2015 saw me sign up to the Australian Women Writers Challenge for the first time and the Goodreads Challenge for the second, and I smashed my totals.
2016 saw me sign up for both of these challenges again. Unfortunately with everything going on I didn’t actually write my sign-up post and I haven’t linked most of my reviews to the challenge, but I did read and review well over my projected total of 50 books. The Goodreads Challenge saw me sign up for 100 books again, and I fell short.
In 2017 I am going to sign up to both of these challenges again, and hopefully I can keep up with all the other bits that go along with them. My Goodreads Challenge I dropped to 90 books so that I don’t feel quite as much pressure coming in to the end of the year. I think I will stick with 50 for the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge because I have found that quite doable, it’s the linking that lets me down.
So I’m going to use this post as my challenge completed for 2016 and my signup for 2017 post. That will keep me up to date and hopefully inspire me to stay up to date.
The Australian Women Writers Challenge was established in 2011 to help raise awareness for Australian Women Writers and start to even up the gender bias in reviewing books by women. This was basically all I knew when I decided to sign up to the challenge the first time but if you want to find out more about the challenge and it’s background the best place to get that information is the Australian Women Writers website. I have done a little background reading and I think this is a fantastic challenge to help increase the profile of our Aussie writers because there are some fantastic homegrown talents who deserve the recognition.
The challenge is about increasing our reading of Australian women but when I look at my recent reading history I find that reviewing for Beauty and Lace has certainly gone a long way to doing that for me already. If I was to compare my Australian reads now with those of a few years ago, the numbers would be very different.
The challenge levels are quite achievable but I have decided to really challenge myself and rather than starting with one of the set levels (Stella: read 4, review 3; Miles: read 6, review 4 or Franklin: read 10, review 6) I am going to hit it hard and have opted to read and review 50 books by Australian women in 2017.
Wish me Luck! Let’s hope there’s a shift soon, my first two books of the year are not by Australian women.
The Australian Women Writers Challenge is not just for reviewers either. You can join as a reader only, the main thing is to get our women writers more widely read.
I chose to read 50 in 2016 because it seems like an achievable number, and I did it easily; perhaps I should drop my Goodreads total that far…
These are the books I read by Australian Women Writers in 2016:
- Sally Hepworth – The Things we Keep
- Sara Foster – All That Is Lost Between Us
- Amanda Ortlepp – Running Against The Tide
- Juliet Madison – Scent
- Alli Sinclair – Under The Spanish Stars
- C.S. Pacat – Kings Rising
- Rachael Johns – Outback Sisters
- Natasha Lester – A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald
- Cathryn Hein – April’s Rainbow
- Nicole Hurley-Moore – Hartley’s Grange
- Beck Nicholas – What I Saw
- Nicki Edwards – Life Support
- Sarah Ayoub – The Yearbook Committee
- Bronwyn Stuart – Mixing Business with Pleasure
- Claire Boston – Break the Rules
- Kelly Doust – Precious Things
- Jenn J McLeod – The Other Side of the Season
- Nicolette Hugo – Bought
- Trace Balla – Rockhopping
- Leisa Rayven – Wicked Heart
- Juliet Madison – Taste
- Mandy Magro – Bluegrass Bend
- Juliet Madison – April’s Glow
- Nicki Edwards – The Peppercorn Project
- Belinda Williams – Wish List
- Karly Lane – Second Chance Town
- Cherie M Hudson – Undeniable
- Jane Harper – The Dry
- Esme Barrett – Sibling Realty
- Jennifer Scoullar – Journey’s End
- Nicole Trope – Blame
- Claire Boston – Change of Heart
- Caroline Beecham – Maggie’s Kitchen
- Liz Byrski – The Woman Next Door
- Victoria Purman – Flame
- Rachael Johns – The Art of Keeping Secrets
- Suzanne Leal – The Teacher’s Secret
- Helen Thurloe – Promising Azra
- Rachael Johns – It’s Not You It’s Her
- Rachael Johns – One Perfect Night
- Karen Brooks – The Locksmith’s Daughter
- Belinda Alexandra – Southern Ruby
- Mel Tregonning – small things
- Wai Chim – Freedom Swimmer
- Laura Bloom – The Cleanskin
- Kim Kelly – Jewel Sea
- Meredith Jaffe – The Fence
- Mardi McConnochie – Quest of the Sunfish
- Bronwyn Stuart – She’s The One
- Nicki Edwards – Critical Condition
- Victoria Purman – The Three Miss Allens
- Fiona Palmer – The Family Secret
- Fleur McDonald – Sapphire Falls
- Claire Boston – Blaze a Trail
- Belinda Williams – Heartthrob
- Barbara Hannay – The Grazier’s Wife
- Anna Romer – Beyond The Orchard
- Mary-Anne O’Connor – Worth Fighting For
- Tricia Stringer – A Chance of Stormy Weather
- Em Rusciano – Try Hard
- Mandy Magro – Walking the Line
- Karly Lane – Third Time Lucky
- Annie Seaton – Daintree
- Christine Dibley – To The Sea
- Lauren Sams – Crazy Busy Guilty
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!