Teresa Letizia

September 6 is National Read a Book Day!

Of course, we at Smiley Library celebrate every day as read-a-book day by offering a wide variety of books to borrow. With so much to choose from, this means that if you, say, have been drawn to something in the news and want to know more about it, you can usually find books on those topics in the library.

Two subjects that seem to have had the whole country talking lately are the passing of national treasure, singer and actress Dolly Parton, as well as that of beloved Big Bear Valley bald eagle Jackie who died August 10. Each is a beautiful icon who entertain us and who is admired just for being themselves while living their best lives. In the end, we realize how much their genuine lives gave so much back to us.

The story of Jackie and her predecessors comes alive in this wonderfully sweeping story, “The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird,” by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jack E. Davis (“The Gulf”). A professor of environmental history, Davis presents the cultural and natural history of the United States’ national bird since 1782, when its image appeared on the national seal.

Davis contrasts the age when native peoples lived beside the eagle peacefully with spectacular stories of Founding Fathers, rapacious hunters, heroic bird rescuers, and the lives of bald eagles themselves. We learn that though we use the eagle as a symbol of our majesty, we once saw them as predators that we must destroy. This and our use of the pesticide, DDT, twice pushed the bald eagle toward the brink of extinction.

Coincidentally, among the philanthropic endeavors in which Dolly Parton engaged, was work with the American Eagle Foundation to rehabilitate and release over a hundred bald eagles in the Smoky Mountains. In 2003, she was acknowledged with a Partnership Award from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service for her efforts.

For more reading on the bald eagle, “Return to the Sky: The Surprising Story of How One Woman and Seven Eaglets Helped Restore the Bald Eagle” is available in e-book and e-audiobook form in our e-library. It is an inspiring story of author Tina Morris’ experimentation in the 1970s as a young ornithology student who, while raising seven eaglets, developed the techniques to start the bald eagle back from extinction status. Morris was later formally inducted as an honorary Iroquois into the Confederacy of Six Nations for her work returning the Bald Eagle to the nation’s skies.

You may also want to check out “The Return of the Oystercatcher: Saving Birds to Save the Planet,” which is now on our “New Book” shelves. Author Scott Weidensaul describes his work as “a book of optimism” as he recounts the survival stories of several species of birds, including the bald eagle, and the part that the healthy presence of birds plays in saving the planet.

We came to know so many details of the lives of Jackie and her mate, Shadow, and the eaglets they hatched, observing them via the web camera at their Big Bear nest. We began to care about them and this empathy brought about for Jackie perhaps her greatest legacy, besides her offspring. We learned about how important the lake and its shoreline are to the survival of these raptors. Their popularity helped generate enormous public interest in protecting Moon Camp, approximately 63 acres of undeveloped habitat less than a mile from their nest. This year $10 million was raised to protect that land from development and go towards its preservation as a bald eagle habitat. (Source: Karen Rodriguez, Big Bear Bald Eagles)

Some say that Dolly Parton’s ultimate legacy may be the preservation of minds, as Jackie’s was the preservation of habitat. Realizing how important early reading is for the well-being of a child, and, ultimately, of an adult, Parton created, over 30 years ago, a program called Imagination Library, ImaginationLibrary.com, for children up to the age of five, of any income level, which sends participants a free book monthly. One in six children under the age of five in the U.S. now receive this gift of a surprise title, and, as Dolly wrote, “every time you open one up, you will meet new friends and take wonderful journeys to magical places.” Let’s all open one up today!

For new books about Dolly Parton, see biography “Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton” by Martha Ackmann, and a stunning compilation by Parton herself, with the help of Billboard’s Country Update editor Tom Roland, “Star of the Show: My Life on Stage.” The material is offered in print and in audio formats, featuring sound clips from her albums, live performances, and other public appearances.

“From a small spark kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished.” — Thomas Paine

This year on the Fourth of July, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Second Continental Congress adopting the Declaration of Independence and its powerful line:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

If you are in need of some fresh historical perspective on our founding, and maybe a bit of a democracy-booster, try perusing these newer books at Smiley Library marking the anniversary.

