What's New

Bonjour! Comment allez-vous? Have you ever wanted to learn another language but thought it would be too time consuming, or not have enough patience to sit through a lecture that reminds you of your high school Spanish classes? Well, lucky for you, A. K. Smiley Public Library has a fantastic database that you can access through our website with your A. K. Smiley Public Library card called Pronunciator. Since we are social distancing ourselves and staying home, let’s make the best of it and explore learning a new language or brush up on a language you may already know. I have been practicing my French and Spanish, while my fiancé is just practicing his Spanish. Someone is a bit on the overzealous side.

Pronunciator has a whopping 75 languages to choose from. It has American Sign Language, Mexican Sign Language, Estonian, Irish, Latin, Tibetan, Urdo, and many more! Pronunciator is a very user-friendly database, giving the learner a wide range of learning options. It has a variety of fluency levels that range from the basics, using postcards with simple words and phrases, to more advanced options where you can listen to plays, poetry, or even listen to music. I found myself listening to the play “Cyrano de Bergerac” in the French language course. If you want a more personalized course, Pronunciator lets the learner custom build their own lesson plan. It offers many topics and lets the student choose the subject matter and for how long they want the course to last.

Instead of binging the next show that Netflix has to offer, why not expand your skill set and learn a new language, all you need is your A. K. Smiley Public Library card. Check out our website, www.akspl.org to access this database and many more. While we may be physically closed at this time, we are open 24/7 online. Hope to see everyone soon. Au revoir!

Since we’re all currently spending a lot more time inside, here’s a way to be able to still enjoy your favorite books, all from the comfort of your own home. A.K. Smiley Public Library’s eLibrary provides both eBooks and eAudio books, available to our registered borrowers for download to their devices through Overdrive. For more information, visit our website at www.akspl.org and click on eLibrary. You’ll find a lot of options available in both fiction and nonfiction. Here are a few digital titles on my favorite subject, animals.

I grew up around animals. Not only were my days filled with caring for and playing with my furry, feathered, and scaly family, they were my confidants and co-conspirators. Their personalities were as unique and varied as was their species. Ginger, the big red hound who loved to howl at fire engines, Mildred, our sweet long-haired grey and white cat, our Pekin duck and resident court jester who found great enjoyment in chasing us around the backyard, rabbits, lizards and lovebirds inevitably found a place in our home. I hold a very special place in my heart for all the animal family who have graced my presence over the years. Here are some titles celebrating these gentle and beautiful souls.

From debut novelist Mara Wells comes the light read, “Cold Nose, Warm Heart” the first book in the Fur Haven Dog Park series. This cute and funny romance is sure to put a smile on your face. Set in Miami Beach, Riley Carson is building manager of the run-down apartment building named “The Dorothy” where her grandmother currently resides and tells Riley that she owns. All the senior residents and their dogs, including Riley’s poodle LouLou, love gathering in the adjacent lot they use as a dog park. Change may be around the corner though, when Caleb Donovan shows up ordered by his grandfather, who claims he is the owner, to tear down this very same apartment and replace it with new condos. Caleb’s mission is to make sure the place gets turned into a money maker with a huge parking garage right where the “dog park” is now located. Who actually owns the building? It would make sense that Riley and Caleb would be outright enemies, so why does there seem to be a spark of mutual attraction? Available as an eBook, this entertaining book is full of quirky and fun characters, both human and furry.

Listening to titles is another great way to get your “book fix.” Available to download from the Overdrive Library in eAudio format, as well as eBook format is the popular nonfiction read “Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World” by Vicki Myron. When an abandoned kitten is left in the book slot of the Spencer Public Library, no one could have guessed how much this little ball of fur would end up touching their lives. Meet Dewey Readmore Books and learn the charming story of a little ginger cat who made a big impact on a small town.

There are even titles for your kids to enjoy. “A Wolf Called Wander” by Roseanne Perry, available in eAudio format, is about a young wolf cub named Swift that is separated from his wolf pack family after an attack by a rival pack. Based on a true story, this novel follows his thousand mile perilous journey across the Pacific Northwest to find a new home.

If you haven’t checked out our eLibrary yet, now’s the perfect time.

