Ciara Lightner

The holiday season is almost upon us! The weather is getting colder and gifts need to be acquired. Instead of rushing out to the nearest store, try to make something for the person you care for. It will be a unique gift and will give you the chance to practice your crafting skills. Check out these new books to help you in your crafting endeavors.

If you have any Harry Potter fans in your life, try out From the Films of Harry Potter: The Official Book of Crochet Amigurumi by Juli Anne with Jody Revenson. This book shows how to make adorable creatures, characters, and magical items from the Harry Potter Universe. You could make an incredibly cute pygmy puff, a menacing troll or even the main character himself, Harry. Each item has a difficulty ranking so you can test your skills or relax with something a bit more fun. This book is accessible for new crocheters as it walks you through building your amigurumi creations but challenging enough for even the most seasoned fiber artists amongst us.

If the Muppets are more your style, try The Muppets Official Crochet Amigurumi by Drew Hill. Full of nostalgia and whimsy the book features your favorite characters to build, from Kermit and Miss Piggy to Clara the Chicken and Pepe the King Prawn. The book breaks down each Muppet into parts to better explain how each one is crafted in order to get them ready for showtime. It also features a guide to explain stitches and their abbreviations to help those newer to the craft. Every guide comes with a fun fact about each Muppet and colorful photos showing them getting into all sorts of shenanigans.

Like cats? Like knitting? Like the Victorian aesthetic? Believe it or not there is a book that combines all three. It is Victorian Housecats to Knit by Sara Elizabeth Kellner. The book begins with very thorough pattern notes as well as an introduction to the role of housecats in Victorian society. The book features cats in many poses to knit, from loafs to big stretches, and even creates the world in which these cats roam. There are even kittens to knit too. Every pattern is detailed in order to ensure the smooth construction of your giftee’s new houseguest. As in most 3d creations, knitting is done both in flat sections and in the round. While some projects are great for beginners, there are some that definitely pose a challenge for more experienced knitters.

Happy Holidays and happy crafting!

Summer is officially over and it’s time to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month! These months give us a chance to highlight voices that sometimes get overshadowed. And poetry is a great way to allow ourselves to enjoy a new perspective. To aide in the enjoyment of this wonderful time, here are some new poetry books to peruse while waiting for the cooler weather.

Diannely Antigua’s latest work Good Monster is an exploration of what happens to the child no one protected grows up. Antigua shares a glimpse into her past during which she suffered at the hands of someone that should have been a protector. Antigua fights her own traumas and chronic illnesses while still seeking those things that make life worth living. Antigua fights through the feelings of betrayal by her stepfather, her mother and her own body to find love and joy in the world. Antigua displays amazing humor and wit throughout the work allowing for the reader to feel a deep connection with her. Her universal desire for companionship is another way in which readers feel a connection with her. Antigua’s voice is strong and at its most powerful when it is at its most vulnerable.

Spencer Williams work Tranz has definitely come to fight. It is fun and funny and often times brutal. Williams takes a deep looks at herself and explores her own triumphs and failings. But Williams is not the only one who needs to do some reflecting. Williams forces a mirror up to not only society but ourselves as individuals. As a trans woman Williams seeks to reconcile her familial relationships with the added knowledge of her identity. She explores her childhood and what it means now after her transition. Williams doesn’t’ just highlight the good aspects of her life but the awful parts as well. Her existence is honest and flawed but still lovely and full of joy. Williams lays herself bare, defiantly and beautifully.

Two great anthologies are also available. Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology is an amazing work that spans the gamut of culture that exists under the heading of Latino. The work is expansive, starting with the poems of the seventeenth century and moving forward. The poems reflect their time periods and what their writers faced. It culminates in a wealth of modern poets defining what it means to be American. The other anthology is Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora. Admittedly this work does not just cover those with a Hispanic background but everyone who has been affected by the undocumented status. As such it is still a wonderful resource to explore as it shows how deep and truly complex this issue actually is. This work gives a chance for those who are rendered voiceless by their status a chance to speak up.

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! And Have a Happy Fall (the season not the action….you know what I mean)!

During these hot summer days, it’s best to stay inside and stay cool. What better way to spend time indoors than with a good book? What about creepy Science Fiction? These new books are the perfect way to enjoy Summerween!

Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s new work Lost Ark Dreaming, is a story of hope in a world that is drowning. A crumbling structure, built to withstand the rising floods by a corporation, houses the last of humanity. The society, located off the coast of West Africa, is separated by class and reflected in the floors of the building. Uppers, the wealthy and managers of the company, live in the top floors while the poorest and undesirables are housed below the water line in the lowers. Yekini, unremarkable cog in the corporations from the middle floors, is tasked with an expedition to investigate a problem in the lowers. Accompanying her is Ngozi, an egotistical bureaucrat from the uppers. Along the way the two discover some of the corporation’s dark secrets and Yekini becomes determined to dredge those secrets up from the depths.

In Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes, Dr. Ophelia Bray is out to atone for the horrors her family has committed. Her mother is the scion of a rich and powerful corporation that would rather throw money at a problem than ever admit guilt, and her father is a mass murderer who committed unspeakable acts during a bout of psychosis. Hoping to separate herself from her family’s legacy, Bray agrees to join a dangerous mission to explore a planet. While there, she is tasked with researching a possible preventative measure for psychosis caused from deep space travel. But people start to act strangely. People start to see things. People start to die. Bray needs to get to the bottom of what is happening and figure out if the danger originates from this unknown world or if it was in Dr. Bray all along. Filled with twists and turns, Ghost Station is a terrifying look at the horrors we find in the void and those within ourselves.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky, centers on Charles, a robot valet for his human master in a world where humanity has declined. Every day is the same for Charles, check the itinerary, lay the clothes out, shave the master, a never-ending list of repeating tasks Charles is more than happy to tick off. Until one day, Charles cannot complete his tasks. His master is dead and Charles is the one who did it. The problem is Charles has no idea why he did it and now is stuck in a circle of task that can never be completed. But Charles is not the only one stuck in this bureaucratic circle, all robots seem to be stuck as well. Charles must find a way in the world that has lost all direction. What happens to a world full of robots built to care for humans when there are no humans left?

Enjoy these books and let the creepy season begin!

As you have probably no doubt guessed, dear reader, I have a huge fondness for poetry. Poetry allows us to say the things we normally find unsayable. And in doing so, we can better connect, not only to ourselves but to each other. So here are some of our latest poetry books to aid in your quest to say the unsayable.

36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem is the latest work by writer Nam Le. Le explores the diaspora as a result of the Vietnamese war, and the lasting effect on those that have been displaced from their homeland. Centering on the concept of identity, Le shows how detrimental it is to have your concept of self stripped away, and replaced with another’s idea of you. Le mocks the mask that is forced upon him, forcing the reader to contend with their own assumptions and prejudices. Le plays with form, taking the standard concepts and breaking them to create a new way of looking at language itself. Le’s work is an exploration of how one can reclaim an identity dismantled by colonialism.

Mirror Nation by Don Mee Choi, is another writer exploring diaspora, this time looking through the lens of the Gwangju uprising. Choi uses her father’s photographs and personal recollections to inform of a time that has been glossed over. Choi’s father, a photographer working with reporters during this time, saw the violence first hand and came close several times to experiencing it himself. Choi takes this knowledge and bridges it to the present in her own struggles to understand herself and the land her family had to leave. Dealing with her own sense of self, Choi investigates her past to ground herself in the present and reconnect with who she might have been.

With My Back to the World is another stellar work by Victoria Chang. Using the abstract paintings and writings of Agnes Martin, Chang delves into the matter of identity itself. Chang is trying to answer the question of who she is and what it means to be a woman while dealing with her own depression and the subsequent death of her father. Martin’s work allows Chang to delve deeper into her own mind and understand how art is a conduit to understanding ourselves. Chang’s poems seem to question what lies at the crossroads of being a woman and being Asian and how to honor both in a society that values neither.

Enjoy these new poetry books and discover much more at your local library.

Black History Month has arrived! This year’s theme is African Americans and the Arts, and here are some of the latest poetry books to celebrate with this month and all year round.

Aster of Ceremonies is the latest work from esteemed author Jjjjjerome Ellis. Ellis seeks to connect the past and present through their work by invocating people that were once listed as runaway slaves. They seek to reform the idea of the enslaved person running away as a loss of property, to a person regaining their freedom. Furthering the connection, Ellis draws on the fact that many of these ancestors have a stutter, something that Ellis has as well. Ellis celebrates their stutter, theirs, and the ancestors,’ not only through the poetry of the work but also through music as well. Nature also is a driving force of the work, acting as authorities over the land both in the past and for Ellis in the present. Poignant and beautiful, Ellis’s work acts as a gateway into our collective past as a means to define our future.

Plantains and Our Becoming by Melania Luisa Marte is a work that grabbles with the nature of colonialism and identity. Marte, a musician as well as a poet, looks at what it means to exist as an Afro-Latina when that word doesn’t even exist in the dictionary. The work flows through both English and Spanish and explores the experiences her families faced in their travels from the Dominican Republic and Haiti to the United States. Marte is able to take the stories passed down the generations of her family to write her own story and make a new journey of her own. Her work also explores how a woman’s beauty is a commodity to be used, as long as it does not benefit the woman herself too much. Referencing icons such as Cardi B and Megan thee Stallion, Marte shows that even with fame, femicide is still a risk. Marte’s debut work is a celebration not just of her legacy, but all those who look to define themselves.

Tender Headed is the debut work of Olatunde Osinaike and is an exploration of the intersection of masculinity and blackness. It is there that Osinaike finds himself at a crossroads of the man he was taught to be and the man he wants to become. Osinaike’s work is unafraid to put its heart on its sleeve and appear vulnerable. It is through this vulnerability that Osinaike hopes growth will happen. That in taking accountability, the current generation can hope to leave some of the pain of the past generation behind them. While there are moments of heaviness, and melancholy, there are also moments of joy and love. The author looks into a future with his own children and sees the endless possibilities if the hard work is down now. Osinaike’s work is not a condemnation of masculinity, rather a celebration of what it could be.

Check out these works and more! Happy Black History Month!