Three Books I'm Reading Now, 11/24/25 Edition

The Books I'm Reading Now

I'm listening to Jeff Zentner's endearing young adult story of friendship, In the Wild Light; I'm reading Amie Barrodale's bizarre, darkly funny novel Trip; and I'm listening to Woodworking, a story of friendship between a spirited rural South Dakota high school transgender student and her closeted transgender teacher.

What are you reading, bookworms?

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01 In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner

I recently posted about some of my very favorite young adult books, and so far, In the Wild Light seems positioned to be added to that list.

In rural Sawyer, Tennessee, teenaged Cash mows lawns and lives with his grandparents since his mother's death from an opioid overdose. His best friend Delaney is a genius daydreaming while working at Dairy Queen, and she's always braced for her mother's drug-addled, erratic behavior.

When Delaney secures full scholarships for both of them to attend a boarding school in Connecticut, they must cope with culture shock, strains on their friendship, and endless new avenues of book knowledge and life experiences.

I'm listening to In the Wild Light as an audiobook.

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02 Trip by Amie Barrodale

I considered crying uncle on this book early on because I felt whiplashed and steadily confused about what the heck was going on, but the darkly funny moments kept me hooked. I'm pushing through on this bizarre story in hopes that I can find out.

Sandra is a documentary producer at a death conference in Nepal when she dies in a freak accident. The majority of the speakers are insufferable hacks, but after Sandra's death, it becomes clear that some of the least believable are actually able to communicate with the dead through previously seemingly insane methods.

Sandra is caught in the bardo, a limbo between life and death, and she encounters other limbo characters in strange states; learns how to temporarily take over a living person's body (just before the dead person advising her transforms into a crow); and although she can't speak or be heard (except by select, inept individuals), she attempts to save her autistic teenaged son, who, through an unlikely series of events, has hitchiked from a therapy school in the Northeast to the center of a hurricane off the coast of Florida and onto a sailboat with a relapsed alcoholic seemingly incapable of ushering them to safety.

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03 Woodworking by Emily St. James

Emily St. James crafts a tender, funny story with zing about a secretly trans high school teacher in a small town in South Dakota who befriends the only other transgender person she is aware of, one of her students.

Erica Skyberg is recently divorced and feeling adrift...except that now she is positioned to live into her true self better than she ever has been. (When her given male name is referenced in the audiobook, it sounds like static, as she does not relate to it.)

Abigail is annoyed at first at the prospect of shepherding her teacher through her self-discovery, but the two develop a friendship that goes deeper than the One Big Thing they have in common, and soon others are taking notice, criticizing their bond, and asking probing questions.

The book title comes from the idea of trans people blending in and fading into the woodwork.

I received a prepublication audiobook edition of this spring 2025 title courtesy of Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio.