38. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

listened on Libby

298 pgs.

2025
Genre/Level
Finished 8/3/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.12
My rating: 4.25
Setting: contemporary tiny island off the cost of Antarctica, home of the world's seed bank.

My comments: At the moment, not really sure how I feel about this story.  It was tragic from beginning to end.  It was beautifully written, a tangle of facts that were given to the reader in a wonderful way.  It was slowly paced, though a little to slow in places.  But the pictures it drew in my mind!   Quite something.  And how do you frate a story that pisses you off and entertains you at the same time?  Very difficult.

Goodreads synopsis:  A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.

Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.

But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late―and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.

22. How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior

listened on Libby

355 pgs.

2020
Adult CRF
Finished 5/7/2025
Goodreads rating:  4.09
My rating: 5
Setting: Lockett Island, Antarctica

My comments:  Delightful, charming, and funny....with an edge. Just what I needed. Loved it!  An 85 year-old travels by herself to Antarctica to learn about the penguins that live there, despite the objections of the small scientific crew that work there.  Told in three voices, that of Veronica, her newly found grandson, Patrick, and the podcast of Terry the yound femald scientist who lives at the station on Lockett Island.  I loved the story.

Goodreads synopsis:  A curmudgeonly but charming old woman, her estranged grandson, and a colony of penguins proves it's never too late to be the person you want to be in this rich, heartwarming story from the acclaimed author of Ellie and the Harpmaker.

Eighty-five-year-old Veronica McCreedy is estranged from her family and wants to find a worthwhile cause to leave her fortune to. When she sees a documentary about penguins being studied in Antarctica, she tells the scientists she’s coming to visit—and won’t take no for an answer. Shortly after arriving, she convinces the reluctant team to rescue an orphaned baby penguin. He becomes part of life at the base, and Veronica's closed heart starts to open.

Her grandson, Patrick, comes to Antarctica to make one last attempt to get to know his grandmother. Together, Veronica, Patrick, and even the scientists learn what family, love, and connection are all about.

1. Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs

listened on Libby

2023
416 pgs.
Adult Fantasy
Finished 1/2/24
Goodreads rating: 4.07
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary VT, London, and Antarctica

My comments: Spells that are written in blood! Great settings (VT, London, Antarctica), mesmerizing story, cool plot, well-honed characters....what's not to like?

Goodreads synopsis:  Nominee for Best Fantasy (2023), Nominee for Best Debut Novel (2023)

In this spellbinding debut novel, two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection--a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power.

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements--books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna's isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they'll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .

35. Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

listened on Audible
read by Kathleen Wilhoite
Unabridged audio (9:35)
2012, Little Brown
330 pgs.
Adult CRF
Finished 4/1/19
Goodreads rating: 3.90 - 341,732 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary Seattle, WA

First line/s: "The first annoying thing is when I ask Dad what he thinks happened to Mom, he always says, 'What's most important is for you to understand it's not your fault.' "

My comments: What a funky, funny, unusual novel.  (I can't say I was enamored with the reader, her voice got a little excessively overstimulated/excited in too many places.)  However - clever, over-the-top, and extremely humorous, the story kept me giggling, rolling my eyes, and completely hooked.  Written mostly as emails, letters, faxes, etc., the glimpses of Microsoft, Seattle, private schools, TED talks, architecture, the Antarctic, and five unique personalities are an absolute delight!

Goodreads synopsis:  Bernadette Fox has vanished.
          When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces--which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Where'd You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are and the power of a daughter's love for her mother.