Newly Recorded and Commercial Conversions Added to the Collection in June 2026

Newly Recorded and Commercial Conversions Added to the Collection in June 2026

Adult Fiction

Detective and Mystery Fiction and Thrillers

A RISKY UNDERTAKING FOR LORETTA SINGLETARY: A SAMUEL CRADDOCK MYSTERY   Shames, Terry
DBC18810

Fantasy Fiction

THE ALCHEMY OF CHAOS     Maresca, Marshall Ryan
DBC32449

A MURDER OF MAGES           Maresca, Marshall Ryan  
DBC32450

AN IMPORT OF INTRIGUE    Maresca, Marshall Ryan        
DBC32451

Horror and Paranormal Fiction

IN THE MAD MOUNTAINS    Lansdale, Joe R., 1951-
DBC30677

Romance Fiction

A LITTLE CHRISTMAS MATCHMAKING      Brown, Carolyn, 1948-
DBC32455

ARROGANT DEVIL        Grey, R. S.
DBC32446

MR. BIG SHOT    Grey, R. S.
DBC32447

TO HAVE AND TO HATE: AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE NOVEL   Grey, R. S.
DBC32448

BY THE BOOTSTRAPS      Martin, Alexa
DBC32456

Western Fiction

SUNDANCE, BUTCH AND ME: A NOVEL ABOUT ETTA PLACE     Alter, Judy, 1938-
DBC29038

EAGLE PASS        Hart, Matthew S.
DBC28991

Adult Non-Fiction

Science and Technology

OPEN SPACE: FROM EARTH TO ETERNITY–THE GLOBAL RACE TO EXPLORE AND CONQUER THE COSMOS     Ariosto, David
DBC32434

Juvenile Fiction

Western Fiction

RANCHING AND LIVESTOCK         Erickson, John R., 1943-
DBC30517

Young Adult Fiction

Detective and Mystery Fiction and Thrillers

THE INSOMNIACS        Weisenberg, Marit
DBC32453

THIS GOLDEN STATE     Weisenberg, Marit
DBC32454

August 20: “TEXAS GREAT READ” BONUS BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION

Please join us on Thursday, August 20 at 7:00 p.m. (Central) for our Texas Great Read book club discussion of SMALL TOWN AUTHOR by John R. Erickson (DBC 25548)

Every year, the Library of Congress asks each state Center for the Book to select a title that represents the state’s literary landscape to highlight at the National Book Festival. The event showcases the importance of books and reading. The festival is sponsored by the Library of Congress and takes place during Labor Day weekend in Washington, D.C.

In honor of this event, the Texas Talking Book Program will host a bonus book club meeting so that our patrons can participate in the Great Texas Read initiative. The Great Texas Read is an event sponsored by Texas Center for the Book.

Our book club discussions are held via Zoom, but you can join using just a telephone!

Participating is easy:

  • Use your landline to dial in via phone.
  • Use the “one-tap” number on your smartphone.
  • Alternatively, join via computer using the Zoom invitation we’ll send a week prior to the event.

To ensure you receive the necessary details, please RSVP in advance.

To RSVP, you can fill out our online registration form: Register Here.

Or if you prefer, reply to this email or call the Talking Book Program at 1-800-252-9605.

Please indicate if you would like us to mail you a digital cartridge of the book, or if you prefer to download it from BARD. Also, please let us know if you would like a reminder via email or phone-call (or both).

SMALL TOWN AUTHOR by John R. Erickson (DBC 25548)

NLS Annotation: A memoir spanning more than fifty years by the West Texas author best known for the Hank the Cowdog series– Provided by publisher. 2025.

We look forward to having you join us on Thursday, August 20!

Texas Talking Book Program Author Talk: Dina Gachman

Join the Talking Book Program for an author talk on Tuesday, August 18, at 7:00 p.m. (Central) with author, Dina Gachman.

Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean, will discuss Ms. Gachman’s career and her book SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS: HOW I LEARNED TO LIVE WITH GRIEF, AND OTHER GRAVE CONERNS (DB 130517). Following the talk, there will be a Q&A session.

Our Author Talks are held via Zoom, but you can join using just a telephone!

Participating is easy:

  • Use your landline to dial in via phone.
  • Use the “one-tap” number on your smartphone.
  • Alternatively, join via computer using the Zoom invitation we’ll send a week prior to the event.

To ensure you receive the necessary details, please RSVP in advance.

