"The Trauma Cleaner" by Sarah Krasnostein

As I really didn't read as many books as I would have liked to last year, and after having quite a few people tell me about the wide range of e-audiobooks that are available to borrow for free through various public library services like BorrowBox and Libby, I have decided to add more audiobooks into my life in 2020. Some I will re-visit books I have previously read as books, and enjoy them again as audiobooks to listen to while cooking dinner or doing things around home when it doesn't matter so much if I am concentrating the entire time. But others, like "The Trauma Cleaner" I am listening to as an audiobook without having read the book myself first.

"The Trauma Cleaner" was recommended to me by several people, including my Mum. I listened to it as a Bolinda Audio Book (narrated by Rachael Tidd) that I borrowed through the library. It is a hard book to describe, it describes the life of an amazingly strong and resilient character whose experiences are far outside my safe privileged bubble. Sandra Pankhurst, the person the book is about, had a traumatic abusive childhood that is awful to imagine, followed by many other traumatic experiences as an adult that are probably beyond comprehension for many people reading the book. As it says on the back on the book, "Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small business woman, trophy wife"....How someone gets through a life like this and comes out being such a wonderfully caring and generous soul is both mind-blowingly inspiring and also so heartbreaking. It is confronting in parts and I did cry but I thoroughly recommend this book. It really opened my eyes in lots of ways. 

The book has been short-listed and/or won a range of awards in 2018, including being the Winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2018. I was unsure whether to count this book for the Aussie Author Challenge, but on the author's website she describes herself as "A fourth generation American and a third generation Australian" who has lived and worked in both countries, currently living in Melbourne but spending part of the year working in New York City. So Ive decided to count her as an Aussie Author :-)

Started & finished listening in January 2020.
My score: 9/10
Stats: AudioBook, Female author, New Author to me, Australian author, biography, non-fiction.

"Too Much Lip" by Melissa Lucashenko

"Too Much Lip" by Melissa Lucashenko was the latest book I chose to read as part of the annual Aussie Author Challenge that I take part in most years (where I try to read 12 books by Australian Authors), and as part of my personal reading challenge to myself (to make sure at least 6 of these books are by Indigenous Australian authors this year).

This book was the Winner of the Miles Franklin literary award in 2019. I found it to be a real page turner (I read it cover to cover in less than 2 days, and it has been a long time since I have done that), yet it wasn't a light superficial book, it was packed full of hard truths about racism. I’ll be reflecting on this book for a long time, and I am really grateful for Melissa writing this book and giving me the chance to see a glimpse of life in Australia from a very different perspective to my privileged white experience. It shows many ways that colonisation has had a negative impact and still is having a negative impact on Aboriginal Peoples. The story is raw, hard-hitting, but also full of dark humour. I was gripped by it and was drawn into it. In contrast to Kim Scott's "Taboo", Melissa has injected a lot of Aboriginal language (Yugambeh language?) from northern NSW/QLD and Aboriginal-English slang throughout the story. Sometimes the words are explained, often they are just woven into the story and the reader can guess the meanings from the context. I really loved this aspect of the book, and given how many Indigenous Australian languages have been destroyed through colonisation I think it is really generous to share little parts of this language with the readers in this way. 2019 is the International Year of Indigenous Languages, and I have been loving hearing various Australian Indigenous languages celebrated more openly in the last year or so. I would love more local Indigenous languages being spoken around Australia, with place names and other words reverting from the English names to the names they were previously given for 1000s of years. For those who are interested, there is an ABC Radio podcast called "Awaye" that covers a lot of interesting topics on Indigenous art and culture and often has segments showcasing Indigenous Australian words from different languages around the country.




This is the first book by Melissa Lucashenko that I have read, but I will definitely be adding one of her previous books "Mullumbimby" to my 'to read' list now.

Started reading: 13th Sept 2019
Finished: 14th Sept 2019
My score: 10/10
Aussie Author Challenge stats: Female author, Indigenous Australian author, New to me author

"The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf" by Ambelin Kwaymullina

 

I'll add a short review once I finish reading this book.

Started reading: Sometime in May? 2019
Finished:
My score:
Aussie Author Challenge Stats: Female author, Indigenous author, Young Adult Fiction and Fantasy genre.

