Books that I have previously read that I have re-visited as Audiobooks in 2020.

I don't really know whether I am counting these towards the number of books I have read this year or not, but I wanted to keep track of them somehow. These are not new books for me, but are ones I have read as actual books previously, sometimes many years ago in my childhood, and some more recently. As I have recently discovered the range of e-audiobooks available to borrow for free via BorrowBox or Libby apps through public libraries, I have been listening to audiobooks while doing other things about the house or on walks etc. As I have read these books previously I already know what is going to happen so it's not so critical if I intermittently zone out while concentrating on something else at hand. But it is nice to revisit some old books and to experience them as audiobooks.

January 2020

The Rosie Project - by Graeme Simsion - Bolinda audiobook read by Dan O'Grady. (Borrowbox)

February 2020

Burial Rites - by Hannah Kent - Bolinda audiobook read by Morven Christie. (Borrowbox)
Obernewtyn - by Isobelle Carmody - Bolinda audiobook read by the author.(Borrowbox)
Charlotte's Web - by E.B. White - Bolinda audiobook read by the author.(Borrowbox)

March 2020
Any Ordinary Day - by Leigh Sales, Bolinda audiobook read by the author. (Borrowbox)

Harry Potter et la Coupe de Feu - by J.K. Rowling, read in French by Bernard Giraudeau. (Libby)

"Pachinko" by Min Jin Lee

I don’t know a lot about Korean or Japanese history, so I learnt quite a lot from reading this inter-generational family drama set in Korea and Japan from the 1930s to the 1990s. It is fascinating to read all sorts of little details about what life would have been like, the similarities and the differences of life experienced by each generation. This novel deals a lot with the struggles of families who find themselves living in poverty (in contrast to the more effortless lives of rich characters), who seem to have been dealt so much bad luck, and how different people’s personalities and their life experiences, not to mention their gender, shape their fortunes within the confines of what circumstances they find themselves in. How hard some people work, just to get by, yet live with such kindness, generosity and strength. How each generation dreams and projects their dreams on each subsequent generation, hoping for them to have a better life with more opportunities than they themselves did, and yet how this can be at odds with what the next generation’s personalities and desires and experiences are. It also shows intergenerational effects of poverty, suffering and war, and how decisions and mistakes of one generation can still have serious consequences for future generations.

I enjoyed this book, although I definitely was more drawn in by the first half than the second, as I found myself more interested in the lives of the older generations and history of the earlier eras in Japan and Korea rather than the ones of the more recent generations in more modern times. Reading this book in the lead up to International Women’s Day also made me thankful that I am born as a woman in current times, even though there is still much to be done in search of gender equity especially when considering the opportunities for non-white, non-cis-het women, we have still come a long way in the last 100 years.


Started reading on my Kindle: 20th February 2020
Finished: 6th March 2020
My score: 8/10
Stats: Historical novel, Female author, American-Korean author.

"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.

Heart of the Grass Tree by Molly Murn

This book is the first I have read by the Australian author Molly Murn. It is an intergenerational historical fiction/drama set on South Australia's Kangaroo Island. Reading about the beautiful unique landscape of Kangaroo Island that is so well captured by Molly Murn was bitter sweet for me, as I was reading this book as devastating bushfires tore through and destroyed much of the spectacular Flinders Chase National Park on the island.

This book tells the stories of different female characters spanning the 1800s to the current day, with little side stories to give perspective from a couple of the male characters too. I found a couple of the stories really interesting and engrossing (those told by Maringani & William and Nell & Sol), but was not really captured by the stories of the more recent characters like Pearl and Diana and their immediate families. I think if the novel had focused more on Maringani and Nell's stories I would have scored this book much higher as I really enjoyed those parts of the book more. I also found it a bit confusing how the book was set out, some chapters clearly specified in the chapter heading which character was telling that part of the story, while others did not and instead had a location as the chapter heading. The sections told by the male characters did not seem to have chapter headings with their names in them either. I am not sure if there was a reason/pattern behind the choice of chapter heading styles and maybe I missed the subtlety of it.

I have heard that Molly Murn will be giving a talk at the Friends of the Barr Smith Library next month, so I am going to go to this and hopefully learn more of the history behind the novel and perhaps gain a better appreciation of the novel and it's structure too.

Started reading: 15th January 2020
Finished reading: 19th February 2020
My score: 6.5/10
Stats: Female author, Australian Author, New Author to me, Historical fiction and modern drama.