We invite you to ask Dina Gachman questions about her book. Please submit your questions by August 11. We will select questions based on the responses to this form, and they may be asked during the event! Fill out the form here: Author Questions.

To RSVP, you can fill out our online registration form: Register Here.

Or if you prefer, reply to this email, or call the Talking Book Program at 1-800-252-9605.

Please indicate if you would like us to mail you a digital cartridge with her book or if you prefer to download it from BARD. Please let us know if you would like a reminder via email or phone-call (or both).

SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS: HOW I LEARNED TO LIVE WITH GRIEF, AND OTHER GRAVE CONERNS by Dina Gachman (DB 130517)

NLS Annotation: “A searching, heartfelt exploration about what it means to process grief, by a bestselling author and journalist whose experience with two devastating losses inspired her to bring comfort and understanding to others. Since losing her mother to cancer in 2018 and her sister to alcoholism less than three years later, author and journalist Dina Gachman has dedicated herself to understanding what it means to grieve, healing after loss, and the ways we stay connected to those we miss. Through a mix of personal storytelling, reporting, and insight from experts and even moments of humor, Gachman gives readers a fresh take on grief and bereavement—whether the loss is a family member, beloved pet, or a romantic relationship. No one wants to join the grief club, since membership comes with zero perks, but So Sorry for Your Loss will make that initiation just a little less painful.” Provided by publisher Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

We look forward to having you join us on Tuesday, August 18!

Texas Talking Book Program Author Talk: Laurie E. Jasinski

Join the Talking Book Program for an author talk on Thursday, July 16, at 7:00 p.m. (Central) with author and research editor, Laurie E. Jasinski.

Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean, will discuss Ms. Jasinski’s career and book, DINOSAUR HIGHWAY: A HISTORY OF DINOSAUR VALLEY STATE PARK (DBC 18560). Following the talk, there will be a Q&A session.

Our Author Talks are held via Zoom, but you can join using just a telephone!

Participating is easy:

  • Use your landline to dial in via phone.
  • Use the “one-tap” number on your smartphone.
  • Alternatively, join via computer using the Zoom invitation we’ll send a week prior to the event.

To ensure you receive the necessary details, please RSVP in advance.

We invite you to ask Laurie E. Jasinski questions about her book. Please submit your questions by July 9. We will select questions based on the responses to this form, and they may be asked during the event! Fill out the form here: Author Questions.

To RSVP, you can fill out our online registration form: Register Here.

Or if you prefer, reply to this email, or call the Talking Book Program at 1-800-252-9605.

Please indicate if you would like us to mail you a digital cartridge with her book or if you prefer to download it from BARD. Her book is also available to be mailed in a large print format. And, please let us know if you would like a reminder via email or phone-call (or both).

DINOSAUR HIGHWAY: A HISTORY OF DINOSAUR VALLEY STATE PARK by Laurie E. Jasinski (DBC 18560)

NLS Annotation: “Where the Paluxy River now winds through the North Texas Hill Country, the great lizards of prehistory once roamed, leaving their impressive footprints deep in the limy sludge of what would become the earth’s Cretaceous layer. It wouldn’t be until a summer day in 1909, however, when young George Adams went splashing along the creek bed, that chance and shifting sediments would reveal these stony traces of an ancient past. Young Adams’s first discovery of dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy River Valley, near the small community of Glen Rose, Texas, came more than one hundred million years after the reign of the dinosaurs. Indeed, nearly a century after their first discovery, the “stony oddities” of Somervell County continue to draw Saturday-afternoon tourists, renowned scholars, and dinosaur enthusiasts from across the nation and around the globe. In her careful, and colorful, history of Dinosaur Valley State Park, Jasinski deftly interweaves millennia of geological time with local legend, old photographs, and quirky anecdotes of the people who have called the valley home. Beginning with the valley’s “first visitors”—the dinosaurs—Jasinski traces the area’s history through to the decades of the twentieth century, when new track sites continued to be discovered, and visitors and locals continued to leave their own material imprint upon the changing landscape. The book reaches its culmination in the account of the hard-won battle fought by Somervell residents and officials during the latter decades of the century to secure Dinosaur Valley’s preservation as a state park.”—publisher marketing. 2008.

We look forward to having you join us on Thursday, July 16!

Texas Talking Book Program Author Talk: Tim Hemlin

Join the Talking Book Program for an author talk on Tuesday, June 16 at 7:00 p.m. (Central) with author and educator, Tim Hemlin.

Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean, will discuss Mr. Hemlin’s career and his Neil Marshall Series, starting with the first book, IF WISHES WERE HORSES (DBC 18230). Following the talk, there will be a Q&A session.

Our Author Talks are held via Zoom, but you can join using just a telephone!

Participating is easy:

  • Use your landline to dial in via phone.
  • Use the “one-tap” number on your smartphone.
  • Alternatively, join via computer using the Zoom invitation we’ll send a week prior to the event.

To ensure you receive the necessary details, please RSVP in advance.

We invite you to ask Tim Hemlin questions about his book. Please submit your questions by June 9. We will select questions based on the responses to this form, and they may be asked during the event! Fill out the form here: Author Questions

To RSVP, you can fill out our online registration form: Register Here.

Or if you prefer, reply to this email, or call the Talking Book Program at 1-800-252-9605.

Please indicate if you would like us to mail you a digital cartridge with his book or if you prefer to download it from BARD. Also, please let us know if you would like a reminder via email or phone-call (or both).

IF WISHES WERE HORSES: NEIL MARSHALL SERIES, BOOK 1 by Tim Hemlin (DBC 18230)

NLS Annotation: Neil Marshall is a creative writing graduate student at the University of Houston, a struggling poet, and a soon-to-be-divorced man. To make ends meet, he moonlights as a chef for a high society caterer. When his oldest friend, racehorse breeder Jason Keys is murdered, Neil finds himself also moonlighting as a private eye just to stay out of jail. The police view him as their prime-suspect but Neil has an even bigger worry–can he find Jason’s killer before becoming the next victim? Violence, strong language, and descriptions of sex. 1996.

We look forward to having you join us on Tuesday, June 16!

Texas Talking Book Program Author Talk: Kathryn Casey

Join the Talking Book Program for an author talk on Tuesday, April 21 at 7:00 p.m. (Central) with thriller and true crime author, Kathryn Casey.

Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean, will discuss Ms. Casey’s career and her Sarah Armstrong Series, starting with the first book, SINGULARITY (DBC 18075). Following the talk, there will be a Q&A session.

Our Author Talks are held via Zoom, but you can join using just a telephone!

Participating is easy:

  • Use your landline to dial in via phone.
  • Use the “one-tap” number on your smartphone.
  • Alternatively, join via computer using the Zoom invitation we’ll send a week prior to the event.

To ensure you receive the necessary details, please RSVP in advance.

We invite you to ask Kathryn Casey questions about her book. Please submit your questions by April 14. We will select questions based on the responses to this form, and they may be asked during the event! Fill out the form here: Author Questions

To RSVP, you can fill out our online registration form: Register Here.

Or if you prefer, reply to this email, or call the Talking Book Program at 1-800-252-9605.

Please indicate if you would like us to mail you a digital cartridge with her book or if you prefer to download it from BARD. Her book is also available to be mailed in a large print format. And, please let us know if you would like a reminder via email or phone-call (or both).

SINGULARITY: SARAH ARMSTRONG SERIES, BOOK 1 by Kathryn Casey (DBC 18075)

NLS Annotation: As a single mother and one of the few female Rangers in Texas history, Sarah Armstrong has had to work twice as hard to rank among the best cops in the Lone Star State. But when megawealthy businessman Edward Lucas III is found murdered along with his mistress, Sarah quickly senses that this will be the deadliest case of her career. While others focus the investigation on Lucas’s estranged wife, Sarah disagrees and hunts a suspect only she believes in. Yet nothing in her career could have prepared her for the horror of a young man who is convinced he has been sent from heaven to massacre innocent people. Some violence, some strong language, and some descriptions of sex. 2008.

We look forward to having you join us on Tuesday, April 21!

In His Own Words: James Magnuson

James Magnuson, a widely respected Austin author, died Sunday January 18 from complications from ALS. He published nine well-received novels, won awards for his work in film and television, and had many of his plays produced. He was also the director of the James A. Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas for more than 20 years. As director, he helped lead the Michener Center to prominence as one of a small handful of leading writing programs in the United States.

Here are the titles by James Magnuson in the TBP collection.

FAMOUS WRITERS I HAVE KNOWN (DBC 18551)
HOUNDS OF WINTER (DBC 18046)
MONEY MOUNTAIN (DBC 26088)
ORPHAN TRAIN (DBC 01571)
WINFALL (BR 12382)

In His Own Words: Dick Van Dyke

On Saturday December 13, Dick Van Dyke turned 100! Known for his work on both screen and stage, his big break was the role of Albert F. Peterson in the original Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie. Later, he went on to play many memorable characters on both television and film including Bert, the chimney sweep in Mary Poppins, and Rob Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke Show. For more information, visit his official website.

