Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was an American record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and producer. His career spanned 70 years, with 28 Grammy Awards won out of 80 nominations, and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992. Below we have his autobiography as well as a collection of his musings on creativity and life. We hope these give you a chance to learn about his experiences in his own words.
| Q: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF QUINCY JONES (DB 53304) |
| 12 NOTES: ON LIFE AND CREATIVITY (DB 115128) |
San Antonio-based poet, educator, and editor Naomi Shihab Nye has been named the 2024 Texas Writer Award recipient. The award honors a writer who has made outstanding contributions to Texas literature. Nye will be honored with a custom pair of handmade boots from renowned El Paso-based bootmaker, Rocketbuster, during a special Texas Book Festival Weekend ceremony. Learn more about Nye’s work and life in her interview with TBF Literary Director Hannah Gabel. Check out the interview on the Texas Book Festival’s website.
Included are all of Nye’s books in the NLS Collection:
| HUGGING THE JUKEBOX (DBC 26934) |
| A MAZE ME: POEMS FOR GIRLS (DB 95437) Grades 6-9 |
| CAST AWAY: POEMS FOR OUR TIME (DB 98613, BR 23778) Grades 6-9 |
| EVERYTHING COMES NEXT: COLLECTED & NEW POEMS (DB 101676) Grades 3-6 |
| HONEYBEE: POEMS & SHORT PROSE (DB 109497) Grades 4-7 |
| SPACE BETWEEN OUR FOOTSTEPS: POEMS AND PAINTINGS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST (DB 50238) Grades 6-9 |
| THIS SAME SKY: COLLECTION OF POEMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD (DB 48296) Grades 5-8 |
| TURTLE OF MICHIGAN: A NOVEL (DB 108881) Grades 3-6 |
| TURTLE OF OMAN (DB 109496) Grades 3-6 |
| VOICES IN THE AIR: POEMS FOR LISTENERS (DB 90690) Grades 6-9 |
| WHAT HAVE YOU LOST? POEMS (DB 50773) Grades 6-9 |
Join the Talking Book Program for an author talk on Tuesday, December 10 at 6:00 p.m. (Central) with Texas author Ken Roberts. Note that this time is a bit earlier than our usual author talks.
Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean will talk with him about his career as an academic as well as his book, CEDAR CHOPPERS: LIFE ON THE EDGE OF NOTHING. A Q&A chat will follow.
Our Author Talks meet via Zoom, however all you need to participate is a telephone! If you have a land line, you will use the telephone number. If you have a smart phone, you will use the “one-tap” number to join the discussion. We will also email a Zoom invitation to those who prefer to use a computer. This information will be sent to all patrons who RSVP a week prior to the author talk.
We would also like to offer you the opportunity to ask Dr. Roberts questions about his book. Please submit questions by December 3. We will choose questions based on the responses to this form and they may be asked during the event!
To RSVP, please email us at tbpRAL@tsl.texas.gov, or call the Talking Book Program at 1-800-252-9605.
Please indicate if you would like us to mail you a digital cartridge or if you prefer to download his book from BARD. Also, please let us know if you would like a reminder via email or phone-call (or both).
CEDAR CHOPPERS: LIFE ON THE EDGE OF NOTHING by Ken Roberts (DBC 18531)
During his pre-teen years, Ken Roberts had his first encounter with cedar choppers west of Austin, which provoked the question, “Who are these people?”. THE CEDAR CHOPPERS: LIFE ON THE EDGE OF NOTHING is his entertaining, and informative answer. Based on interviews with several generations of cedar choppers and others, Roberts weaves together the lively, gritty story of these largely Scots-Irish migrants with roots in Appalachia who settled on the west side of the Balcones Fault during the mid-19th century, subsisting on hunting, trapping, moonshining, and, by the early 20th century, cutting, transporting, and selling cedar fence posts and charcoal. Strong language and some violence. 2018.
We look forward to having you join us on Tuesday, December 10!
South Korean author Han Kang took the Nobel Prize in literature this year for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life,” according the Swedish Academy. For more information, check out the Nobel Prize website.
Books by Han Kang in the TBP Collection:
| GREEK LESSONS (DB 114737) Original Date: 2023 |
| HUMAN ACTS (DB 87312) Original Date: 2017 |
| VEGETARIAN (DB 83452, español DBG 19990) Original Date: 2016 |
| WHITE BOOK (DB 94272) Original Date: 2019 |
The MacArthur Fellowship is a “no-strings-attached” award in support of people who show exceptional creativity, a promise for future important advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments, and potential for subsequent creative work.
Recipients may be writers, scientists, artists, social scientists, humanists, teachers, entrepreneurs, or individuals in other fields, with or without institutional affiliations.
By providing these individuals with unfettered support in pursuit of creative activities, the Fellows Program seeks to:
The fellowship is not a lifetime achievement award—it is an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential. The Fellows Program is proactively working to foster and enable innovative, imaginative, and ground-breaking ideas, thinking, and strategies.
For more information, check out the MacArthur Foundation’s website.
