Kate’s 2¢: “The Sound of Honor” by Jim Stovall

“The Sound of Honor” by Jim Stovall

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   “…Stovall has endeavored to convince people that having a positive attitude, focusing their energy, and acting upon their motivations can bring positive results in their lives.” 

   I like that this story tells it like it is to become blind, learn to trust again, and venture forth on your own.

   Jon Womastek  did a great job of reading this story for the NLS.

www.jimstovall.com

Jim Stovall (born August 3, 1958) is an American writer best known for his bestselling novel The Ultimate Gift.[1] The book was made into the movie The Ultimate Gift, distributed by 20th Century Fox. The Ultimate Gift has a prequel called The Ultimate Life and a sequel called The Ultimate Legacy.

Stovall is blind and is an advocate on behalf of people with blindness. He works to make television and movies accessible to the blind as President of the Narrative Television Network, an organization that has received various award recognitions including an Emmy award, a Media Access Award, and an International Film and Video Award.

He was chosen as the International Humanitarian of the Year, joining Jimmy Carter, Nancy Reagan, and Mother Teresa as recipients of this honor.

He has also received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from ORU for his work with the disabled.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The Sound of Honor DBC12208

Stovall, Jim. Reading time: 5 hours, 20 minutes.

Read by Jon Womastek. A production of Oklahoma Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

Disability

Mystery and Detective Stories

Psychological Fiction

Jake Dyer, a blind man, and his associates have only three rules in the lost and found business-always get paid, never get emotionally involved, and avoid dangerous people. But then there was the time they successfully shattered all three-sometimes you just gotta do the right thing! Unrated.

Downloaded: June 18, 2020

Kate’s 2¢: “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read. I’m just saying…

I’m so used to listening to the BARD real readers, that it takes a while to understand the synthesized voice reading a BookShare story. It is apt to voice the quote marks and astericks, as well as, all the page numbers. I think these features would be helpful to students if they were consistent in which features it announced. The synthesized cadence is a bit awkward at times, but one can get the gist of the story. The BookShare synopsis sums up the narrative arc and poses several interesting issues to ponder after reading the story.
Some of the thoughts expressed during a book discussion group I attended were how the house took on being a powerful character on its own and/or it symbolized the last time Mav, Dan, their Dad and Mom were a family. The author used the house as a narrative technique to focus the wide spread time-line and that the author seems to have a big house featured in most of her stories.
The facilitator of the Book Discussion group said her favorites by Ann Patchett were “Bell Canto”, “Magician’s assistant”, and “Commonwealth”.

From the WEB:
If you’re into watching youtube and other videos, bing ‘Ann Patchett’.

From : BookShare: Synopsis
Ann Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder, returns with her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go.
“’Do you think it’s possible to ever see the past as it actually was?’ I asked my sister. We were sitting in her car, parked in front of the Dutch House in the broad daylight of early summer.”
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.
The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.
The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are. Filled with suspense, you may read it quickly to find out what happens, but what happens to Danny and Maeve will stay with you for a very long time.
A New York Times Bestseller
Copyright: 2019
Book Details
Book Quality: Publisher Quality
ISBN-13: 9780062963697
Related ISBNs: 9780062963673
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date of Addition: 11/15/19
Copyrighted By: Ann Patchett
Adult content: No
Language: English
Has Image Descriptions: No
Categories: Literature and Fiction,Parenting and Family
Submitted By: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions: This is a copyrighted book.

Cornucopia: Zaps

Zaps

(adapted  Senryū 5, 7, 5)

Radiation Zaps

Take lead in dance with cancer.

Remission at last!

I have completed three weeks of radiation therapy for Stage One-A Breast Cancer. It is considered to be in remission now, so, I’m cautiously optimistic that I am cancer neutral.

I’ll be on an aromatase inhibitor for several years to keep my body’s environment unfriendly to

breed any more invasive cancer cells. Nutrition and environment will be the watch words from now on.

My love and thanks to you,

Kate

Kate’s 2¢: “The Sound of Honor” by Jim Stovall

“The Sound of Honor” by Jim Stovall

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   “…Stovall has endeavored to convince people that having a positive attitude, focusing their energy, and acting upon their motivations can bring positive results in their lives.” 

