Kentucky Talking Book Library

09/05/2026

To sign up for KTBL service, visit visit https://kdla.ky.gov/Talking-Books/Pages/Eligibility-for-Service.aspx and sign up to receive free audio or braille books via the mail or download onto your own device. Or call us to apply over the phone!

Also, don’t forget to swing by your local public library for a library card there too! They have large print, movies, music, and programs available in your own community.

Don’t know where your nearest public library is? No problem! KDLA has a directory of Kentucky’s public libraries available for you: https://kdla.ky.gov/Library-Support/Pages/Public-Library-Directory.aspx

09/02/2026

KTBL will be closed on Monday, September 7, 2026 for Labor Day. Messages may be left at [email protected], 800-372-2968, or 502-564-5791.

09/01/2026

KTBL remembers Wendell Berry. The influential poet, novelist, conservationist, and essayist passed away Monday at the age of 92.

We have selected several of his works in our collection, including one produced in our studio here in Frankfort.

DB 115009: Jayber Crow: A Novel: The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber, of the Port William Membership as written by Himself
DB 91487: The World-Ending Fire: Essential Wendell Berry selected and with an introduction by Paul Kingsnorth
DB 36918: Fidelity: Five Stories
DB 74610: New Collected Poems, Poems 1964-2010
DBC 32795: The Wild Birds: Six Stories of the Port William Membership (KTBL Studio Production)

If you’re interested in receiving these on digital cartridge, or would like help accessing BARD, give us a call at 800-372-2968.

08/28/2026

We have a new book series from a Kentucky author available for download on BARD and on digital cartridge through the mail!

Gwenda Bond’s Match Made in Hell Series contains two books:
DBC 34147: Not Your Average Hot Guy (Book 1) (Approximate Reading Time: 9 hours, 9 minutes)
DBC 34148: The Date from Hell (Book 2) (Approximate Reading Time: 9 hours, 38 minutes)
All Callie wanted was a quiet weekend with her best friend. She promised her mom she could handle running her family's escape room business while her mom is out of town. Instead a Satanic cult shows up, claiming that the prop spell book in one of the rooms is the real deal, and they need it to summon the right hand of the devil. Naturally they take Callie and her friend, Mag, along with them. But when the summoning reveals a handsome demon in a leather jacket named Luke who offers to help Callie stop the cult from destroying the world, her night goes from weird to completely strange. As the group tries to stay one step ahead of the cult, Callie finds herself drawn to the annoying (and annoyingly handsome) Luke. Commercial audio recordings. Adult. Unrated. Narrated by Graham Halstead, Karissa Vacker, and Joel Froomkin.

To download on BARD:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/dbc.34147/
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/dbc.34148/

08/26/2026

If you're in the area and have tech support questions...or even just want to say hi, Susan and Evan are set up in the second floor conference room at the McDowell Center to answer your questions from 12pm until 3!

Need help with your KTBL account or BARD?

We’ve got you covered!

Join KTBL staff at the McDowell Center in Louisville from 12:00-3:00 PM for help with your account, your talking book machine, eReader, or braille service, and even help signing up for BARD!

If you need help, come see us! The McDowell Center is located at 8412 Westport Road, Louisville, KY 40242.

08/26/2026

We have a new Kentucky book available for download on BARD and on digital cartridge through the mail!

Not Here to Stay Friends by Kaitlyn Hill. DBC 34143.
Sloane McKinney feels like a background character in her own life. But this summer will be different, because she's spending it with her childhood best friend, Liam Daniels, in her dream city, Los Angeles. Sure, she's surprised to find that Liam just happens to have had a Hot Guy glow-up since she last saw him, but so what? A little attraction won't ruin her plans for their fun-and completely platonic-reunion. What might, however, is that Liam has been roped into working for his producer dad's new teen reality dating show, Aspen Woods's Future Leading Lady. It turns out the show is one contestant short . . . and Sloane is the perfect last-minute addition. But it's behind the scenes where the drama really picks up. Because wanting to kiss your best friend? That's a plot twist neither Sloane nor Liam ever saw coming. Commercial audio recording. For high school and adult. Unrated. Approximate Reading Time: 8 hours, 38 minutes. Narrated by Brittany Pressley.

To download on BARD:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/dbc.34143/

08/26/2026

Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday at age 80, was many things over her 60-year professional career: singer, songwriter, actor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, cultural icon – and a tireless advocate for literacy. “Everywhere I go, the kids call me The Book Lady,” she said in a PBS interview. Parton’s Imagination Library has been sending books to children — one book a month until they turn five — since 1995. And on February 27, 2018, she came to Washington, D.C., to dedicate the 100 millionth Imagination Library book — a story she wrote, “Coat of Many Colors” — to the Library of Congress. (Watch and listen to the video of her appearance at https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687564?loclr=fbnls.) Imagination Library is still going strong; in 2023 it gifted its 200 millionth book.
Parton’s 1994 memoir, “Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business (DB39868),” is a definitive account of her life, from her impoverished childhood in East Tennessee to her rise to fame in Nashville and beyond. Parton also told her story in last year’s “Star of the Show: My Life on Stage (DB133565).” “Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters (DB92810)” collects interviews with Parton going back to 1967, when she was 21.
Parton discusses her passion for fashion in “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones (DB117524),” and she and her sister share favorite recipes in “Good Lookin’ Cookin’ (DB127729).”
The NLS collection also has children’s books by Parton, including the autobiographical “Coat of Many Colors (DBC32781)” and “Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Makes It Big (DB114353),” about a bulldog with an ear for music.
“Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics (BR24608, DB102063)” is an annotated collection of lyrics from 175 of her songs. The NLS Music Collection has piano scores for “I Will Always Love You (DBM04628)” and “Hardcandy Christmas (DBM03726).” And Popular Music Lead Sheets, No. 132 (BRM37679) includes a braille score for “Jolene.”
Search the NLS catalog for many more books by and about Parton.
[Image: In a screenshot from a video of her appearance at the Library of Congress on February 27, 2018, Dolly Parton reads “Coat of Many Colors” to a group of children.]

08/24/2026

The next meeting of the KTBL Book Club will be on Zoom at 3:30 pm ET on Tuesday, September 15. We will be discussing Tisha: The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaskan Wilderness by Anne Purdy. DB 41798, BR 10448.

Autobiography of Ann Hobbs as told to the author. In 1927 the nineteen-year-old woman went to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in the former gold-rush settlement of Chicken, Alaska. "Tisha" is the Indian children's pronunciation of "teacher." For junior and senior high and older readers. 1976. Narrated by Suzanne Toren. Approximate reading time: 10 hours, 42 minutes.

If you would like to join the KTBL Book Club, please contact the Kentucky Talking Book Library at 1-800-372-2968, (502) 564-5791, or [email protected].

08/21/2026

School is starting back and many older students are trading in sunny days for darker hallways…perhaps even spooky.

Just in time for back-to-school, we’ve got five Dark Academia picks for our senior high and older crowd to enjoy (when they’re not bogged down with homework, that is!)

DB 103918: Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide.
DB 103806: The Ivies by Alexa Donne.
DB 100898, BR 24131: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novak.
DB 116420: A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid.
DB 117115: The Forest Demands Its Due by Kosoko Jackson.

To request these or any other title on digital cartridge or for help signing up for BARD, please contact the Kentucky Talking Book Library at 1-800-372-2968, (502) 564-5791, or [email protected].