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A.K. Smiley Public Library Blog

Serving the City of Redlands, California since 1894

News + Events

Celebrate Earth Day every day — by learning — a reading list for all ages; Redlands events, April 20th

April 15, 2024 By Teresa Letizia

Search Smiley Library’s comprehensive reading list below for adults, young adults, and children providing access to learning more about why we need Earth Day, and how to enjoy it…

The theme for World Earth Day 2024 is Planet vs. Plastics. The theme aims to bring attention to the serious issue of plastic pollution and how it harms nature. For Earth Day 2024, EARTHDAY.ORG aims to end plastic for planetary health and demands a 60 per cent reduction in the production of all plastics by 2040.

Celebrate Earth Day in Redlands, Saturday, April 20th

♥ Participate in your choice of a variety (dozens!) of hands-on events around town sponsored by ANCA (Accelerate Neighborhood Climate Action) and many other Redlands environmental organizations. Refer to www.redlandsearthday.org/ for more information, and to register.

♥ Learn more about why so many have been observing Earth Day since 1970; take a look at “A Brief History of Earth Day,” a short, enlightening PowerPoint presentation by ANCA member Andy Green.

Enjoy the Great Outdoors in a state park in honor of Earth Day ~

Visit participating California state parks for free with your library card by checking out a vehicle’s day-use state park pass!

♥  California State Library Parks Pass / California State Library, Parks Pass Program, 2022

Follow any of these links to our catalog to read more about it, and to place on hold.

READING LIST OF BOOKS FOR ADULTS:

Plastics & Recycling

  • Life without plastic : the practical step-by-step guide to avoiding plastic to keep your family and the planet healthy / Plamondon, Chantal, 2017
  • Plastic purge : how to use less plastic, eat better, keep toxins out of your body, and help save the sea turtles! / SanClements, Michael, 2014
  • Can I recycle this? : a guide to better recycling and how to reduce single-use plastics / Romer, Jennie, 2021**
  • Plastic : an autobiography / Cobb, Allison, 2021
  • Living without plastic : more than 100 easy swaps for home, travel, dining, holidays, and beyond / Allen, Brigette, 2021
  • **For more information on recycling in the City of Redlands, visit the City’s website,  https://www.cityofredlands.org/solid-waste-recycling-services

New Book Collection

  • Before it’s gone : stories from the front lines of climate change in small-town America / Vigliotti, Jonathan, 2024
  • Total garbage : how we can fix our waste and heal our world / Humes, Edward, 2024
  • 42 reasons to hate the universe : and one reason not to / Ferrie, Chris, 2024
  • The ultimate wildlife habitat garden : attract and support birds, bees, and butterflies / Tornio, Stacy, 2024
  • In search of the old ones : an odyssey among ancient trees / Fredericks, Anthony D., 2023
  • Blue machine : how the ocean works / Czerski, Helen, 2023
  • Guardians of the valley: John Muir and the friendship that saved Yosemite / King, Dean, 2023
  • Black earth wisdom : soulful conversations with Black environmentalists / Penniman, Leah, 2023
  • The climate book / Thunberg, Greta, 2023
  • I want a better catastrophe : navigating the climate crisis with grief, hope, and gallows humor : an existential manual for tragic optimists, can-do pessimists, and compassionate doomers / Boyd, Andrew, 2023
  • Home detox : make your home a healthier place for everyone who lives there / Chace, Daniella, 2023
  • No miracles needed : how today’s technology can save our climate and clean our air / Jacobson, Mark Z. (Mark Zachary), 2023
  • The great displacement : climate change and the next American migration / Bittle, Jake, 2023
  • Toxic exposure : the true story behind the Monsanto trials and the search for justice / Nabhan, Chadi, 2023
  • Urban jungle : the history and future of nature in the city / Wilson, Ben, 2023
  • We are the middle of forever : Indigenous voices from Turtle Island on the changing Earth / Jamail, Dahr, 2022
  • This America of ours : Bernard and Avis DeVoto and the forgotten fight to save the wild / Schweber, Nate, 2022
  • Unsettling : surviving extinction together / Weinberg, Elizabeth
  • American Wildflowers: A Literary Field Guide / Barba, Susan, 2022
  • No country for eight-spot butterflies : a lyric essay / Aguon, Julian, 2022
  • A poison like no other : how microplastics corrupted our planet and our bodies / Simon, Matt, 2022
  • Tree thieves : crime and survival in North America’s woods / Bourgon, Lyndsie, 2022
  • Regenerative fashion : a nature-based approach to fibres, livelihoods and leadership / Minney, Safia, 2022
  • Vanishing sands : losing beaches to mining / Pilkey, Orrin H., 2022
  • Deer man : seven years of living in the wild / Delorme, Geoffrey, 2022
  • Silent spring revolution : John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the great environmental awakening / Brinkley, Douglas, 2022
  • Remodelista the low-impact home : a sourcebook for stylish, eco-conscious living / Guralnick, Margot, 2022
  • At home on an unruly planet : finding refuge on a changed Earth / Ostrander, Madeline, 2022
  • Fen, bog, and swamp : a short history of peatland destruction and its role in the climate crisis / Proulx, Annie, 2022
  • The petroleum papers : inside the far-right conspiracy to cover up climate change / Dembicki, Geoff, 2022
  • The nerves and their endings : essays on crisis and response / Johannesson, Jessica Gaitán, 2022

National Parks, State Parks, and other wilderness areas

  • Everything left to remember : my mother, our memories, and a journey through the Rocky Mountains / Jagger, Steph, 2022
  • Subpar parks / Share, Amber, 2021
  • Guide to state parks of the United States / National Geographic, 2018
  • 101 hikes in Southern California : exploring mountains, seashore, and desert / Schad, Jerry, 2022
  • Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks / Grosberg, Michael
  • Fodor’s Utah: [with Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Capitol Reef & Canyonlands National Parks] / Arenas, Shelley
  • Fodor’s the Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West / Arenas, Shelley
  • Fodor’s the Complete Guide to the National Parks of the USA / Anderson, Karen
  • National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States / National Geographic Society (U.S.)
  • Yosemite Wildflowers: A Field Guide to the Wildflowers of Yosemite National Park / Breckling, Barry, 2020
  • The National Parks: America’s Best Idea: An Illustrated History / Duncan, Dayton, Burns, Ken, 2009

Activists, Innovators, & Inspiration

  • The world as we knew it : dispatches from a changing climate / Brady, Amy, 2022
  • A bigger picture : my fight to bring a new African voice to the climate crisis / Nakate, Vanessa, 2021
  • Diary of a young naturalist / McAnulty, Dara, 2021
  • As the world burns : the new generation of activists and the landmark legal fight against climate change / Van der Voo, Lee, 2020
  • Natural rivals : John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the creation of America’s public lands / Clayton, John, 2019
  • Visionary women : how Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters changed our world / Barnet, Andrea, 2018
  • The wizard and the prophet : two remarkable scientists and their dueling visions to shape tomorrow’s world / Mann, Charles C., 2018
  • Nature’s allies : eight conservationists who changed our world / Nielsen, Larry A., 2017
  • Engineering Eden : the true story of a violent death, a trial, and the fight over controlling nature / Smith, Jordan Fisher, 2016
  • Rachel Carson and her sisters : extraordinary women who have shaped America’s environment / Musil, Robert K., 2014
  • The genius of Earth Day : how a 1970 teach-in unexpectedly made the first green generation / Rome, Adam, 2013
  • On a farther shore : the life and legacy of Rachel Carson / Souder, William, 2012
  • A force for nature : the story of NRDC and the fight to save our planet / Adams, John H. (John Hamilton), 2010
  • The man from Clear Lake : Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson / Christofferson, Bill, 2004

