What's New

Smiley Library is pleased to announce the addition of a new electronic resource. Brainfuse JobNow/VetNow is an all-in-one suite of services designed for students, job seekers, and veterans. Brainfuse can help you tackle a resume, write a cover letter, navigate the VA system, or adjust to a civilian career. You don’t have to be a veteran or a student to use this service. It’s available to all library cardholders.

Brainfuse allows students to connect with expert tutors in real time to assist in the areas of math, science, reading, writing, history, and standardized test preparation including the PSAT, SAT, ACT, and AP tests. You can also receive one-on-one assistance with studying for the GED and college placement tests.

For job seekers, expert coaches are ready to help you practice your interview skills, create your resume, write cover letters, and study for tests. You can get help with reading and writing, and attend Microsoft Office computer classes. Coaches are also available to help you find and apply for jobs in your field and geographic area.

If you are a veteran, Brainfuse allows you to connect with live coaches to ensure you’re receiving all the services for which you’re eligible. Coaches also help veterans with job searching and adjusting to life as a civilian.

You can use Brainfuse’s secure file sharing in the writing lab to submit documents to coaches any time of the day for feedback. The Brainfuse full-service test center offers practice tests for all levels in math, reading, writing, and college preparatory tests, plus the U.S. citizenship test.

Brainfuse JobNow/VetNow was generously provided free of charge by the California State Library in order to help people with school and work during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re very appreciative and excited to share this resource with our patrons.

Log on to www.akspl.org/elibrary to get started.

Teens, with an intense national election just days away, I’m in the mood to talk about democracy. And not just about the facts you learn in American Gov. Let’s talk about the nitty gritty messy stuff. The kind of stuff that threatens to undermine our representative government, subverting the will of the people and leaving our influence diluted.

Wait. Do you know about the nitty gritty messy stuff? Many of you probably do. I thought I did too, but I didn’t totally get it until I read Elizabeth Rusch’s “You Call This Democracy? How to Fix Our Government and Deliver Power to the People.”

While the first part of the title sounds cynical, the contents are anything but. Rusch systematically unpacks the reasons American democracy is in peril, including problematic issues with the electoral college, gerrymandering, voter suppression, and more, and instead of just pointing out problems, Rusch provides readers—specifically teen readers— starting points for actively working towards solutions.

You may find it hard to believe that a non-partisan book about politics is riveting, but this one is. Using real-life examples, easy-to-understand graphs and charts, and compelling data, Rusch helps readers develop a nuanced understanding of a complicated topic, sometimes getting our blood boiling as we realize the real sources of power in our current electoral system. You may walk away from reading this book vexed. But you will also be energized, informed, and well-positioned to take concrete steps towards activism if that is your thing.

After you put down “You Call This Democracy?,” you will more than likely be ready for some fiction, but your political juices will still be flowing. No problem. Your next read may have to be Brandy Colbert’s new YA novel “The Voting Booth.” When idealist, die-hard activist, and first-time voter Marva Sheridan sees fellow teen Duke Crenshaw turned away at the polls, she can’t let it go. What follows is a wild election day filled with mad dashes between precincts and a series of rejections, experiences that give Marva and Duke a civics lesson they may not have anticipated. Did I mention there’s also a splash of romance? You should have seen that coming. I mean, is there anything more passion-inducing than working together to realize your democratic duty?

I know in my last mullet-inspired article I promised you a literary man-bun next, but this time I delivered more of an 18th-century powdered wig (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s a long story…you may be better off not knowing). Before you go powder your own wig, I want to direct any first-time voters, or even second or third time voters, to the Teens page of the AKSPL website: www.akspl.org/teens/. There you will find a link to a Young Voter’s Guide to Social Media and the News compiled by Common Sense Media. This resource is designed to help you cut through the election hype and get to the facts. If you haven’t voted yet, be sure to check it out. And if you’re not old enough to vote yet, get a head start, check it out anyway, and turn yourself into an election fact-finding guru. And of course, if you’re 18 or older, VOTE.

Ready, set, go… to A.K. Smiley Public Library for some adventurous memoirs to transport you away from the comforts (confinement?) of your home. Nature lovers, animal conservationists, space enthusiasts, and armchair adventurers will be carried off to far-away places in some of our new book selections.

