Talking Books Talk - Website at State Library of Kansas

So, if you're searching for something new to read, check out Donna's read-alike recommendations and happy reading!

Fans of William Bernhardt's Ben Kincaid series might also enjoy books by Barry Reed. These authors are both legal fiction but are more aligned than, say, with John Grisham and/or Lisa Scottoline.
Fans of A Time to Kill by John Grisham might enjoy A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci.
Fans of Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series might like Jess Lourey's PI Mira James series and the first book in the Riley Ellison series by Jill Orr.
Theater Nights are Murder: Poppy McAllister, book 4 by Libby Klein is HIGHLY recommended for fans of Jana DeLeon's Miss Fortune series. It was hysterical. At the play's opening night, I laughed until I cried. Poppy has a cat, Sir Figaro Newton, who is quite the drama king. When he wants attention or to make a point, he just flops over as if he were reenacting a death scene. This book, with the senior center play, is by far the funniest of her books. Miss Fortune has Ida Belle and Gertie, while Poppy has her eccentric aunt along with three senior citizens, who are hysterical. I'm laughing again at the antics of dress rehearsal night.
Fans of Avery Aames, Ellie Alexander, Winnie Archer, Ginger Bolton, Joanna Carl, Vivien Chien, Nancy Coco, Krista Davis, Maddie Day, Daryl Wood Gerber, Libby Klein, and Jenn McKinlay might also like the Sweet Bites series by Heather Justesen.
Fans of Jana DeLeon's Miss Fortune series, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen, and Liz Mugavero's Pawsitively Organic series might also like Julie Chase's Kitty Couture series.
Fans of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs might like Lisa Black's Theresa MacLean series. *Disclaimer: I've only read a few of the Cornwell books and actually none of the Temperance books--just the TV show based on same books--only her young adult series. Thus, what I remember might not computer, but it is the best I can recollect. If you may think of others who write with medical detail, then Lisa Black is a good author. Maybe even Robin Cook, but his stand-alone books are more balanced with adjacent drama storylines instead of specifically forensics only, although to be fair, I've not yet enjoyed his forensic pathologist Laurie Montgomery series. (So much to read, so little time.)
Fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series will love Adrienne Giordano's Lucie Rizzo series. In fact, there are enough zany moments in there to make fans of Jana DeLeon's Miss Fortune series also love the Lucie Rizzo series. One difference is the dog factor. However, I'm not particularly fond of dogs, yet I still thoroughly enjoyed the series.

Recent Posts

On The Download - January 2025

December download devotees delighted. Don't delay, download directly!...

Patron-to-Patron Recommendations

It is with delight that we bring you these recommendations from one patron to another as a start to the new year. This patron, Donna, is an avid reader who has shared with the Kansas Talking Books staff read-alike recommendations: that is, books, series, or authors you might like if you've read x. What makes these recommendations so awesome is that she has read these books, and she is a patron just like you. Be on the look out for more of Donna's recommendations throughout the year!So, if you're searching for something new to read, check out Donna's read-alike recommendations and happy reading!Fans of William Bernhardt's Ben Kincaid series might also enjoy books by Barry Reed. These authors are both legal fiction but are more aligned than, say, with John Grisham and/or Lisa Scottoline.Fans of A Time to Kill by John Grisham might enjoy A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci.Fans of Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series might like Jess Lourey's PI Mira James series and the first book in the Riley Ellison series by Jill Orr.Theater Nights are Murder: Poppy McAllister, book 4 by Libby Klein is HIGHLY recommended for fans of Jana DeLeon's Miss Fortune series. It was hysterical. At the play's opening night, I laughed until I cried. Poppy has a cat, Sir Figaro Newton, who is quite the drama king. When he wants attention or to make a point, he just flops over as if he were reenacting a death scene. This book, with the senior center play, is by far the funniest of her books. Miss Fortune has Ida Belle and Gertie, while Poppy has her eccentric aunt along with three senior citizens, who are hysterical. I'm laughing again at the antics of dress rehearsal night.Fans of Avery Aames, Ellie Alexander, Winnie Archer, Ginger Bolton, Joanna Carl, Vivien Chien, Nancy Coco, Krista Davis, Maddie Day, Daryl Wood Gerber, Libby Klein, and Jenn McKinlay might also like the Sweet Bites series by Heather Justesen.Fans of Jana DeLeon's Miss Fortune series, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen, and Liz Mugavero's Pawsitively Organic series might also like Julie Chase's Kitty Couture series.Fans of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs might like Lisa Black's Theresa MacLean series. *Disclaimer: I've only read a few of the Cornwell books and actually none of the Temperance books--just the TV show based on same books--only her young adult series. Thus, what I remember might not computer, but it is the best I can recollect. If you may think of others who write with medical detail, then Lisa Black is a good author. Maybe even Robin Cook, but his stand-alone books are more balanced with adjacent drama storylines instead of specifically forensics only, although to be fair, I've not yet enjoyed his forensic pathologist Laurie Montgomery series. (So much to read, so little time.)Fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series will love Adrienne Giordano's Lucie Rizzo series. In fact, there are enough zany moments in there to make fans of Jana DeLeon's Miss Fortune series also love the Lucie Rizzo series. One difference is the dog factor. However, I'm not particularly fond of dogs, yet I still thoroughly enjoyed the series....