Animals & Plants

  • The ecology book / Coyne, Celia, 2022
  • The nation of plants / Mancuso, Stefano, 2021
  • Hurricane lizards and plastic squid : the fraught and fascinating biology of climate change / Hanson, Thor, 2021
  • Garden allies : the insects, birds, & other animals that keep your garden beautiful and thriving /Lavoipierre, Frédérique, 2021
  • Born to rewild : triumphs of a now fearless woman / Kalimian, Manda, 2021
  • How to love animals : in a human-shaped world / Mance, Henry, 2021
  • Iwígara : American Indian ethnobotanical traditions and science / Salmón, Enrique, 2020
  • Stronghold : one man’s quest to save the world’s wild salmon / Malarkey, Tucker, 2019
  • Fraser’s penguins : a journey to the future in Antarctica / Montaigne, Fen, 2010

Climate Change, Global Warming, and the effects on our environment

  • The carbon footprint of everything / Berners-Lee, Mike, 2022
  • Fire and flood : a people’s history of climate change, from 1979 to the present / Linden, Eugene, 2022
  • The greatest polar expedition of all time : the Arctic mission to the epicenter of climate change / Rex, Markus/ Pybus, Sarah (TRN), 2022
  • The last winter : the scientists, adventurers, journeymen, and mavericks trying to save the world / Fox, Porter, 2021
  • Disasterology : dispatches from the frontlines of the climate crisis / Montano, Samantha, 2021
  • Overheated : how capitalism broke the planet–and how we fight back / Aronoff, Kate, 2021
  • Our house is on fire : scenes of a family and a planet in crisis / Thunberg, Greta, 2020
  • The fragile earth : writing from the New Yorker on climate change / Remnick, David, 2020
  • The uninhabitable earth : life after warming / Wallace-Wells, David, 2019
  • Wild at heart : America’s turbulent relationship with nature, from exploitation to redemption / Outwater, Alice, 2019
  • Drawdown : the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming / Hawken, Paul, 2017
  • A climate of crisis : America in the age of environmentalism / Allitt, Patrick, 2014
  • An inconvenient truth : the planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it / Gore, Al, 2006
  • DVD: An inconvenient truth a global warning / Guggenheim, Davis, 2006

Environmental Toxins

  • Life without plastic : the practical step-by-step guide to avoiding plastic to keep your family and the planet healthy / Plamondon, Chantal, 2017
  • Toxic legacy : how the weedkiller glyphosate is destroying our health and the environment / Seneff, Stephanie, 2021
  • ContamiNation : my quest to survive in a toxic world / Jenkins, McKay, 2016
  • Our daily poison : from pesticides to packaging, how chemicals have contaminated the food chain and are making us sick / Robin, Marie-Monique, 2014
  • Silent spring / Carson, Rachel. Published 1962.

Hope

  • The book of hope : a survival guide for trying times / Goodall, Jane, 2021
  • Saving us : a climate scientist’s case for hope and healing in a divided world / Hayhoe, Katharine, 2021
  • Hope matters : why changing the way we think is critical to solving the environmental crisis / Kelsey, Elin, 2020
  • No one is too small to make a difference / Thunberg, Greta, 2019
  • Climate of hope : how cities, businesses, and citizens can save the planet / Bloomberg, Michael, 2017
  • Being the change : live well and spark a climate revolution / Kalmus, Peter, 2017
  • Atmosphere of hope : searching for solutions to the climate crisis / Flannery, Tim F. (Tim Fridtjof), 2015

Mitigation, Preparation

  • Electrify : an optimist’s playbook for our clean energy future / Griffith, Saul, 2021
  • The new climate war : the fight to take back the planet / Mann, Michael E., 2021
  • The climate diet : 50 simple ways to trim your carbon footprint / Greenberg, Paul, 2021
  • How to avoid a climate disaster : the solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need / Gates, Bill, 2021
  • Cómo evitar un desastre climático : las soluciones que ya tenemos y los avances que aún necesitamos / Gates, Bill, 2021
  • Simply climate change / DK Publishing, Inc., editor, 2021
  • How to prepare for climate change : a practical guide to surviving the chaos / Pogue, David, 2021
  • What can I do? : my path from climate despair to action / Fonda, Jane, 2020
  • The (almost) zero waste guide : 100+ tips for reducing your waste without changing your life / Mannarino, Melanie, 2020
  • Extreme conservation : life at the edges of the world /Berger, Joel, 2018
  • Climate-wise landscaping : practical actions for a sustainable future / Reed, Sue, 2018
  • Sustainability made simple : small changes for big impact / Byrd, Rosaly, 2017
  • Getting to green : saving nature : a bipartisan solution / Rich, Frederic C., 2016
  • The planet remade : how geoengineering could change the world / Morton, Oliver, 2016
  • Renewable : the world-changing power of alternative energy / Shere, Jeremy, 2013
  • Growing food in a hotter, drier land : lessons from desert farmers on adapting to climate uncertainty / Nabhan, Gary Paul, 2013
  • The atlas of climate change : mapping the world’s greatest challenge / Dow, Kirstin, 2011
  • Urban homesteading : heirloom skills for sustainable living / Kaplan, Rachel, 2011

Pollinators: why birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, small mammals, and most importantly, bees are vital to our environment

  • 100 plants to feed the monarch : create a healthy habitat to sustain North America’s most beloved butterfly : the Xerces Society / Lee-Mader, Eric, 2021
  • Where have all the bees gone? : pollinators in crisis / Hirsch, Rebecca E., 2020
  • How to attract birds to your garden / Rouse, Dan, 2020
  • The pollinator victory garden : win the war on pollinator decline with ecological gardening : how to attract and support bees, beetles, butterflies, bats, and other pollinators / Eierman, Kim, 2020
  • Our native bees : North America’s endangered pollinators and the fight to save them/ Embry, Paige, 2018
  • 100 plants to feed the bees : provide a healthy habitat to help pollinators thrive / Lee-Mäder, Eric, 2016

The Science: let’s figure this out

  • The physics of climate change / Krauss, Lawrence M., 2021
  • Unsettled : what climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters / Koonin, Steven E., 2021
  • Brave green world : how science can save our planet / Forman, Christopher, 2021
  • The field guide to citizen science : how you can contribute to scientific research and make a difference / Cavalier, Darlene, 2020
  • Our once and future planet : restoring the world in the climate change century / Woodworth, Paddy, 2013
  • Unstoppable : harnessing science to change the world / Nye, Bill, 2015

