It wasn’t quite the finish to the reading year that I had planned – sadly, I left a favorite reading challenge unfinished – but overall still a good one. I thought I was on track to complete my Read Around the World reading challenge, but I just didn’t get to that last region. In November, I visited three still unread regions – Arctic/Antarctic, South & SE Asia, and South America – but that last one, Africa, just escaped me. View my final map to see where my literary travels took me in 2025. I look forward to doing another lap around the world in 2026!

How did the end of the year go for you?

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (2025) 📖

I loved this book. The setting was what drew me in, and the setting and story kept me hooked. A father and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a remote island not far from Antarctica. It’s a former research colony and home to the world’s largest seed bank and is now rapidly being threatened by rising sea levels. During a bad storm, a mysterious woman washes ashore and as the family nurses her back to health, questions abound and secrets come to light. It was a riveting mystery with a very strong sense of place. Highly recommend it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Read Around the World: Arctic & Antarctic (Subantarctic)
• Read My Own Shelf: BOTM

Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (2023) 📖

The partition of India in 1947 is not an historical event I have much knowledge of. This story of three sisters in a rural village in Bengal brought it to life in a very engaging and personable way. Each of the sisters took a very different path in life – one pursued her goal of becoming a doctor just like their father, another married a Muslim and broke from her family, and the third stayed home to care for their mother. It was a turbulent time for them all with unimaginable violence, death, and disruption of life – but their strength and bonds helped them through it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Read Around the World: South & SE Asia (India)
• Read My Own Shelf: BOTM

The Spanish Daughter by Lorena Hughes (2021) 📖

I loved being transported to 1920s Ecuador where Puri arrived from Spain after her father’s death to claim her inheritance, a cacao estate. There was mystery as Puri tried to figure out who had tried to kill her en route to Ecuador. There was family drama as she got to know her half siblings. There was new-to-me history as I learned about Vinces, a little Ecuadorian town known as Little Paris, and the early cacao industry in the region. All this while Puri passed as her husband who had been killed instead her on the boat to Ecuador. ⭐️⭐⭐️

• Read Around the World: South America (Ecuador)

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (2023)

I loved this historical murder mystery set in Maine inspired by a real midwife of the 18th century. When a dead man is found in the river in the middle of winter, midwife Martha Ballard is called in to determine how he died. When a doctor contradicts her conclusion that it was murder, Martha begins her own investigation. It was a riveting uncovering of secrets and corruption by a strong and admirable woman during a time I don’t often read about, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Read Around the World: North America (Maine)

A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Gamache, #2) by Louise Penny (2006) 📖&🎧

After a 5-star entry into Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series earlier this year, I was eager to continue the series. I planned this book for December since it was set during Christmas time. I still really enjoyed Chief Inspector Gamache, the setting of Three Pines, and the close-knit community. However, the murder mystery and investigation, along with the new characters introduced around it, didn’t resonate with me in the same way, which made the overall reading experience less enjoyable. This won’t keep me from continuing the series, though! I’m eager to move forward with it slowly but surely.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (2024) 📖

This was a book club pick about which I went into not knowing anything, just that people loved it. I struggled with it. I began my reading experience with the audiobook, but it wasn’t working for me so I switched to reading. It helped, but I still struggled. The writing was too poetic for me, and I had a hard time following the timeline. I actually had to pause it (at about 50%) to read another book for another book club and only returned to it because I wanted to finish it for our meeting. I will say that I did enjoy the second half much more and finished it without any issue. Maybe I just started it at the wrong time for me.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

What have you been reading lately?

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