Bestselling biographer Walter Isaacson describes the heralded statement as America’s mission statement, with the title of his latest work, “The Greatest Sentence Ever Written.” Within his word-by-word analysis he surmises how the sentence, revolutionary for its time, could, and should, now shape our polarized politics of today. Kirkus Reviews observes that Isaacson’s book is, “A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveal(ing) its potency and unfulfilled promise.”

Historian and legal scholar Edward J. Larson chronicles the events of the year encompassing the document in “Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters.” As the year begins, most colonists show little interest in national independence, but by the end, the need becomes undeniable. In between the introduction early in 1776 of the ideals Thomas Paine puts forth in his pamphlet, “Common Sense,” to the new American army’s hard-won victory at Trenton at year’s end, the Declaration of Independence becomes the standard to which we swear to adhere, though we seemingly are not yet mature enough to embrace all of Paine’s teachings, or to recognize the irony present in the Declaration’s words. It was not yet evident for swaths of colonial populations: indigenous, African, and others, as well as women, that the word, “all,” was a misnomer: all were not yet included in the soon-to-be new American standard of equality.

Fortunately, though, and intentionally, we followed our Declaration with the living, amendable document of our Constitution, allowing for blind spots like these to be righted, and allowing for change without violence. In “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution,” historian Jill Lepore reminds us that for the last 80 years or so the use of the amendment has become slogged. She says we are still adjusting our system, but lately only via judicial decisions that are influenced by a select few elites in government and industry, endangering the civility of our process. She believes the framers expected that “future generations would be forever tinkering with it, hoping to mend America by amending its Constitution through an orderly deliberative and democratic process.”

Finally, the dichotomies move closer together with “The American Revolution: An Intimate History” by Geoffrey C. Ward, in collaboration with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who tells our founding story by revealing it not from the top down but from the bottom up–through the eyes of those of ordinary soldiers and underrepresented populations. As Burns puts it, ‘the revolution is often seen “in gallant, bloodless terms,” whereas the achievement of this volume is to be forthright and occasionally critical, but still grand and stirring.’

 

Here’s to an America of 250 more years always striving toward that more perfect union.

“You’re standing on a planet with molten lava in the middle. Your heart is beating without you asking. There’s a moon in the sky and bugs that glow. This whole thing is absurdly beautiful — don’t forget to notice.” ~ Jasmine Wilder, thetinyjoyproject, Instagram

Mark your calendars, friends: April 22 is Earth Day, and your assignment is to notice — to go outside, take a deep breath, and hug a tree that is deeply and wondrously rooted in this spinning rock of ours.

While you’re out, you might as well stop by and see us at Smiley Library, perhaps sometime this week, National Library Week, or its culmination next Saturday, April 25, for Smiley Library’s annual Library Days celebration from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The theme of Library Days this year is “Find Your Joy,” so we invite you to come in and look for something that may bring you joy — like an earth-inspired item! Whether about a tree, a flower, a river or a rock, or just one of us creatures, there is, naturally — ‘nature-ally’ — something for everyone at the library!

I love the cover photo of our first featured book — just looking at it brings a relaxing sigh . . .  “When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World.” Author Suzanne Simard, a professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia, has crafted both a memoir and an account of the implementation of her Mother Tree Project, a campaign of forest ecology research conducted across multiple sites in Canada. Simard reflects on the importance of honoring the ebb and flow of human life cycles within her own family, such as the coming-of-age of her daughter and the end of life of her mother, and weaves this theme in with the natural life cycle of forests.

Simard stresses that preserving forests’ natural cycles of death and renewal is key to their longevity. Of vital importance to the Earth’s fragile ecosystems, forests continue to be disrupted by industrial logging companies, which harvest trees by clear-cutting, a technique, that Simard iterates, releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, destroys wildlife habitats, and increases the risk of wildfires and floods.

This next book fascinates me, “How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries” by biologist David George Haskell. The floral world is “late-blooming,” so to speak, in the history of the evolution of Earth, having done so after many complex animals in the fossil record some 150–200 million years ago. Quickly diversifying, plants became “champion relationship-builders,” as insects, birds, and other animals came to rely on them for food and shelter. The flexibility of plant genetics is vital to us too! They enabled the development of important crops that supported agrarian civilizations, like wheat, oats, potato, and cotton. Now that’s Flower Power!