Trees & Forests

  • Elderflora : a modern history of ancient trees / Farmer, Jared, 2022
  • Forest walking : discovering the trees and woodlands of North America / Wohlleben, Peter, 2022
  • The treeline : the last forest and the future of life on earth / Rawlence, Ben, 2022
  • Ever green : saving big forests to save the planet / Reid, John W., 2022
  • Trees in trouble : wildfires, infestations, and climate change / Mathews, Daniel, 2021
  • The songs of trees : stories from nature’s great connectors / Haskell, David George, 2017

MAGAZINES

  • Audubon / National Audubon Society, <1953-current>
  • California today / Planning & Conservation League (Calif.) <1973-1980>
  • Environment / Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation, <1993-current>
  • The Mother earth news / The Mother Earth News, Inc., <1973-current>
  • National Geographic / National Geographic Society (U.S.), <1905-current>
  • Natural history / American Museum of Natural History, <1921-current>
  • Sierra [serial (magazine)] : the Sierra Club bulletin / Sierra Club, <1985-current>

YOUNG ADULT

Fiction

  • My Chemical Mountain – Vacco, Corina (YA VAC)
  • The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love – Sheldon, Dyan (YA SHE)
  • Salvage – Duncan, Alexandra (YA DUN)

Nonfiction

  • Earth Day and the Environmental Movement : Standing Up for Earth – Peterson, Christy 394.262 P442e
  • Raise Your Voice : 12 Protests that Shaped America – Kluger, Jeffrey 303.484 K713r
  • America Dreaming : How Youth Changed America in the Sixties – Hill, Laban Carrick 303.48 H553a
  • Rise Up and Sing! : Power, Protest, and Activism in Music – Warner, Andrea 781.64 W242r
  • An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming – Gore, Al 363.738 G66in
  • Where Have All the Bees Gone? Pollinators in Crisis – Hirsch, Rebecca E. 595.79 H615w

Graphic Novels

  • How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial – Cunningham, Daryl 001.9 C917h

CHILDREN

Picture Books

  • Peppa Pig and the Earth Day Adventure – (JE PEP)
  • Be a Tree – Gianferrari, Maria (JE GIA)
  • Arthur Turns Green – Brown, Marc Tolon (JE BRO)
  • Biscuit’s Earth Day Celebration – Capucilli, Alyssa Satin (JE CAP)
  • Dear Earth…: From Your Friends in Room 5 – Dealey, Erin (JE DEA)
  • These Seas Count! – Formento, Alison (JE FOR)
  • A Small History of a Disagreement – Fuentes, Claudio (JE FUE)
  • We Are Water Protectors – Lindstrom, Carole (JE LIN)
  • Ballyhoo Bay – Sierra, Judy (JE SIE)
  • Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green – Spinelli, Eileen (JE SPI)
  • Greta and the Giants: Inspired by Greta Thunberg’s Stand to Save the World – Tucker Zoe (JEFO TUC)
  • Just a Dream – Van Allsburg, Chris (JEFO VAN)
  • Earth Day, Birthday – Wright, Maureen (JE WRI)
  • My Forever Dress – Ziefert, Harriet (JE ZIE)

Chapter Books

  • Willodeen – Applegate, Katherine (J APP)
  • Violet Mackerel’s Pocket Protest – Branford, Anna (J BRA)
  • Watch Out World, Rosy Cole is Going Green: Rosy Cole’s Bright, Though Not Exactly Popular, Ideas About Garbage, Worms, Dirt, and Other Gifts of Nature – Greenwald, Shelia (J GRE)
  • Scat – Hiaasen, Carl (J HIA)
  • Flush – Hiaasen, Carl (J HIA)
  • Hoot – Hiaasen, Carl (J HIA)
  • Save the Earth – Klein, Abby (J KLE)
  • Marty McGuire Digs Worms! – Messner Kate (J MES)

Mysteries

  • Nate the Great and the Earth Day Robot – Sharmat, Andrew (J M SHA)
  • Cam Jansen and the Green School Mystery – Adler, David (J M ADL)
  • Earth Day Escapade – Keene, Carolyn (J M KEE)

Graphic Novels

  • Luz Sees the Light – Davila, Claudia 741.5 D289L
  • Getting to the Bottom of Global Warming – Collins, Terry 363.738 C696g

Nonfiction

  • The Wild World Handbook: How Adventurers, Artists, Scientists – and YOU – Can Protect the Earth’s Habitats – Debbink, Andrea 333.95 D35w
  • It Starts with a Bee – Gallagher, Aimee 595.79 G135i
  • How to Change Everything: The Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each Other – Klein, Naomi with Stefoff, Rebecca 363.738 K672h
  • Earth Day – Cella, Clara 394.262 C33e
  • Earth Day – Hooray – Murphy, Stuart 513 M597e
  • What a Waste – French, Jess 363.72 F888w
  • The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World’s Coral Reefs – Messner, Kate 333.95 M564b
  • Caillou: Every Drop Counts – Johanson, Sarah Margaret 333.91 J599c
  • Sustainable Water Resources – Rooney, Anne 363.61 R674s
  • One Child, One Planet: Inspiration for the Young Conservationist – Llewellyn, Bridget McGovern 363.7 L77o
  • Our House in on Fire: Greta Thunberg’s Call to Save the Planet – Winter, Jeanette 333.7 W734o
  • Trash Revolution: Breaking the Waste Cycle – Fyvie, Erica 363.72 F999t
  • Join the No-Plastic Challenge! A First Book of Reducing Waste – Ritchie, Scot 363.72 R51j
  • The Plastic Problem – Salt, Rachel 363.72 Sa37p
  • Discover It Yourself: Pollution and Waste – 363.73 D631
  • Taming Plastic: Stop the Pollution – Bates, Albert 363.738 B318t
  • Our Environment: Everything You Need to Know – Pasquet, Jacques 577 P265o
  • Climate Change: The Science Behind Melting Glaciers and Warming Oceans, with Hands-On Activities – Sneideman, Joshua 551.6 Sn26c
  • If Bees Disappeared – Williams, Lily 595.79 W673i

Easy Readers

  • Earth Day – McNamara, Margaret (JER MCN)

Spanish

  • El Guardian del Pantano – Garrett, Ann (JSPE GAR)
  • Calentamiento Global – Buchanan, Shelly (JSP 363.738 B851c)

Filed Under: News + Events

What’s Old: celebrating a century of service at the Circulation Desk 

February 11, 2024 By Ted Conable

In the heart of A.K. Smiley Library, a silent centenarian has quietly celebrated a milestone – the circulation desk, installed in 1923, recently turned one hundred years old. This robust piece of furniture has been a steadfast witness to a century’s worth of California history, from the Roaring Twenties to the digital age.

While modern circulation records don’t go back to the beginning, Smiley currently circulates an average of 239,217 books per year, meaning potentially tens of millions of books have passed over the circulation desk since its installation. Beyond the sheer volume of books it’s seen, the circulation desk has also observed numerous transformative moments in Redlands over the years.

Before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Redlands as a community was largely against entering World War II, with many residents being part of the America First organization led by Charles Lindbergh. After Pearl Harbor however, the community changed its perspective, leading to voluntary efforts like victory gardens, Red Cross drives, and repurposing local buildings for military housing. The Library was no exception to the wartime effort, and in 1944, head librarian Mabel Inness led a Victory Book Drive which collected 1,778 books for men in the service camps.