Here are the books he’s written that are in the TBP collection:

MY LUCKY LIFE IN AND OUT OF SHOW BUSINESS: A MEMOIR (DB 74349, BRG 02937, LB 06804)
KEEP MOVING: AND OTHER TIPS AND TRUTHS ABOUT AGING (DB 83701, LB 08985)

Sophie Kinsella

Madeleine Sophie Wickham, better known by her nom de plume Sophie Kinsella, passed away on December 10, 2025. Renowned for her Shopaholic Series, which was adapted into the film Confessions of a Shopaholic in 2009, her books sold over 50 million copies in more than 60 countries and were translated into over 40 languages. For more information, visit her official website.

The Talking Book Program has her Shopaholic Series as well as many of her stand-alone novels. They are listed below:

Shopaholic Series

1. CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC (DB 54435)
2. SHOPAHOLIC TAKES MANHATTAN (DB 54436, BRG 01865)
3. SHOPAHOLIC TIES THE KNOT (DB 55877, BRG 01739)
4. SHOPAHOLIC AND SISTER (DB 58896)
5. SHOPAHOLIC AND BABY (DB 64471)
6. MINI SHOPAHOLIC (DB 72457)
7. SHOPAHOLIC TO THE STARS (DB 80180)
8. SHOPAHOLIC TO THE RESCUE (DB 82890)
9. CHRISTMAS SHOPAHOLIC (DB 97255, LB 12678)

Stand Alone Novels

BURNOUT (DB 116400, LB 0001573) 2023
CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? (DB 58052) 2004
FAIRY MOM AND ME (DB 86956) 2018
I OWE YOU ONE (DB 93772, LB 10945) 2019
I’VE GOT YOUR NUMBER (DB 74467) 2012
LOVE YOUR LIFE (DB 102035, LB 13322) 2020
MY NOT SO PERFECT LIFE (DB 87344) 2017
PARTY CRASHER (DB 105198, LB 13537) 2021
REMEMBER ME? (DB 66748, BR 17707) 2008
SURPRISE ME (DB 90228, LB 09343) 2018
TWENTIES GIRL (DB 70068) 2009
UNDOMESTIC GODDESS (DB 60741, BRG 00956) 2005
WEDDING NIGHT (DB 76736) 2013

Stand Alone Nonfiction

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE? (DB 124794, LB 0001381) 2024

Texas Talking Book Program Author Talk: Char Miller

Join the Talking Book Program for an author talk on Tuesday, February 24 at 7:00 p.m. (Central) with author, Char Miller.

Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean, will discuss Dr. Miller’s career and his book SAN ANTONIO: A TRICENTENNIAL HISTORY (DBC 18818). Following the talk, there will be a Q&A session.

Our Author Talks are held via Zoom, but you can join using just a telephone!

Participating is easy:

  • Use your landline to dial in via phone.
  • Use the “one-tap” number on your smartphone.
  • Alternatively, join via computer using the Zoom invitation we’ll send a week prior to the event.

To ensure you receive the necessary details, please RSVP in advance.

We invite you to ask Char Miller questions about his book. Please submit your questions by February 12. We will select questions based on the responses to this form, and they may be asked during the event! Fill out the form here: Author Questions

To RSVP, you can fill out our online registration form: Register Here.

Or if you prefer, reply to this email, or call the Talking Book Program at 1-800-252-9605.

Please indicate if you would like us to mail you a digital cartridge with his book or if you prefer to download it from BARD. Also, please let us know if you would like a reminder via email or phone-call (or both).

SAN ANTONIO: A TRICENTENNIAL HISTORY by Char Miller (DBC 18818)

NLS Annotation: This is the first general history of San Antonio, Texas, the seventh largest city in the nation. Its past is complex and ranges across 300 years, from the community’s origins as a tiny Spanish frontier town to its contemporary status as a vital American mega-city. Site of some of the most violent struggles between warring empires and people–historians believe San Antonio may be the most fought-over city in U.S. history–it is perhaps most celebrated for the iconic 1836 Battle of the Alamo. The city is also home to four beautifully restored Spanish missions, which in 2015 UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site and have become integral to San Antonio’s robust tourist economy along with the fabled River Walk.. Some violence. 2018.

We look forward to having you join us on Tuesday, February 24!