2013 Australian Women Writers’ challenge – wrap up

Well, another year another Australian Women Writers’ challenge.

The 2013 Australian Women Writers’ Challenge was another great experience. Challenging the lack of critical attention for Australian women authors is a worthy cause and once again I had the chance to expand my exposure to interesting authors.

In 2013 I undertook the Franklin challenge (read 10 books, review at least 6) and all those books were in the speculative fiction field.

2013 was not a great reading year for me – I did not get through many books at all. However I was able to meet my challenge goal, with reviews posted for the following books:

  1. Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott – complete: review here
  2. A Trifle Dead by Livia Day – complete: review here
  3. Suited by Jo Anderton – complete: review here
  4. Dark Space by Marianne de Pierres – complete: review here
  5. The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina – complete: review here
  6. Black Glass by Meg Mundell – complete: review here
  7. The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills – complete: review here
  8. Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer – complete: review here
  9. New Ceres Nights edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Tehani Wessely – complete: review here
  10. Caution: Contains Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermott – complete: review here
  11. Witches Incorporated by K. E. Mills – complete: review here
  12. Wizard Squared by K. E. Mills – complete: review here
  13. Wizard Undercover by K. E. Mills – complete: review here

Highlights for me included Perfections by Kirsten McDermott (I’m a big fan of her work) and discovering the New Ceres shared world project (that was undertaken several years back). There were quite a few books that I’d planned to read in 2013 that I’ll have to carry forward to 2014 (including Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa L. Hannett, The Ambassador’s Mission by Trudi Canavan, Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth and Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier to name a few).

I’ll be supporting the 2014 challenge (stand by for my commencement post) and I’d encourage everyone to pick up a speculative fiction book by an Australian Women author and give it a go.

Author: mark

A writer of speculative fiction and all round good egg. Well, mostly good. OK, sometimes good.

8 thoughts on “2013 Australian Women Writers’ challenge – wrap up”

  1. Hi Mark, try and read Bitter Greens next, I made the mistake of trying to read it at work and had trouble pulling my head away from France and Venice and dealing with customers. I'm halfway through Kate's Wild Girl and it's just as enthralling.

    1. Hi Kathryn – yes, I keep putting it off, I'm not 100% sure why. It is purchased and sitting on my Kindle waiting for me, so no more excuses!

      -m

      1. It was on my please buy me list until I heard Kate talk about it at the Brisbane Writers Festival, You could tell how passionate she is about the subject of Rapunzel and that sold it for me. The research she did shows through out the book with out overpowering it which is great. If you don't review it post what you think about it on twitter I'm interested to see what you think about it.

  2. I'd recommend you add Angela Slatter's The Girl With No Hands (if you haven't already read it). She's a fantastic writer, from the list above I think you'd enjoy it.

    1. Hi Maree,

      I've heard about The Girl With No Hands but haven't had a chance to get hold of it – a great suggestion. I'll add it to the "to be read" pile.

      Welcome to the blog!

      -m

    1. I've been catching up on Adventures of a Bookonaut posts this afternoon – I can see you had a very good year all round! Well done Sean.

      -m

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