   I like that this story tells it like it is to become blind, learn to trust again, and venture forth on your own.

   Jon Womastek  did a great job of reading this story for the NLS.

www.jimstovall.com

Jim Stovall (born August 3, 1958) is an American writer best known for his bestselling novel The Ultimate Gift.[1] The book was made into the movie The Ultimate Gift, distributed by 20th Century Fox. The Ultimate Gift has a prequel called The Ultimate Life and a sequel called The Ultimate Legacy.

Stovall is blind and is an advocate on behalf of people with blindness. He works to make television and movies accessible to the blind as President of the Narrative Television Network, an organization that has received various award recognitions including an Emmy award, a Media Access Award, and an International Film and Video Award.

He was chosen as the International Humanitarian of the Year, joining Jimmy Carter, Nancy Reagan, and Mother Teresa as recipients of this honor.

He has also received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from ORU for his work with the disabled.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The Sound of Honor DBC12208

Stovall, Jim. Reading time: 5 hours, 20 minutes.

Read by Jon Womastek. A production of Oklahoma Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

Disability

Mystery and Detective Stories

Psychological Fiction

Jake Dyer, a blind man, and his associates have only three rules in the lost and found business-always get paid, never get emotionally involved, and avoid dangerous people. But then there was the time they successfully shattered all three-sometimes you just gotta do the right thing! Unrated.

Downloaded: June 18, 2020

Kate’s 2¢: “The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett

“The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

I’m so used to listening to the BARD real readers, that it takes a while to understand the synthesized voice reading a BookShare story. It is apt to voice the quote marks and astericks, as well as, all the page numbers. I think these features would be helpful to students if they were consistent in which features it announced. The synthesized cadence is a bit awkward at times, but one can get the gist of the story. The BookShare synopsis sums up the narrative arc and poses several interesting issues to ponder after reading the story.   

   Some of the thoughts expressed during a book discussion group I attended were how the house took on being a powerful character on its own and/or it symbolized the last time Mav, Dan, their Dad and Mom were a family. The author used the house as a narrative technique to focus the wide spread time-line and that the author seems to have a big house featured in most of her stories.  

   The facilitator of the Book Discussion group said her favorites by Ann Patchett were “Bell Canto”, “Magician’s assistant”, and “Commonwealth”.

From the WEB:

If you’re into watching youtube and other videos, bing ‘Ann Patchett’.

From : BookShare: Synopsis

Ann Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder, returns with her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go.

“’Do you think it’s possible to ever see the past as it actually was?’ I asked my sister. We were sitting in her car, parked in front of the Dutch House in the broad daylight of early summer.”

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are. Filled with suspense, you may read it quickly to find out what happens, but what happens to Danny and Maeve will stay with you for a very long time.

A New York Times Bestseller

Copyright: 2019

Book Details

Book Quality: Publisher Quality

ISBN-13: 9780062963697

Related ISBNs: 9780062963673

Publisher: HarperCollins

Date of Addition: 11/15/19

Copyrighted By: Ann Patchett

Adult content: No

Language: English

Has Image Descriptions: No

Categories: Literature and Fiction,Parenting and Family

Submitted By: Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions: This is a copyrighted book.

Kate’s 2¢: “The elephant whisperer: my life with the herd in the African wild” by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence

“The elephant whisperer: my life with the herd in the African wild” by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   Well done! I enjoyed every tense moment, shared in the cheers of success, and choked up with deaths and failures.

   A heart warming call to help protect the creatures with which we share this earth.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anthony was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the 1920s, his grandfather, who was a miner in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England had migrated to the area to work in the gold mines. His father, who ran an insurance business, went about establishing new offices across Southern Africa; Anthony was raised in rural Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe), Zambia, and Malawi, before settling in Zululand, South Africa.[4]

Following his father, Anthony also started his career in the insurance sector, though subsequently started working the real estate development business. Meanwhile, he started working with Zulu tribespeople, by mid-1990s, his passion for the African Bush inspired him to switch careers, when he bought the Thula Thula game reserve, spread over 5,000-acre in KwaZulu-Natal starting his career as a conservationist.[4] A turning point in career came when he was called by a conservation group to rescue a group of nine elephants who had escaped their enclosure and were wreaking havoc across Northern Mpumalanga,[5] and were about to be shot. He tried to communicate with the matriarch of the herd through the tone of his voice and body language, eventually rescued them and brought to the reserve, and in time came to be known as “Elephant-whisperer”.[1][4]

