Welcome to Litsy!

Rowan
“I have shown him to children, and altered the way they see the world.
I am a tunnel, wind screaming through me.
And into this empty space comes a mad thought, unbidden.”

Another set of quirky book data that I record is setting. This year more than half the books I read took place primarily in the US or the UK. Of the rest, 12 were set in many places or nowhere, and six were set in some fantasy realm.

The book that took place closest to my home was Inner Harbor, set almost entirely in Maryland.

The book that took place farthest away, if not in terms of actual distance then in remoteness, is Wild Dark Shorep.

Unpopular opinion. I really dislike Charlotte McConaghy....

Here are the 4 most disappointing books I read this year!

Murderland should have been great, but the author inserted herself in the most bizarre ways.
CRA - The movie was SO much better. Yikes
Apartment Women - What even was that? I had to look at my review b/c I have no memory of it, my review says people were mad about bins and sex noises LOL

#12booksof2025 @TheEllieMo

June 2025 Book#4

This is the second book I read by this author. Loved it. If you like nature/climate changes as novel theme, written in a slow pace, character driven, then this novel can work for you but it is a sad story. I can understand people who doesn‘t like it because it could be categorized as tragic. But I read the physical book with audiobook with Saskia Maarleveld as one of the narrator and I felt in love with writing style and story⬇️

#12Booksof2025
Day 6 : June: Wild Dark Shore
#CampLitsy

Down to the final crunch - squeezing another in before the end of 2025.

Day 5 of #12BooksOf2025. I love this author. Anyone know if she has a new book releasing this coming year?

#12Booksof2025

Easy pick for April.

@TheEllieMo

I didn‘t love this. Maybe because if they had just had like ONE conversation, all of that didn‘t have to happen. The ending was unnecessary. I appreciated the vibe of the book, kind of Brontë-esque. But rhe characters‘ choices really frustrated me.

#MyLitsyAwards #2025 #fiction

Both the fiction & non-fiction collages were fun & took much reflection on my part!

After seeing everyone, including the year-end lists, rave about this I think my take will be a bit of an #unpopularopinion 😅
I liked the Jane Eyre undertones (or are they more overt?) but I found the parade of trauma to be extremely oppressive. I think Ive decided I dislike how much this author wallows, making you really work for the hope.

This was a dark and beautiful book. 2025 was a horrible year all around, but I did read some great books.

My library hold for this came in too late for the #CampLitsy25 discussion, but not so late that I couldn‘t have posted a review long before now! 🤦🏻‍♀️

The short chapters and multiple perspectives kept me reading, wanting to find out what everyone was hiding, and then—how it would play out when they discovered each others‘ secrets. I felt for each one of the characters, falling in love with them even in the contradictions and complexities of ⤵️

So excited to receive my #auldlangspine2026 list from @Lesliereadsalot I have not read of any of these titles! I do own the tagged title so will start there, but the highlighted ones are all ones I am very interested in reading. Thank you @monalyisha for another great match. I count @CBee and @TheKidUpstairs as Litsy friends from prior matches and from this list hope the same with Leslie this year. #alspine #auldlangspine

Incredible! Part dystopian climate change thriller and part love story, this is really a story of motherhood and grief. I‘ve lived all of her books so far, but this may be my favorite. The ending is crazy good, and every page is intense and beautiful. Can‘t recommend it enough!

Shearwater, an island between Tasmania and the Antarctica is home to 4 people, until a woman washes up on the shore barely alive.
As the tides get higher, the moody skies and angry waves take on a character of their own all the while providing an atmospheric backdrop for a plot that literally had me on the edge of my sofa with my heart hammering in my chest.
I went into this book knowing nothing, and so should you.

This is an incredibly beautiful and profoundly moving novel. The sole inhabitants of Shearwater Island faced increasing challenges due to the relentless effects of climate change. It‘s an excellent read for nature enthusiasts, offering beautiful prose and a gripping narrative. It‘s a book that has the power to tear your heart out, but I couldn‘t help but love it nonetheless.

Full Review abookandadog.com/blog/wild-dark-shore

When places are remote and far from civilized society, strange things happen!

#FavoriteReadoftheMonth

@ChaptersofChaos

Play? @uncommonlycozies @TheBookgeekFrau @Kshakal

Two months to go! #readingbracket
We just had a book club for the tagged book and it was such a fun, lively discussion ❤️ @LiteraryinPA

What a powerful novel! My book club had a fascinating discussion. It‘s about a single dad raising his 3 children on a remote island. He‘s the caretaker for the research base that is tasked with preserving the world‘s seeds. On the island and on the mainland, climate changes are rampant. At the start of the book a barely-alive woman washes up on shore, disrupting their isolation. Alternates between hope and despair with poetic language.

