A little about the National Book Awards taken from their website: https://www.nationalbook.org/national-book-awards/how-works/

“The National Book Awards were established in 1950 to celebrate the best writing in America. Since 1989, they have been overseen by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture. Although other categories have been recognized in the past, the awards currently honors the best fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people’s literature published each year.

A panel of judges selects a longlist of ten titles per category, which is then narrowed to five Finalists, and a Winner is announced at the Awards Ceremony in the fall. Each Finalist receives a prize of $1,000, a medal, and a judge’s citation. Winners receive $10,000 and a bronze sculpture. The Awards Ceremony is one of the most anticipated events for writers, publishers, and readers eager to celebrate the best books of the year.”

Below you will find lists of the five finalists in each category. If we have the audio book in our catalog, the book numbers are listed. If we do not have it, you’ll find a note that the book is commercially available in either audio or print format. If you want to read any of these contact us and we will get you what we have, or you can find them on BARD.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED NOVEMBER 17TH, 2021

The 72nd National Book Awards Ceremony will be broadcast live on November 17, 2021, at 7:00pm ET/ 6:00pm CENTRAL

Link to sign up to watch the ceremony online: https://www.nationalbook.org/awards2021/

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Fiction Finalists:

MATRIX by Lauren Groff (DB 104843)

Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine and deemed too coarse for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England in 1158 to an impoverished abbey. She grows to love her new life and, as abbess, transforms the community. Commercial audiobook. 2021.

ZORRIE by Laird Hunt (DB 102689)

As a girl, Zorrie Underwood’s hardscrabble home county was the only constant in her young life. After losing both her parents, Zorrie moved in with her aunt, whose own death orphaned Zorrie all over again, casting her off into the perilous realities of rural, Depression-era Indiana. Some strong language. 2021.

THE PROPHETS by Robert Jones, Jr. (DB 101843)

Isaiah and Samuel are two enslaved men on a plantation. They work in the barn, caring for the animals. They find comfort and more in each other’s arms. When another enslaved man begins preaching the master’s gospel, tensions build as they try to just love each other. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.

HELL OF A BOOK by Jason Mott (DB 104515)

A Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. His story is intertwined with Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND by Anthony Doerr (commercially available AUDIO through booksellers or local libraries)

Set in Constantinople in the fifteenth century, in a small town in present-day Idaho, and on an interstellar ship decades from now, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.

Non-Fiction Finalists:

A LITTLE DEVIL IN AMERICA: NOTES IN PRAISE OF BLACK PERFORMANCE by Hanif Abdurraqib (DB 103276)

The author of Go Ahead in the Rain (DB98408) presents a collection of essays connected by the topic of black performance in America. Combining personal stories with history, he explores how African Americans have

contributed to American culture while facing racism and stereotyping. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021.

RUNNING OUT: IN SEARCH OF WATER IN THE HIGH PLAINS by Lucas Bessire (commercially available AUDIO through booksellers or local libraries)

The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force.

TASTES LIKE WAR: A MEMOIR by Grace M. Cho (commercially available AUDIO through booksellers or local libraries)

Grace M. Cho grew up as the daughter of a white American merchant marine and the Korean bar hostess he met abroad. They were one of few immigrants in a xenophobic small town during the Cold War, where identity was politicized by everyday details—language, cultural references, memories, and food. When Grace was fifteen, her dynamic mother experienced the onset of schizophrenia, a condition that would continue and evolve for the rest of her life. Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War is a hybrid text about a daughter’s search through intimate and global history for the roots of her mother’s schizophrenia.

COVERED WITH NIGHT: A STORY OF MURDER AND INDIGENOUS JUSTICE IN EARLY AMERICA by Nicole Eustace (commercially available AUDIO through booksellers or local libraries)

On the eve of a major treaty conference between Iroquois leaders and European colonists in the distant summer of 1722, two White fur traders attacked an Indigenous hunter and left him for dead near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today, this act of brutality set into motion a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations that challenged the definition of justice in early America

ALL THAT SHE CARRIED: THE JOURNEY OF ASHLEY’S SACK, A BLACK FAMILY KEEPSAKE by Tiya Miles (commercially available AUDIO through booksellers or local libraries)

A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives.

Translated Literature Finalists:

THE TWILIGHT ZONE by Nona Fernández and Natasha Wimmer (DB 103591)

A preoccupied man arrives at an opposition magazine office, introducing himself as a member of the dictator’s secret police force who is ready to talk. A journalist grabs a tape recorder and must confront her own past as she listens to his disturbing revelations. Translated from the 2016 Spanish edition. Violence and strong language. 2021.

