Thank you NetGalley for the copy of Searching for Seashells. This was a very nice book filled with information and beautiful illustrations. I would definitely recommend this as a coffee table book for someone's beach house or if they live close to water.

Searching for Seashells is an attractive, engaging, and well written book about seashells by artist/illustrator Jessie King Regunberg. Released 23rd April 2024 by Hachette on their Workman Publishing imprint, it's 128 pages and is available in hardcover format.

The author is adept at portraying mollusks (and their shells) realistically and identifiably, and at the same time the illustrations are colorful and slightly whimsical. They're not hyper-realistic, like a lot of natural science drawings, but they are full of detail and color. The illustrations are arranged thematically from a general overview of the different classes of molluscs, through to the more specific genera, from top shelled species through deep sea snails (and literally everything in between).

The author has also included a short chapter on collecting, crafting, and storing shells. This is not a tutorial guide for drawing or painting shells; it's a book full of beautifully rendered artist paintings of different shells (and to a lesser degree how to collect, display, and use them).

There is some amount of information on the biology of the different types of molluscs and where they live and their life cycles, but it's easy to understand and read (not difficult biology and no binomial Latin species names).

Four stars. Attractive and well written. It's *not* a book for artists to copy or paint from.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

"Searching for Seashells" is a lovely, gorgeously illustrated little book, perfect for throwing in your beach bag on your next trip to the shore. As author and illustrator Jessie King Regunberg notes in the introduction, however, it is not meant to be a scientific guide; rather, it is what she calls "a biography of seashells, if you will." Regunberg brings her training as a historian to the project, providing not only the physical characteristics of the various shells she includes, but also sidebars on their history in art, in popular culture, in mythology and literature, and in decorating, interspersed with poems and bits of trivia. The edition I'm reviewing here is pocket-sized, but I could equally imagine this in a coffee-table book format for beach houses.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Workman Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

You might look at the cover and read the title and think you are getting an identification book. Then you flip through and realize you are wrong, you are getting so much more than that. You are getting an artist’s love letter to seashells! Jessie King Regunberg has filled her book with examples of beautiful shells you might actually come across at the beach, but she has also given the reader a glimpse into how shells have been used over the years in art, food, music, and literature. And all this was accomplished with her charming artwork, not a single photo to be found.

Anyone who has tucked a shell in their pocket or gone home with a bucket full of shells from the beach will enjoy this book tremendously!


Thank you to Workman Publishing Company and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I received this as an Arc in ebook form and I can promise you I am ordering a physical copy. This book is beautifully illustrated and contains so cool facts and tidbits about shells.

What a beautiful book!

The artwork is stunning and definitely inspiring for my naturalist journal. I think this is a great book to preliminary dive into malacology for those beachcombers who would love to know a bit more about their shells and the lives they once led.

Anyone who loves sea shells/mollusks will love this treasure of a book, and walk away having learned something new, whether that be the history of human connection, use in architecture, currency, cuisine, and art or some biology facts about mollusks! I personally loved the dive into different mollusk dishes and shell use in fashion.

This book is not a guide for those wishing to learn how to identify mollusks, or a deep dive into knowledge about them. The end has a nice quick guide for collectors and some inspiration on what to do with collected shells. I think it’s definitely more geared towards shell lovers and casual artists who want to admire the beauty of shells from around the world from an artist and author who clearly love these wonderful creatures. So if any of this sounds like you, or intrigues you, I recommend!

Such a beautifully illustrated guide! Each type of shell is illustrated in colourful detail. I liked that the classification was included- I knew about conch shells and mussels, but not about tun shells or harp shells! There are also other sections, such as shells in art, and crafts with shells. All in all, a lovely guide!

I received this DRC from NetGalley.

I liked the artwork. This was a good introduction to seashells and little bits about their use in history, pop culture, and project ideas. I don't know how viable it is if everyone wanted to start taking the shells they find at the beach and hoard them for themselves, but I suppose that's a separate discussion. I would have liked more information about the relative sizing of more of the species. I wouldn't recommend this as a full guide for someone who wants to specifically identify shells, especially since there are no actual pictures. For just a casual person who doesn't need too much info, it'll do. 3.5 stars.

This book caught my eye because these kinds of books are rather hard to find, so I couldn't help but take a look at this one exactly for that same reason. The few facts I know about this topic are what I have picked playing Animal Crossing, so it was a nice surprise to find out some familiar names. This book has tons of interesting information, facts, and cute illustrations about seashells that show the love from the eye of the author making it. I'm not sure if I would use it with my little students but definitely with the adult ones.

This book is not what I expected. I expected a seashell guide with photographs of the different kinds of shells and where to find them. I did not expect it to be full of colorful images depicted by an artist's rendering. Though the pictures are beautiful, I found it did not meet my expectations as an identification guide.

This is a lovely and informative book, with each type of shell described, and then illustrated in pastels by the author. My daughter will be getting a copy of this book when it’s published.

I grew up visiting the cold watered coast of Maine and am an avid shell collector. I loved the beautiful watercolor illustrations and how the author connected shells to fashion, the British crown, and food.

This is a sweet little book that was not what I expected. Since it said it’s an artist’s guide, I thought there would be some sort of artistic element— tutorials on how to draw or paint shells, ideas for ways to use them in your art, etc. Instead, it is a guide to all kinds of shells that is illustrated with the author’s paintings of shells. There is interesting trivia throughout, including tidbits about how shells were used in art at times throughout history (like this kind was used for jewelry and this one for making musical instruments). It is marketed as a gift book and would make a nice gift for an artist or she’ll collector. I could see it as a coffee table book at a seaside cottage too.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book for review.