In the following years, he established a conservation group, The Earth Organization in 2003, and his efforts lead to the establishment of two new reserves, the Royal Zulu Biosphere in Zululand and the Mayibuye Game Reserve in Kwa Ximba, aimed at providing local tribe people income through wildlife tourism.[4]

Anthony had a reputation for bold conservation initiatives, including the rescue of the Baghdad Zoo at the height of the US-led Coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003, and negotiations with the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army rebel army in Southern Sudan, to raise awareness of the environment and protect endangered species, including the last of the Northern White Rhinoceros.

Anthony died of a heart attack at the age of 61 before his planned March 2012 conservation gala dinner in Durban to raise international awareness for the rhino-poaching crisis and to launch his new book, The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World’s Greatest Creatures.[2] Following his death, there were reports that some of the elephants he worked to save came to his family’s home in accordance with the way elephants usually mourn the death of one of their own.[3]

www.grahamspence.comActions for this site

GRAHAM SPENCE is a journalist and editor. Originally from South Africa, he lives in England. Together he and Lawrence Anthony wrote Babylon’s Ark: the Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The elephant whisperer: my life with the herd in the African wild DB85906

Anthony, Lawrence; Spence, Graham. Reading time: 13 hours, 9 minutes.

Read by Jon Huffman. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

Animals and Wildlife

Nature and the Environment

Conservationist relates his experiences caring for a rogue herd of elephants on his South African game reserve. Describes his misgivings in accepting them, challenges faced with both the herd and local communities, lessons learned from individual elephants, and the joys and sorrows he encountered. 2009.

Kate’s 2¢: “beating About the Bush” by M. C. Beaton

“beating About the Bush” by M. C. Beaton

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   I’d not come across the Agatha Raisin Series before reading “Beating About the Bush”. This zany British female dective was labelled a kook, bumbling, and interfering tart, however, she stuck with her instincts and nailed the perp.

From the web:

   Marion Chesney was born on 10 June 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, and worked as a buyer of fiction for a Glasgow bookshop, theatre critic, newspaper reporter and editor. She married Middle East Correspondent Harry Scott Gibbons; they had a son, Charles. The couple moved to the Cotswolds when their son was about to go to university, assuming that he would go to Oxford, though in fact he did not.

Chesney had also lived in the USA. In later life she divided her time between a cottage in the Cotswolds

   It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the death of author Marion Chesney Gibbons, known professionally as M.C. Beaton, after a brief illness. 12 July 2019.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Beating about the bush DB98330

Beaton, M. C. Reading time: 6 hours, 39 minutes.

Read by Penelope Keith.

Mystery and Detective Stories

After poor elderly Mrs. Dunwiddy is found dead, Agatha digs into the complicated case, facing off with everyone from secretive factory bosses to Russian officials. Agatha also finds herself grappling with intensifying feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.

Downloaded: March 21, 2020

“beating About the Bush” by M. C. Beaton

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   I’d not come across the Agatha Raisin Series before reading “Beating About the Bush”. This zany British female dective was labelled a kook, bumbling, and interfering tart, however, she stuck with her instincts and nailed the perp.

From the web:

   Marion Chesney was born on 10 June 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, and worked as a buyer of fiction for a Glasgow bookshop, theatre critic, newspaper reporter and editor. She married Middle East Correspondent Harry Scott Gibbons; they had a son, Charles. The couple moved to the Cotswolds when their son was about to go to university, assuming that he would go to Oxford, though in fact he did not.

Chesney had also lived in the USA. In later life she divided her time between a cottage in the Cotswolds

   It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the death of author Marion Chesney Gibbons, known professionally as M.C. Beaton, after a brief illness. 12 July 2019.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Beating about the bush DB98330

Beaton, M. C. Reading time: 6 hours, 39 minutes.

Read by Penelope Keith.

Mystery and Detective Stories

After poor elderly Mrs. Dunwiddy is found dead, Agatha digs into the complicated case, facing off with everyone from secretive factory bosses to Russian officials. Agatha also finds herself grappling with intensifying feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.

