Stop wrapping gifts for a minute and put these fiction and nonfiction titles on your TBA list: a ghost story set in Wisconsin, a teenager’s discovery of the pitfalls of school testing, and an exploration of how AI is changing us.

(Courtesy of Lake Vermillion Press)

“Bubble Sheet Blues”: by William Durbin (Lake Vermillion Press, $11.95)

William Durbin (Courtesy of the author)

It’s going to be a good year for readers if William Durbin’s funny and timely new novel for young readers is an example of what’s to come.

Adults have been talking about mandatory student testing for years, but we rarely hear the feelings of the kids who are forced to take them. That’s why Durbin, two-time Minnesota Book Award winner and a former English teacher, introduces us to Luke Collins, an eighth-grader who’s not very interested in school.

Luke has been coasting through several grades by rewriting a research paper about manatees, earning him the nickname Manatee Cowboy from friends Claire and Gabe. But now he’s been caught by the librarian and has to come up with a new research topic.

During a session with his third-grade reading buddy, Luke watches the little kids sob as they face the coming Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) required by Jeb Bush, Florida’s governor from 1999 to 2007. If kids don’t pass the test (marking answers on a “bubble sheet”) they will have to repeat third grade, even if they are smart and their day-to-day work is excellent. No wonder the first chapter is titled “Bubble Sheet Blues or Dead Dogs and Puke Piles.”

Luke is interested in why this test incites terror in the kids and unease among teachers. As he begins to research the test, he realizes the injustice inherent in the system. He uncovers financial benefits to the testing companies, collusion with lawmakers, and how the tests are unfair to students for whom English is a second language and those with conditions such as dyslexia. Some wealthy families can move their kids to private schools, which don’t give the test. But trailer park students like Luke remain in the public schools.

He figures out the standardized tests aren’t for the students’ benefit, but are a way to keep from critical, thoughtful learning by making teachers spend weeks and sometimes months preparing for the test.

The more Luke learns the angrier he gets, leading to outright revolution in the school, led by Luke, optimistic Claire and tech-savvy Gabe.

What happens then, thanks to sympathetic teachers and some parents, makes for a great ending. The trio is so jazzed they might even take on banned books for their next project.

Luke’s eighth-grade voice is spot on, serious when he’s talking about his research but also funny in dialogue with his friends.

Although this story is being marketed for young adults, every adult with interest in education should read it, too.

Durbin, who lives near Lake Vermillion in northern Minnesota, is known for his young adult historical fiction, including Minnesota Book Award-winners “The Broken Blade” and “Song of Sampo Lake.” Among his other popular books are “Blackwater Ben” and its sequel “Dead Man’s Rapids.”

Teaser quote: “I walked back to the computers and did a web search of ‘standardized testing in Florida.’ I expected to find a bunch of dull, professor-type essays, but I was surprised to see that two of my all-time favorite authors — Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry, both newspaper columnists — had written about public school testing in Florida.”

(Courtesy of the author)

“Murder in Skoghall”: by Alida Winternheimer (Wild Woman Typing, $16.99)

Alida Winternheimer (Courtesy of the author)

The red-haired mirage won’t leave Jessica Vernon alone until Jess finds the ghost’s killer and learns what happened to the woman’s infant son.

Part paranormal, part mystery, part psychological drama with some romance, this genre-jumping first book in the author’s Skoghall Mystery series is set in a town inspired by Stockholm, Wis., and the Mississippi River Road bluff country along Lake Pepin.

Newly divorced Jess has left her life and job in Minneapolis after buying an old farmhouse in Skoghall. The area is familiar to her but she doesn’t know anybody in the town until she meets a sexy cafe owner and Beckett, a no-nonsense potter who also owns the hardware store.

Jess has heard tales about her old house, which she loves, from a previous owner who lasted only three years of haunting. Objects moved around and there were bloody footprints on the floors. Jess herself sees images of the ghost’s body hanging in the smokehouse.

Jess’ experiences alternate with chapters showing the ghost’s family life when she was alive and living in the farmhouse with her loving husband and little boy.

Nothing is going to drive Jess from her home, which she shares with her new puppy, even though a lead toy soldier she found in the mud keeps moving around the house. When the red-haired ghost appears, Jess and her ally Beckett plunge into investigating why the woman’s husband was blamed for her death and has been in prison for 40 years. And what happened to their son? Jess meets rejections when she interviews people about the murder, but she keeps going when most people would quit. Beckett is her sometime-ally although her obsession with solving the murder worries him. And he should worry, since she is physically attacked several times.

This is more than a murder mystery and ghost story. The author delves into the torments PTSD causes Vietnam veterans as well as family dynamics. Winterheimer writes gracefully and unapologetically about Jess’ sexual intimacies, assuming the reader will take it for granted a 30-something woman enjoys time in the bedroom (or other places).

