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“Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it.” -Susan B. Anthony

The word ‘suffrage,’ which simply means ‘the right to vote,’ doesn’t sound like it fits its definition, does it? The term sounds like it could refer to a state of suffering. But such a thought is far from its meaning. Suffrage, the right for each citizen to have a voice in its government, is the backbone of the freedoms of American democracy. Each American has an inalienable right to vote and be heard, right? No suffering involved. Hmm, well, not exactly.

Groups of American citizens have historically struggled for decades upon decades in order to secure their right to vote, and some conflicts are ongoing to this day. These battles are addressed in some of the newly acquired books by Smiley Library which explore the experiences of a couple of these groups.

“On account of race : the Supreme Court, white supremacy, and the ravaging of African American voting rights” is constitutional law historian Lawrence Goldstone’s treatise of the disturbing history of suffrage for African Americans. Though ratified in 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment, which explicitly states that the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” was not fully realized for 95 more years — until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In that near-century of time African American citizens were continually and blatantly denied access to voting often under the guise of “states’ rights,” such as by use of literacy tests or poll taxes, and as Goldstone defines, were often aided by the decisions of the Supreme Court. Out of this grew Jim Crow laws of racial segregation which sought to further African American disenfranchisement and remove the group’s political and economic gains which had been advanced during the Reconstruction period. Though the Voting Rights Act of 1965 seemed to have remedied the ails of the previous century, Goldstone is disturbed by the 2013 decision by the Supreme Court in Shelby County, Alabama vs. Holder which has allowed states to put voter restrictions back into law. The suffering for suffrage, it seems, often comes from progress taking one step forward and two steps back. The right to make your voice heard may be inalienable, but it is also fragile.

While African Americans endured challenges in the 19th and early 20th century, the cause of women’s suffrage was running in tandem. When African Americans were given the right to vote with the Fifteenth Amendment, African American women were not included. One half of the American population — women — were denied this privilege of the citizenry. Author Ellen Carol DuBois begins her account in “Suffrage : women’s long battle for the vote” of the Women’s Suffrage Movement by outlining its beginnings in the temperance and abolitionist causes women embraced in the 1840s. However, the mutual goal of suffrage for African Americans and for women fell away as the Jim Crow era took hold, and the mainstream women’s movement left African American women behind.

DuBois does contextualize the exclusion of these women, as well as other issues of importance to the Movement at the time, such as advocacy for trade unions, birth control, and other social justice reforms. As the Movement continued into the 20th century these were abandoned as well. Women suffragists came to the realization that the vote would not be given to women until a constitutional amendment was put into place. It was Quaker reformer Alice Paul who began the process in 1912. DuBois chronicles the Movement’s history up to the establishment of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, and briefly addresses what came next. She quotes suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt’s comment on achievement of the Amendment, that is was just “the first lap of this struggle for women’s emancipation.”

These are just two of several new books on the subject of suffrage available in the Library. Other titles include “The woman’s hour : the great fight to win the vote” by Elaine F. Weiss, “Free thinker : sex, suffrage, and the extraordinary life of Helen Hamilton Gardener” by Kimberly A. Hamlin, “No place for a woman : the struggle for suffrage in the wild West” by Chris Enss, and “Thank you for voting : the maddening, enlightening, inspiring truth about voting in America” by Erin Geiger Smith. For more on voter suppression, you might consider “Uncounted : the crisis of voter suppression in the United States” by Gilda R. Daniels.

If you prefer a more visually tactile experience of history, you may enjoy “Exploring women’s suffrage through 50 historic treasures” by Jessica D. Jenkins. You may also visit our Heritage Room by appointment and find many suffrage-related artifacts, such as the campaign literature entitled “Form addressed to mothers, fathers and all good citizens urging an affirmative vote for the Suffrage Amendment : October 10, 1911“, published by the Redlands Political Equality League. Or visit the Heritage Room’s online exhibit at www.akspl.org, “The Woman’s Vote: A Century of Suffrage.”

The Library also offers books on the subject for children and young adults. Lawrence Goldstone offers a companion to “On account of race” for young adults with “Stolen justice : the struggle for African American voting rights.” Others for children include “How women won the vote : Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and their big idea” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, and “Women win the vote! : 19 for the 19th amendment” by Nancy B. Kennedy.

For more information on how to check out these titles using our Books to Go program or to find our in-person hours, please visit our website, www.akspl.org, or call 909-798-7565.

“You want happy endings, read cookbooks.”  Dean Young

Carne asada tacos, carnitas burritos, Baja fish tacos, killer quesadillas, and mushroom asada bowls are a sampling of the 75 recipes contained in “Trejos Tacos” by actor and L.A. restaurateur Danny Trejo. For something sweet, Danny offers both regular and vegan donuts in flavors like Margarita, cinnamon sugar, vegan berry and vegan coco loco. This book will make you instantly hungry for Mexican food!