Downloaded: March 21, 2020

Kate’s 2¢: “Silver, sword, and stone: three crucibles in the Latin American story” by Marie Arana

“Silver, sword, and stone: three crucibles in the Latin American story” by Marie Arana

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read. I’m just saying…

I can appreciate the time, effort, and energy it must have taken to research and write this intricate history. How disappointed it must have been to have it panned. Maybe, it would make a good project for high school seniors to do their own research to corroborate or not the facts in this history.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Marie Arana was born in Peru, the daughter of Jorge Arana Cisneros, a Peruvian born civil engineer, and Marie Elverine Clapp Campbell, an American from Kansas and Boston, whose family has deep roots in United States. She moved with her parents to Summit, New Jersey (United States) at the age of 9. She later achieved her B.A. in Russian at Northwestern University, her M.A. in linguistics at Hong Kong University, a certificate of scholarship at Yale University in China, and began her career in book publishing, where she was vice president and senior editor at Harcourt Brace and Simon & Schuster. At Northwestern she joined Delta Gamma and was honored as Homecoming Queen.
For more than a decade she was the editor in chief of “Book World”, the book review section of The Washington Post, during which time she instituted the partnership of The Washington Post with the White House (First Lady Laura Bush) and the Library of Congress (Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress) in hosting the annual National Book Festival on the Washington Mall. She is currently the Literary Director of the Library of Congress and directs all programming for the National Book Festival among numerous other programs at the Library.[2] Arana is a Writer at Large for The Washington Post. She is married to Jonathan Yardley, the Post’s former chief book critic, and has two children from a previous marriage, Lalo Walsh and Adam Ward; as well as two stepchildren, Jim Yardley and Bill Yardley.
Marie Arana is the author of a memoir about a bicultural childhood American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood (finalist for the 2001 National Book Award as well as the Martha PEN/Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir); editor of a collection of Washington Post essays about the writer’s craft, The Writing Life (2002); and the author of Cellophane (a satirical novel set in the Peruvian Amazon, published in 2006, and a finalist for the John Sargent Prize). Her most recent novel, published in January 2009, is Lima Nights (its Spanish edition [2013] was selected by El Comercio’s chief book critic as one of the best five novels of 2013 in Peru. In April, 2013, Simon & Schuster published her book “Bolívar: American Liberator,” a biography of the South American revolutionary leader and founder Simon Bolivar[3] [4][5] It won the 2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography.[6] She has written introductions for many books, among them a National Geographic book of aerial photographs of South America, Through the Eyes of the Condor. and she is a frequent spokesperson on Hispanic issues, Latin America, and the book industry.
Arana has served on the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She is currently on the board of directors of the American Writers Museum. For many years, she has directed literary events for the Americartes Festivals at the Kennedy Center. She has been a judge for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award as well as for the National Book Critics Circle. Her commentary has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the “Virginia Quarterly Review,” USA Today, Civilization, Smithsonian magazine, National Geographic, and numerous other literary publications throughout the Americas.
Arana was a Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in 1996 and then again in 1999, an Invited Research Scholar at Brown University in 2008–2009. In October 2009, Arana received the Alumna Award of the Year at Northwestern University.[7]
In April 2009, Arana was named John W. Kluge Distinguished Scholar at the Library of Congress through 2010. In September 2009, she was elected to the Scholars’ Council of the Library of Congress as well as the Board of Directors of the National Book Festival.
Arana was scriptwriter for the Latin American portion of the film “Girl Rising,” which describes the life of Senna, a 14-year-old girl in the Andean gold-mining town of La Rinconada. At 17,000 feet above sea level, it is the highest human habitation in the world. The film was part of a campaign to promote the importance of girls’ education. Arana’s writing about that experience, which was published in The Best American Travel Writing 2013, was named one of “the most gripping and sobering” of the year.
In March 2015, Arana directed the Iberian Suite Festival Literary Series for the Kennedy Center. In the course of seven programs, she featured more than two dozen Spanish-language and Portuguese-language writers from around the world.
In October 2015, Arana was named Chair of the Cultures of the Countries of the South, an honorary post at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress. She then became Literary Advisor to the Librarian of Congress as well as Director of the National Book Festival.
In 2019, Simon & Schuster published her latest book, Silver, Sword, and Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story (Orion Publishers released it in the United Kingdom). The Spanish edition of Bolívar: Libertador Americano was published the same year by Penguin Random House.
In October 2019, Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, named her Literary Director of the Library of Congress.
Bolivar and Silver, Sword and Stone have received accusations of hispanophobia, antiespañolismo, stereotyping, sectarianism and misinformation.[8][9][10]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Silver, sword, and stone: three crucibles in the Latin American story DB98143
Arana, Marie, (Writer). Reading time: 16 hours, 4 minutes.
Read by Cynthia Farrell.