Here are books written by some of the 2024 MacArthur Fellows that we have in the TBP collection.
| BORDER-CROSSER WITH A LAMBORGHINI DREAM: POEMS (DB 106520) |
| HALF OF THE WORLD IN LIGHT: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS (DBE 00018) |
| BLISS MONTAGE (DB 110623, BR 24614) |
| SEVERANCE (DB 93789) |
| MILES MORALES (DB 88694, BR 25389) Grades 6-9 |
| STUNTBOY, IN THE MEANTIME (DB 105877, BR 24094) Grades 3-6 |
| GHOST (DB 85921, BR 21669, LB 11281, Español DB 120388) Grades 5-8 |
| AIN’T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT (DB 106809) Grades 9-12 |
| AS BRAVE AS YOU (DB 84720, BR 21728) Grades 5-8 |
| BOY IN THE BLACK SUIT (DB 81907) Grades 9-12 |
| FOR EVERY ONE (DB 93844) Grades 6-9 |
| LONG WAY DOWN (DB 89688) Grades 6-9 |
| LOOK BOTH WAYS: A TALE TOLD IN TEN BLOCKS (DB 102479, BR 23011, LB 12999) Grades 5-8 |
| THERE WAS A PARTY FOR LANGSTON (DB 119850) Grades Pre-school – 3 |
| WHEN I WAS THE GREATEST (DB 80631) Grades 9-12 |
| MY NAME IS JASON. MINE TOO: OUR STORY, OUR WAY (DB 109295) Grades 6-9 |
| YEAR OF THE TIGER: AN ACTIVIST’S LIFE (DB 110670) |
Join the Talking Book Program for an author talk on Thursday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m. (Central) with Texas author Donna Marie Miller.
Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean will talk with her about her career as an author as well as her book, BROKEN SPOKE: AUSTIN’S LEGENDARY HONKY-TONK. A Q&A chat will follow.
Our Author Talks meet via Zoom, however all you need to participate is a telephone! If you have a land line, you will use the telephone number. If you have a smart phone, you will use the “one-tap” number to join the discussion. We will also email a Zoom invitation to those who prefer to use a computer. This information will be sent to all patrons who RSVP a week prior to the author talk.
We would also like to offer you the opportunity to ask Donna Marie Miller questions about her book. Please submit questions by October 10. We will choose questions based on the responses to this form and they may be asked during the event!
To RSVP, please email us at tbpRAL@tsl.texas.gov, or call the Talking Book Program at 1-800-252-9605
Please indicate if you would like us to mail you a digital cartridge or if you prefer to download her book from BARD. Also, please let us know if you would like a reminder via email or phone-call (or both).
BROKEN SPOKE: AUSTIN’S LEGENDARY HONKY-TONK by Donna Marie Miller DBC 18774
James and Annetta White opened the Broken Spoke in 1964, then a mile south of the Austin city limits, under a massive live oak, and beside what would eventually become South Lamar Boulevard. White built the place himself, beginning construction on the day he received his honorable discharge from the US Army. And for more than fifty years, the Broken Spoke has served up, in the words of White’s well-worn opening speech, “cold beer, good whiskey, the best chicken fried steak in town … and good country music.” White paid thirty-two dollars to his first opening act, D. G. Burrow and the Western Melodies, back in 1964. Since then, the stage at the Spoke has hosted the likes of Bob Wills, Dolly Parton, Ernest Tubb, Ray Price, Marcia Ball, Pauline Reese, Roy Acuff, Kris Kristofferson, George Strait, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Asleep at the Wheel, and the late, great Kitty Wells. But it hasn’t always been easy; through the years, the Whites and the Spoke have withstood their share of hardship–a breast cancer diagnosis, heart trouble, the building’s leaky roof, and a tour bus driven through its back wall. Today the original rustic, barn-style building, surrounded by sleek, high-rise apartment buildings, still sits on South Lamar, a tribute and remembrance to an Austin that has almost vanished. Housing fifty years of country music memorabilia and about a thousand lifetimes of memories at the Broken Spoke, the Whites still honor a promise made to Ernest Tubb years ago: they’re ‘keepin’ it country’.– Provided by publisher. Some strong language. 2017.
We look forward to having you join us on Thursday, October 17!
Join the Talking Book Program for an author talk on Tuesday, August 13 at 7:00 p.m. (Central) with steamy romance author, Katie Lane.
Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean will talk with her about her career as an author as well as her books, from her DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS Series. A Q&A chat will follow.
Our Author Talks meet via Zoom, however all you need to participate is a telephone! If you have a land line, you will use the telephone number. If you have a smart phone, you will use the “one-tap” number to join the discussion. We will also email a Zoom invitation to those who prefer to use a computer. This information will be sent to all patrons who RSVP a week prior to the author talk.
We would also like to offer you the opportunity to ask Katie Lane questions about her books. Please submit questions by August 6. We will choose questions based on the responses to this form and they may be asked during the event!
To RSVP, please email us at tbpRAL@tsl.texas.gov, 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 series or if you prefer to download them from BARD. Also, please let us know if you would like a reminder via email or phone-call (or both).
