TWENTY-FOUR SECONDS FROM NOW…
Author: Jason Reynolds
Call number: Y FIC REY
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: December 30, 2025
Although it may be a little too personal to assign to an entire high school English class or even to a teen book club, Twenty-four Seconds from Now might be the most relatable and sorely needed work to date by Jason Reynolds. This creatively structured work tackles “the first time” from a male point of view and it does so directly.
The novel begins with Neon and Aria’s final preparations for their first sexual experience not only with each other, but ever. But before that happens, we learn about the dynamic main characters, their friends and family through flashbacks going back a couple of years. Both lead characters have enormously supportive extended families (everyone would benefit from having a mother like Neon’s, in particular) who communicate consistent positive messages on various topics.
For example, some of the more moving passages in the book show dialogue between Neon and his grandfather, Earl Wednesday, who tutors his grandson about why Denzel Washington (Earl’s favorite actor) will never be complete until he does some romance roles. Earl also gives his teenage grandson advice on personal hygiene, something that Neon’s parents have not been able to convey to him successfully.
Reynolds ambitiously attempts to show how Neon and Aria have a relationship that transcends a physical act, and he largely achieves that goal. But he also puts it into context with the rest of their lives. What I appreciate the most is how he unflinchingly delivers his message to the audience. Neon and Aria’s final decision is more realistic because Reynolds made it so through focusing on other aspects of their lives throughout the novel.
GUIDED
The Secret Path to an Illuminated Life
Author: Laura Lynne Jackson
Call #: 133.9 JAC
Reviewer: Sonja Downey
Date: December 27, 2025
In her signature style full of love and empathy, the author tells the stories of how real-life people communicate with their loved ones who have passed to the Other Side. Laura Lynne Jackson explains signs and symbols that we might just wave off as accidents or not notice at all in our busy everyday lives. But all the while with a little bit of attention and mindfulness we can actually rally our spiritual support team around us and have them show us how to lead an illuminated life. Step by step and chapter by chapter, Laura Lynne Jackson shows the open-minded reader how.
I loved the book from the moment I opened it. The author’s gentle and loving prose is so heart-warming. Even though the book deals with losing loved ones, it is filled with the hope and the knowledge that they are not completely gone, if we are open to look for and see the signs they are sending us.
WE WERE LIARS
Author: E. Lockhart
Call number: Y FIC LOC
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: December 22, 2025
When the TDL/TPS book club chose We Were Liars as the pick for December/January, I confess that I was a little disappointed—mainly because it was published more than ten years ago. However, the instincts of the club were much better than mine. This is one of the best young adult novels that I have ever read. And it is more relevant now than at any time since its publication because of the emergence of the Netflix miniseries based on the novel and the recent publication of the sequel We Fell Apart.
Undoubtedly, much of the appeal of Lockhart’s work is from the authenticity of Cadence “Cady” Sinclair Eastman’s voice as the narrator. As the oldest grandchild of Harris and Tipper Sinclair, she is teenage angst personified—and with good reason. Her traumatized 17-year-old mind attempts to reconstruct events that happened two years earlier, all while managing physical challenges from a mysterious accident that left her partially unclothed and unconscious by the ocean.
Cady’s search for the truth about what happened to her exposes some serious rifts within her immediate and extended family. For example, her once rock-solid (though highly flawed) grandfather is mentally unstable and Cady cannot rely on her grandmother as a source of comfort, either. In addition, her mother and her aunts perpetually undermine each other to get the biggest advantage possible from the inevitable inheritance that they will get. Trying to rekindle a relationship with her on again, off again boyfriend Gat is yet another stressor for this damaged teen.
E. Lockhart does an admirable job of developing characters, and the plot gained momentum in the last third of the book, especially. Once I began the last act, I wanted to finish this one. But when it was completed, I had to take a moment to process what had unfolded. One effect for me: I immediately acquired the prequel Family of Liars, and I fully intend to read it and Lockhart’s recent release as soon as I can
THE RIVER IS WAITING
Author: Wally Lamb
Call number: FIC LAM
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: December 20, 2025
More than twenty-five years ago, I read I Know This Much is True, which opens with a graphic and unsettling incident in a public library. I didn’t think that Wally Lamb could top that shocking event in the exposition of another work, but he most certainly did in The River is Waiting. The former is relatable to me as someone familiar with libraries, but the latter disturbed me to the core because I am a parent.
The main character, Corby Ledbetter, is the perpetrator of this negligent act that happened in his driveway. His wife Emily and his daughter Maisie are just two of the people who are left to confront the consequences of his action on their lives while Corby is left to atone for his crime within the confines of the department of corrections.