Food allergies and dietary preferences are sweetly accommodated in Angela Garbacz’s book, “Perfectly Golden.” Now everyone can safely devour warm sticky pecan buns, pumpkin loaf cake, graham cracker cream pie, orange blossom cake with lemon buttercream frosting, rich chocolate ganache tart, and soft molasses cookies that are rolled in sugar before baking for a sweet crispy coating.

Simple, flavorful and wholesome fare is what you’ll discover in “Amish Family Recipes” by Lovina Eicher. Hearty and filling meals abound with chicken pot pie, Swiss steak, cabbage rolls and zucchini pizza casserole. The Amish are known for their baked goods and desserts. Save room for a warm slice of peach bread, frosted banana cake bars, sour cream apple pie, and cool, creamy chocolate pudding.

“Everyone Can Bake” by Dominique Ansel teaches home bakers his foundation recipes and techniques for consistently better baking results. You might start with strawberry banana bread or lemon pound cake. Soon, you may be inspired to bake a show-stopping raspberry cream puff cake or hazelnut chocolate cherry cake filled with chocolate mousse and coated with a smooth dark chocolate glaze.

Some more new cookbooks to whet your appetite include: “The Feast of Fiction Kitchen: Recipes Inspired by TV, Movies, Games & Books,” “Clean & Simple Diabetes Cookbook: Flavorful, Fuss-Free Recipes for Everyday Meal Planning,” “Welcome to Buttermilk Kitchen,” and “That Cheese Plate Will Change Your Life.”

For more information on how to check out these titles using our Books To Go program, please visit our website, www.akspl.org, or call 909-798-7565.

Teens, think of this week’s article from A. K. Smiley Public Library as a mullet: a “business up front, party in the back” piece of writing. Read on to experience the world’s first—and probably last— literary version of a 1980s hairdo.

Of course, it is logical to begin with the business end of this mullet-essay, so first, let me introduce you to an indispensable database available through A.K. Smiley Public Library’s online resources: the Gale Testing and Education Reference Center.

It’s hard to imagine a more anxiety-producing database title than one that includes the words “testing,” “education,” and “reference,” but I promise you, this digital resource has a little something for everyone, especially teens. From SAT and Advanced Placement (AP) prep and practice tests to career advice and work-related exams and e-courses featuring cosmetology, firefighting, nursing, massage therapy, nail technology, real estate, military, and more, the Gale Testing and Education Reference Center is at your service. Need help writing a resume? Check. Want to know what college scholarships you may be eligible for? Check. Need a hand creating a customized list of dream colleges based on criteria that are important to you? Yep, that too.

With so much of the school year still cloaked in unknowns, rest-assured that this virtual test, college, and career-prep database is here for you whenever you need it. You can access it via A.K. Smiley Public Library’s website through the eLibrary tab or the Teens’ page, located under the Services tab. The first time you use it, you will create a free account, which will grant you access to all the aforementioned goods. But before you run off to check it out…

No self-respecting mullet manuscript would be complete without its “party in the back” component, so let’s get to it. This party takes the form of two hair-raising, must-read YA mystery recommendations: “One of Us is Lying” by Karen McManus and “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” by Holly Jackson. You can’t go wrong with either of these books—that is, unless you want to go to bed early and get your recommended eight hours of sleep.

In “One of Us is Lying,” four teens—a jock, a brain, a popular girl, and a bad boy— find themselves plunged into the heart of a murder investigation when their classmate and creator of their school’s most salacious gossip website dies under mysterious circumstances. The four, whose secrets were about to be exposed in the dead teen’s next post, are the obvious prime suspects, but which one of them is capable of murder? “One of Us is Lying” is a roller coaster ride of the most thrilling variety, with plenty of unexpected revelations and some final heart-pounding moments that make for delicious up-all-night reading.

Would you like to pull two all-nighters in the same weekend [disclaimer: this practice is not recommended]? “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” is equally suspenseful, especially if you enjoy true crime podcasts. For Pip’s senior capstone project, she decides to open her own investigation into a suspected murder/suicide that happened at her high school four years earlier.

Pip never believed the official police report: that high school student Sal Singh murdered his beautiful and popular girlfriend Andie and then killed himself. She is determined to get to the bottom of what really happened, and as she digs deeper into the past, Pip exposes major gaps in the evidence and clues that point to other possible perpetrators. With help from Sal’s brother, Pip begins to unearth a string of secrets that someone wants to remain underground. And they’ll stop at nothing to keep them that way.

Both of these titles are available as physical books using our Books-to-Go program, or downloadable eBooks via OverDrive.

And there you have it. The world’s first mullet-inspired newspaper article. Be sure to join me next month for the world’s first literary man-bun. Or will it be a bowl cut? Stay tuned…