Plaque on the circulation desk: “Presented by Eldridge M. Lyon 1923.” A philanthropist who was an outstanding resident and friend of Redlands, Mr. Lyons had been a trustee of Smiley Library for many years who had a keen interest in the “university of the people.”

The desk has been present through many major architectural changes at the Library itself, including the additions in 1926, 1930, and 1990. It was here when the Library was painted off-white in 1939, and it was here when the iconic brick-red color was redone in 2002. After the 1933 Long Beach earthquake when the Library Tower was removed, the circulation desk remained and was there when the Tower was rebuilt in 1999.

Beyond the walls of the Library, the desk has witnessed cultural shifts, technological advancements, and societal changes. In the era where radio dramas once captivated living rooms, the circulation desk was a community hub to share the magic of storytelling. As television claimed its place in the household, the circulation desk anchored readers in a world of books amidst the glow of screens. In the digital age, the desk seamlessly transitioned to becoming a metaphorical gateway to a vast expanse of information. From the advent of radio to the rise of the internet, our circulation desk has endured as a permanent fixture in the community of Redlands’ pursuit of knowledge.

Approach the desk not just to check out a book or movie but as a participant in a tradition spanning generations. Simply by borrowing from the Library, we contribute to a legacy of resilience, adaptability, and community spirit that A.K. Smiley proudly carries forward into the next century. The next time you bring a book to the circulation desk, remember – you’re not just returning a book, you’re engaging with a piece of living history, a century-old companion in our collective journey of reading and learning.

Filed Under: News + Events, What's New

Connect with Black heritage year-round: reading lists, DVDs, YouTube videos, Black Life in America e-database

February 3, 2024 By Teresa Letizia

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History, founded in 1915, assigns a theme each February for the observance of Black History Month. In 2024 the theme on which the Association is focusing is African Americans and the Arts. The intention, as ASALH writes, is not to “limit the exploration of the Black experience, but to bring to the public’s attention important developments that merit emphasis.” We encourage you to visit the Association’s website and learn more about this year’s theme and previous ones. You may also wish to participate in its month-long 2024 Black History Month Virtual Festival.

Events and programming are also available at these sites, the Library of Congress at https://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov, and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) at https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/pbs-showcases-rich-collection-of-stories-to-celebrate-black-history-month/.

In recognition of Black History Month here at Smiley Library, peruse our most recent acquisitions featuring Black history and cultural themes, and Black authors, with which to continue to remember, honor, celebrate, and inspire. Look for books on display in the Library near the Circulation Desk. As always, ask a librarian for help finding anything.

(Reposted from 2020-22)

New Books – Fiction

On Girlhood : 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library / Edim, Glory
Harlem Shuffle / Whitehead, Colson
Skye Falling : a Novel  / McKenzie, Mia
Palmares / Jones, Gayl
Black Girls Must Die Exhausted : a Novel / Allen, Jayne
In Every Mirror She’s Black / Akinmade-Akerström, Lola
The Sweetness of Water / Harris, Nathan, Sgt.
The Year We Learned to Fly / Woodson, Jacqueline (Young Readers) – coming soon
Filthy Animals / Taylor, Brandon (Brandon L. G.)
While We Were Dating / Guillory, Jasmine
.

New Books – Nonfiction

Recitatif : a Story / Morrison, Toni
Lorraine Hansberry : the Life Behind A Raisin in the Sun / Shields, Charles J
Call Us What We Carry : Poems / Gorman, Amanda
The Disordered Cosmos : a Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred / Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda
The Essential June Jordan / Jordan, June
Letters to My White Male Friends / Ross, Dax-Devlon
Dear Black Girl : Letters from Your Sisters on Stepping into Your Power / Winfrey Harris, Tamara
Hip Hop (and Other Things) : a Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated / Serrano, Shea
Colorization : One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World / Haygood, Wil
The Black History Book / Blyden, Nemata Amelia
Such Color : New and Selected Poems / Smith, Tracy K.
The Matter of Black Lives : Writing from The New Yorker / Cobb, Jelani
Changes : an Oral History of Tupac Shakur / Pearce, Sheldon
King of the Blues : the Rise and Reign of B.B. King / De Visé, Daniel
Dear Senthuran : a Black Spirit Memoir / Emezi, Akwaeke
Toni Morrison’s Spiritual Vision : Faith, Folktales, and Feminism in her Life and Literature / Nittle, Nadra
Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat : Poems / Rae, Khalisa
Unprotected : a Memoir / Porter, Billy
On Juneteenth / Gordon-Reed, Annette
The 1619 Project : a New Origin Story / Hannah-Jones, Nikole
My Remarkable Journey : a Memoir / Johnson, Katherine G.
Black Food : Stories, Art & Recipes from across the African Diaspora / Terry, Bryant
Pilot Imposter / Hannaham, James
Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Women in Popular Culture / Blay, Zeba
Stones : Poems / Young, Kevin
.

2020 – 2021

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a son of formerly enslaved parents, embarked on the establishment of February as Black History Month. He was a teacher and school administrator who in 1912 became the second African American, after W.E.B. Du Bois, to earn a PhD from Harvard University. In February 1926 he launched the precursor of the celebration with “Negro History Week,” designated for the second week in February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Dr. Woodson also founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Each year the Association, which continues to support Dr. Woodson’s cause, assigns a theme to the celebration. The theme for 2021 is “The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity” — ideas to ponder as we read.

Please refer to previous blog post Celebrating Black Authors and Black Lives for additional titles. Take a look too at our extensive Catalog for older items on the subject, as well as those for children and young adults. Check them out through our Books to Go program or in person during our new public hours.

Also, don’t forget our eLibrary which includes, besides e-items for download, the new Black Life in America database. This primary source collection provides materials in which you may research the experience and impact of African Americans as recorded by the news media, from 1704 to today. It is an expansive window into centuries of African American history, culture, and daily life — as well as the ways the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of African descent.

Streaming video service Kanopy, also located in our eLibrary, features films about racial and social injustice. Inspiring documentaries, like “The Talk: Race in America,” “P.S. I Can’t Breathe,” and many others, can help contribute to a more open dialogue about race relations in modern America.

And finally, for even more ways in which to learn about Black history, view the Heritage Room’s Black History Month webinar series. available for viewing at the AKSPL Special Collections YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx1V0OiVDDpGORavA_W6icQ,  or on Facebook under the Video tab.

The offerings include:

  • “African American Literature” by Professor Charles Williams of Chaffey College
  • “Lincoln’s Greatest Decision: Emancipation and the Use of Black Troops” with Smiley Library Director Don McCue
  • “Black Voice News and the History of the Black Press” by Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds
  • (Link here to local newspaper Black Voice News)
  • “Hidden in Plain Sight: African Americans in the Library’s Historic Collections” with Archivist Dr. Nathan Gonzales

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Centennial Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

The Tulsa race massacre took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of White residents, many of them deputized and given weapons by city officials, attacked Black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is alternatively known as the “Tulsa race riot” or the “Black Wall Street massacre.”