The bulk of the novel is a first-person journey of Corby’s attempts to change his life. His careless actions were fueled by a prescription drug and alcohol addiction. One thing that I appreciate about Lamb’s writing is that he lets Corby’s character better himself in the penal system, although he retains some of his unlikable traits. Emily continues to remain elusive to him (and to the audience) and she tries to navigate her way through extreme grief for her and Maisie’s sake.
This was one of the best stories that I have read in quite some time. I heard Wally Lamb on a podcast a few months ago trying to describe The River is Waiting, and he seemed to have a difficult time verbalizing what he was trying to do with it. In the end, it may be better to not even try to describe it. Reading the novel would be better.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
A Film by Ken and Sarah Burns with David McMahon
2024
Call #: DVD 921 DAV
Reviewer: Robert Rhodes
Date: December 18, 2025
The life of Leonardo DaVinci cannot possibly be described in a single paragraph. It would be equivalent to writing a few sentences on Quantum Physics then asking if you now understand it. Father and daughter filmmakers Ken and Sarah Burns, along with Sarah’s husband David McMahon, managed to squeeze DaVinci’s life into three and a half hours of pure magic from start to finish.
Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519) was born the illegitimate son of an Italian notary and a lower-class woman whom his father truly loved. He began his life studying nature and how all aspects of heaven and earth combine to create perfection in its design. Not having the advantage of education like that of marriage-born children, Leonardo was nurtured by his Father who recognized his son’s curiosities, so he presented him to one of Florence Italy’s most prominent painters and sculptors, Andrea del Verrocchio. From that point on, DaVinci quickly became immensely popular amongst his fellow artists and students as well as royalty. His passion for the eternal questions of how humans and nature co-exist and function became the foundation for his paintings and journals. His overzealous fascination with mechanics, engineering, astronomy, botany and anatomy set the stage for future inventions and ideals that all of us see as commonplace today. The film captivates and transports the viewer to a time when only the mind and hands were the tools used to create immense beauty and thought provoking ideas.
The documentary Leonardo DaVinci tells so much more than what was mentioned here. Its beauty lies within the mind of a talented and rare human being that we may never know again. You can find this film in the Tecumseh District Library’s Documentary section. Enjoy!
SISTERS IN THE WIND
Author: Boulley, Angeline
Narrator: LaBlanc, Isabella Star
Call number: NEW Y FIC BOU
Reviewer: Randy Morgan
Date: December 12, 2025
Sisters of the Wind ensnares you while uncovering the mystery of Lucy Smith- a former foster child who quickly learned that “home” is a theory and change is a constant. Readers quickly fall into Angeline Boulley’s beautifully tragic prose; revealing the oppressive origins of current events faced by Native Indians.
Miigwech
JAMES
Author: Percival Everett
Call number: FIC EVE
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: December 2, 2025
I had the novel James on my reading list for a long time, and I regret not reading it sooner than I did. After teaching Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, for many years to high school sophomores, I thought that I had thought of every permutation and scenario of this tale. I was wrong—like most other readers, I drastically underestimated the character of Jim, as he was called in both novels.
When teaching this classic of American literature, one of the biggest obstacles that I faced was the difficulty and eventual reluctance of many students to understand the dialogue between Jim and Huck as they make their way down the Mississippi River. Before I started reading Percival Everett’s masterpiece, I assumed that I would have to wrestle with Jim’s slave dialect as well.
However, the title character immediately displays how he purposely “code switches” between different dialects and does it purposefully. In fact, as he explains to his daughter and other slave children in a language lesson portrayed in chapter 2: “White folks expect us to sound a certain way, and it can only help if we don’t disappoint them.”
The recognition that the “correct” spoken language was essential to survival in the world is one of many revelations in the book. It was interesting to see the plot from the perspective of Jim, who is more of a dependable narrator than Huck. And Jim does a better job of being more selective about what is essential to the story than Huck is. Another major complaint of my students was how unfocused Huck’s point of view was, and Jim eliminates that problem. For those purists who want to re-live every aspect of Twain’s classic tale, this novel may disappoint them. But taken together, the full and untold story is pure genius.
DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE
Deliver Me from Nowhere
Author: Warren Zanes
Call number: 782.421 ZAN
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: December 1, 2025
It is cliché that the book was better than the movie, but in this case, it was not true. The recent film directed by Scott Cooper and starring Jeremy Allen White was able to effectively convey the message of the 2023 homage to “the Boss” by Warren Zane, while bypassing the tangents that exist in the text. Unquestionably, the movie version is more accessible to Springsteen fans and newcomers alike, but it would not exist were it not for Zanes’s journey of crooked lines. Zanes approaches this project from a musician’s point of view—and as a devotee of Springsteen. Because of this, it is impossible for him to be objective. Instead, he guides us through the creation of the New Jersey native’s most sincere and personal album to date (if notever). It is difficult to imagine that a musician who had already produced two iconic albums (Born to Run and The River) and been on the covers of both Newsweek and Time magazines in the same week was still concerned about becoming too famous and getting away from his roots. However, Zanes shows how prescient Springsteen was about his near future and the meteoric Born in the USA album that he would eventually release, along with the groundbreaking world tour that would forever alter his place in music history.
As interesting as the evolution of what became one of 1984’s most successful albums is, the majority of the book is a narrative of Springsteen’s songwriting and recording in the rented house at Colt’s Neck, New Jersey. All the songs were laid down on ordinary cassette tapes, using a basic multi-track recorder, which only adds to the mystique of what he had crafted. It was extremely effective for Zanes to alternate between 1982 and the early 2020’s. Unlike many biographers, he had unlimited access to his subject at times. Given that, it would be difficult to be objective, as Springsteen was a gracious host and a generous storyteller for this tale.
THE INHERITANCE GAMES
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Call number: Y FIC BAR
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: November 26, 2025
This is the first book in Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s wildly popular series that introduced readers to Avery Kylie Grambs, who inexplicably inherits tens of billions of dollars from the patriarch of the Hawthorne family. Published on September 1, 2020, the novel and its successors (The Hawthorne Legacy, The Final Gambit, The Brothers Hawthorne and Games Untold: An Inheritance Games Collection) have won numerous awards for young adult fiction, undoubtedly because of the likeability of Avery and other factors, including an understandable plot that provides plenty of suspenseful moments.
Early in the novel, Avery is plucked from her increasingly difficult life of high-achieving student and part-time worker. Her family life is difficult and complicated, so theoretically the challenge of living in a sprawling mansion for one year with the Hawthorne family will be an easier existence. However, the four brothers (Jameison, Grayson, Nash, and Alexander) who are grandsons and other heirs to the family fortune make things interesting for Avery, who has a difficult time discerning who she can trust. Soon it is apparent that her life is in danger and several layers of security teams are needed to ensure that she survives her year at Hawthorne House.
The house itself is a separate and intriguing character, with its hidden passageways and seemingly inexhaustible unique features. And Barnes describes the house, the school that Avery attends with the brothers and the action scenes with an appropriate amount of detail. The dialogue Is believable and moves the plot forward, too. The novel ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and the sequel seems like a worthy endeavor. The Inheritance Games was the teen book club choice twice in the past few years, most recently for November.
MY FRIENDS
Author: Fredrik Backman
Call number: FIC BAC
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: November 19, 2025
I have read several of Fredrik Backman’s books and have never been disappointed. So sometimes, I must remind myself that the methodical (and sometimes painstaking) method that he uses to arrange stories will yield an enormously powerful payoff in the end. This was true for My Friends, which opens in a church art auction, when a teenaged girl named Louisa draws a small fish on the wall next to a valuable painting created by C. Jat.
Jat’s works are among the most famous in the world, and this piece, “The One of the Sea” is among his most noteworthy, most misunderstood, and most valuable. After an incident at the auction, Jat’s best friend Ted briefly possesses the painting, only to bequeath it to Louisa, and the two of them take a journey where the true origins of the painting are slowly revealed.
Admittedly, this novel did not grip me immediately, partly because of the structure, which alternated between past and present. At first, the present story was far more engaging, and I really wanted it to unspool before the setting takes the events back approximately 25 years. However, Backman’s skill at storytelling eventually captured my interest equally between historical and current. At about the two-thirds mark of the novel, I was in “can’t put this down” mode and torn between wanting to know what happens next and not wanting to finish it because it was so enjoyable.
Backman has a particular gift of making seemingly insignificant characters reveal their importance, while somehow not minimizing any of them. It reminded me of the desperate wonder of being fourteen, and the weariness many feel at 39. But it also reminded me of the trauma and helplessness of any age, and the myth that we are ever truly prepared to deal with human tragedy. In the end, however, My Friends offers the characters at least a chance at redemption, which is all that we can ask for sometimes.
TONIGHT IN JUNGLELAND
The Making of Born To Run
Author: Peter Carlin
Call number: 782.421
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: November 17, 2025
Peter Carlin’s A Night in Jungleland is sandwiched between the release of the recent movie Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere and the book that it is based on. And as much I loved Jeremy Allen White’s portrayal of The Boss, which is relatively faithful to Warren Zane’s straightforward book that inspired it, I’m convinced that the events that led to the creation of the Born to Run album are arguably more dramatic.