WINTER IN SOKCHO by Elisa Shua Dusapin and Aneesa Abbas Higgins (commercially available PRINT through booksellers or local libraries)

It’s winter in Sokcho, a tourist town on the border between South and North Korea. The cold slows everything down. Bodies are red and raw, the fish turn venomous, beyond the beach guns point out from the North’s watchtowers. A young French Korean woman works as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse. One evening, an unexpected guest arrives: a French cartoonist determined to find inspiration in this desolate landscape.

PEACH BLOSSOM PARADISE by Ge Fei and Canaan Morse (commercially available PRINT through booksellers or local libraries)

In 1898 reformist intellectuals in China persuaded the young emperor that it was time to transform his sclerotic empire into a prosperous modern state. The Hundred Days’ Reform that followed was a moment of unprecedented change and extraordinary hope—brought to an abrupt end by a bloody military coup. Dashed expectations would contribute to the revolutionary turn that Chinese history would soon take, leading in time to the deaths of millions.

WHEN WE CEASE TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD by Benjamín Labatut and Adrian Nathan West (commercially available AUDIO through booksellers or local libraries)

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger – these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with

the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear. At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible

PLANET OF CLAY by Samar Yazbek and Leri Price (commercially available PRINT through booksellers or local libraries)

Rima, a young girl from Damascus, longs to walk, to be free to follow the will of her feet, but instead is perpetually constrained. Rima finds refuge in a fantasy world full of colored crayons, secret planets, and The Little Prince, reciting passages of the Qur’an like a mantra as everything and everyone around her is blown to bits. Since Rima hardly ever speaks, people think she’s crazy, but she is no fool―the madness is in the battered city around her. One day while taking a bus through Damascus, a soldier opens fire, and her mother is killed. Rima, wounded, is taken to a military hospital before her brother leads her to the besieged area of Ghouta―where, between bombings, she writes her story.

Young People’s Literature Finalists:

LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB by Malinda Lo (DB 104015)

1954. McCarthyism and the Red Scare are genuine threats to Lily’s family; her father is already at risk of deportation despite his valid citizenship. Lily, who is Chinese American, could lose everything just for dating anyone white–let alone another girl–but she could lose herself if she isn’t true to her feelings. Includes supplemental material. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. For senior high and older readers. 2021.

THE LEGEND OF AUNTIE PO by Shing Yin Khor (commercially available PRINT through booksellers or local libraries)

Aware of the racial tumult in the years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Mei tries to remain blissfully focused on her job, her close friendship with the camp foreman’s daughter, and telling stories about Paul Bunyan–reinvented as Po Pan Yin (Auntie Po), an elderly Chinese matriarch.

TOO BRIGHT TO SEE by Kyle Lukoff (commercially available AUDIO through booksellers or local libraries)

It’s the summer before middle school and eleven-year-old Bug’s best friend Moira has decided the two of them need to use the next few months to prepare. For Moira, this means figuring out the right clothes to wear, learning how to put on makeup, and deciding which boys are cuter in their yearbook photos than in real life. But none of this is all that appealing to Bug, who doesn’t particularly want to spend more time trying to understand how to be a girl. Besides, there’s something more important to worry about: A ghost is haunting Bug’s eerie old house in rural Vermont…and maybe haunting Bug in particular. As Bug begins to untangle the mystery of who this ghost is and what they’re trying to say, an altogether different truth comes to light–Bug is transgender.

REVOLUTION IN OUR TIME: THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY’S PROMISE TO THE PEOPLE by Kekla Magoon (commercially available AUDIO through booksellers or local libraries)

In this comprehensive, inspiring, and all-too-relevant history of the Black Panther Party, Kekla Magoon introduces readers to the Panthers’ community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens. For too long the Panthers’ story has been a footnote to the civil rights movement rather than what it was: a revolutionary socialist movement that drew thousands of members—mostly women—and became the target of one of the most sustained repression efforts ever made by the U.S. government against its own citizens.

ME (MOTH) by Amber McBride (commercially available AUDIO through booksellers or local libraries)

Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted. Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he’ll be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she, too, will discover the history she carries in her bones.