See also, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission website, https://www.tulsa2021.org/, and find our books on the subject here:

  • The Burning : Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, by Tim Madigan
  • Riot and Remembrance : the Tulsa Race War and its Legacy, by James S. Hirsch

Juneteenth, on June 19

Juneteenth (a combination of June and nineteenth) is also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day. It is a holiday celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. Originating in Galveston, Texas, it is now celebrated annually throughout the United States, with increasing official recognition resulting in its declaration as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021. It is commemorated on the anniversary date of the June 19, 1865 announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom from slavery in Texas.

For more information check out our Blog post, Juneteenth, the celebration of emancipation from slavery, now recognized as a federal holiday, and find our books on the subject here:

  • On Juneteenth / Gordon-Reed, Annette, 2021
  • African-American Holidays / Winchester, Faith (YRR)
Visit the University of Redlands website to learn about its Inaugural Juneteenth Celebration, which took place virtually from June 15 through June 17, 2021.
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

2020 – 2021

Autobiographies, Biographies, and Memoirs
  • Triumph : the Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics / Schaap, Jeremy
  • The Black Civil War Soldier : a Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship / Willis, Deborah
  • 42 Today : Jackie Robinson and his Legacy / Long, Michael G., editor
  • Courage to Soar : A Body in Motion, a Life in Balance / Biles, Simone
  • The Fierce 44 : Black Americans Who Shook Up the World / Reiss, Stephen
  • Just As I Am : a Memoir / Tyson, Cicely
  • The Truths We Hold : an American Journey / Harris, Kamala
  • Finding My Voice : My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward / Jarrett, Valerie
  • His Truth is Marching On : John Lewis and the Power of Hope / Meacham, Jon
  • A Promised Land / Obama, Barack
  • Becoming / Obama, Michelle
  • Tough Love : My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For / Rice, Susan E.
  • I Will Not Fear : My Story of a Lifetime of Building Faith under Fire / Beals, Melba
  • Black Radical : the Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter / Greenidge, Kerri K.
  • Fannie Lou Hamer : America’s Freedom Fighting Woman / Brooks, Maegan Parker
  • Greyboy : Finding Blackness in a White World / Brown, Cole / Reyburn, Susan
  • The Dead Are Arising : the Life of Malcolm X / Payne, Les
  • Frederick Douglass : Prophet of Freedom / Blight, David W. *Pulitzer Prize winner, History, 2019
  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass : an American Slave / Douglass, Frederick
  • The Chiffon Trenches : a Memoir / Talley, Andre Leon
  • Officer Clemmons / Clemmons, Francois S.
  • Black Is the Body : Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine / Bernard, Emily
  • George Washington Carver : a Life / Vella, Christina
  • Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation / Norrell, Robert J.
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings / Angelou, Maya
  • My Journey with Maya / Smiley, Tavis
  • My Grandfather’s Son : a Memoir / Thomas, Clarence
  • Thurgood Marshall : a Twentieth-Century Life / Crowe, Chris
  • Black Klansman : Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime / Stallworth, Ron
  • Zora and Langston : a Story of Friendship and Betrayal / Yuval, Taylor
  • Mighty Justice : My Life in Civil Rights / Roundtree, Dovey Johnson

Cookbooks

  • The Full Plate / Curry, Ayesha
  • The Rise : Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food / Samuelsson, Marcus
  • Jubilee : Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking / Tipton-Martin, Toni
  • Sweet Home Cafe Cookbook : A Celebration of African American Cooking / Lukas, Albert

DVDs

  • Harriet [videorecording (DVD and Blu-ray disc)] / Erivo, Cynthia
  • Marshall [videorecording (Blu-ray disc and DVD)] / Hudlin, Reginald
  • Hidden Figures [videorecording (DVD)] / Melfi, Theodore
  • Blackkklansman [videorecording (DVD)] / Lee, Spike
  • Jackie Robinson [videorecording (DVD)] / Burns, Ken
  • 42 : [videorecording (DVD)] the Jackie Robinson Story / Helgeland, Brian
  • The Hate U Give [videorecording (DVD and Blu-ray disc)] / Tillman, George
  • Beloved [videorecording (DVD)] / Winfrey, Oprah
  • If Beale Street Could Talk [videorecording (DVD and Blu-ray disc)] / Jenkins, Barry
  • Green Book [videorecording (DVD and Blu-ray disc)] / Farrelly, Peter
  • Us [videorecording (DVD and Blu-ray disc)] / Peele, Jordan
  • Black Panther [videorecording (Blu-ray disc)] / Coogler, Ryan
  • Get Out [videorecording (DVD)] / Peele, Jordan
  • Moonlight [videorecording (DVD)] / Jenkins, Barry
  • 12 Years a Slave [videorecording (DVD)] / McQueen, Steve
  • Django Unchained [videorecording (DVD)] / Tarantino, Quentin
  • Lincoln [videorecording (DVD)] / Spielberg, Steven
  • The Help [videorecording (DVD)] / Stockett, Kathryn
  • Precious (based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire) [videorecording (DVD)] / Daniels, Lee
  • The Secret Life of Bees [videorecording (DVD)] / Prince-Bythewood, Gina
  • The Great Debaters [videorecording (DVD)] / Washington, Denzel
  • The Tuskegee Airmen [videorecording (DVD)] / Markowitz, Robert
  • Glory [videorecording (DVD)] / Fields, Freddie
  • Roots [videorecording (DVD)] / Margulies, Stan
  • To Kill a Mockingbird [videorecording (DVD)] / Mulligan, Robert

DVD Documentaries

  • John Lewis [videorecording (DVD) : Good Trouble / Porter, Dawn
  • Been to the Mountaintop [videorecording (DVD)] documentary / King, Martin Luther, Jr.
  • Up from Slavery [videorecording (DVD)] documentary / Hershberger, Kevin R.
  • Alice’s Ordinary People [videorecording (DVD)] documentary / Dudnick, Craig
  • A.k.a. Cassius Clay [videorecording (DVD)] / Ali, Muhammad

Fiction

  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? / Jemisin, N. K.
  • The Tubman Command : a Novel / Cobbs, Elizabeth
  • Confessions in B-flat / Hill, Donna (Donna O.)
  • Yellow Wife / Johnson, Sadeqa
  • Deacon King Kong / McBride, James
  • Trouble the Saints / Johnson, Alaya Dawn
  • His Only Wife : a Novel / Medie, Peace A.
  • Take a Hint, Dani Brown : Novel / Hibbert, Talia
  • The Secret Lives of Church Ladies / Philyaw, Deesha
  • At Night All Blood is Black / Diop, David
  • Black Buck / Askaripour, Mateo
  • Ring Shout, or, Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times / Clark, P. DjèlÍ
  • Lakewood : a Novel / Giddings, Megan
  • The Boyfriend Project / Rochon, Farrah
  • Memorial : a Novel / Washington, Bryan
  • Black Bottom Saints : a Novel / Randall, Alice
  • The Vanishing Half / Bennett, Brit
  • Luster / Leilani, Raven
  • The Prophets : a Novel / Jones, Robert Jr.
  • Dirty Music / Sinclair, Shaun
  • How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House / Jones, Cherie
  • Transcendent Kingdom / Gyasi, Yaa
  • The Girl with the Louding Voice / Dare, Abi
  • Red at the Bone / Woodson, Jacqueline
  • Careful What You Click For / Morrison, Mary B.
  • Influence : Death on the Beach / Weber, Carl
  • The Color Purple : a Novel / Walker, Alice
  • Beloved : a Novel / Morrison, Toni *Pulitzer Prize winner, Literature, 1988
  • The Bluest Eye / Morrison, Toni
  • A Mercy / Morrison, Toni
  • Song of Solomon / Morrison, Toni
  • Later Novels / Baldwin, James
  • The Help / Stockett, Kathryn
  • Push / Sapphire
  • The Secret Life of Bees / Kidd, Sue Monk
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin / Stowe, Harriet Beecher
  • To Kill a Mockingbird / Lee, Harper