“Good nutrition is not only about avoiding disease later, but about thriving now.” Mark Hyman

Several years ago, Dan Buettner introduced us to the five regions in the world where people lived very long healthy lives in his book, “The Blue Zones”. These regions are Sardinia, Italy; Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica and Loma Linda, California. Buettner’s latest book, “The Blue Zones Kitchen” takes us on a culinary journey into the lives and kitchens of seniors who share their wisdom and traditional recipes that have contributed to their longevity. A sampling of these 100 dishes to try are Okinawan Glazed Greens, Tender Bean, Potato and Onion Stew, Longevity Smoothie Bowl, Black-Eyed Pea Salad with Mint and Onions, One-Pot Lasagna Soup and Chinese Five-Spice Banana Ice Cream with Roasted Pineapple.

In his previous book, “Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?” Mark Hyman outlined what he believes are the foundations of a healthy diet. He advocates for a plan rich in plant foods, limited grains and dairy, free of refined sugars, fruit in moderation, clean sources of protein and healthy fats. Now, his follow-up book, “Food: What the Heck Should I Cook?” helps us put this diet into practice with 100 nutrient-rich, whole food recipes. Here is a sampling of what’s in store: Golden Cauliflower Caesar Salad, Seared Scallops with Avocado-Yuzu Sauce, Poached-Egg Power Bowl, Peppered Steaks with Roasted Oyster Mushrooms and Orange-Blackberry Almond Scones. Nutritional Analysis information for each recipe is located toward the back of the book.

Parties and celebrations are some of the sweet joys in life. Laughter, fun, happy conversation and food all contribute to a memorable occasion. However, sometimes party fare can present dietary challenges to both guests and hosts. Author and co-creator of the Whole30, Melissa Hartwig Urban understands this and shares 150 party-worthy recipes in her latest book, “The Whole30 Friends and Family.” These dishes are free of added sugars, alcohol, grains, legumes and dairy. So what’s left? To start, try some Bacon-Wrapped Turkey Jalapeno Poppers, Warm Spiced Olives, BLT Potato Skins and Smoky Roasted Cauliflower-Garlic Dip. Also, Grilled Steak and Peach Salad, Sonoma Chicken Salad, Pork Chili Verde, and Pina Colada Coleslaw. Desserts are fruit-based like Berry-Coconut Cream Shots and Citrusy Watermelon Strawberry Shortcakes. No matter if you are hosting a backyard barbecue, a family brunch or bringing a dish to a baby shower or office potluck, you can relax because these recipes are both healthy and tasty.

If the above books have whetted your appetite for healthy living, you may also want to check out these new titles, too. “Fix It with Food” by Michael Symon, “Ketofast” by Joseph Mercola, Michael Gregor’s “How Not to Diet” and “The Collagen Diet” by Josh Axe. Here’s to your health!

Poetry! Poetry is what’s new at the A.K. Smiley Library.

Poetry has had a bit of a resurgence lately and brings with it the ability to convey ever broadening ideas within an ever-changing art form. The great thing about poetry is that it gives voices to those who may go unheard and gives us, the readers, a chance to interact with those voices. This latest batch all centralize on the theme of being an outsider, trying to find a place within a society that while requiring their presence, wants that presence to be as small as possible. It requires loyalty with invisibility. These works call into question the results of that type of society and shows that such a way of existing fails all of us.

Felon:Poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts is a work concentrating on the life and experiences of a formerly incarcerated person. The work speaks to the struggles of a system that is seemingly unbalanced and unfair while striving to accept one’s own responsibility and actions. Betts uses found poetry created from case files to describe the unfairness of the bond system and how difficult it is to rejoin society once the brand of “felon” has been put upon you. Not only that, but those acquainted with the “felon” can also become ostracized from society and forced to carry the burden regardless of culpability. Immensely moving and devastating in its prose, this work questions how fair it is to continuously punish those after they have already paid their dues.