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Poetry is also a category for the awards, but unfortunately do not have any of the titles in our collection. You can explore that, and the full long lists here: https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2021/?cat=fiction

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A research team comprising of blind and sighted scholars at the Envision Research Institute is investigating the experiences of blind and visually impaired individuals at different stages of the employment cycle as these relate to Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The goal is to understand the hiring and retention policies that are effective for including blind and visually impaired people in the workforce.

Volunteers selected as study participants will be instructed to complete a questionnaire. The complete study might take about 45 minutes. A follow-up interview may be necessary to clarify some responses on the questionnaire. Upon completion of the study, the participant will receive a $25 gift card as a token of appreciation.

If you are interested in participating, or have a question about the study, please contact Marco Tarantino at marco.tarantino@envisionus.com; or call 316-440-1524). Please reference project title: “Experiences of Blind and Low Vision Individuals at Different Stages of the Employment Cycle as These Relate to Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Regulations Implemented in 2014” in the subject line of the email

If you live in the cities of Austin or Houston and have a visual or physical disability, you are eligible to participate in an online survey about autonomous vehicles.

The survey takes about fifteen minutes to complete, and can be found at this link:

https://tti.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_di22u5zay3m1o7X

For more information, contact Jinuk Hwang at j.hwang@tamu.edu

The Wolfner Library in Missouri created a recommended reading list about NASA and its history. We at the Texas Talking Book Program have altered it to include our Braille and large print copies. To order any of these titles, contact the library by email, mail or phone. You may also request these titles online through our online public access catalog OPAC. All books listed are linked to Braille and Audio Reading Download site (BARD) for downloading. Happy Reading!

2019

Astronauts:

Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly
Read by Scott Kelly. Reading Time: 13 hours, 9 minutes.
DB 8952

LP09186; 603 pages

Astronaut and American record-holder for most consecutive days in space examines his life and career. Discusses growing up with identical twin brother–and fellow astronaut–Mark, challenges he faced to become an astronaut, and the physical and emotional impacts of long-term spaceflight. Some strong language. 2017.

John Glenn: A Memoir by John Glenn

Read by Randy Atcher. Reading Time: 16 hours, 13 minutes.

DB 49106

The first American to orbit the earth, who in 1998 became the oldest man in space at seventy-seven, discusses his career as an astronaut and his lengthy service in the marines and the U.S. Senate. He recounts growing up in Ohio, marrying his childhood friend, and raising a family. Bestseller. 1999.

Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell

Read by L. J. Ganser. Reading Time: 15 hours, 55 minutes.

DB 40691

Apollo 13 was to have been the fifth mission to the moon. But two days into the trip, on April 13, 1970, the oxygen tank exploded in the command module, placing the three astronauts in grave danger. Lovell describes those terrifying days as astronauts, contractors, and Mission Control struggled to bring Apollo 13 safely back to earth. Basis for the movie Apollo 13. Bestseller.

Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut by Mike R. Mullane

Read by Jake Williams. Reading Time: 18 hours, 17 minutes.

DB 62819

Autobiography of one of the first space shuttle astronauts. Mullane, a West Point graduate, aeronautical engineer, and Vietnam veteran, describes with humor and candor his selection process, training program, and space flight experiences. Recounts three missions and discusses NASA’s role in the 1986 Challenger disaster. Some strong language. 2006.

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson

Read by Robert Kurson. Reading Time: 12 hours, 22 minutes.

DB 91450

Profile of the Apollo 8 space mission, which launched in December 1968 after a year of turmoil in the United States and was the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon. Also profiles the crew, including astronauts Frank F. Borman II, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders. Unrated. 2018.

Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson

Read by Lou Harpenou. Reading Time: 17 hours, 42 minutes.

DB 69775

Prizewinning author retraces America’s race against the Soviet Union to be the first to land on the moon. Chronicles NASA’s 1969 Apollo 11 mission using interviews and declassified documents. Provides glimpses into the personal family lives of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins. 2009.

The Ordinary Spaceman from Boyhood Dreams to Astronaut by Clayton C. Anderson

Read by David Rutherford. Reading Time: 14 hours, 33 minutes.

DB 82817

Anderson recounts applying to the astronaut program fifteen times in as many years before his ultimate selection, and describes the struggles and successes of his subsequent career–including spending 167 days on the International Space Station and more than forty hours on space walks. 2015

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

Read by Dennis Quaid. Reading Time: 15 hours, 45 minutes.