Graphic Novels

  • Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred : A Graphic Novel Adaptation / Duffy, Damian
  • Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower : A Graphic Novel Adaptation / Duffy, Damian
  • I Am Alfonso Jones [text (graphic)] / Medina, Tony
  • Black Panther [text (graphic)] / Coates, Ta-Nehisi
  • To Kill a Mockingbird [text (graphic)] : A Graphic Novel / Fordham, Fred

History

  • The 1619 Project : a New Origin Story / Hannah-Jones, Nikole
  • River of Blood : American Slavery from the People Who Lived It : Interviews & Photographs of Formerly Enslaved African Americans / Cahan, Richard, editor
  • The Crooked Path to Abolition : Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution / Oakes, James
  • The Other Madisons : the Lost History of a President’s Black Family / Kearse, Bettye
  • The Kidnapping Club : Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War / Wells, Jonathan Daniel
    Stony the Road : Reconstruction, White supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow / Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
  • Black Origins in the Inland Empire / Skinner, Byron Richard
  • Guest of Honor : Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation / Davis, Deborah
  • The Broken Heart of America : St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States / Johnson, Walter
  • Stakes is High : Life after the American Dream / Smith, Mychal DenzelWhen It Was Grand : the Radical Republican History of the Civil War / Keith, LeeAnna
  • We Were Eight Years in Power : an American Tragedy / Coates, Ta-Nehisi
  • The Kidnapping Club : Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War / Wells, Jonathan Daniel
  • Overground Railroad : the Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America / Taylor, Candacy A.
  • 50 Events That Shaped African American History : An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic / Wilson, Jamie Jaywann
  • Team of Rivals : the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln / Goodwin, Doris Kearns
  • Keeping Hope Alive : Sermons and Speeches of Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr. / Jackson, Jesse
  • The Black Calhouns : from Civil War to Civil Rights with One African American Family / Buckley, Gail Lumet
  • Daisy Turner’s Kin : an African American Family Sage / Beck, Jane C.

Humor

  • Surrender, White People! : Our Unconditional Terms for Peace / Hughley, D.L.
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey : Crazy Stories About Racism / Ruffin, Amber
  • The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell : Tales of a 6′ 4″, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-leaning, Asthmatic, Black and proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-up Comedian / Bell, W. Kamau

Literature

  • Letters to the Future : Black Women, Radical Writing / Hunt, Erica
  • The Toni Morrison Book Club / Bennett, Juda
  • In Search of The Color Purple : the Story of an American Masterpiece / Tillet, Salamishah
  • The Awkward Black Man : Stories / Mosley, Walter
  • Being Property Once Myself : Blackness and the End of Man / Bennett, Joshua
  • A Measure of Belonging : Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South / Barnes, Cinelle
  • Black Ink : Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing / Oliver, Stephanie Stokes
  • Rainbow in the Cloud : the Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou / Angelou, Maya
  • The Measure of Our Lives : A Gathering of Wisdom / Morrison, Toni
  • The Source of Self-Regard : Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations / Morrison, Toni
  • Goodness and the Literary Imagination : Harvard Divinity School’s 95th Ingersoll Lecture : With Essays on Morrison’s Moral and Religious Vision / Morrison, Toni
  • The Selected Letters of Langston Hughes / Hughes, Langston
  • Well-read Black Girl : Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves : an Anthology / Edim, Glory
  • Feel Free : Essays / Smith, Zadie

Music

  • Wild Thing : The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix / Norman, Philip
  • The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America/Moore, Marcus J
  • Queen Bey : a Celebration of the Power and Creativity of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter / Chambers, Veronica
  • Odetta : A Life in Music and Protest / Zack, Ian
  • Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter / Jackson, Curtis “50 Cent”
  • Let Love Rule / Kravitz, Lenny
  • More Myself : A Journey / Keys, Alicia
  • I Am Restored : How I Lost My Religion But Found My Faith / Lecrae
  • Straighten Up and Fly Right : The Life & Music of Nat King Cole / Friedwald, Will
  • The Meaning of Mariah Carey / Carey, Mariah
  • The Beautiful Ones / Prince
  • Black Diamond Queens : African American Women and Rock and Roll / Mahon, Maureen
  • Billie Holiday : the Musician and the Myth / Szwed, John F.

Poetry

  • African American Poetry : 250 years of Struggle & Song / Young, Kevin
  • We Inherit What the Fires Left : Poems / Evans, William, III (William H.)
  • White Blood : A Lyric of Virginia / Petrosino, Kiki
  • Finna : Poems / Marshall, Nate
  • Living Weapon / Phillips, Rowan Ricardo
  • The Malevolent Volume : Poems / Reed, Justin Phillip
  • Owed / Bennett, Joshua
  • Make Me Rain : Poems & Prose / Giovanni, Nikki
  • How to Carry Water : Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton / Clifton, Lucille
  • Magical Negro : Poems / Parker, Morgan
  • The Tradition / Brown, Jericho
  • / Clark, Tiana
  • Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart : Poems / Walker, Alice
  • Semiautomatic / Shockley, Evie

Politics, Civil Rights, Law

  • Let the People See : the Story of Emmett Till / Gorn, Elliott J.
  • Unsung : Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition / Young, Kevin
  • Rise Up : Confronting a Country at the Crossroads / Sharpton, Al
  • Fight of the Century : Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases / Chabon, Michael
  • The Sword and the Shield : the Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. / Joseph, Peniel E.
  • When They Call You a Terrorist : a Story of Black Lives Matter and the Power to Change the World / Khan-Cullors, Patrisse
  • On the Other Side of Freedom : the Case for Hope / Mckesson, DeRay
  • Driving While Black : African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights / Sorin, Gretchen Sullivan
  • The Black Cabinet : the Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt / Watts, Jill
  • Vanguard : How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All / Jones, Martha S.
  • Blackout : How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation / Owens, Candace
  • Our Time is Now : Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America / Abrams, Stacey
  • Say It Louder! : Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy / Cross, Tiffany D.
  • The Zealot and the Emancipator : John Brown, Abraham Lincoln and the Struggle for American Freedom / Brands, H. W.
  • For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics / Brazile, Donna
  • Franchise : the Golden Arches in Black America / Chatelain, Marcia
  • On Account of Race : the Supreme Court, White Supremacy, and the Ravaging of African American Voting Rights / Goldstone, Lawrence
  • Deep Delta Justice : a Black Teen, his Lawyer, and their Groundbreaking Battle for Civil Rights in the South / Van Meter, Matthew
  • The Names of All the Flowers / Valentine, Melissa
  • Make Change : How to Fight Injustice, Dismantle Systemic Oppression, and Own Our Future / King, Shaun
  • The Annotated African American Folktales / Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.

