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Reading memoirs offer us the opportunity to step into an author’s personal life and immerse ourselves in the experiences that have shaped their growth, life purpose, and understanding of the world during a particular era. Thus, we may feel inspired by the author’s journey, connected through shared experiences, or motivated to learn more about unfamiliar perspectives and topics. Additionally, the format in which the memoir is presented plays a part in how we engage with it. Today, memoirs are presented not only in traditional book form, but also as graphic novels, which can appeal to a new generation of readers through the use of visual elements such as color to convey emotion and meaning. In addition, memoirs are available in audiobook format, allowing listeners to further immerse themselves in the author’s emotions and experiences.

What began as a letter correspondence between Sister Helen Prejean and Patrick Sonnier, a man sentenced to death for murder, led to Prejean’s lifelong advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty. Dead Man Walking: Graphic Edition, takes readers back to the beginning of Prejean’s work in this field through a visual adaptation of her 1993 bestselling memoir, “Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate.” Created in collaboration with writer Rose Vines and artist Catherine Anyango, the memoir aims to reach a new generation that perhaps has not heard of Prejean and her work. Combined, the visuals, colors, and the script, capture the sorrow and emotional weight of Prejean’s experiences, as well as those of inmates and families. The memoir humanizes those on death row while also acknowledging the impact of their crimes on their victims’ loved ones; multiple perspectives on this controversial issue are also presented.

The audiobook version of Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre was a finalist for the 2026 Audie Award for Best Narration in Biographies— an award that recognizes distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment. Narrators Gabra Zackman and Thérèse Plummer bring Giuffre’s story to life by giving voice to her experiences of childhood abuse, the exploitation she suffered by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and the emotional challenges she faced in seeking justice. Listening to the memoir allows readers to connect to Giuffre’s emotions through the narrators’ tones and inflections, which can often be less apparent on the page. On the other hand, reading the physical memoir offers the reader flexibility to skim, or skip sections that can be difficult to read—both the audiobook and print formats are available for check out.

Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense by Joe Manchin recounts his experiences in the Senate and the White House, along with the defining moments that shaped his character, values, and work ethic. Organized into thirteen chapters, the memoir traces his journey from childhood to his career as both a businessman and senator. Each chapter centers on a guiding principle that has influenced his leadership approach, such as, “The dignity of work builds a good and accountable society,” and “If you can’t change your mind, you can’t change anything.” Manchin explains how these principles helped him overcome adversity, shaped his understanding of leadership, and influenced his view on commonsense politics.

There are several memoirs to be checked out at A.K. Smiley Public Library; perhaps there is one ready to be read by you.

Celina Lozano is a library specialist at A.K. Smiley Public Library.

One of my duties at A.K. Smiley Public Library is ordering books for the fiction collection. When I order titles for this collection, I try to make your sure that I am creating a diverse and inclusive collection that promotes global awareness. With that being said, May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month — here are some new fiction titles to check out to celebrate AAPI month.

The genre of healing fiction is very popular amongst Korean and Japanese authors. The books have elements of empathy, compassion, cats, and a bit of magic. If you have not read any of these healing reads, I suggest the Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hye, A Good Day Starts with Cats & Books by Satori Satori, and The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee by Saki Kawashiro.

If you want to read something with a deeper character development with dramatic elements, then I suggest these psychological fiction titles: The Dog Meows, the Cat Barks by Eka Kurniawan, The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu, and Aviary by Maria Dong.

If you prefer books with romance, interpersonal relationships, and historical elements then you may want to check out Next Time Will Be Our Turn by Jess Q. Sutanto, One & Only by Maureen Goo, and The Pohaku by Jasmin Iolani Hakes.

If you want to read something with supernatural or horror elements then you might want to read Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker and Molka by Monica Kim.

The library also has a display featuring books written by Asian authors.

Shannon Harris is a library specialist at A.K. Smiley Public Library.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you keep on the lookout for what’s going on in the Youth Services Department at A.K. Smiley Public Library, you’ll know that we now have Spirit Days every last Thursday of the month! We promote these through posters and announcements via Instagram. Every Thursday is also Baby and Toddler Storytime day, so our last Thursdays have gotten to be so much excitement and fun lately!! It’s awesome seeing people participate in our special days. Here’s the lowdown on the spirit days we’ve celebrated so far.

Our first spirit day for January had us starting out the year with “Wear a Cowboy Hat Day.” All of the Youth Services crew (minus Miss Dawn.. we missed you, Miss Dawn – on each of these days!) was decked out in red light-up cowboy hats, plus some extra cowboy gear just for fun. Miss Kristina and I each read a couple of cowboy themed books to our baby, toddler, and adult friends in attendance at storytime.