Everything Must Go: the Life and Death of an American Neighborhood by Kevin Coval, with illustrations by Langston Allston, works to show the desolation caused by the loss of a neighborhood. The idea is turned on its head by showing that the great American neighborhood is not always what we think. Pulling on his own experiences in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago before and after gentrification, Coval shows how the identity of a place is made up of so many different people and how this loss of otherness is detrimental to society as a whole. How those that create a neighborhood are often pushed out and how can that neighborhood stand without the heart that was lost. Coval acknowledges his own role in the process of gentrification and seeks to find his place between what was there before and what has resulted.

Dusk & Dust by Esteban Rodriquez, describes the life of a young boy discovering his otherness within both his family and society as a whole. The work tells the story of the child of immigrant parents who want a better life for him even at the cost of estrangement with those of his own culture. It even refers to him at one point, as the boy from “el otra lado”, or the boy from the other side.  Rodriquez sees himself as someone lost between the two while trying to reconcile both. This work captures the essence of existing in two spheres of identity but belonging to neither.

Deaf republic: Poems by Ilya Kaminsky works with the idea of society in a different way.  Working with an imaginary town, Kaminsky creates a dialogue in which a factitious town falls deaf after the murder of a deaf boy by soldiers. The work postulates what happens to a society if we refuse to listen to what one another has say. The work focuses on our lack of hearing the voices we need to hear the most and is bookended with poems which question whether or not we in our society are deaf to those who need our help.

Each of these works brings us to the question of who makes up our society and do we listen to what they have to say. Give these books a chance and just maybe we all will be a bit closer to answering that question.

Making time to read for fun is tough when you’re a teen. Between bio homework and basketball practice and SAT prep and community service and YouTube and Insta and Finsta and a steady stream of existential crises…it’s like everyone wants a piece of you. Well, if you’re ever tempted to run away from it all, throw your phone out the window* and hide under the covers, I’ve got some reading suggestions for you. These books make excellent companions for those moments when you’re maxed out on memes and you’ve already watched every episode of The Office twice, but I’m warning you, they may keep you up all night.

First up, In the Hall with the Knife by Diana Peterfreund. Have you ever played the board game CLUE? Remember Miss Scarlet and Professor Plum? This book is a totally modern, thoroughly edgy, perfectly spine-tingling take on the classic game…one that finds prep boarding school students Scarlet Mistry, Finn Plum, Beth “Peacock” Picach, Vaughn Green, Samuel “Mustard” Maestor, and others stranded in a school dorm after a violent winter storm. Things get worse when the teens discover the dead body of their school headmaster, Mr. Boddy. In the Hall with the Knife is a good old-fashioned murder mystery, teeming with a familiar yet fresh cast of characters, all of whom have shady secrets and dark motives that spill out in tantalizing bursts as the story unspools. Warning: this novel is the first in a trilogy, so don’t expect to breathe a sigh of relief after the last page.

Next, if you dressed up like the character Eleven for Halloween (a.k.a. you’re a superfan of the Netflix series Stranger Things) you must read the graphic novel series Paper Girls by Brian Vaughn. The year is 1988. Young newspaper delivery girls Erin, Mac, KJ, and Tiffany experience an Armageddon-esque morning-after-Halloween as they try to deliver their newspapers, clashing with mysterious black-clad figures, stumbling into a foreboding capsule, and slowly realizing they may be the only survivors in their hometown after a terrifying, unexplained blast. If time-traveling hippies, cave-people, dinosaurs, and the 1980s get your heart pumping, join these four bad babes as they battle to save the world…and each other.

Speaking of bad babes, the nonfiction book History Vs. Women: The Defiant Lives that They Don’t Want You to Know by Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Adams is a comprehensive look at some of the world’s most ambitious, fierce, and impactful women across time. What I really love about the book is that these women’s stories are told in depth, not just as accessories or sidekicks, or a list of heroic accomplishments, but as real people whose experiences often aren’t rosy. These women had to defy cultural expectations to get things done and they did. If you want to epitomize cleverness during Women’s History Month in March, namedropping defiant women from around the globe, get cracking on reading this book now.

No offense to the quadratic formula, but sometimes you need to set that homework aside (temporarily, of course), mute your notifications, ignore your existential angst, and treat yourself to a juicy story. Come in to the A.K. Smiley Public Library and we’ll do our best to help you find one that you can’t put down.

*recommended for ground floor windows only