"Dare to do" by Sarah Outen

Bought this kindle book (plus audible add on read by the author which is excellent!) after watching the film doco of Sarah’s journey last night (The film is called "Home" you can see a trailer HERE). The film was inspiring yet honest and raw so I think the book will make an impression too.
Started reading: 2nd October 2020
Finished: 16th October 2020

My thoughts: 10/10

Listened to the audio version, and it was awesome. Inspiring, honest, raw, fun in parts, challenging in others. I also appreciated reading/listening to an adventure like this by a woman, especially a queer woman, and found it very refreshing and powerful and I could really connect with the story in ways that I often struggle to with most adventure stories that more often than not seem to be from straight white men.

 Book stats: Genre: non-fiction, adventure, memoir. Female author. LGBTIQ+. 10/10

 

“Cadence - travels with music” by Emma/Eddie Ayres

Started reading on my kindle: 10th Sept 2020.
Finished: 15th Sept 2020
My score/review: 10/10 - One of the best, or even the best, memoir I’ve ever read. Beautifully written, inspiring story, and interesting intelligent and compassionate writer that I felt an instant connection with, easy to read, even made me wish I could read music and play an instrument. Impressive for one book.

Aussie author stats: Although born in the UK, Eddie has dual nationality from what I read online, so I think this counts as a book by an Aussie Author for the Aussie Author Challenge. 

"Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters

 

Started reading: 7th June 2020

Finished: 23rd June 2020

My score: 10/10. Loved this book. 

Genre: Historical Fiction, LGBTIQ+

"Terra Nullius" by Claire G. Coleman

Started reading on: 18th January 2018 as part of the Aussie Author Challenge 2018.
This book was recommended to me by the owners of Adelaide's Pop-Up Bookshop. The author is an indigenous Australian from W.A. and has won a "Black & Write" fellowship in 2016.

Wow... the Aussie Author Challenge 2018 is certainly off to a good start, with a 10/10 score from me for a book written by an author who was new to me - Claire G. Coleman. Even if this book had solely been an historical novel based on the invasion of Australia by the British and the horrors of what was done by many 'Settlers' to the 'Native' population, this book would have been powerful and had a strong impact on me. But this book is so much more than that. As it says on the back cover "This is not the Australia of our history. This Terra Nullius is something new, but all too familiar." For the first approx. 120 pages it does indeed feel like you are thrown into the dark history of Australia in the late 1800s-early 1900s, with Native characters being 're-educated' by Settlers in harsh outback religious schools, slaves attempting futile escape attempts from their cruel masters on farms, and being tracked by Troopers who have the upper hand in terms of weaponry and technology but little outback survival skills and who secretly just wish they could get back on a ship to go home to their motherland. However there comes a point where something strikingly unexpected dawns on you as the reader and becomes more apparent as you progress, and this surprising twist really hits home. I want to say so much more as this book is a page-turner while also emotionally hitting home and making you consider our history in a different light and even made me question humanity in some ways. But I can't say more, as I don't want to ruin the surprise at the heart of this book - you just have to read it for yourself. I thoroughly recommend it.


Started reading: 18th January 2018
Finished: 31st January 2018
My score: 10/10
Genre: Historical fiction
Read as part of the Aussie Author Challenge 2018: Female author & new to me author.

“All the light we cannot see” by Anthony Doerr

Recommended by my Mum :-) I bought this book at least 2 years ago but only now prioritising more time to read novels again (mostly on the bus) as I really miss it.

Such an excellent book! It's an historic novel set in the Second World War, very moving and beautifully written, with such lovely moments of love and compassion and bravery shining strongly through that makes you have faith in the goodness of most humans even when surrounded by so much violence and horror inflicted by others. Also makes me wonder why we humans don't seem to learn from the horrific wars of the past and keep repeating them over and over in different places and different contexts.

Started reading: 7th Nov 2017

Finished: November 2017

My score: 10/10

"A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" by Anthony Marra

I chose to read this book as I noticed that it was given a 5-star 'must read' review on the Booklover Book Reviews blog. The interesting title also caught my attention.

I don't know quite how to describe this book. It is set during two separate times of war in Chechnya, during 1994 and 2004. It focuses on several different characters all caught up in the same conflicts in different ways. A talented female surgeon, her sister, a failed doctor who dreamed of being an artist, his neighbour the arborist and his 8-year old daughter, and a neighbour-informer and his old father. It actually took me a while to figure out that different chapters were dedicated not only to different characters points of view but also different time points. I'm not sure if it was just me that got confused by this, or if it was due to the kindle format I was reading as the start of each chapter shows a timeline from 1994-2004 and the year that the chapter will cover is highlighted in bold, but at least on my kindle edition the bold font was not much stronger than the rest of the font so I didnt notice until part way through the book. Might have been easier if each chapter just had the year, rather than a timeline with one year slightly bolder...My mistake though. And despite this initial confusion of time, I have to say this is definitely a '5-star must read' book. I didn't know a lot/anything about the Chechnyan conflicts despite them occurring fairly recently, so historically I found it educational, while the characters and their stories completely drew me in. It isn't a cheerful story, and there are sections that involve torture and brutality which I never find easy to read. Yet there are moments that are really beautiful in the book. I guess the main feeling I got from reading the book was how war and conflict can bring out the best or worst in humans...for some people it brings out unbelievable cruelty and hunger for power, others make choices to inform on neighbours or allow brutalities to occur through desperation while trying to protect people that are close to them, and yet others risk everything to save, protect and help others. I am thankful I have not had to personally live through such an experience where making those kind of decisions are necessary. I recommend this book highly.

Started reading on my kindle: 25th April 2014
Finished: 24th May 2014
My score: 10/10