to the best of my ability. What is this character thinking and feeling and how can I get the author’s point of view across with just my voice? It needs to be as realistic as possible; I try to stay away from stereotypes. Keep it conversational as if the reader were listening in on the action. With nonfiction, I find it is best to keep it neutral and centered on making the new information as clear and cogent as possible.

Thirdly, the reader needs to be a good listener as well. The reason most readers succeed is because they have a good director who keeps them honest and makes their performance the best it can be. I have been fortunate to have the same director for my whole time, Orrin Johnson, who makes the reading experience a joy for all of our 1,100 hours we’ve spent together. You also need to listen to the volunteers who painstakingly listen to every word you speak and call out your mistakes. What, you thought we were perfect? I’m not, and I appreciate and listen to the advice to make the recording experience the best it can be.

Finally, the overall support and training offered by the Arizona Talking Book Library helps make the experience a fulfilling one. We have vocal coaching every year and the people I interact with are some of the nicest, most supportive people I’ve ever met. That means a lot when you come every week for five years; to know you are appreciated.

I was born to be a story teller and being able to record books for other people to listen to and enjoy gives me every bit as much enjoyment as I hope my listeners have in hearing the stories. I’ve voiced animals, vampires, Native American children, Mexican outlaws, mothers, children, you name it and it never gets old. It’s a privilege and I hope I can go on recording for years to come.

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