February brought “Dress Like a Spy Day.” We gave away spy kits complete with spy sunglasses, name tags, mustache disguises, and more. This was so fun! Trench coats, hats, and all black dominated our looks. Spy books are very popular in the YRR – most notably, the Spy School series by Stuart Gibbs, many of which are now also available to check out as graphic novels.

March was “Rainbow Color Day.” Each of us in the Youth Services Crew chose our own color – Miss Pamela was green, Miss Bella was blue, Miss Kristina was purple, and I (Miss Emily) was red. Dressing up made the storytime rainbow scarf songs extra fun on this day! A fun fact about our Smiley Library storytimes – we have a kind of signature. Miss Pamela, Miss Kristina, and I all sing a series of songs featuring rainbow scarves during our storytimes, two of which are nearly always The Rainbow Song and Popcorn Kernels. They’re Smiley crowd favorites!

Next up for April will be “Dress Like Your Favorite Book Character Day!” At the time that I’m writing this, it still hasn’t happened yet, but there should be a photo posted to our Instagram at the time that you’re reading this. I’ve heard some cool ideas from patrons and staff who are excited to dress up: Junie B. Jones, Maisy, Paddington, Frog and Toad, multiple Waldos, even (mysteriously) one knight. If you know me, you know that I’m a big fan of the Kevin Henkes mice… I’ll most likely be dressed as one of his many sweet and stylish characters. Of the spirit days we’ve celebrated so far, this is the one that I’m most excited about.

Keep our upcoming spirit days on your radar! I personally can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings! The Youth Services Department has a few ideas for May through December, but if you have your own suggestion, we would absolutely love to hear it. We love serving this community, and spirit days are one way for us all to feel this connection in action.

Emily Windver is a library specialist in the Youth Services Department at A.K. Smiley Public Library. She enjoys dressing up, and especially goes all-out for a theme.

In 2019, the California Library Literacy Services allocated funding for Family Literacy Programs at public libraries offering adult literacy services. Diane Shimota, Adult Literacy Coordinator at A.K. Smiley Public Library, eagerly initiated a Family Literacy Program because she knew that many adult learners wanted to improve their own reading and writing so that they could help their children become stronger readers. To participate in the Redlands Family Literacy Program, adults must be enrolled in the Redlands Adult Literacy Program. Renee Kennedy, who leads the Family Literacy Program, described its primary goal as: “Parents and grandparents improve their reading and writing so they can help children in the home develop a love of reading, which helps them become successful students. The whole family can celebrate the joy of learning together!”

At Family Literacy meetings, children are separated into two age groups, those who are school-age and those who are toddlers or preschoolers. Joan Prehoda, a co-lead in the Family Literacy Program, and Renee Kennedy select a story to read with these groups and then lead them in an age-appropriate activity that builds on that story. While their children are busy learning, parents are taught important ways to encourage their children to read with greater comprehension. In this group setting, parents have the opportunity to support each other as they improve their own reading. Currently, Family Literacy meetings are offered once a month at Smiley Library and weekly at Lugonia Elementary School, following onsite adult literacy instruction.

Sotheavy Peterson participates in the Adult Literacy and Family Literacy Programs. Sotheavy has three sons in school, and while the family is very busy with extracurricular activities, she has made literacy a top priority for herself and her children. Sotheavy shared: “I used to think public libraries were places containing books and other materials…now I know they are so much more. They are amazing places for trust and hope. They gave my family and me peace and happiness.”

At the end of each Family Literacy meeting, children receive free books that they can use to build home libraries. Sotheavy displays books all over the house to encourage her sons to read and often finds all three boys reading a book. “I know my family is blessed to have an amazing public library and to be a part of its wonderful programs. I hope we never take public libraries for granted. They are way beyond places to borrow books or to keep us warm in winter and cold in summer. They change lives and make the world a better place.”

In addition to meeting with her tutor and participating in Family Literacy activities, Sotheavy attends Adult Literacy computer classes, writing classes, writing workshops, and book club meetings.  These activities have given her the confidence to do new things in the community. For example, Sotheavy volunteers at her children’s school and as an administrator for a school at her church where she takes on many administrative and leadership responsibilities.

Literacy can change the lives of an individual, a family, and a community. The Redlands Adult Literacy and the Family Literacy Programs are FREE, and all materials are provided. If you would like to volunteer or learn more about any of the Adult Literacy activities offered at A.K. Smiley Public Library, please contact Diane Shimota, at (909) 798-7565 or email: literacy@akspl.org. All inquiries are treated confidentially.