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While our weather is cold and rainy, it is a great time to turn on the oven and bake up a storm! For some fresh ideas and new recipes, come to Smiley Library and sample our latest baking books.

If you are at all familiar with the show, “The Great British Bake Off!,” then you may recognize one of its judges, Paul Hollywood. “Bake: My Best Ever Recipes for the Classics” is Paul’s hand-picked collection of ultimate favorite recipes. Home bakers of all skill levels will find new savory and sweet recipes to try. Every recipe is accompanied by one or more full-page color photos. Many of his choices hail from Great Britain, such as Victoria Sandwich, Barm Cakes, Bin Lids, and Iced Finger Buns, which are baked doughnuts filled with whipped cream and strawberry jam, then covered in a thin layer of icing. Paul includes a surprise dessert that is not destined for the oven. See if you can find this one unbaked treat. It will be worth the search.

Calling all dessert lovers, this next book is definitely for you! Claire Saffitz agrees that a meal isn’t complete without a little something sweet. Her latest book, “What’s for Dessert,” seeks to satisfy our sweet tooth with 100 approachable recipes. Morning Glorious Loaf Cake is a delicious cross between a Morning Glory Muffin and a carrot cake. It is covered and filled with a maple cream cheese frosting. This might be served at brunch or as a snack with coffee or hot tea. Frozen phyllo dough gives Phyllo Cardamom Pinwheels and Honeyed Nut and Phyllo Pie their crispy, flaky texture, yet it also soaks up the butter, sugar, and honey. Nuts, popcorn, and caramel come together in a one-pan anytime treat Claire calls Caramel Peanut Popcorn Bars. Lastly, Blood Orange Pudding Cake is a creamy citrus dessert that needs no frosting and separates into two layers while it bakes. Serve with fresh sliced blood oranges on top.

When you hear the phrase ‘comfort food,’ what comes to mind? For some, it might be a warm frosted cinnamon roll, chocolate chip cookies, or a bowl of peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. For others, it may be a fondly-remembered childhood meal, such as baked macaroni and cheese, chicken tamale pie, or a hearty beef stew with sour cream and onion biscuits. You can find recipes for all of the above and many more mouthwatering dishes in “Comfort Baking” by Stephanie Wise.

King Arthur Baking Company invites home bakers of all skill levels to join their next class. The company has a school campus located in Norwich, VT, and a second one in Skagit, WA. If you are unable to attend in person, then you’ll want to check out their new book, “Baking School: Lessons and Recipes for Every Baker.” A lesson in creating a sourdough culture will help you create Deli Rye Bread and Crispy Sourdough Crackers. The secrets to making a flaky pie crust, fluffy biscuits, rich moist cakes with creamy frostings, and buttery croissants that melt in your mouth are waiting for you within the pages of this book.

Time is continuing its ever forward march. We have already made it to the half point of January and things really do need to slow down a bit. Take a bit of a break and check out these new poetry books.

“Concentrate” is the debut poetry book by Courtney Faye Taylor. Taylor recounts the events of March 16, 1991, the day that Latasha Harlins, a fifteen-year-old girl, was killed by a convenience store owner. But the work is not just about Latasha’s death, but the all too short life she experienced. Taylor parallels these experiences with her own life and how trauma can permanently alter a person’s trajectory. Taylor shows how society reacted differently to the tragedy, through song lyrics, interviews from those involved in the criminal case, even the locations significant to the event, and Latasha’s legacy. Taylor strives to convey that erasure of an event is not the way to heal, it is through continued conversation and understanding. That solidarity comes from acknowledgement, and while the path to understanding is uncomfortable, it is the only path through.

“The Study of Human Life” by Joshua Bennett takes aspects of life into consideration in his latest work. Beginning with poems working through his own childhood, Bennett perceives the world and how the world perceives Bennett. It shows his coming to terms with his own relationship to his father and how his own expectations of himself did not meet up with the world’s expectations. The work ends in a series of poems focusing on new life and a new role of fatherhood. Bennett works through the conflict with bringing a child into a society full of strife, but also finds the joy in parenthood. Sandwiched between the two current ends of Bennett’s life, lies a work of speculative fiction. It is a what-if world in which Malcolm X returns to life after his assassination. What are the ramifications on a community when a leader who was killed in cold blood, suddenly is resurrected? Living up to its title, Bennett’s work shows that life, though invariably changing and heartbreaking, is worth exploring.

Franny Choi explores generation trauma in her latest work, “The World Keeps Ending, and The World Goes On.” Choi explores the past, focusing on the horrors endured by Korean Comfort Women during WWII, and the scars that are still carried by the community. She reflects on her father’s youth and the anti-police brutality protests he attends. She mirrors this by attending protests for the same reasons but decades later. She postulates what this means and what lessons we are leaving behind. Which relics we will leave to be looked at by school children in museums of the future? Choi explores the societal rifts that have formed between different ethnic communities and, much like Courtney Faye Taylor, imagines a world in which those rifts could be healed through understanding. Choi shows that the end of the world is an everyday occurrence for some and survival is a collective effort.

Check out these books (and more) and enjoy a brief respite.

Teens, admit it. You are an avid reader of this column. Every week, you check the newspaper, desperate to find the latest Young Adult (YA) book reviews. I am sure of this! This is typical teen behavior. How despondent you must feel on the off-weeks when other library materials are reviewed. I can see it clearly: you, huddled in a corner of your room, howling inconsolably when you have discovered you must live another day deprived of a new YA book review. 