“Murder in Skoghall,” published in 2024, won the 2025 Best Indie Published Adult Fiction award presented by the Minnesota Library Association and the Minnesota Library Foundation. She is a developmental editor, story craft coach and host of the Story Works Round Table podcast. She also has taught writing at many places, including prisons.

This edition of the first Skoghall mystery includes a couple of pages from the second book, “Dark Corners in Skoghall,” published in September.

Teaser Quote: “The image of the pink torso — a hog , she assumed — struck her as particularly gruesome. It was well and good for other people, but she didn’t want any part of it. Jess wondered if the energy of the slaughter was stuck to the smokehouse, like some ghostly imprint …”

(Courtesy of Beaver’s Pond Press)

“Turning on Machines”: by Zac Engler (Beaver’s Pond Press, $19.95)

For people who don’t pay much attention to the tech world, it seems that artificial intelligence appeared out of nowhere. Suddenly, everyone’s talking about AI, including Minnesota-born futurist Zac Engler. If even the word “algorithm” scares you, let Engler be your guide to AI in a clear and friendly way.

He traces the beginning of technology back to the Stone Age, emphasizing human need to keep moving forward and learning. He writes that his book “is not a prediction of collapse or a blueprint for techno-utopia, it’s a reflection.” Central to his thinking is that humans must become partners with AI, as seen in his subtitle “How the Rise of Artificial Intelligence Will Rewire the Way We Work, Live, and Love.”

His framework is the six phases of Human-AI  Evolution: Masters (2014-2018), Shepherds (2018-2026), Teachers (2026-2034), Peers (2034-2038) and Partners (2038-2042). Of the Teachers phase, which will begin in the New Year, he writes: “We begin training AI agents like interns or apprentices, constantly improving them through iteration.”

AI is here to stay, and although Engler admits, and discusses, job displacement and other worrisome changes brought about by this innovation, he is optimistic humans and AI can co-exist for the good of humankind.

Teaser quote: “The future belongs to the bold, those who see AI not as an adversary but as a catalyst. Innovation happens every time someone learns to wield new tools to solve old problems.”

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‘Tis the time of year for making merry, and also for changing seasons. That’s what we’re doing today, Sunday, Dec. 21, at 9:03 a.m., the moment of the winter solstice, the first day of winter, and also the moment we start gaining daylight once again.

You’ve no doubt noticed that the sun takes a very low arc across the southern sky this time of year, rising in the southeast and setting in the southwest, spending less than nine hours above the horizon. Today the sun reaches its lowest point in the southern sky. This low sun angle means that we’re not getting nearly the amount of solar power and radiation as we did in the summer.

From now through late June, though, the sun’s arc across the heavens will get higher and higher, and we’ll eventually get warmer. However, the coldest weather of the winter is yet to come. Blame it on the north polar regions. There’s been little or no sun up there for some time now, and super cold air has really built up. The cold has to go somewhere, and the general circulation of global winds causes that frigid air to spill our way in intervals until early March. I call it the polar hangover effect.

(Mike Lynch)

The sun’s daily path in the sky reflects the daily and annual motions of the Earth. When you were young, you learned that Earth’s rotation causes the sun to rise in the east and set in the west. The Earth’s orbit around the sun also affects how we see our home star in the sky, mainly because the Earth’s axis is tilted to its orbit around the sun by a 23.5-degree angle. Today on winter solstice day, the Earth’s northern hemisphere – where we live – is tilted at the maximum angle away from the sun’s most direct rays. The noontime sun is shining directly over the latitude line called the Tropic of Capricorn, which lies 23.5 degrees in latitude south of the Earth’s equator. Does that 23.5 degrees sound familiar? It should. In our skies, the sun’s noon-time angle will be as far south as it can be in our sky, just 21.5 degrees above the horizon.

Six months from now on June 21, the day of the summer solstice, we’ll be on the other side of Earth’s orbit around the sun and the northern hemisphere will be basking in the sun’s most direct rays. That will be reflected in our sky as the sun takes a long, high arc from the northeast to the northwest horizon. On the summer solstice, the noontime sun is at its farthest northern point in our sky. That puts it at a high 68.5 degrees above the southern horizon at noon. After the summer solstice, everything goes in reverse; the sun’s path in the sky gets lower and lower and the days get shorter and shorter.

Ancient and not-so-ancient cultures were keenly aware of the sun’s annual cycle in the sky, and many worshipped it. There was much sun worship going on in Northern Europe. Ancient observatories like Stonehenge in southern Great Britain and the cave-like Newgrange in Ireland are examples of this. It’s no accident that the early Catholic Church established Dec. 25 as Christmas Day. No one really knows the exact date of Christ’s birth, but one of the reasons the church chose Dec. 25 was to counter the great pagan celebrations around the winter solstice, when the sun was “reborn” and began its climb into the sky.

I want you to enjoy your holiday season, and also enjoy the sun’s increasing power!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

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The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library $2 million, the largest private donation the nonprofit has ever received.

The donation will help fund major renovations at the Hayden Heights and Riverview libraries, as well as technology and play and learn upgrades at all 13 St. Paul library locations.

