Ruth Aguilar

Hispanic Heritage Month is here, and at A.K. Smiley Public Library, we have plenty of new books for you to read by Latinos across the wide spectrum of genres.

Daisy Hernandez’s “Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth” explores the culturally relevant topic of citizenship in the United States through the lens of watching her parents own “lucky” paths to citizenship. The idea of citizenship in the United States has a storied history, historically used to deny personhood and humanity to many people of color and immigrants, from slaves and their children to Chinese immigrants and many more. This book explores the meandering waves of citizenship and how it has yet again found itself on the national stage with ideas like repealing birthright citizenship. Hernandez herself brings up the process of applying for Colombian citizenship, unsure of what the future holds in the United States. It’s an interesting exploration of a topic many Latinos may find relevant.

“Chancla: Healing our Families, Ourselves, and Our Culture Through Nonviolent Parenting” by Leslie Priscilla will make some readers squirm as they come face to face with some cultural practices that many people still defend. Priscilla asks questions that look at some of the harder topics of parenting that can exist in many Latino families. Not every Latino grew up with corporal punishment as the norm, but for many, the chancla, cinturon, or a branch were all a very difficult reality, and an example of violence becoming tangled with cultural identity. How many times do you say to yourself, “Well, I turned out fine” or “ they did it because they loved me”? But was it necessary? And is it still a necessary practice to carry into the future? Reader, be warned: you may be confronted with harsh realities. Even those with no children of their own may find help healing broken and streaked smatters of their own childhoods with this book. Parents fighting demons of cultural practices past and present may find this helpful in finding their own parenting styles.

“PFKNR: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance” by Vanessa Díaz flows easily from one topic to the next, connecting conversations about Bad Bunny’s personal history and how it connects to the grander story of Puerto Rico. PR might stand for Public Relations because this book feels very much like a love letter to Bad Bunny! Whether you like his music or not you’ll definitely have a kinder view of the artist after this. It highlights Bad Bunny’s humble appreciation and admiration for the Boricua artists that came before him. As well as providing context for his advocacy and for the Puerto Rico he grew up in. The combination of austerity measures, extensive debt, and American financial colonialism all created a Puerto Rico that found itself in dire straits. The book follows the historical context that raised Bad Bunny without feeling like a sticky history textbook that bogs you down in unnecessary details. Highly recommended for fans of his music as well as people invested in the story of Puerto Rico. ¡También está disponible en español!

“Cocina Puerto Rico” by chef Mia Castro offers up rich and easy-to-follow recipes from Castro’s home, Puerto Rico. She has worked under the likes of Wolfgang Puck and received praise from Gordon Ramsay himself. The recipes are rich in her personal history and spice and offer a beautiful culinary insight into Puerto Rican food, an underrated culinary giant in itself. The pictures are beautiful and mouth-watering, colorful and vibrant recipes just like the culture that inspired them. It starts with lots of basic information on ingredients and moves on to how to use them. Highly recommended for anyone wanting a basic introduction to Puerto Rican food!

“Cooking the Borderlands” highlights chef Claudette Zepeda’s culinary journey as someone raised between Mexico and the United States, who experienced the cultural meld of the people who live along the border. Food isn’t just Mexican or just American; it’s a combination that parallels the culture and the people. We can’t label them as just one thing or just another, separated by an invisible line made visible by the Treaty of Hidalgo Guadalupe. The book starts off with basics that can be found on many a Mexican family’s table: tortillas, salsas, arroz y frijoles. Zepeda invites readers to use her recipes as outlines for their own, replace, substitute, and make what makes you happy and what you will eat. Full of delicious recipes, homey pictures, and a wonderful story of two worlds becoming one, this book is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys Mexican-American cooking.

There’s plenty to choose from this Hispanic Heritage Month at A.K. Smiley Public Library.

Ruth Aguilar is a library specialist at A.K. Smiley Public Library and is proudly Mexican-American.

Within people’s souls I like to imagine there is a concrete path, a sidewalk, where you will find the indentations of little paws, pressed softly but confidently into the promenade. There must be some little gremlins, who could not read a word of English, who ignored all the “WET CONCRETE” signs and strolled right onto the not quite dry cement, leaving permanent reminders that they were once there. As I pass my first Fourth of July without our family dog, a massive boxer named Prince Charming (PC for short), I cherish these glimpses of my dearly departed friends. For PC, his paw prints would lie in a quiet space, away from all the noise, the terror of the loud booms, and screeches. For all my worry I have found three new books here at A.K. Smiley Public Library that walk through the love that we feel for our animal companions and that have been helpful with those complex feelings.