Thanks to @BennettBookworm and @ChaoticMissAdventures I‘ve made my list for #10BeforetheEnd and I‘m so excited! Really, it‘s the act of list-making that gives me this boost of confidence, like just by committing them to paper I‘m *almost* finished reading these 10 books already. 😋 Six are for book clubs taking place at my bookstore, so I‘d better get on that! Enjoy your lists, everyone!

Shearwater Island is permeated by ghosts and spirits-ghosts of the animals who were massacred there in the 19th century, the howl and unforgiving brutality of the winds, the flickering ghost lights, the perpetual twilight, the whispers of the dead…

#Creepy

#HauntsAndHexes #Read2025 #Bookspinbingo #LitsyAtoZ

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @DieAReader @TheAromaofBooks @Texreader

I love Charlotte McConaghy‘s books. The climate disaster the human relationships and the subtle romances are always so amazing.

Wow! What a ride this one turned out to be! I‘ve read one of her books before so I was expecting the climate change angle. But not the suspense that had my heart racing at the end! Great storyline, great characters, great everything. A clever way to shine a light on what the ramifications of climate change could mean for all of us

I love a good multiple POV novel with a bit of mystery to be solved. The plot moves at a great clip,I liked the seed bank/ southern seas as a setting. Though I don‘t think every part is believable and/or needed to go that direction, that fact that I didn‘t stop reading quickly and/or became upset means that through the writing, I became invested in each character- whether I liked them or not. Good book!

Yes, I loved every page of Charlotte McConaghy‘s brilliant new novel. You will, too.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️an absolutely haunting read!!! Beautifully done with deeply felt characters, even the island was a character. This writing took me straight there where I could feel the wind, smell the sea and hear the life all around me.

I can‘t believe it‘s almost October!!
Also noticing an interesting water/ocean theme 🤔 and I wonder what will ultimately go up against The Wedding People!
#readingbracket #readingbracket2025

Just couldn‘t get into this

This book is breathtaking. The writing is exquisite. SO worth the many months I waited for a library copy. The mystery/thriller element was entertaining, and there were enough twists that I was surprised by everything. But it was the nature writing that moved me so much, both vibrant and quiet. And the steady love Dominic had for his children, even though he wasn‘t very confident in his parenting. Hands-down my favorite book of the year so far.

Words cannot describe how incredible this is. Believe the hype!! I‘m glad I knew practically nothing going into it, so I won‘t say too much, only that by the end it wrecked me in the best possible way.
Gorgeous writing—in style, plot, and language—and something that will stick with me for a long time.
Cinematic storytelling… I know this will be turned into a brilliant, star-studded film… and I won‘t want to see it because the book is too good 😭😄

This book was ambitious in many ways-plot, setting and characters. Beautifully written and despite a dire situation this traumatized family and the stranger that washed on shore discovered by loving all living things you can learn how to better love your own family. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I‘m so excited to finally be starting this, especially going into the weekend!

I had to wait for a library copy for-e-ver. I have high hopes!! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

This book is light suspense × The Scent Keeper (Erica Bauermeister)

I liked it, nothing is what it seems.

The end was a thrill; I woke up last night and had to listen thru the climax. I appreciated the structure in that it‘s not linear and the backstory slowly reveals itself. That‘s always the best way to build suspense & interest. 😄

I have to say, it was a pretty great set of books this month. Railway Man was the only acceptation, I was about 20 pages from the end and realized I‘ve read this before or I‘ve seen this documentary. So it was a little bit of a let down….

Lent to me by a friend , I finished this a few days ago. Needed time to think about it. It‘s set on an island and it lead me along and kept me reading with clues to something that had happened. A cast of characters , a family of dad and 3 kids and a mysterious young woman washed up. In the end I had to speed read , the suspense was getting at me and I needed to know the end. Her previous book recommended many time by friends , might give it a go.

This now my favorite read of the year. The writing, the descriptions, the characters, the suspense, the mystery, the love. It has it all. Set on a remote island near Antarctica that has a scientific base, Dom and his three kids find a woman‘s body just before they know that all need to leave the island. So good. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We do have our #CampLitsy25 winner! A majority voted for this fantastic book and I couldn‘t agree more 😉. Woodworking ended on a second place, Tilt ended third.

Helen, Meg and I have enjoyed Camp again so much and want to thank you all for reading and discussing six great books with us. We have loved your thoughts, stories, reviews, insights, puns, etc.

We‘ll be back!

19-22 Aug 25 (audiobook)
A father and his three children have only a handful of weeks left on the isolated island where they have lived the past eight years when a shipwrecked woman is washed ashore. All parties have secrets and McConaghy does a good job of building tension as their departure draws nearer. Another to add to the remote island collection. A popular trope it would seem.

It is really fucking sad that it should take loss to know the precise quality of love 🐋🦭🌊