We also highly recommend these additional works:

“Amazon: A River’s Journey from the Andes to the Atlantic” by Thomas P. Peschak

The rich photography here traces National Geographic explorer Peschak’s unprecedented expedition of the world’s greatest river: the Amazon. A web of more than 1,000 streams and tributaries collectively spawning an enormous water world larger than the continental United States, it is home to thousands of species of fish, aquatic reptiles, mammals, and birds–most found nowhere else on Earth.

 

“The Oldest Rocks on Earth: A Search for the Origins of our World” by Simon Lamb

Geologist Lamb’s research in remote southern Africa looks at some of the oldest known rocks — some more than 3.5 billion years old, unearthing a violent world of natural disasters and climate change in the deep ocean, along ancient shorelines, and amid rising mountains. In so doing, he shows how geologists work and think, and how they read rocks and decipher what they tell us of the past, and the future.

 

“Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds: Stories of Extinction” by Barbara Allen

This book presents thirty-one extinct species through personal portraits to say, we see that you have been here — we notice. The intimate approach not only highlights each particular species but also explores the profound, broader implications of losing a species forever.

 

P.S. For an extensive list of books on Earth care for adults, teens, and children, please visit out 2024 blog post, Celebrate Earth Day every day.

Teresa Letizia is a photo-documented tree-hugger, as well as a library specialist at A.K. Smiley Public Library, 125 W. Vine St., Redlands.

Always on our minds as we work to bring new items into the library is that every individual is entitled to see themselves reflected in a book, a magazine, a newspaper, and in everything we offer.

That is why Smiley Library is happy to report the recent addition of the print version of Black Voice News” to our collection of newspapers. Its arrival is timely as we enter our annual celebration of Black History Month in February. This year marks the centennial anniversary with the theme, “A Century of Black History Commemorations.”

The Black Voice News (BVN) may be new to the Library, but it is not new to the community. Conceived of in 1972 by students attending the University of California at Riverside, it was purchased in 1980 by Hardy and Cheryl Brown, who became its publishers (now emeritus publishers) and formed Brown Publishing Company. For more than 50 years, the weekly publication has “chronicled some of the most important stories impacting the lives of Black Californians, and given “voice” to the community while expanding its scope of civic involvement.” (Source: BVN) Based in Riverside, the newspaper covers Riverside, as well as the Inland Empire. Find it online at BlackVoiceNews.com.

This dedication to giving a voice to community members, in the format of reputable journalism, is vital for a democracy striving to reach the ideal of ensuring equality among all its diverse groups. Many Americans of color, especially Black Americans, have long reported that their stories, their accomplishments, have all too often been left out of the history books. We need to insist that each story matters, that memory matters, and that shared history requires guardians.

And so, on to more of our guardians: Listed below are newer books to the Library that share this vision, their authors aiming their points of view through the lens of journalism and publishing.

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. A correspondent for The Atlantic, the renowned author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell–and the ones we don’t–shape our realities, reminding us that there is need to hear many stories, not just one. Coates suggests that storytelling of an ideological nature–even his own and his own family’s–omits too much, and that what is ultimately needed to arrive at justice is fact-based reporting.

Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man’s Search for Home by Jonathan Capehart. Pulitzer Prize winning writer, editor, and TV host, Capehart recounts powerful stories from his life about embracing identity, picking battles, seizing opportunity, and finding his voice.

No Human Involved: The Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference by Cheryl L. Neely. The author, a sociology and criminology professor, sets out to show how Black women are killed at a higher rate than any other group of women, but their victimhood is not covered by the media and their cases do not receive an adequate level of urgency.

Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship by Dana A. Williams. Drawing on extensive research and firsthand accounts, this comprehensive study discusses the legendary novelist Toni Morrison’s largely unknown early career working for Random House, emerging as one of its most important editors who transformed the broader literary landscape and deepened the cultural conversation, shaping Black literature into the mainstream.  

Black history, as is the history of any group of people in the United States, is American history—is our history. We invite you to come into the Library and find these and other excellent offerings on display in honor of that shared history.

