Come explore the Talking Book and Braille Library’s large print browsing collection at the Indiana State Library. Located on the second floor between the manuscript reading room and the Indiana Young Readers Center, books from the browsing collection can be checked out from anyone with an Indiana State Library card.

Some of the best and most popular books of the year can be found in this collection, including:

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
Erik Larson
On May 1‚ 1915‚ a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York‚ bound for Liverpool‚ carrying a record number of children and infants. The Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds” and her captain‚ William Thomas Turner‚ placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. He knew‚ moreover‚ that his ship — the fastest then in service — could outrun any threat. But as the Lusitania made its way toward Liverpool‚ an array of forces both grand and achingly small — hubris‚ a chance fog‚ a closely guarded secret‚ and more — all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah
FRANCE, 1939
In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France … but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.
Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can … completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.
With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France–a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

Carry On
Rainbow Rowell
Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen. That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right. Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he was here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Career of Evil
Robert Galbraith
When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg. Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them…

To check the availability of these, or any of the other 20,000 titles in the large print collection, search the online Evergreen Catalog.

This blog post was written by Margaret Ansty, Talking Book & Braille Library Supervisor, Indiana State Library. For more information, contact the Indiana State Library at (317)232-3684 or “Ask-A-Librarian” at http://www.in.gov/library/ask.htm.