“An Elephant in My Kitchen: What the Herd Taught Me about Love, Courage and Survival” will whisk you to Africa and a wildlife rescue center. Francoise Malby-Anthony with Katja Willemsen continue the story where “The Elephant Whisperer” by Francoise’s late husband, Lawrence Anthony, left off. Unexpectedly widowed by Lawrence’s early death, Francoise tries to carry on the work they started protecting an elephant herd on a game preserve in Africa. She faces many struggles as she manages to subsequently build a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center for elephants and rhinos. Her engrossing narrative brings to light the happiness and heartbreak of caring for orphaned and injured animals, the relationships and communication between the animals themselves and their human caretakers, plus the grim realities of poaching, even within the confines of the preserve. It would be difficult not to become emotionally involved in this memoir.

“Wild Life: Dispatches from a Childhood of Baboons and Button-Downs” by Keena Roberts, takes the reader to the author’s divided childhood growing up between two distinctively different worlds. Part of each year is spent in Botswana in Baboon Camp with her primatologist parents and younger sister studying baboon interactions and living a free and independent life. Dealing with the wild animals in their remote camp is where Keena feels most at home and alive in spite of the constant danger. The other part of the year is spent back in Philadelphia attending a private school when her parents must return to the university which enables them to continue their grant to study in Africa. Imagine having to try and fit into a structured academic setting with peers who can’t even begin to understand her experiences and realizing she prefers to be in the unpredictable wild than with the teasing and lack of acceptance she endures. Keena’s descriptions put you in the midst of all of her adventures and this is a memoir that is captivating and hard to put down.

Astrophysicist Sara Seager was captivated by the stars at a young age. She shares her career and life journey in “The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir.” Readers with an interest in space exploration will relish this selection as there are plenty of details on her research and discoveries in searching for exoplanets and another Earth. Time magazine listed her as “one of the twenty-five most influential people in space.” Her personal life has not been without struggles and heartbreak which she also openly shares. Her adult diagnosis of autism gives her some clarity and being widowed with two young boys does not stop her from continuing to pursue her passion.

These memoirs and others await you in the New Book section of the A.K. Smiley Public Library, available either by Books-to-Go reservation or an in-person visit. The hours for public access are Mondays and Tuesdays 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

I have a confession, I absolutely positively love Halloween. The crisp fall nights, the crunching of leaves being stepped on, the smell of candle wax burning inside a jack-o’-lantern, and the copious amounts of candy. Unfortunately, Halloween might look a little different this year, but luckily for you, I have conjured up some fun and safe Halloween ideas that can be done from the comfort of your own home. A.K. Smiley Public Library has a cornucopia full of books that will surely put you in the Halloween spirit.

One of my favorite things to do for the entire month of October is read spine-chilling books late into the witching hour. Here are some spooky suggestions to check-out that will have you sleeping with the lights on: “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Vampire Slaying” by Grady Hendrix; “Stake” by Kevin Anderson; “The Ancestor” by Danielle Trussoni; “The Boatman’s Daughter” by Andy Davidson; “Hunted” by Darcy Coates; and “Sealed” by Naomi Booth. Read at your own risk.

If reading alone into the witching hour isn’t your thing and you would rather spend time with your coven than alone, then it sounds like a good ol’-fashioned Halloween themed movie night is in order. We have two options for you from which to select some macabre movies: you can either check out DVDs from the Library or you can use our Kanopy database to stream movies. We have cult classics, such as “Beetlejuice,” “Hocus Pocus,” “The Shining,” “The Conjuring,” and the “Harry Potter” series. On our movie streaming database Kanopy, there are plenty of Halloween gems that will surely keep you up all night, such as “The Witch,” “Let the Right One In,” “Nosferatu,” “Night of the Living Dead,” and “Hereditary.”

Now that we have your entertainment all lined up, the next item on our list of Halloween fun is snacks. Every movie night needs appropriately themed snacks. The cookbook, “The Feast of Fiction Kitchen,” by Jimmy Wong and Ashley Adams is the answer to all your movie themed snack needs. The authors have recipes that coincide with all sorts of movies and TV shows, such as a shrimp cocktail-shaped hand from the movie “Beetlejuice” and home-brewed butterbeer and savory pumpkin pasties to accompany your “Harry Potter” marathon.

If your walls are looking a bit bare and need some spooktacular decorations, we have books for that too. “A Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destination” by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne, “The Big Book of Holiday Paper Crafts,” and “The Pumpkin Carving Book” for some ghoulish ideas. The last item to set the tone of your awesome Halloween-themed movie night is music. We have two ghastly choices: “New Wave Halloween” and “Spooky Scary Sounds for Halloween,” which will have you dancing to the “Monster Mash” all night.

Creep and crawl your way down to A.K. Smiley Public Library to get your hands on any of our spooktacular titles. We are now open to the public with limited hours and our popular books-to-go program is still available. For more information visit our website at www.akspl.org or call us at 909-798-7565.