Top 10 Talking Books of 2024

Check it out, our top 10 talking books from 2024. How many have you read? DB115520 The Cowboy's Mistletoe Christmas: Sweet Water Ranch, Book 1 by Jessie Gussman. DB117604 Ties That Bind: Amish of Summer Grove, Book 1 by Cindy Woodsmall. DB118079 Five Days in Skye: MacDonald Family, Book 1 by Carla Laureano. DB118118 Hope in the Mountain River: Call of the Rockies, Book 2 by Misty M. Beller. DB115858 The Cowboy's Marriage Mistake: Sweet Water Ranch, Book 11 by Jessie Gussman. DB120470 The Peasant King by Tessa Afshar. DB115697 Grizzly Killer: Day of Reckoning, Book 15 by Lane R. Warenski. DB115590 Stairs of Sand by Zane Grey. DB119879 I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died : Emily Dickinson Mysteries, Book 2 by Amanda Flower. DB118571 London Tides: MacDonald Family trilogy, Book 2 by Carla Laureano. All of these titles (and thousands more) can be downloaded today with BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. Need these titles mailed to you? We're here to help, call 800-362-0699 or email KTB@ks.gov. ...

December 2024 Staff Picks

Enjoy some of your holiday free time by checking out one of the books the Kansas Talking Books staff have been reading recently.Michael Lang, DirectorDB 122602 The witchstone by Henry H. Neff "Meet Laszlo, eight-hundred-year-old demon and Hell's least productive Curse Keeper. From his office beneath Midtown, he oversees the Drakeford Curse, which involves a pathetic family upstate and a mysterious black monolith. It's a sexy enough assignment--colonial origins, mutating victims, et cetera--but Laszlo has no interest in maximizing the curse's potential; he'd rather sunbathe in Ibiza, quaff martinis, and hustle the hustlers on Manhattan's subway. Unfortunately, his division has new management, and Laszlo's ratings are so abysmal that he's given six days to shape up or he'll be melted down and returned to the Primordial Ooze. Meet Maggie Drakeford, nineteen-year-old Curse Bearer. All she's ever known is the dreary corner of the Catskills where the Drakeford Curse has devoured her father's humanity and is rapidly laying claim to her own. The future looks hopeless, until Laszlo appears at the Drakeford farmhouse one October night and informs them that they have six days--and six days only--to break the spell before it becomes permanent. Can Maggie trust the glib and handsome Laszlo? Of course not. But she also can't pass up an opportunity to save her family, even if it means having a demon as a guide ... Thus begins a breakneck international adventure that takes our unlikely duo from a hot dog stand in Central Park to the mountains of Liechtenstein, a five-star hotel in Zurich, and even the time-traveling vault of a demonic crime boss. As the clock ticks down, tough-as-nails Maggie and conniving Laszlo will uncover a secret so profound that what began as a farcical quest to break a curse will eventually threaten the very Lords of Hell." - (dust jacket) -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.DB 124700 Playground by Richard Powers "Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world's first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane's work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough. They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity's next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island's residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away." -- book jacket -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.Dylan Calhoon, Patron Services Manager DB 124757 On earth as it is on television by Emily Jane "First Contact stories have never been as intoxicating and fun as in Emily Jane's novel of the sudden arrival-and equally sudden departure-of spaceships above Earth"-- Provided by publisher. -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.Jason Brinkman, Production ManagerDB 42315 The lady in the lake by Raymond Chandler A swaggering businessman hires hard-boiled Philip Marlowe to find his wife, who has been missing for a month. She sent her husband a note to say she was running off to remarry, but her "intended" denies seeing her. When a woman's body is pulled from the lake where the wife had been staying and the caretaker's wife also turns out to be missing, Marlowe begins expertly piecing the puzzle together. Some strong language and some violence.Ryan Lauber, Library AssistantDB 119147 Gods of the Wyrdwood by R. J. Barker "Cahan du Nahare is known as the forester a man who can navigate the dangerous Deepforest like no one else. But once he was more. Once he belonged to the god of fire. Udinny serves the goddess of the lost, a goddess of small things; when she ventures into the Deepforest to find a lost child, Cahan will be her guide. But in a land where territory is won and lost for uncaring gods, where temples of warrior monks pit one prophet against another Cahan will need to choose the forest or the fire-and his choice will have consequences for his entire world." -- Provided by publisher. -- Unrated. Commercial audiobook.Maggie Witte, Outreach LibrarianDB 97443 The bromance book club by Lyssa Kay Adams Baseball player Gavin Scott's marriage is in trouble, and to fix things, he's going to need some assistance. He finds a secret book club of other men who have used romance novels to fix their own relationships, and they agree to help him win back his family. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.DBC02962 The man who invented Christmas: how Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol rescued his career and revived our holiday spirits by Les Standiford With warmth, wit, and good cheer, Standiford shows how the unlikely success of "A Christmas Carol" revitalized Charles Dickens's languishing career and revived the celebration of the near-forgotten Christmas holiday....