42. Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson

listened on Libby

464 pgs. (14+ hrs.)

2026
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 8/24/226
Goodreads rating: 4.43
My rating: 4.75 - It got a little slow here and there.  Great story all told.
Setting: 1950 through 1968 in Philadelphia, Pa, Manheim, Germany, farm in southern Minnesota, fancy boarding school in perhaps VA...

My comments: Three characters are followed , two in the early 1950s and one starting in 1965, and they all come together at the end of the book, in 1966 with an epilogue in 1968.  All are black.  Two live through impossible, difficult situations because of the hatred that many whites of these periods had for people of color.  The civil rights movement.  black army soldiers in Germany pairing up with white German women and having mixed-race babies out of wedlock. And the story of the woman who discovered an orphanage in Manheim, Germany, loaded with these mixed babies.  She desperately wants kids, but that's not to be...until she decides to adopt and follow.

Goodreads synopsis: In this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The House of Eve, one American woman’s vision in post WWII Germany will tie together three people in an unexpected way.

Lost in the streets and smoldering rubble of Occupied Germany, Ethel Gathers, the proud wife of an American soldier spots a gaggle of mixed-race children following a nun. Desperate to conceive her own family, she feels compelled to follow them to learn their story.

Ozzie Philips volunteers for the army in 1948, eager to break barriers for Black soldiers. Despite his best efforts, he finds the racism he encountered at home in Philadelphia has followed him overseas. He finds solace in the arms of Jelka, a German woman struggling with the lack of resources and even joy in her destroyed country.

In 1965, Sophia Clark discovers she’s been given an opportunity to integrate a prestigious boarding school in Maryland and leave behind her spiteful parents and the grueling demands. In a chance meeting with a fellow classmate, she discovers a secret that upends her world.

Toggling between the lives of these three individuals, Keeper of Lost Children explores how one woman’s vision will change the course of countless lives, and demonstrates that love in its myriad of forms—familial, parental, and forbidden, even love of self—can be transcendent.

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.

79. Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera

listened on Audible
narrated by Robin Miles, Adenrele Ojo, Brittany Pressley
Unabridged audio (11:07)
2019 Park Row
352 pgs.
Historical Fiction
Finished 5/17/2020
Goodreads rating:
My rating: 4.5
Setting: 1924 rural SC

First line/s: "It's easier to kill a man than a gator, but it takes the same kind of wait."

My comments:  Told in three distinct voices and narrated incredibly beautifully by three different actors, this is the story of 1924 (?) rural South Carolina, on a tobacco farm/plantation owned by Edwin Coles.  Annie - Rita - Gretchen.  Gentile wife - black cook and housekeeper - ultra-poor white mother of four.  I am pretty sure that listening to this presentation added greatly to the story, especially when it was done by such superior reader.  What a story!

Goodreads synopsis:  A stunning tour de force following three fierce, unforgettable Southern women in the years leading up to the Great Depression
          It's 1924 South Carolina and the region is still recovering from the infamous boll weevil infestation that devastated the land and the economy. Gertrude, a mother of four, must make an unconscionable decision to save her daughters from starvation or die at the hands of an abusive husband. Retta is navigating a harsh world as a first-generation freed slave, still employed by the Coles, influential plantation proprietors who once owned her family. Annie is the matriarch of the Coles family and must come to terms with the terrible truth that has ripped her family apart.These three women seemingly have nothing in common, yet as they unite to stand up to the terrible injustices that have long plagued the small town, they find strength in the bond that ties women together. Told in the pitch-perfect voices of Gertrude, Retta and Annie, Call Your Daughter Home is an audacious, timeless story about the power of family, deep-buried secrets and the ferocity of motherhood.