2013: My Year of Reading — Jessica White

Having recovered from the excesses of Xmas and New Year (always difficult for someone who can’t hold her alcohol, & who was given the flu by her brother to boot), I’m sitting at my desk to look over what I read in 2013.

Those who follow this blog might know that I’m a contributing editor to the Australian Women Writers Challenge, an initiative established by Elizabeth Lhuede in 2012 in response to the lack of recognition for women writers in Australia (I have blogged on this previously). I’m part of a team of volunteers who write monthly round-ups (and will soon be posting our annual round-ups) of different genres and fields, mine being diversity, short stories and poetry. Over the year I helped organise a spotlight on Indigenous women writers, and women writers of diverse heritage, and this year I’m planning to arrange similar spotlights on lesbian writers and women writers with disabilities.

Through the challenge, I’ve come to know some wonderful readers and bloggers, including Elizabeth herself; Sue of Whispering Gums, a champion of Australian literature; Marilyn Brady of Me, You and Books who runs the Global Women of Colour challenge (of which I’m also a participant); and Annabel Smith, author of the charming novel Whisky Charlie Foxtrot. For a writer who spend many lonely hours with just a laptop for company, such a community of writers and readers is a saving grace.

Below is the list of the books I read over the past year. For the AWW challenge, I had planned to read 20 and review 10, and ended up reading 43 and reviewing 14. I would have liked to have reviewed more, but time was at a premium. Altogether my reading totalled 62 books, which is a bit disappointing for someone who needs to read to improve her craft. On the other hand I did have a horrendously busy year, so this coming year I should be able to get through more. My favourites were Merlinda Bobis’ Fish-Hair Woman (winner of the Most Underrated Book Award), because it was so different and poetic, Kirstel Thornell’s Night Street about the artist Clarice Beckett, and Kris Olsson’s beautiful memoir, Boy, Lost. Others I really enjoyed were Michelle de Krester’s award-winning Questions of Travelfor its language, characterisation and almost 19thC sensibility, and Venero Armanno’s Black Mountain for being completely out of left-field (as I like being surprised).

This year I’m still aiming to read 20 books and review 10 for the Australian Women Writers Challenge. I will most likely do more than that, but wanted to leave room as I’d liked to read more international literature this year, and return to my enduring love, nineteenth century fiction.

If you’d like to sign up to the Australian Women Writers Challenge in 2014, you can do so here.

Books reviewed for AWW Challenge:

1.The Dark Wet, Jess Huon

2.The Romantic, Kate Holden

3.Making a Meal of It, Jui-Shan Chang

4.Purple Threads, Jeanine Leane

5.Nest, Janine Burke

6.Like a House on Fire, Cate Kennedy

7.An Opening, Stephanie Radok

8.The Beloved, Annah Faulkner

9.The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, Ambelin Kwaymullina

10. Mullumbimby, Melissa Lucashenko