“The Best Dog in the World,” edited by Alice Hoffman, is an anthology by some of the best writers of our time about their canine companions. Written with the utmost reverence for their furry friends, each essay swells with adoration. If one is as sensitive as I am to the peculiarities of animals, then tears are sure to surge. For the soft hearted, fear not, not all stories amount to tragic goodbyes or heartbreak; some are funny; some are adventures; all stories are about a deep love for dogs. The various authors draw a smile, tears, a laugh all sickly and saccharine with affection. Each human-canine relationship is different, each dog their own unique being, yet in reading these stories one finds reverberations of their own furry friends, tales that are not all that different but not quite the same. If you have a dog, have ever had one, or plan to ever have one, I highly recommend this read.

With a similar note about animal companions, “Ulysses S. Cat: and Other Animals I Have Known,” by Scott Simon, chronicles anecdotes of animals and pets throughout his life. These companions are something between family and friends but never just pets. It seems that for every step of his life, an animal has been by Simon’s side to help him navigate the challenges of life, the joys, the pains. Animals aren’t just there in a scene, they’re not just another prop, they are integral to his story, to the lived experiences and memories he holds. Moments that seem like they flew by too fast but still left an impact. From Homer’s Odyssey, to a quiet home in the suburbs, to the chaos ridden streets of Sarajevo in the 90s, pets find their ways into every scene. A touching book about how for many, animals find their ways into our lives often at just the moment when we need them. I would highly recommend it to sensitive souls like myself who weep at the sight of an opossum mother and her joeys merely existing.

Not quite the best dog in the world but another world quite opposite and yet alike can be found in Susannah Fullerton’s “Great Writers and the Cats who Owned Them.” Fullerton writes of charming stories including some of the most impactful literary writers of history and the little moggies that accompanied them. More than just a list of their most impressive accomplishments, Fullerton offers stories of the writers, their journeys and how their little cats followed along the way. Affection for cats is nothing new, and this book makes that clear. Charming art work of the cats and an even more charming picture of all the different cats’ lives as they found their place. This book highlights the true companionship cats can offer through the lens of literary giants and their own personal felines, a great read for any true cat lover!

Perhaps reading some of these new books will remind one of the animal prints they may find within themselves, snakes slithers, rabbit paws, dog tracks, and so much more. This summer spend some time with your pet, if you have one, enjoy their company, and then stay cool by visiting A.K. Smiley Public Library while our furry friends recharge at home!

Ruth Aguilar is a library specialist at A.K. Smiley Public Library who has two cats (read Monarchs) who reign with an iron fist.

Mother’s Day announces its arrival all throughout diners, flower shops, and T.V. ads each year in May. A day dedicated to one of the most complex, rewarding, and difficult challenges anyone can take on. One wonders if perhaps one day is truly enough to encompass the role that weighs heavy on mothers. In many countries more and more women are choosing not to have children, or to hold off on the plan, eliciting concerns about population decline and future workforces. But what about some consideration for motherhood outside of its benefits to societal capital? Here are three new books that offer but a small glimpse into motherhood, beautiful, warm, loving, and complicated motherhood.

“The Waterbearers: a Memoir of Mothers and Daughters” by Sasha Bonét weaves a story of the daughters, the mothers, the women, and the inseparable tie that motherhood played in generations of Bonét’s family. Her writing is fluid, carrying you on a lazy river through the intrepid stories of the women who shaped her and generations before her. Bonét makes use of bodies of water, rivers, tributaries, and oceans as metaphors for the women’s influence on each other. Even as they move further from the main river, they remain connected, at times beyond their own comprehension, to the river that feeds their tributaries and the river to the ocean where it finds its source.

This book is about motherhood, but more than that it’s about black motherhood. What it means to carry generations of trauma rooted in racism, misogyny, and everything in between. Bonét lets others into this intimate world of women and girls, of mothers and daughters. This world is cold and warm; family is home and the thing that pushes you to search for escape. Tender. Painfully so. You may well be left thinking back to the shared sit-downs of your family; the children running and screaming while the women prepared dinner. There is a certain amount of self-reflection that Bonét’s writing prompts. If you are a woman or were raised as one it holds a torch to the caves of womanhood. Women are complicated. Mothers are good and bad, loving and scary. These imperfect beings shape the future generations all while trying to be people themselves. The writing is easy to follow, the stories are hard to look away from, and this one is a must-read.