Photo taken by me in April 2019, on day 2 of hiking the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail

Aussie Author Challenge 2019 Wrap-up and General Overview of Books I Read in 2019.

2019 was unfortunately not a year where I read prolifically. I started 16 books, and only finished reading 12 of them. One of my few reading goals this year was to seek out and read more books written by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers. Some of the best books I read last year were by Indigenous Australian writers, plus, as part of my efforts towards Reconciliation I think it's a good step to listen and learn from the perspectives and experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and also to consciously put my money where my intentions and thoughts are to show my support and buy books and other items from Indigenous authors, artists and businesses. Of the 16 books I started reading, 10 were by Australian authors, and of those at least 5 were by Aboriginal writers.

Looking back at the books I read this year, the ones that really made an impact on me were: 1. Too Much Lip - by Melissa Lucashenko, 2. The Old Lie - by Claire G Coleman and 3. Wolfe Island - by Lucy Treloar. I thoroughly recommend all 3 of these books. They are all beautifully written, powerful books that made me think and re-evaluate and contemplate life from different perspectives. Humans can really be so horrific and cruel to others, sometimes through ignorance but sometimes it's deliberate, yet others are so generous with their love, compassion and patience.

Aussie Author Challenge 2019 Books:
Dyschronia 9/10
Too Much Lip 10/10
The Old Lie 9/10
Wolfe Island 8/10
Taboo 8/10
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf - have not finished yet
Australia Day - have not finished yet
The Rosie Result 8/10
Fusion 7/10
Wimmera 4/10

Of the 10 books I started reading as part of the 2019 Aussie Author Challenge, I did not finish 2 of them, but this is not a reflection of the quality of those books, I just did not have a lot of reading time or headspace for books last year for various reasons. I plan to pick up these two books again and finish them at some point: Australia Day - by Stan Grant (non-fiction by an Indigenous Australian Wiradjuri writer) and The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf - by Ambelin Kwaymullina (Young Adult Fantasy novel by an Indigenous Australian author from Western Australia). 
 
Apart from the books I read as part of the Aussie Author Challenge, other 6 books I started reading in 2019 were:

Other Books:
The Missing Lynx 9/10
Unsheltered 8/10
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running 9/10
About Grace 8-9/10
The Secret History - did not finish.
They Cannot Take the Sky - have not finished, but intend to pick up again in 2020.

I finished 4 out of these 6 books - I struggled to get into The Secret History by Donna Tartt as I found all the characters unlikable, so I am unsure that I will ever go back to finish reading it. They Cannot Take the Sky is a collection of stories written by people that Australia has locked up in immigration detention centres. I have actually only read a couple of pages from the book so far, but plan to make time to read it properly in 2020. It was lent to me by a friend, and the book is in good conditions, so I didn't want to shove it in my bag to read on public transport, and it wasn't the sort of book I felt like reading before going to sleep, but will make time to read it in the coming year.

I really loved The Missing Lynx written by a friend and ancient DNA colleague from my PhD days,  Ross Barnett. I also enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's Unsheltered, and Haruki Murakami's contemplative memoir about his life and running various marathons. If you enjoy running I think you would also really connect with this book too. About Grace was good, but not to the 'must read' 10/10 category that I thought Anthony Doerr's All the Light You Cannot See was in.

I look forward to 2020 and hope it is a year with many more hours to read powerful and beautiful books. What were your favourite books of 2019? Who are your favourite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors?

Aussie Author Challenge 2020

I'm taking part in the Aussie Author Challenge for 2020. I have taken on this reading 'challenge' most years since 2013 as it is a great way to ensure I discover and read books by outstanding Australian authors and help support local writers and open my eyes further to the diversity of views and stories that Australian books/authors represent.

If you haven't done the Aussie Author Challenge before, I recommend you check out the Book Lovers Book Review blog for more details and sign up - it is completely free, and you can also read the reviews other people write to help you discover other authors you might not have heard of previously.

If I include reading actual books and kndle books with listening to audiobooks from my library then I will aim for the Wallaroo (6 Aussie books) - Kangaroo (12 Aussie books) level, as I also want to read some books by international authors too. I am once again adding my own personal goal to the Aussie Author Challenge and aiming to ensure that at least half the Aussie books I read this year are written by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writers.