Sciences, Philosophy, Journalism, Language, Mathematics, Technology, Performing Arts

  • A Fool’s Errand : Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump / Bunch, Lonnie G.
  • Trailblazer : a Pioneering Journalist’s Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America / Gilliam, Dorothy Butler
  • The Path Made Clear : Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose / Winfrey, Oprah
  • Talking Back, Talking Black : Truths About America’s Lingua Franca / McWhorter, John H.
  • Beyond Ebonics : the Linguistic Legacy of American Slavery / Baugh, John
  • Spoken Soul : the Story of Black English / Rickford, John R.
  • Black Talk : Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner / Smitherman, Geneva
  • Talkin That Talk : Language, Culture, and Education in African America / Smitherman, Geneva
  • Hidden Figures : the American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race / Shetterly, Margot Lee
  • Letters from an Astrophysicist / Tyson, Neil deGrasse
  • We Could Not Fail : the First African Americans in the Space Program / Paul, Richard
  • Black Broadway : African Americans on the Great White Way / Lane, Stewart F.
  • The Compton Cowboys : the New Generation of Cowboys in America’s Urban Heartland / Thompson-Hernandez, Walter

Social Sciences

  • The Souls of Black Folk / Du Bois, W.E.B.
  • Distributed Blackness : African American Cybercultures / Brock, André L., Jr.
  • Hood Feminism : Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot / Kendall, Mikki
  • A Black Women’s History of the United States / Berry, Daina Ramey
  • A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing : the Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland / Hill, DaMaris B.
  • Girl Gurl Grrrl : on Womanhood and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Magic / Hunt, Kenya
  • The Purpose of Power : How We Come Together When We Fall Apart / Garza, Alicia
  • Caste : the Origins of our Discontents / Wilkerson, Isabel
  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man / Acho, Emmanuel
  • Race Man : Selected Works, 1960-2015 / Bond, Julian
  • A Peculiar Indifference : the Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America / Currie, Elliott
  • Long Time Coming : Reckoning with Race in America / Dyson, Michael Eric
  • White Tears/Brown Scars : How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color / Hamad, Ruby
  • Daughter of the Boycott : Carrying On a Montgomery Family’s Civil Rights Legacy / Houston, Karen Gray
  • Culture Warlords : My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy / Lavin, Talia
  • Dispatches from the Race War / Wise, Tim
  • Wilmington’s Lie : the Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy / Zucchino, David
  • Black Futures / Drew, Kimberly
  • Conversations in Black on Power, Politics, and Leadership / Gordon, Ed
  • Wandering in Strange Lands : a Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots / Jerkins, Morgan
  • Just Us : an American Conversation / Rankine, Claudia
  • How to Make a Slave and Other Essays / Walker, Jerald
  • Black Fatigue : How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit / Winters, Mary-Frances
  • South to Freedom : Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War / Baumgartner, Alice
  • A Question of Freedom : The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War / Thomas, William G.

Sports

  • 42 Today : Jackie Robinson and his Legacy / Long, Michael G., editor
  • 24 : Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid / Mays, Willie
  • The Last Hero : a Life of Henry Aaron / Bryant, Howard
  • Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America / Stanton, Tom
  • Courage to Soar : A Body in Motion, a Life in Balance / Biles, Simone
  • The Mamba Mentality : How I Play / Bryant, Kobe
  • Mentalidad Mamba : Los Secretos de mi Exito / Bryant, Kobe
  • Olympic Pride, American Prejudice : the Untold Story of 18 African Americans Who Defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to Compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics / Draper, Deborah Riley
  • A Most Beautiful Thing : the True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team / Cooper, Arshay
  • The Second Life of Tiger Woods / Bamberger, Michael
  • Serena Williams : Tennis Champion, Sports Legend, and Cultural Heroine / Corbett, Merlisa Lawrence.
  • Jackie & Campy : the Untold Story of their Rocky Relationship and the Breaking of Baseball’s Color Line / Kashatus, William C.
  • Rickey & Robinson : the True, Untold Story of the Integration of Baseball / Kahn, Roger

Filed Under: News + Events

Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. – learn more about his life and work

January 13, 2024 By Teresa Letizia

In remembrance and celebration of the life of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968, why not read more about him? A.K. Smiley Public Library offers a variety of books, audio books, and e-books for children, teens, and adults on Dr. King.

An American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher, Dr. King was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 at the age of 39. He advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination in the United States.

In 1983, Congress made the birthday of Dr. King a federal holiday, and in 1994, declared it a National Day of Service. For more information, visit MLKday.gov.

Look for these items–and more–on display in the Library (which are available to check-out), or follow the link to our catalog to learn more about it and to place it on hold.

The heavens might crack: the death and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. / Sokol, Jason
.
The sword and the shield: the revolutionary lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. / Joseph, Peniel E.
.
Gospel of freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s letter from Birmingham Jail and the struggle that changed a nation / Rieder, Jonathan
.
Dear Martin / Stone, Nic, 2017, Young Adult fiction
.
Biography / Autobiography
King: a life / Eig, Jonathan, 2023
.
The autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. / King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1998
.
The seminarian: Martin Luther King, Jr. comes of age / Parr, Patrick, 2018
.
Death of a king: the real story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final year / Smiley, Tavis, 2014
.
The dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the speech that inspired a nation / Hansen, Drew, 2003
.
Martin Luther King Jr. / Vegara, Maria Isabel Sanchez, 2017, Juvenile Biography
.
Audio Books
Martin Luther King, Jr., the essential box set : the landmark speeches and sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. / King, Martin Luther, Jr.
.
I have a dream / King, Martin Luther, Jr.

Filed Under: News + Events

Books, periodicals for all ages in honor of Native American Heritage Month 2023

November 6, 2023 By Teresa Letizia

Celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November with some of the Smiley Library titles listed here. As a reminder, there is no charge to place a book on hold. Just browse below and click on titles in which you are interested!

970 Native American Heritage Month Stock Photos, Pictures ...In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kans., formally approved a plan concerning American Indian Day. It directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call upon the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens. The year before this proclamation was issued, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day being proclaimed.

The first American Indian Day in a state was declared on the second Saturday in May 1916 by the governor of New York. Several states celebrate the fourth Friday in September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919. In 2021 the United States designated the federal holiday of Columbus Day to also be observed as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”) have been issued each year since 1994. (source: NativeAmericanHeritageMonth.gov)

Of Local Interest

  • Ramona, by Helen Hunt Jackson. Published in 1884, it features a Scottish-Native American orphan girl, and takes place in Southern California. The Ramona Pageant, which still takes place in Hemet, California, is derived from this character.)
  • The hunt for Willie Boy : Indian-hating and popular culture, by Redlands historians James A. Sandos and Larry E. Burgess. A scholarly and ethno-historical examination of an actual incident which took place in Southern California in 1909, and which was the focus of 1960 novel Willie Boy & the last western manhunt and its 1969 film adaptation, “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.” The authors provide compelling research to correct the facts, and to vindicate the Paiute-Chemehuevi Indian called ‘Willie Boy.’