Zooming out from one family history to a broader history we find Elinor Cleghorn’s “A Woman’s Work: Reclaiming the Radical History of Mothering.” Cleghorn does not pull her punches as she rips into the dense and forgotten history of motherhood, pregnancy, midwifery, and adjacent topics from the people who experienced it in history. Women’s slow crawl from objects of patriarchal structures to the growing personal rights of women and the continued struggles for choice and autonomy today. It is honest, and uncomfortable at times as it forces the reader to re-evaluate how you view motherhood, even if one does not agree with every point Cleghorn makes. Many people don’t bother learning about the experiences of pregnant people, until they themselves experience it as an expectant parent. What is pregnancy really like? Surely, it’s more than just the morning sickness and swollen soles commonly depicted in media. History so often written by men details wars, laws, and yet how often do we search for the words, the traces of the women and mothers who reared the past and present, the leaders of today and tomorrow. The book can become dense in the fog of history at times but offers impactful and important insights into women’s experiences in history. A thought-provoking review of what it has meant to become a mother throughout time.

For a look at modern motherhood, “What’s on Her Mind?” by Allison Daminger looks at the seldom considered invisible mental workload of women in the modern family setting. While rising numbers of men and partners continue to grow their equal share of physical tasks and labor to take on in the household, inequity still clearly exists in about every family Daminger has spoken to and interviewed in the many years she has dedicated to this topic. She explores the mental work load, sometimes unintentionally, dumped on mothers, what she calls “Cognitive Labor.” Daminger found that even in relationships where physical labor and chores are split equally between partners, women’s share of cognitive labor, that is the mental load of stress, of anticipating future plans, family needs, and more, is considerably heavier than that of men. Lopsided distribution of cognitive labor brings helpful insight for couples and families who may be looking to make the family workload equally distributed and dissipate tension that can be hard to explain. An eye-opening account into cognitive labor and how these things burden women far more than men, it’s one more thing to add to the weight that mothers carry on their backs.

Please feel free to check out all these and much more in the new section at A.K. Smiley Public Library. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there and all others who celebrate it!

Ruth Aguilar is a library specialist at A.K. Smiley Library who is not a mother but has one.

Hear Ye, all that will listen! Having never been ones to listen to allegedly clairvoyant groundhogs, the rabbits of spring have decided to welcome the season early here at A.K. Smiley Public Library. Our new Spring Display is up and ready for the spring bloom; the question is, are you? Drop in and make an origami rabbit to join the rabbit army slowly taking over our display. Or stop by the Seed Market, the rabbit merchants have taken up a stand as part of the display. They are offering a variety of seeds for the shockingly low price of zero silver coins.

Beyond some seeds and rabbits, why not begin the season by trying something new this spring? There’s plenty an exciting hobby to find, but if you need some inspiration look no further than the Library’s vast array of new material, fresh and ready to help you try or retry something new!

If you’re looking to get into gardening this spring, then can I start you off with two suggestions I have found helpful in my own gardening journey?

“Gardenista, the Low Impact Garden” by Kendra Wilson revels in the growing natural and sustainable garden movement, making clear their indifference for crisp clean lawns. The book invites readers to cherish nature’s imperfections–the marks left by pollinators and insect friends that tell you they made a stop at your garden, that they too treasure its beauty. It offers a framework of eight rules to work with to create your own sustainable wonderland. I found this particularly helpful with the front garden of our home where we have many native plants. Wilson prompts readers to reconsider the perspective of bugs and insects as pests, and more as visitors to our gardens, even offering advice on how to be considerate and build a garden not just for yourself but for your whole ecosystem. All the while, she showcases some of the beautiful gardens found around the world and the lessons their gardeners learned. The example gardens have given me plenty of ideas on how to accommodate my own visitors (lots of pigeons, crows, small birds, and one or two neighborhood cats). Balanced, thoughtful, and plenty graceful in what sustainability looks like, this is a highly recommended read for anyone of a gardening heart but a sustainable mind.

If you’re looking for a different style of gardening, our veggie garden has taken to some of the helpful tips in Scott Wilson’s “Gardener Scott’s Guide to Raised Bed Gardening.” Wilson makes the case for raised bed gardening; whether curious, a sceptic or a believer, he assures the reader there is something for everyone. Raised beds come in all shapes and sizes, in all economies and materials. He highlights the benefits of the raised bed, but is clear that a raised bed is not ideal for every garden out there. Wilson offers solid advice on how to plan your raised bed; consider the placements, the plants, the material, and season, and how to problem solve. There is excitement in the air as I eagerly await my radishes’ arrival. One can close this book feeling significantly more confident in their ability to plant and maintain a raised bed garden and leave with all the tools necessary!