"Taboo" by Kim Scott

Started reading: 27/01/2019

Finished: 11/02/2019

My score: 8/10

Two of the books that I read that had the most impact on me in the last year or so were "Dark Emu, Black Seeds" a non-fiction book by Bruce Pascoe about the evidence and history of the oldest human agriculture on earth by Australia's First People, and the novel "Terra Nullius" by Claire G Coleman. Both are by Indigenous Australian authors, and both blew my mind in different ways, and started to help make me aware of how ignorant and unaware I was/am about so many aspects of the amazing culture and people who have been on this land for so many thousands of years and how horrific colonisation was and is in their experience, and how little we understand and appreciate it. So this year I am deliberatly seeking out more books by Indigenous Australian authors to help continue learning more from them. I have quite a few lined up to read, but if you have read any that you think I should add to my list, please let me know! :-)

Kim Scott is from Western Australia and is of the Noongar people. "Taboo" was a Miles Franklin award finalist in 2018, and has also won a number of other awards e.g. NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2018 and the Queensland Literary Awards 2018. He has written previous books which have also won major awards, such as ""That Deadman Dance" which won the Miles Franklin award in 2011. "Taboo" is the first book by Kim Scott that I have read, and "That Deadman Dance" is also in my "to read soon" pile.

"Taboo" is written in 3 parts. I must admit I struggled to put much of Part I into context until I started reading Part II, as Part I and Part III are the present time, and Part II gives you some of the past/background that leads up to the events that occur in Part I and III.  

The story is set in the present day from what I can tell, and the setting is people from "that Wirlomin mob" coming back to their land in WA which has been taboo for many years after brutal massacres of their people by the colonisers. They are returning for the opening of a "Peace Park", a Reconciliation memorial. Many of the group have been in prison and/or are dealing with addictions and other issues as part of the flow on effects of colonisation. There is also such compassion and resilience and passion too, and the characters really do come to life out of the page. The book deals with issues of being disconnected from their people and country, loss of language and knowledge that stretched back thousands of years. The book also makes you recognise the sometimes unconscious and sometimes deliberate biases with which we look at the world and judge people, and how one-sided history books can be. Despite these serious issues, and some very dark unpleasant sexual exploitation parts to the book, the story is written in the most beautiful way, almost like poetry or painting with words that bring scenes and people to life, and also there is humour and wit at times. 

  

Some of the Aboriginal characters in the book speak in their local language, and are trying to teach other characters the words so that their language and culture and stories live on. But the words are not written, which although it disappointed me a little at first as I am really interested to learn the local Indigenous words for places and animals, I think it was a deliberate choice by the author to not include the words in the local language and actually made me think about how many Australian languages have been lost or are only spoken by a few remaining people who survived the colonisation period and were able to stay connected to their people and country. So much culture and language lost, before you even contemplate the human life cost of the brutal massacres. It also made me reflect on how Indigenous Australian languages were spoken languages, not traditionally written down as texts, at least from the little I know (which is very little) and so perhaps there isn't one set way to write each word.   

Anyway, this was a complex book for me, very thought-provoking - while I was reading it, and also now after I have finished the book I am still reflecting on it and digesting it in my mind. It has some dark disturbing aspects, but it also has some positive light throughout it, and some humour and is beautifully written. I think it will stay with me for some time, which is a sign of a really good book.

If you would like to hear the author, Kim Scott, reading from the first few pages of this book, you can listen to this episode of ABC National's AWAYE program. Kim brings his writing to life, it sounds like poetry it is so evocative in places.

If you want a more detailed review with more of the story line then you may be interested in this review from the Sydney Morning Herald. 

Aussie author challenge stats: new to me author, male author, Australian Indigenous Author.

"Salt Creek" by Lucy Treloar

I started reading this book as part of the Aussie Author Challenge 2018. It is an historical novel set in the Coorong in South Australia during the 1800s. The author is female, and it is the first book I have read by this author. The book was recommended to me by my friend Kathryn.

Started reading: 13th April 2018
Finished: 24th April 2018
My score: 9/10

"Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins

"Mockingjay" is the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy. Overall I found the trilogy to be gripping and easy to read, and found them hard to put down. Some aspects of the books I found to be really novel and exciting, other aspects I found a bit disturbing as they don't seem so far fetched in light of some of the obsession with reality TV shows or the technology that is already here, and definitely the greedy, manipulative, corruption that is seen in politics around the world. However I was disappointed with the ending, and also found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with the main character Katniss as the trilogy unfolded. While this sounds like a bit of a negative review, I actually really recommend this trilogy, although the underlying vibe of the book is one of distopia for me. These books would be great to read on a series of long plane flights where you can get absorbed into the story and read them quickly one after the other.

