THE QUEEN WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD
Author: S.J. Bennett
Narrator: Samantha Bond
Call #: CD-FIC BEN
Reviewer: Sonja Downey
Date: January 14, 2026
This is the fifth installment of this delightful mystery series with the late Queen Elizabeth II. starring as a very apt and very regal sleuth.
The Queen’s sojourn on the royal train is marred by an alleged murder witnessed by somebody less than reliable as a witness. A corpse can’t be found and the whole affair is about to be swiped under the carpet. However, a few unrelated incidences that came to Elizabeth’s attention seem not to be all that unrelated after all. Since the Queen is the Queen, and thus somewhat hampered when it comes to moving about and investigating, she is once again relying on her forceful assistant private secretary, Joan, to be her eyes and ears and most of all her legs.
I adore this series. In the first three installments it is actually the ninety-year-old Elizabeth royally sleuthing about. After Queen Elizabeth’s death in 2022 the author very cleverly retreated into the past and for the last few installments it is a very young Queen solving the murders happening in her surroundings with grace and aplomb.
Award-winning narrator Jane Copland reads the first three titles in the series and I loved the easy grace with which she portrays Her Majesty, Prince Phillip and all the other members of the royal household. Samantha Bond took over narrating the young queen and she invokes the same listening pleasure in me.
What I love most about this series are the witty dialogues and how the author portrays the late Queen’s sense of humor.
The titles in order:
The Windsor Knot
All the Queen’s Men
Murder Most Royal
A Death in Diamonds
The Queen Who Came in from the Cold
ARE THERE RAINBOWS IN SPACE?
Author: Dr. Sheila Kanani
Illustrator: Liz Kay
Call number: NEW J 535.6 KAN
Reviewer: Randy Morgan
Date: January 12, 2026
Are there Rainbows in Space? Captured my attention just from the title. It microdoses information about art, science, geography, music, sports, animals, history, language, world religions, and so much more! Author Dr. Sheila Kanani organizes information based on color, and orange is where I learned about an animal called an olm. She goes into detail about animal classification, habitat, and evolution. Lots of bit sized pieces with plenty of opportunity to expand upon your own knowledge. The bold imagery is captivating and takes the eyes on an adventure of their own.
FAMILY OF LIARS
Author: E. Lockhart
Call number: Y FIC LOC
Reviewer: Andy Jackson
Date: January 6, 2026
Prequels can be enjoyable and revealing, and Family of Liars was certainly both. The eight-year gap after the publication of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, which featured a stunning conclusion, seemed to allow ample time for the Sinclair family’s numerous secrets to marinate properly.
Caroline (Carrie) Sinclair is the narrator of this story, which takes place in 1987, also known as “Summer 17” for her. Like We Were Liars, the events take place on Beechwood Island, where Harris and Tipper Sinclair host their extended families for a series of familiar traditional activities. Joining the three Sinclair sisters (Carrie, Penny, and Bess) are Dean Sinclair (Harris’s brother), and his children Yardley and Tomkin. Yardley unexpectedly brings her friends George, Major and Pfeff to the island, where Erin, a schoolmate of Penny’s, will also be lodging.
Throughout the novel, Lockhart details the jockeying for attention and approval that Carrie, Penny, and Bess desire from their parents, which is not particularly original for YA fare. Nor is the yearning for attention that two of the sisters have for one of the boys that they are hosting for the summer. However, the lengths that they go to is remarkable at times. This is especially true regarding Tipper’s invaluable black pearls, which they all covet dearly. Furthermore, when Carrie relentlessly asks Tipper about the identity of who is in a photograph hidden in her mother’s room, she gets far more than she bargained for.
I found the prequel easier to read and I was more ambitious to finish it than Lockhart’s earlier work. She can create complex characters with a believable, yet suspenseful plot. I am eager to move on to Lockhart’s most recent effort, We Fell Apart, as a result.
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.
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