If you’d prefer a less involved spring activity than perhaps you could consider expanding your knowledge as a way to grow along with the season. Why not try to learn all about flower language. A quick, simple but informative read with beautiful illustrations to boot, Sarah Cray’s “The Language of Flowers” offers a simple and straight forward look into what different flowers symbolize, what they say and why they say it. It’s a delightful read and aesthetically pleasing. You could also try reading, “Faeries: A History in Art, Verse, and Lore” by Nikki Van de Car. It offers a thorough look into how faeries have presented themselves in different art forms and the different categories they fall into–an interesting read for any faerie enthusiasts!

Consider checking out these and many other spring-inspired books at A.K. Smiley Library!

Still looking for something to do this spring? Why not join us for our junk journaling event on March 25?

Ruth Aguilar is a library specialist at A.K. Smiley Public Library who often finds themself at the mercy of new hobbies! This month? It’s origami!

The fall season has made its stormy presence known these last few weeks, and I, for one, welcome it. What better excuse to curl up on the sofa with a blanket, a cup of tea, and a spooky story to read? Whether you need a good book to hide in this holiday season, or a break from the doomscrolling, whatever the reason, consider some of these recent, thrilling true crime reads. You may be pleased to know I have also included a tea to pair with each of these reads, something to stave off the encroaching winter’s cold.

Lise Olsen’s aptly named “The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys” chronicles the investigation into the unidentified victims of the “Candy Man”—and you? You’re just along for the journey, getting swept up in the obsessions of a novice forensic anthropologist and dredged up memories. The identity of the serial killer who terrorized Houston from 1970 to 1973 is hardly a mystery; rather, his victims spin the yarn of unanswered questions. Five decades pass before then rookie forensic anthropologist Sharon Derrick discovers that box of assorted bones and belongings. It’s dismal and yet, not unlike Sharon; you can’t turn away from the inevitable truth. What begins as just a few boxes of skeletal remains, of long bones, muddied soles, and tattered clothes, grows and reveals real people. Boys with stolen lives. The book looks intensely at the case and the despair left in its wake. It’s heartbreaking, odious, and profoundly dreadful to experience a rich narrative of discovery, relief, grief, and loss. I cannot recommend this enough. I had a hard time putting this down. Written with care, compassion, and an exceptionally earnest tone, this read is perfectly complemented by a calming and contemplative cup of chamomile tea—nothing too punchy, giving you room to truly appreciate the depth of the tragedy.

Too intense? Perhaps such a concentrated dissection of the facts isn’t your cup of tea? Why not try out a more historical angle? Within the depths of Simon Read’s “Scotland Yard: A History of the London Police Force’s Most Infamous Murder Cases” is a journey into the convoluted path, more a winding tributary of the Thames than a straight road, that the nearly 200-year-old agency walked. Read is keen to explore the agency’s highs and lows; their failures and what they learned, and their triumphs and how they managed them. The book presents cases with vivid characters and an enticing but not unwieldy amount of detail. No clinical profiles of cases and criminals, simply the grisly stories of the cobbled streets of London and the macabre murders within its bounds. Read presents the cases that shaped Scotland Yard’s rocky start in a way that feels as if you were taking a personal midnight tour of foggy old London’s seediest streets with nothing but a gas lantern and your courage. You walk cobblestone paths of the 18th century into the rapidly evolving investigative techniques of the 20th century, and how Scotland Yard finally found its footing. Not too gruesome but still thrilling. For my recommendation here, what could be more apt to accompany you through the story of London’s premier detective force than a classic London fog? Ironically originating in Canada, a London fog requires Earl Grey tea, steamed milk, and just the smallest splash of vanilla. A treat to be sure.

If you are as of yet unconvinced, then how about an easy read from a likely familiar name to dip your toes into the genre? Did you know, bestselling author James Patterson dabbles in a smidgen of true crime here and there, example? In “The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy,” he worked with journalist Vicky Ward to provide a detailed account, following the investigation of the slaying of four University of Idaho Students in Moscow, Idaho. The news of the killings captivated the nation in 2022; everyone from internet sleuths to national news outlets had something to say. The publicity invited theories, suspicions, and rumors aplenty, but with the killer’s life sentence being handed down just a few short months ago, perhaps it’s time to find out what really happened that early November morning. Patterson and Ward deliver just that, detailing the investigation, the families’ experiences, and what we actually know about the tragedy. For this read, a classic, reliable, ubiquitous option is in order: a nice cup of black tea. Assam, English Breakfast, any you like.

Please look for these and many more fun reads at A.K. Smiley Public Library; we look forward to your patronage.

R.A. is a Library Specialist at A.K. Smiley Public Library who has little courage and many fears, perhaps due to their obsession with true crime stories.