Biography
World History and Affairs

Profiles of three modern Latin Americans whose lives represent three forces that have shaped the region through exploitation, violence, and religion. A Jesuit priest serves among the indigenous, a Cuban fought in the civil war in Angola, and a gold miner works under terrible conditions. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.

Kate’s 2¢: “When You Can’t Believe Your Eyes: Vision Loss and Personal Recovery” By Hannah Fairbairn

“When You Can’t Believe Your Eyes: Vision Loss and Personal Recovery” By Hannah Fairbairn

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read. I’m just saying…

Whether one loses sight gradually or quickly, it is traumatic, to say the least. Fairbairn’s book can give a boost to getting back on an even keel.

“When You Can’t Believe Your Eyes: Vision Loss and Personal Recovery”
By Hannah Fairbairn
9780398092825
2019
Synopsis
This book was first projected in 2004, when Author Hannah Fairbairn was teaching interpersonal skills at the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Massachusetts. The experiences of her adult students and her own experience of sight lost convinced her that everyone losing vision needs access to good information about the process of adjustment to losing sight and practical ways to use assertive speech. When You Can’t Believe Your Eyes is intended for anyone going through vision loss, their friends, and families. It will inform readers how to get expert professional help, face the trauma of loss, and navigate the world using speech more than sight. Each of the twelve chapters in the book contain many short sections and bullet-point lists, intended to facilitate access to the right information. It begins where you begin at the doctor’s office or the hospital. Since vision loss takes many forms, there are suggestions for questions you might ask to get a clear diagnosis and the best treatment. Part One also has a description of legal blindness and possible prevention, advice about your job, and tips for life at home. Part Two is about believing in yourself as you deal with the loss, the anger, and the fear before you come up for air and consider training. Parts Three and Four describe using assertive speech and action in all kinds of settings as your independence and confidence increase. Part Five gives detailed information about everything from dating, and caring for babies to senior living, volunteering, and retaining your job. It is hoped that by reading and trying out the suggestions, the reader will recover full confidence, become a positive, assertive communicator, and lead a satisfying life. Because vision loss happens mostly in older years, the book is written with seniors particularly in mind. Professionals will also find it to be a useful resource for their patients.

Hadley Presents
and a microphone
with the braille ‘h’
appear in white on a
black background,
framed by red
curtains
Becoming Socially Confident After Vision Loss
Author of “When You Can’t Believe Your Eyes,” Hannah Fairbairn, chats with us about how to communicate in everyday situations when you can’t rely on visual cues. Hear Hannah’s own story about losing vision, her practical tips on adjusting to vision loss, and advice she has on regaining confidence in social situations.
Listen Now
A downloadable transcript is available on our site.

Kate’s 2¢: “Stateway’s garden: stories” by Jasmon Drain

“Stateway’s garden: stories” by Jasmon Drain
Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read. I’m just saying…

Drain very vividly paints with words what it was like living in the Stateway’s Garden project on the south side of Chicago. As a chronicle for historic purposes, he is successful. What I question is if these stories advance the agenda of cultural betterment or do these stories keep it stuck in its history.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2188057/jasmon-drainActions for this site
About the Author Jasmon Drain is a 2010 and 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee. He grew up in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago, and currently resides in the Kenwood neighborhood.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Stateway’s garden: stories DB98978
Drain, Jasmon. Reading time: 7 hours, 44 minutes.
Read by Shayna Small.

Short Stories

A collection of short stories focused on the lives of those residing in the Stateway Gardens public housing projects on Chicago’s South Side. The stories describe a vibrant community fighting the crush of poverty and violence. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2020.
Downloaded: June 18, 2020