DB 90395

LB 03137

Inside view of the early astronauts (Carpenter, Cooper, Glenn, Grissom, Shirra, Shepard, Slayton) strips away the media image of the men and reveals what makes them tick. Narrated by the actor who played Gordon Cooper in the 1983 movie adaptation. Some strong language. 1979.

Too Far From Home: A Story of Life and Death in Space by Chris Jones

Read by Erik Davis. Reading Time: 10 hours, 54 minutes.

DB 63506

BR 17198; 3 volumes of Braille

Describes the experiences of Americans Donald Pettit and Kenneth Bowersox and Russian Nikolai Budarin, astronauts who became stranded on the International Space Station after the space shuttle Columbia exploded in 2003. Recounts the efforts of mission control in Houston and Moscow to rescue them using an old Soyuz rocket. 2007.

Ground Crew and History:

Venus Revealed: A New Look Below the Clouds of Our Mysterious Twin Planet by David Harry Grinspoon

Read by Len Mailloux. Reading Time: 16 hours, 3 minutes.

DB 46319

Reviews the evolving concepts about the planet Venus from early mythological associations to modern scientific discoveries. The author, who worked on the 1990 Magellan space probe, describes the task of mapping the surface of Venus and explains the hostile environment of a planet that is much less like the Earth than once believed.

Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz

Read by Steven Carpenter. Reading Time: 16 hours, 22 minutes.

DB 51600

Memoir of a flight director for NASA’s mission control, providing an insider’s perspective on the space program from the 1960s Mercury days to the final Apollo mission.  Kranz recalls the highlights of his career and explains his role in bringing the three Apollo 13 astronauts back safely to Earth. 2000.

Flight: My Life in Mission Control by Christopher C. Kraft

Read by Lou Harpenau. Reading Time: 14 hours, 43 minutes.

DB 53219

NASA’s first flight director offers an insider’s view of the early days of the space program in the 1960s. He describes past achievements such as the first manned launch with Alan Shepard, and the glitches, near disasters, and successes, culminating with the astronauts walking on the moon. Some strong language. 2001.

The Rock from Mars: A Detective Story on Two Planets by Kathy Sawyer

Read by Mary Kane. Reading Time: 15 hours, 57 minutes.

DB 63539

Journalist recounts the 1984 Antarctic discovery of a Martian meteorite and its delayed identification at NASA’s Houston space center in 1993, when scientists also found possible evidence of fossilized organisms. Examines the ensuing scientific debate and its impact on the space program and efforts to understand life on Earth. 2006.

Space Race the Epic Battle between America and the Soviet Union for Dominion of Space by Deborah Cadbury

Read by Butch Hoover. Reading Time: 14 hours, 23 minutes.

DB 64644

Examines the superpower rivalries that fueled the race to the moon and the engineering masterminds behind it: Sergei Korolev in the Soviet Union and Wernher von Braun, a former Nazi, in the United States. Discusses the political paranoia of the cold war era and the technological advances it produced. 2006.

Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight by Margaret Lazarus Dean

Read by Kerry Dukin. Reading Time: 13 hours, 20 minutes.

DB 82410

BR 20928; 5 volumes of Braille

Dean recounts the history of American spaceflight, NASA, and Florida’s Space Coast and reflects on what has been achieved. She interviews NASA workers, astronauts, and space fans alike, exploring the ramifications of the end of the American space shuttle program. Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize.   2015.

Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Shira Teitel

Read by Kerry Dukin. Reading Time: 12 hours, 8 minutes.

DB 83941

Journalist chronicles the agencies and institutions–along with key personnel–that were precursors to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was created in 1958. Details research into rocketry in both America and Germany, as well as the impact of World War II and the Cold War. 2016.

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

Read by Emily Ellet. Reading Time: 12 hours, 15 minutes.

DB 86234

BR 21798; 5 volumes of Braille

Daughter of a NASA engineer profiles the black women who worked for NASA, and its predecessor NACA, as human computers. Discusses their lives prior to joining NACA/NASA, the challenges they faced due to gender and race discrimination, and their impact on the space program. Basis for the 2016 movie. 2016.

Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon by Jeffrey Kluger

Read by Brian Troxwell. Reading Time: 11 hours, 10 minutes.

DB 88328

LB 09197; 551 pages

Author of Journey beyond Selene (DB 50687) chronicles the Apollo 8 mission–manned by Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders–which was the first to successfully orbit Earth’s moon. Discusses behind-the-scenes interactions in Mission Control, at the astronauts’ homes, and in the labs tasked with making the mission a success. Some strong language. 2017.

Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew by Michael D. Leinbach

Read by Gregory Maupin. Reading Time: 11 hours, 12 minutes.

DB 90380

Chronicle of the investigation of the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia over Texas on its return in 2003. Discusses the cause of the accident, interagency work protocols, and the contributions of volunteers, which allowed for the recovery of crew remains and forty percent of debris. 2018.

Unmanned Missions:

Far Travelers the Exploring Machines by Oran W. Nicks

Read by Butch Hoover. Reading Time: 10 hours, 50 minutes.

DB 29427

Personal account of NASA’s unmanned space exploration programs, in which the author shares some of the technical aspects of space flight. The people, machines, and incidents are depicted in an informal manner.

The Hubble Wars: Astrophysics Meets Astropolitics in the Two-Billion-Dollar Struggle over the Hubble Space Telescope by Eric Chaisson

Read by Butch Hoover. Reading Time: 22 hours, 48 minutes.

DB 41889

After its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was found to be embarrassingly out of focus. Astronomers were devastated, politicians disgusted, the press critical, and the public perplexed. Astrophysicist Chaisson chronicles the mismanagement and competing agendas among science, government, and industry that led to the Hubble boondoggle.

The Planet Mars: A History of Observation & Discovery by William Sheehan

Read by Butch Hoover. Reading Time: 10 hours, 3 minutes.

DB 48355

Chronological history of astronomers’ fascination with Mars from Kepler’s discovery of its elliptical orbit in 1604 through the Viking missions of 1975-76. Includes a chapter on Percival Lowell and his controversial theory about canals on the planet’s surface.

Mission Jupiter: The Spectacular Journey of the Galileo Spacecraft by Daniel Fisher

Read by Butch Hoover. Reading Time: 10 hours, 1 minute.

DB 57435

Award-winning German columnist describes the landmark discoveries of NASA’s Galileo space probe, which reached Jupiter–after passing by Venus and two asteroids–in December 1995, more than six years after liftoff. Fischer provides mission history and specifications, focusing on what the project data revealed about the planet’s moons and atmosphere. 1998.

The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission by Jim Bell

Read by Jim Bell. Reading Time: 7 hours, 46 minutes.

DB 80893

President of the Planetary Society details his work with the data sent back by the Voyager missions, which launched in 1977 when the author was a high school student. Looks at the development of the missions and describes the planetary flybys of the probes. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2015.

Mars: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet by Paul Raeburn

Read by Jake Williams. Reading Time: 8 hours, 40 minutes.

DB 48758

A National Geographic chronicle of Mars exploration. Focuses on the Viking missions of the 1970s, whose primary goal was the search for life, and on the July 4, 1997, Pathfinder landing on Mars’s surface. Explains the design, engineering, and results of the projects. Discusses plans for future missions. For senior high and older readers.

Journey beyond Selene by Jeffrey Kluger

Read by Richard Hauenstein. Reading Time: 11 hours, 40 minutes.

DB 50687

Chronicles the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s unmanned exploration of Earth’s solar system with robot spacecraft. Describes the pre-1969 testing of the Moon’s surface in advance of the manned landing. Recounts the subsequent deep-space probes of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune and their moons. 1999.

Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and Dr. David Grinspoon

Read by Alan Stern. Reading Time: 9 hours, 19 minutes.

DB 91641

Planetary scientist Stern and astrobiologist Grinspoon provide a behind-the-scenes account of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond. Discusses science, politics, personalities, and public expectations involved in the development of the mission. Gives short overview of the history of the study of Pluto. Unrated. 2018.

Posted on behalf of Jaclyn Owusu, Public Awareness Coordinator for TBP

Earlier this month, TBP hosted the National Library Service Southern/Western Libraries Serving the Blind & Physically Impaired Conference in San Antonio. The three-day conference featured TBP staffers Saidah Ochoa, Laura Jean Norris, John Berkeland and Todd Rusch presenting information to the 70 attendees from around the country about our outreach to Spanish speaking users, our YA books collections and our new Duplication on Demand service.

On Wednesday night, author and blogger Lisa Fain, known for her cookbooks and her blog, The Homesick Texan (link goes to The Homesick Texan website), was a featured speaker. She discussed how she used libraries to do research on her books. During the evening author reception, Craig York, who recorded her cookbook in our studio for the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD), gave a brief reading from one of her cookbooks.

Enjoy some photos and a video from the conference!