{"id":1062,"date":"2012-05-20T21:20:24","date_gmt":"2012-05-20T11:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/?p=1062"},"modified":"2013-01-02T09:29:20","modified_gmt":"2013-01-01T23:29:20","slug":"australian-women-writers-2012-reading-challenge-mission-accomplished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwebb.name\/?p=1062","title":{"rendered":"Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading Challenge – mission accomplished?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This morning I published my review of Sea Hearts<\/em>\u00a0by Margo Lanagan<\/a> and I realised I’ve read 10 books by Australian women writers in 2012 and published reviews on all 10<\/a>. And that means I’ve met my revised challenge target – a purist (speculative fiction)\u00a0at the Franklin-fantastic level (read 10 books, review at least 4).<\/p>\n

I must admit it feels good to have met my target. Participating in the challenge has helped me become more aware of the biases in my reading habits, assisted me to more consciously seek out diversity amongst the authors I am following and led me to some cracking good yarns I might not have otherwise come across. Can’t ask for much more out of a reading challenge!<\/p>\n

I’m particularly proud of the article on the reading challenge<\/a> I had published with Antipodean SF<\/a>, as well as the review of When We Have Wings<\/em><\/a>\u00a0that Elizabeth Lhuede was good enough to publish on the Australian Women Writers website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But like the circumstances that surrounded the US President who famously said his<\/strong> mission was accomplished, the challenge doesn’t really end here. I’m hoping this milestone marks the start of a fundamentally different pattern of reading for me. A quick check over my reviews on this website<\/a> since I started shows me reviewing 16 books by female authors and 14 by male authors. That’s within a margin of error of parity. By this time next year I intend to be able to quote similar statistics.<\/p>\n

I’m going to continue with the AWWC until the end of 2012, tagging any reviews of Australian female authors for the challenge. 10 by May – hopefully December will see me at 25 or so.<\/p>\n

For those that are interested, links to my first 10 reviews can be found below:<\/p>\n

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  1. Power and Majesty<\/em>\u00a0by Tansy Rayner Roberts<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Bad Power<\/em>\u00a0by Deborah Biancotti<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. The Courier’s New Bicycle<\/em>\u00a0by Kim Westwood<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Above\u00a0<\/em>by Stephanie Campisi<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. A Book of Endings<\/em>\u00a0by Deborah Biancotti<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Debris<\/em>\u00a0by Jo Anderton<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Showtime<\/em>\u00a0by Narrelle M Harris<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. When We Have Wings<\/em>\u00a0by Claire Corbett<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Ishtar<\/em>\u00a0by Kaaron Warren, Deborah Biancotti & Cat Sparks<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Sea Hearts <\/em>by Margo Lanagan<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Update<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Since finishing the initial challenge, I’ve read and reviewed a few more books. I’ll keep updating this post with the additional reviews as they come in so I have a single listing.<\/p>\n