CT Library for Accessible Books Newsletters
Current Newsletter: May and June 2025
CT LAB News
CT LAB Book Club
The next CT LAB book club will meet virtually on Wednesday July 23, 2025, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The title we will be reading is How to Read a Book: a Novel by Monica Wood. This title is available as a Talking Book cartridge and from BARD as DB 121701. A summary of the book follows.
Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn't yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed. When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland-Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman-their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways. How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living.
Please register for the book club by calling Paula McLean at (860) 704-2216 or (800) 842-4516. Participants will receive the Zoom meeting link or dial in phone number approximately one week before the book club meeting.
Connecticut Talking Books Now Available
Read below for a selection of locally produced Talking Books now available on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS). These books can also be sent to patrons on a Talking Book cartridge. Connecticut Talking Books are recorded by volunteers at the studios of Talking Books CT/CVSBH.
DBC 02532 Bird at the Buzzer: UConn, Notre Dame and a Women’s Basketball Classic
Written by Jeff Goldberg. On March 6, 2001, the top two women’s college basketball teams in the nation, UConn and Notre Dame, played what was arguably the greatest game in the history of the sport. When UConn’s Sue Bird hit a twelve-foot pull-up jumper at the buzzer over national player of the year Ruth Riley in the Big East Tournament championship game, it marked the end of an epic contest that featured five future Olympians and eight first-round WNBA selections. Sports
Download DBC 02532 from BARD.
DBC 05559 Connecticut Icons: Classic Symbols of the Nutmeg State
Written by Charles A. Monagan. Charles Monagan knows Connecticut. As editor of Connecticut Magazine he has spent years discovering and describing the people, places, and things that comprise the character of his home state. With this entertaining collection of photos, anecdotes, and little-known facts, Monagan presents fifty of his favorite icons from the hot lobster roll to the Yale Bowl, the U.S.S. Nautilus to the Merritt Parkway and shows native and newcomer alike the independent spirit and local pride at the heart of this great state of Connecticut. Connecticut Topics.
DBC 06182 I Do and I Don’t: a History of Marriage in the Movies
Written by Janine Basinger. From one of our leading film historians and interpreters: a brilliantly researched, irresistibly witty, delightfully illustrated examination of "the marriage movie": what it is (or isn't) and what it has to tell us about the movies--and ourselves. As long as there have been feature movies there have been marriage movies, and yet Hollywood has always been cautious about how to label them--perhaps because unlike any other genre of film, the marriage movie resonates directly with the experience of almost every adult coming to see it. Film History
DBC 09772 The Collector’s Apprentice: a Novel
Written by Barbara A. Shapiro. It's the summer of 1922, and nineteen-year-old Paulien Mertens finds herself in Paris broke, disowned, and completely alone. Everyone in Belgium, including her own family, believes she stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiancé, George Everard. Historical Fiction and Mystery.
DBC 09782 The Shark Club
Written by Ann Kidd Taylor. Maeve Donnelly has thrown herself into her work as a world-traveling marine biologist discovering more about the minds of misunderstood sharks. But when Maeve returns home to the legendarily charming and eccentric Hotel of the Muses where she was raised by her grandmother, she finds more than just the blood orange sunsets and key lime pies she’s missed waiting for her. Romance and Mystery.
Download DBC 09782 from BARD.
National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) Updates
Upcoming NLS Programs
Get to Know the Many Faces of BARD
NLS staff members offer tips, answer questions, and demonstrate new features of BARD, the BARD Mobile app, and BARD Express each month during The Many Faces of BARD. This online event is open to all patrons and is held at 7 p.m. eastern time on the second Thursday of every month.
Get program details, login information, and recordings of previous programs at the Many Faces of BARD web page.
That All May eRead Program
NLS presents a monthly program called That All May eRead on Zoom. This program, scheduled monthly for the last Tuesday night of each month, focuses on using the NLS Braille eReaders. Each session begins with a brief demonstration of a feature or use case. The rest of the hour is spent answering patron questions about any aspect of the Zoomax or HumanWare Braille eReaders. Get program details and access recordings of previous programs at the That All May eRead web page.
Connect with CT LAB
Hours of Operation: Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Phone: 860-704-2220 or 800-842-4516 (toll free in state only)
Email: csl.AccessibleBooks@ct.gov
Mailing Address: 786 South Main St., Middletown, CT 06457
Upcoming CT LAB Holiday Closings
May 26, 2025 – Memorial Day
June 19, 2025 – Juneteenth Day
July 4, 2025 – Independence Day
September 1, 2025 – Labor Day