Teens, howl no more. Today, I’m going to share where to find fresh YA book reviews any day of the week. And the best part? These YA book reviews aren’t written by crusty old hags…no! They are written by crusty old teens!* And you will laugh hysterically when you find out how easy it is to access them 24-7 (book reviews clearly get you very emotional). 

Simply approach an Internet-connected device (phone, computer, tablet, whatever you’ve got). Then visit www.akspl.org/teens/teen-underground-book-reviews. It’s that easy! Next thing you know, your eyes will feast on a gloriously long string of YA book reviews, written by fellow teens.  

Are you in the mood for a twisty spy novel set in 1850s London, like “A Spy in the House” by Y.S. Lee? You’re not sure? Read the review! Curious about the “One Piece” manga series by Eiichiro Oda, but don’t know if it’s worth your time? Read the review! In need of a futuristic dystopian tale set in Taipei (in which poverty and disease have ravaged the world) that blends “culture, action, romance, espionage, and sci-fi elements all in one book,” but you don’t know where to find one? Read the review of Cindy Pon’s “Want,” and your oddly specific desires may be fulfilled. 

Reading YA book reviews for teens, by teens, is one thing, but here’s another: you can write your own YA book reviews for A.K. Smiley Public Library’s Teen Underground and simultaneously earn community service hours. It’s a real win-win situation, teens. You choose a book to read for fun (not a school assignment), available from our physical or digital Young Adult collection, read it, and then let your pen fly. Email us at yrr@akspl.org for more details if you’re interested, and we’ll share everything you need to know about how you can save another teen from a terrible book (because bad book reviews are fun to read too). 

And of course, I can’t leave you without telling you about the latest book that kept me up all night. It’s Tiffany Jackson’s “Weight of Blood,” part horror, part social commentary, which the author herself describes as an homage to Stephen King. A bloodbath occurs at Springville’s first integrated high school prom, and all eyes point to Maddy Washington. Did biracial outcast Maddy burn it all down, or was someone, or something, else to blame? Teens, there’s only one way to find out. Come on in and check it out…but before you do, why not visit us virtually at www.akspl.org/teens/teen-underground-book-reviews and get some ideas for your next great read? We promise, your days of YA book review deprivation are over. 

*No offense to our trusty teen book reviewers. To my knowledge, none of them are actually crusty. 

2023 has arrived and A.K. Smiley Public Library is here to help you make, and hopefully, keep your New Year’s resolutions. Regardless of your optimistic plans for the year, we have books and other resources for you!

Do you want to read more, save money, and enjoy some free programs? Visiting the Library can help with all of these! We have books, e-books, audiobooks, and movies available for check out, and free wi-fi. California State Library Parks Passes are also available for check out that will allow you free parking at many of the California State Parks. There are some excellent databases to utilize in the Library, or from home with your library card. Review our databases on the e-databases tab at www.akspl.org. There you will find access to newspapers, magazines, job searches and skills, medical information, computer skills, research sites, movie streaming, DMV practice tests, Ancestry, foreign language instruction, and more.

There is a section in the Library with books and audiobooks for learning foreign languages, and books for reading in foreign languages. There are also selections for adults, children, and babies to learn sign language.

Our Adult Literacy Program helps adults who need to improve their reading and writing skills. There are opportunities for adults to tutor learners in this program, as well.

Our Youth Services Department offers free programs for young readers and teens. There are story times, reading rewards programs, movies, book clubs, crafting, and other fun events. Teens should watch for upcoming Virtual Reality events. Stay informed by frequently checking the Young Readers’ Room webpage.

Adult programs include special presentations in music, history, computer classes, and more. There are book clubs and reading rewards programs. The Friends of the Library has a book store downstairs for purchasing gently-used books, movies, CDs, and other items. Operated by volunteers, money raised by the Friends of the Library help sponsor many of the Library’s programs, and provides funding for our new book purchases.

The Heritage Room and Lincoln Memorial Shrine are available for research and have special events relating to regional history, Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and the nearly completed Museum of Redlands.

Whether your resolutions have to do with self-improvement, exercise, mental health, eating healthier, a new hobby, travel, gardening, entertaining, religion, getting your finances or affairs in order, or more playing and laughing, we have books and other resources for that, and more!

Happy New Year!

2023 is literally a week away, and what better way to wrap up 2022 than with a list of staff recommendations. One of the many things I enjoy about working in a library is that if I am ever in a reading slump, I can always ask one of my colleagues for a book recommendation. So, here is a list of books that library staff really enjoyed reading this year. The following titles can be found here at A. K. Smiley Public Library.

Fiction:

Book Lovers, by Emily Henry

The Dead Romantics, by Ashley Poston

House of Sky and Breath, by Sarah J. Maas

What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher

White Horse, by Erika T. Wurth

Blacktop Wasteland, by S. A. Cosby

An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones

The Cabinet, by Kim Un-su

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21^st Century, by Kim Fu

Non-Fiction:

I’m Glad My Mom Died, by Jeanette McCurdy

Everyone You Hate is Going to Die, by Daniel Sloss

Happy-Go-Lucky, by David Sedaris

The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere., by James Spooner

Some New Kind of Kick, by Kid Congo Powers

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season!