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Talking Books Talk

Talking Books Talk provides news and updates about the Kansas Talking Books Service (KTBS). Talking Books staff will highlight relevant announcements from KTBS and the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

Questions: KTB@ks.gov or 800-362-0699

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Feb 06

New Kansas Books - January 2023

Posted on February 6, 2023 at 11:08 AM by Michael Lang

Silhouette of a diver ascending a deep chasm of blue water.


DBC17294 Raising the Dead: A True Story of Death and Survival by Phillip Finch

On New Year's Day, 2005, David Shaw traveled halfway around the world on a journey that took him to a steep crater in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa, a site known as Bushman's Hole. His destination was nearly 900 feet below the water’s surface. On January 8th he descended into the water. Don Shirley, Shaw's friend, was one of the few people in the world qualified to follow where Shaw was about to go. Twenty-five minutes later, one of the men was dead. The other was in mortal peril, and would spend the next 10 hours struggling to survive, existing literally from breath to breath. What happened that day is the stuff of nightmarish drama, but is also a compelling human story of friendship, heroism, ambition, and of coming to terms with loss and tragedy.


Green tined leafless tree, with small brightly coloered square with a white leopard in the center.


DBC17301 The Door in the Forest by Rod Townley

At the mid point of three towns, in the center of three streams, in the heart of a forest, lies a mysterious island. Encircled by quicksand and sewn shut by vines, it is impenetrable to all but the poisonous snakes patrolling its waters. But Daniel is determined to get there, along with his friend Emily. Emily is a bit mysterious herself. A girl who seems to know more than she can say, whose mother was taken away by government troops, and whose eccentric grandmother reads the future in her bubble bath. Enter the soldiers. Their menacing commander is terribly interested in sleepy little Everwood. Is he searching for something? A treasure map? The island? The girl? For grades 4-7.



Highway and desert landscape as seen out the windshield of a car.

DBC17313 The Other Side of Silence by Bill Ponzini

On his third day in Death Valley, Rick Fallon comes upon a deserted Toyota Camry, and soon thereafter, the almost-dead body of Casey Dunbar. Having rescued her, Fallon soon learns what had driven her to give up on life--and, his own life on hold, he resolves to unravel the twisted and dangerous strands of hers, a quest that leads him to the glitter-dome of Las Vegas. Contains some violence and strong language.