New Fiction

  • Shutter, by Ramona Emerson
  • When two feathers fell from the sky, by Margaret Verble
  • Fevered star, by Rebecca Roanhorse
  • Calling for a blanket dance, by Oscar Hokeah
  • The sacred bridge, by Anne Hillerman
  • White horse, by Erika T. Wurth
  • Tread of angels, by Rebecca Roanhorse

New Non-Fiction

  • Native Agency : Indians in the Bureau of Indian Affairs / Lambert, Valerie
  • Talking with hands : everything you need to start signing Native American hand talk : a complete beginner’s guide with over 200 words and phrases
    by Mike Pahsetopah
  • Indigenous continent: the epic contest for North American, by Pekka Hamalainen
  • Path lit by lightning : the life of Jim Thorpe, by David Maraniss
  • Born of lakes and plains : mixed-descent peoples and the making of the American West, by Anne Farrar Hyde
  • A brave and cunning prince : the great Chief Opechancanough and the war for America, by James Horn
  • We refuse to forget : a true story of Black Creeks, American identity, and power
  • Notable native people : 50 indigenous leaders, dreamers, and changemakers from past and present, by Adrienne Keene
  • Origin: a genetic history of the Americas, by Jennifer Raff
  • American Indian Wars : the essential reference guide, by Justin D. Murphy
  • The last campaign : Sherman, Geronimo, and the War for America, by H. W. Brands
  • Flutes of fire : an introduction to native California languages revised and updated, by Leanne Hinton

New Biography

  • Red paint : the ancestral autobiography of a Coast Salish punk, by LaPointe, Sasha taqʷšəblu

Heritage Room items (available by appointment for use in the Heritage Room)

Did you know that the Library’s Special Collections department, the Heritage Room, holds a Carnegie Indian Collection? It began in 1910 with a gift from industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to honor his friend Albert K. Smiley. It includes rare and selected volumes primarily on the Native American tribes of California and the Southwest.

Recently added to the Heritage Room’s Non-Fiction Indian collection is a publication which features the Smiley brothers’ work as Quakers, and that of others, in attempts to achieve Native American justice:

  • As they were led : Quakerly steps and missteps toward Native justice, 1795-1940, by Catlin, Martha Claire

Albert K. Smiley served as a commissioner on the Board of Indian Commissioners from 1879 to 1912, the year he died. He founded the Mohonk Indian Conference in 1894 and nominated the presiding officers each year after that until 1912.

Heritage Room periodicals, books
  • News from native California, quarterly periodical
  • American Indian culture and research journal, quarterly periodical / University of California, Los Angeles, American Indian Culture and Research Center.
  • Heritage keepers, periodical / Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, Inc., Banning, Calif., Morongo Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians of the Morongo Reservation, California.
  • Handbook of North American Indians / Sturtevant, William C.
  • Strong hearts & healing hands : Southern California Indians and field nurses, 1920-1950 / Trafzer, Clifford E.
  • San Bernardino County Museum Association quarterly / San Bernardino County Museum Association
  • West of slavery : the Southern dream of a transcontinental empire / Waite, Kevin (Historian)

Young Readers’ Room (YRR)

  • The first Thanksgiving : separating fact from fiction, by Mavrikis, Peter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Older Fiction and Non-Fiction

  • The literature of California, an anthology / Hicks, Jack
  • When the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through : a Norton anthology of Native nations poetry / Harjo, Joy
  • The beadworkers : stories / Piatote, Beth H.
  • Empire of the summer moon : Quanah Parker and the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history / Gwynne, S. C. (Samuel C.)
  • Sisters of the lost nation / Medina, Nick
  • Surviving genocide : native nations and the United States from the American Revolution to bleeding Kansas / Ostler, Jeffrey
  • Rez life : an Indian’s journey through reservation life / Treuer, David
  • Heart berries : a memoir / Mailhot, Terese Marie
  • We are the land : a history of native California / Akins, Damon B.
  • The heartbeat of Wounded Knee : native America from 1890 to the present / Treuer, David
  • Why we serve : Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces / Harris, Alexandra N.
  • Nature Poem / Pico, Tommy
  • The Apache diaspora : four centuries of displacement and survival / Conrad, Paul
  • Earth keeper : reflections on the American land / Momaday, N. Scott
  • “The chiefs now in this city” : Indians and the urban frontier in early America / Calloway, Colin
  • Living nations, living words : an anthology of first peoples poetry / Harjo, Joy
  • Poet Warrior: A Memoir / Harjo, Joy
  • Black snake : Standing Rock, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and environmental justice / Todrys, Katherine Wiltenburg
  • Standoff : Standing Rock, the Bundy movement, and the American story sacred lands / Keeler, Jacqueline
  • The taking of Jemima Boone : colonial settlers, tribal nations, and the kidnap that shaped America / Pearl, Matthew
  • Cheyenne summer : the battle of Beecher Island : a history / Mort, T. A. (Terry A.)
  • Ramona / Jackson, Helen Hunt
  • The hunt for Willie Boy : Indian-hating and popular culture / Sandos, James A.
  • Willie Boy & the last western manhunt / Trafzer, Clifford E.
  • The Lumbee Indians : an American struggle / Lowery, Malinda Maynor
  • Blood and treasure : Daniel Boone and the fight for America’s first frontier / Drury, Bob
  • The Apache wars : the hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the captive boy who started the longest war in American history / Hutton, Paul Andrew
  • Go home, Ricky! : a novel / Kwak, Gene
  • The sentence : a novel / Erdrich, Louise
  • The healing of Natalie Curtis / Kirkpatrick, Jane
  • Crooked hallelujah / Ford, Kelli Jo
  • The removed / Hobson, Brandon
  • The only good Indians : a novel / Jones, Stephen Graham
  • There there / Orange, Tommy
  • Eyes bottle dark with a mouthful of flowers / Skeets, Jake
  • An Afro-Indigenous history of the United States / Mays, Kyle
  • Native women changing their worlds / Cutright, Patricia J.
  • Diné bizaad : speak, read, write Navajo / Goossen, Irvy W.
  • The Cherokee syllabary : writing the people’s perseverance / Cushman, Ellen
  • Tracks that speak : the legacy of Native American words in North American culture / Cutler, Charles L.

Young Readers’ Room

  • Everything you wanted to know about Indians but were afraid to ask / Treuer, Anton
  • The Marshall Cavendish illustrated history of the North American Indians / Oakley, Ruth
  • Sisters of the Neversea / Smith, Cynthia Leitich

Young Adult (located in our Teen Underground area on the lower level)

  • Firekeeper’s daughter / Boulley, Angeline
  • An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People / Reese, Debbie
  • Apple: Skin to the Core: a Memoir in Words and Pictures / Gansworth, Eric
  • Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band / Staebler, Christian (YA Graphic Novel)

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