The release of Springsteen’s Born to Run album in 1975 launched the iconic New Jersey native from what had been a respectable (though tenuous–financially) music career and Carlin explains how it almost didn’t happen. In part because of a management shakeup at Columbia, Springsteen’s label at the time, and many other factors, the company refused to release a full album from him until he released a “can’t miss” single. Springsteen did deliver the single (“Born to Run”) eventually, and obviously so much more. Columbia was so unprepared by the immediate success of the album they had to immediately order more records for distribution then they had anticipated just based on the pre-orders alone. From Springsteen’s point of view, an undesirable consequence of this nearly instant explosion of fame (he was on the covers of Time and Newsweek in the same week, something that was noteworthy then) was that in many ways, it was his biggest fear: losing his soul and his craft.
Like his biography Bruce from 2012, Carlin captures moments in the iconic rocker’s career that we may have missed or weren’t fully explained, but A Night in Jungleland covers a much smaller period of Springsteen’s life—at a time where he was more vulnerable than even those closest to him probably knew. For example, this book more fully explains his relationship with different band members, especially Stevie Van Zandt and Clarence Clemons. Also, because of its focus on just one album, we are allowed to have at least a glimpse of the path that it took to make this epic work. Without the single “Born to Run”, we may not have had a “Thunder Road”, “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out”, or of course, a “Jungleland”. Would this be a tragedy? No. But the musical catalog of rock would be sorely lacking.
NEVER FLINCH
Author: Stephen King
Call number: FIC KIN
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: November 13, 2025
Knowing that I was a Stephen King fan, my son purchased this novel as a birthday gift for me. He thought that it was a “can’t miss” pick, and he was right. Once again, King created a sequence of believable scenarios that come together through credible characters who propel the plot forward.
Never Flinch starts with a complex (and overly complicated) criminal trial that ends with a conviction and eventual death in prison of a defendant who is later revealed to be not guilty, when more evidence becomes available. A recovering addict (who is also mentally ill) named Trig decides to start killing random people to “make up” for the injustice of the wrongful conviction, thinking that it will somehow avenge the defendant’s tragic death.
At the same time, a women’s rights activist named Katie McKay is forced to hire recurring character and private detective Holly Gibney to be her bodyguard on her tour of the Midwest, which will culminate in Buckeye City, the very same town that Trig hails from. And McKay has a very capable and highly motivated assassin stalking her. The two main plot threads come together seamlessly, with a surprise twist that only King can deliver.
I was reluctant to read Stephen King novels until I read his book On Writing, which was published in 2000. By then, he had become nearly as well-known for the novellas The Body, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and the novel The Green Mile, all of which were made into successful films. And although the “King of Horror” still flexes the scary muscles occasionally, it seems that he is more interested in the mystery genre, which is good for the non-horror fans. Never Flinch is a prime example of the genius of a writer who has a seemingly endless enthusiasm for storytelling and an uncanny knack for keeping us guessing.
ATTACK FROM WITHIN
Author: Barbara McQuade
Call number: 320.973 MCQ
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: November 11, 2025
Undeniably, the way that we get information has changed immensely in the past few years and with the increased use of artificial intelligence, this is unlikely to change. Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor, presents the issue of disinformation just as I suspect that she did for her cases—and she is very compelling.
The book explains and analyzes three main points: 1. She shows how the delivery of information has changed; 2. She argues that we are in the middle of the most divisive period in American history in over a hundred years; and 3. She gives evidence that society is fearful of the present and the future.
As evidence of the delivery of information, McQuade points to what she refers to as the “authoritarian playbook”, which harkens back to the early part of the 20 th century and the vast propaganda machines of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and others. She connects the strategies of these often-slow moving media disseminators to the instant and viral possibilities that exist today through social media. She follows with a brief history of some key recent history, particularly the events of January 6, 2021. Instances of the anxieties of society are presented throughout the book as well.
After arranging her case very carefully, McQuade, currently a law professor at the University of Michigan, does offer some hope, most of which can be summarized with this: pay attention and verify your sources before taking action. At a recent keynote address at the Michigan Library Association in October, she pointed out that even she was fooled recently by a story that came into her algorithm on social media—thankfully before she shared the information widely. She also argues that our legal system is woefully behind in regulating the internet and needs to tighten these up, especially regarding social media and liability. Attack from Within’s overarching message is that in the words of John Philpot Curran and others “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
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