“You may find me to be a bit hasty in my congratulations, Miss Austen, yet I cannot contain my enthusiasm! I must wish you a most felicitous semiquincentennial celebration, the 250th anniversary of your birth!”

Miss Austen is, of course, the beloved novelist, Jane Austen, and this dispatch is my poor attempt to honor Austen through imitation of her style, while showcasing, unfortunately, none of her iconic and ironic brilliance. Though her birthday is not until December 16, we, fans around the world, “Janeites,” have been celebrating all year long.

If you have not read any of her core novels—of which there are only six—I recommend you pick up one. It doesn’t matter which one; I happened to have read first, “Northanger Abbey,” a satire of gothic novels, and fell in love instantly with Austen’s masterful and subtle use of humor and wit. Austen’s novels are not all about love and romance, but are primarily about the social realities behind sentimental, romantic façades.

The publication of “Sense and Sensibility” came first in 1811; “Pride and Prejudice” followed in 1813, “Mansfield Park,” 1814, and “Emma,” 1815. Though separate works, “Persuasion” and “Northanger Abbey” were published together posthumously in 1817 by Austen’s brother, Henry, and it was he who named each novel.

In the years since her death at age 41, respect for her work has only grown, snowballing into the 21st century to such popularity that imitation and reimagining of her novels and writing style have come as flattery in its most sincere forms.

Books published this year are no exception. Coming to Smiley Library soon is a celebratory collaboration of ‘love letters’ from writers, actors, critics, and scholars alike, “Encounters with Jane Austen: Celebrating 250 Years.” The anthology features a vibrant mix of short stories, essays, interviews, and poetry contributed by over 30 writers and artists. It presents a delightful blend of both contemporary and classic works, accompanied by humorous illustrations and timeless quotes from Jane Austen herself.

Another tribute arriving in 2025 in a fresh format for our featured author is “The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography,” a very approachable introduction for Austen novices and a textured, detail-packed delight for those already familiar with her life. Acclaimed Austen scholar Janine Barchas and New York Times bestselling graphic novelist Isabel Greenberg combine their talents to create this wonderfully unique glimpse into the novelist’s world with Jane as the heroine.

Greenberg’s sparkling illustrations in a muted blue-gray-yellow color scheme burst into vivid reds and purples when Austen imagines scenes in her novels. Told in three parts (Budding Writer 1796-1797); Struggling Artist 1801-1809; and Published Author 1811-1817), all the settings and scenarios presented are based upon the historical record, including the clothing, architecture, decor, and Regency locations.

For those of us who have read and enjoyed Miss Austen’s work so much that we seem to ache for ‘more Austen!,’ Rebecca Romney has brought us a gift in “Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend.” Romney herself is the rare book specialist who investigates eight of Austen’s contemporaries, women authors who inspired her, yet who have seemed to slip into anonymity—Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Hannah More, Charlotte Smith, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzo, and Maria Edgeworth.

Romney provides an overview of the publishing world in Regency England, addressing the restrictions of gender and social attitudes impacting women authors. We learn of these featured writers’ lives and works, while Romney highlights Austen’s artful references in her novels to these writers she admires. Book lovers may wish to delve into the comprehensive appendix which may well lead to the joyful addition of even more Austen-like titles to their TBR (to-be-read) list.

I will take my leave of you now, dear readers, with a few more titles with which to enhance the J.A. festivities. I surmise that you may not have read “Lady Susan,” an epistolary novella written by Austen circa 1794, published in 1871. There are her unfinished novels, “The Watsons” (1804) and “Sanditon” (1817; recently completed by anonymous writer “Another Lady.”) Do you know of “Jane Austen’s Letters,” a compilation of her letters to others as an adult? Look for “Jane Austen,” the 1913 biography by great-nephew William Austen-Leigh (yes, we have the 1913 edition!).

It may be time to explore Miss Jane’s juvenilia collection (written in her youth between 1787 and 1793) with “Love and Freindship and Other Youthful Writings.” The misspelling in the title is among several in these works, only endearing Jane Austen to us even more. Cheers to another 250 years, Miss Austen!

Teresa Letizia is, obviously, a full-time Janeite, fitting around that her position as part-time library specialist at A.K. Smiley Public Library, 125 W. Vine St., Redlands.