Last year, more than 1.2 million people visited St. Paul libraries and borrowed more than 2.8 million materials. More than 47,000 attended library programs and 841 students received library support at homework centers. Libraries also hosted close to 700 mental health consultations.

The Knight Foundation works toward supporting communities’ economic mobility, information ecosystems and arts and culture, said Charlene Bradley, the Knight Foundation’s St. Paul program director, who started in her role about nine months ago.

“And one of the reasons why I gravitated towards libraries earlier in my tenure here at Knight is because libraries have the opportunity to support everything that Knight stands for, including their mission,” Bradley said. “So, thinking about, how do we really invest in informed and engaged communities? Libraries actually are a great representation of that.”

Charlene Bradley. (Courtesy of the Knight Foundation)

The Knight Foundation has been a longtime supporter of the Friends, with $855,000 invested by the foundation since 1999, according to Friends’ executive director Beth Burns. The $2 million donation announced Sunday is a “catalytic investment,” Burns said.

“We are in partnership with the city to realize a really transformative vision for the role of libraries in every single neighborhood in St. Paul,” Burns said. “And together, we in the city are looking to raise $35.5 million, and the Friends has committed to raising ($10 million) of that. And with this gift, our work is propelled forward because I believe this gift telegraphs to our entire community that the library is worthy of major investment and that in this moment, an investment in libraries is a meaningful and important investment in the people of St. Paul, in the neighborhoods of St. Paul, and in the vitality of democracy.”

St. Paul is very supportive of its public libraries, but public funding is never going to be enough to “realize the full vision and potential of public libraries,” Burns said. The work of organizations like the Friends helps ensure libraries have the resources they need, whether that’s through fundraising in the private sector or political advocacy, Burns said.

The nonprofit also serves as the state’s chapter of the Library of Congress.

The city of St. Paul recently announced that its 2026 budget will include $3.55 million for the Hayden Heights library renovation and $784,000 to seed the Riverview renovation. That brings total public investment to $16 million. The city has committed to a total of $25.5 million.

“Saint Paul’s libraries are more than buildings — they are anchors of community, gateways to opportunity, and valued resources for people of every age,” said Mayor Melvin Carter in a statement. “Our partnership with the Knight Foundation reflects a shared commitment to generational investment in all our libraries, ensuring they continue to serve every person in our city today and for decades to come.“

Officials with Friends said in a statement that they are grateful to Mayor Carter and look forward to working with Mayor-elect Kaohly Her.

“Saint Paul’s public libraries are one of the strengths of this City, and I am excited to continue to champion this remarkable public-private partnership,” Her said in a statement. “The Knight Foundation recognizes that investing in our libraries is investing in our residents, and this gift is going to reach people in every neighborhood to help us build a vibrant Saint Paul together.”

The Friends’ library campaign with a goal of $35.5 million will run through 2027 and also fund a new Hamline Midway Library. Demolition of the historic library began in January with plans to replace it with a more modern structure with better disability access and other amenities.

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Today is Sunday, Dec. 21, the 355th day of 2025. There are 10 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 21,1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, for the first time.

Also on this date:

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman concluded their “March to the Sea” when they captured Savannah, Georgia.

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In 1891, the first basketball game, devised by James Naismith, is believed to have been played at the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts.

In 1913, the first newspaper crossword puzzle, billed as a “Word-Cross Puzzle,” was published in the New York World.

In 1976, the oil tanker Argo Merchant broke apart near Nantucket Island off Massachusetts almost a week after running aground, spilling 7.7 million gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.

In 1988, a terrorist bomb exploded aboard New York-bound Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people aboard the Boeing 747 and 11 on the ground. The blast occurred about 40 minutes into the flight from London and claimed the lives of citizens from 21 countries, including 190 Americans.

In 1991, 11 of the 12 former Soviet republics formally proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In 2020, President-elect Joe Biden received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort early in the pandemic to convince the American public the inoculations were safe.

In 2023, a student opened fire at Charles University in Prague, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 20 in the Czech Republic’s worst mass shooting. Authorities said the 24-year-old student, who had a license to own eight guns and no criminal record, killed himself as police closed in.

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Jane Fonda is 88.
Singer Carla Thomas is 83.
Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is 81.
Actor Samuel L. Jackson is 77.
Film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg is 75.
Tennis Hall of Famer Chris Evert is 71.
Actor Jane Kaczmarek is 70.
Country musician Lee Roy Parnell is 69.
Actor-comedian Ray Romano is 68.
Actor Kiefer Sutherland is 59.
Actor-filmmaker Julie Delpy is 56.
Golf Hall of Famer Karrie Webb is 51.
French President Emmanuel Macron is 48.
Actor Rutina Wesley is 47.
Actor Steven Yeun is 42.
Actor-producer-writer Quinta Brunson is 36.
Actor Kaitlyn Dever is 29.
Actor Madelyn Cline is 28.