Start with the first book in her series: GOING COWBOY CRAZY (DBC 25528) by Katie Lane
NLS Annotation: Bramble, Texas, is the only place Faith Aldridge can find answers–as well as Hope, the identical twin sister she never knew she had. But the townsfolk reckon that shy city-girl Faith is really Hope, back in Bramble at last. And they’re fixin’ to do whatever it takes to heat things up between her and Hope’s longtime flame, Slate Calhoun. If that means rustling her car, spreading rumors like wildfire, and reining in some explosive secrets, well, there’s no way like the Lone Star way… Strong language and some descriptions of sex. Commercial audiobook. 2017.
We look forward to having you join us on Tuesday, August 13!
Considered one of the best baseball players of all time by authorities such as ESPN and The Sporting News, Willie Mays passed away on June 18 in California at the age of 93. Mays wrote several books describing his life and phenomenal career in baseball. Here are the books he’s written that we have in our collection.
| 24: LIFE STORIES AND LESSONS FROM THE SAY HEY KID (DB 99789, BR 23250) |
| SAY HEY: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIE MAYS (DB 30365) |
The Talking Book Program’s theme for our Summer Reading Program this year is Adventure begins at your Library, so join us for an author talk on Tuesday, July 16 at 7:00 p.m. (Central) with action-packed thriller author, Taylor Moore.
Reader’s Advisory Librarian, Laura Jean will talk with him about his career as an author as well as his books, from his GARRETT KOHL Series. A Q&A chat will follow.
Our Author Talks meet via Zoom, however all you need to participate is a telephone! If you have a land line, you will use the telephone number. If you have a smart phone, you will use the “one-tap” number to join the discussion. We will also email a Zoom invitation to those who prefer to use a computer. This information will be sent to all patrons who RSVP a week prior to the author talk.
We would also like to offer you the opportunity to ask Taylor Moore questions about his books. Please submit questions by July 9. We will choose questions based on the responses to this form and they may be asked during the event!
Question Submission Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdnJUBaiGh0MUQEMUtqldrlqjQFj5vIXotqLsp1WqghSNwPLg/viewform?usp=sharing
To RSVP, please 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 series or if you prefer to download them from BARD. Also, please let us know if you would like a reminder via email or phone-call (or both).
Start with the first book in his series: DOWN RANGE
DOWN RANGE (DBC 26465) by Taylor Moore
NLS Annotation: “As a decorated undercover DEA special agent, Garrett Kohl has traveled the world–and fought in most of it–but it’s the High Plains of northwest Texas he calls home and dreams of returning to one day. When he is ordered back to Texas on a short mission expected to take a week at most, Kohl is unsettled to discover that the once-peaceful ranching community he loves is under attack. A band of criminals who have infiltrated law enforcement, corrupted local businesses, and is now terrorizing Kohl’s own family.”– adapted from jacket. Commercial audiobook. Violence and strong language. 2021.
We look forward to having you join us on Tuesday, July 16!
April 11 is National Pet Day. Celebrate by reading one of these books written by authors about their pets. The books in our collection cover variety of authors. We have popular fiction writers like Danielle Steel and Dean Koontz, as well as more literary authors such as John Steinbeck and Virginia Woolfe. In fact, Virginia Woolfe wrote a biography about Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s dog, Flush. So, poets are covered too.
| BIG LITTLE LIFE: A MEMOIR OF A JOYFUL DOG by Dean R. Koontz (DB 70393, BR 18728) |
| BLISS TO YOU: TRIXIE’S GUIDE TO A HAPPY LIFE by Dean R. Koontz (DB 69378) |
| CAT WHO WENT TO PARIS by Peter Gethers (DB 34131, BR 08854) |
| COLTER: THE TRUE STORY OF THE BEST DOG I EVER HAD by Rick Bass (BR 13367) |
| DOG IS MY CO-PILOT: GREAT WRITERS ON THE WORLD’S OLDEST FRIENDSHIP (DB 57155, BR 15158) |
| DOG’S LIFE by Peter Mayle (DB 44236, BR 10858) |
| FLUSH: A BIOGRAPHY by Virginia Woolfe (BRA 09862) |
| MY CAT SPIT MCGEE by Willie Morris (DB 52219, BR 13597) |
| MY DOG SKIP by Willie Morris (DB 41612, BR 10740) |
| PARTICULARLY CATS–AND RUFUS by Doris Lessing (BR 09522) |
| PURE JOY: THE DOGS WE LOVE by Danielle Steel (DB 92763) |
| SHAGGY MUSES: THE DOGS WHO INSPIRED VIRGINIA WOOLF, EMILY DICKINSON, EDITH WHARTON, ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, AND EMILY BRONTE by Maureen B. Adams (DB 64545) |
| SLEEPING WITH CATS: A MEMOIR by Marge Piercy (DB 58077) |
| TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY: IN SEARCH OF AMERICA by John Steinbeck (DB 16094, BR 09952) |
| WOOF! WRITERS ON DOGS (DB 68414) |