Started reading on my kindle: 7th December 2013
Finished reading: 23rd December 2013 
My score: 8.5/10

"Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins

"Catching Fire" is the second book in the popular Hunger Games trilogy.
I started reading it on my kindle: 1st Dec 2013 and finished it: 7th Dec 2013
My score: 8/10 (not as good as the first book in the series as it was very slow to get into it, and then ended mid-story). Still very addictive though and I will be going on to read book 3 next! Once I finished reading "Catching Fire" I went to see the film version of it which is currently screening in cinemas in Adelaide at the moment. I must say that the film of "Catching Fire" is one of those rare movies where the film is equal to or even better than the book! Definitely recommend seeing it on a big screen if possible :-)

"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is a very popular trilogy, and I am quite late in getting on the bandwagon. Lots of people have recommended these books to me as gripping, fast paced, easy/quick read. I must agree, I certainly found this first book in the series to be a great story, easy and fast to read, a mix of fantasy and dystopia and reality-tv-like scenarios...very addictive reading! I started reading it on my kindle: 27th Nov 2013 and finished: 1st December 2013. it's one of those books where you stay up way too late at night reading despite having work the next day as it's a page-turner. I'm going straight on to read the rest of the trilogy.
My score: 8.5/10

"Burial Rites" by Hannah Kent

 

Written by an Australian, the Goodreads website describes this book as "A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829". This is the final book that I chose to read as part of the Aussie Author Challenge.

Started reading on my kindle: 3rd November 2013
Finished: 10th November 2013
My score: 8.5/10

This book is bleak in many ways; set in Iceland in the 1800s; dealing with a woman convicted of murdering 2 men; the last woman in Iceland to be executed; and this book is a fictional account (based on a lot of historical knowledge) of this convicted woman's last few months 'imprisoned' on a remote farm. However, I found this to be a great book, almost poetic in some of the descriptions, despite the austere characters and landscape. You end up really feeling for the 'criminal' Agnus, and the book develops into a bit of an inevitable tragedy, reminding me of reading King Lear or Antigone. Very impressive book for such a young and new South Australian author. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

"Sisters of Mercy" by Caroline Overington

This is the first book I have read by this Australian author (Caroline Overington), as my part in contributing to the Australian Literature Month on the Reading Matters blog. I didn't really know what to expect of the plot, characters or writing style, but I had read a couple of reviews which warned that the book didn't tie up all loose ends so I was prepared for that. Of the reviews I read on the Goodreads website, the book seemed to polarise opinion (people either seemed to really like it, or find the ending wasn't satisfying and therefore hated it). 

It is a contemporary crime/mystery set in Sydney and Melbourne, and is told in a way that makes you believe it is a real unsolved mystery based on real events (although it isn't), with many little accurate details of locations and events scattered throughout. It is thought-provoking, well-written and a real page turner. It is disturbing in parts (but more in the way of a Kathy Reichs book rather than Michael Faber's 'under my skin'). It does bring up issues of foster care and welfare of severely handicapped children in Australia over the last 40 years, some of which is pretty horrific and you just have to hope that at least the worst of it is all fiction... The story is told by two main characters: Snow Delaney (a nurse caring for handicapped children; currently in jail) and Jack Fawcett (a journalist following the case of Snow's missing sister).

I don't want to give away too much of the plot or of the character of Snow, as the slow unfolding of her story and her unbalanced mind is one of the most compelling aspects of this book. And the book is not all dark, there are touches of humour, for how can you not love a book which includes a budgie named Tony Abbot?! I am really thrilled to have stumbled upon a new Australian author whose writing I really enjoy (and excited to discover she has already written several others for me to look out for). Thanks to the Australian Literature Month challenge which inspired me to go looking for a book by an Australian author that I had not previously read before.

The synopsis of the story from the publisher's website:
 "Sisters of Mercy" by Caroline Overington is the haunting crime novel of two sisters - one has vanished, the other is behind bars...
Snow Delaney was born a generation and a world away from her sister, Agnes. Until recently, neither even knew of the other's existence. They came together only for the reading of their father's will - when Snow discovered, to her horror, that she was not the sole beneficiary of his large estate. Now Snow is in prison and Agnes is missing, disappeared in the eerie red dust that blanketed Sydney from dawn on September 23, 2009.
With no other family left, Snow turns to crime journalist Jack Fawcett, protesting her innocence in a series of defiant letters from prison. Has she been unfairly judged? Or will Jack's own research reveal a story even more shocking than the one Snow wants to tell?

~~~

I read this book on my Kindle in April 2013.
My score: 9/10

"Under the Skin" by Michael Faber

I recently read a 5-Star review on the blog "Reading Matters", which prompted me to read this book. Now that i have finished reading it myself, I can say although I agree almost wholeheartedly with her review, my (non)appreciation of the horror element to this book lead me to give it quite a different score. The book is set in Scotland (near Inverness), and the central character, Isserley, is unlike any character I have met before ("half Baywatch babe, half little old lady" as described in the book), but really that doesnt even begin to explain how strange this character is. I'm not sure if the correct term to describe the world portrayed in this book is "Distopic" but I found it creepy, depressing and more than a bit twisted. However it did cause me to stop and think a bit more about some issues associated with meat consumption and treatment of animals destined for the meat market. I'm sure if I appreciated the macabre horror genre more I would give this book a higher score, but I found it too twisted to really enjoy reading it, and often kept turning the pages just to have closure rather than because I was enjoying the book.

I read this book on my Kindle in March 2013.
My score: 6.5/10