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?

"Wolfe Island" by Lucy Treloar

I loved Lucy Treloar's "Salt Creek", and was eagerly awaiting her latest novel. "Wolfe Island" did not disappoint... I was hooked right away by the beautiful writing, interesting setting and characters. Speculative fiction, but scarily feels like it could easily be where we are headed in 10-20 years from now.

Started reading: 7th December 2019
Finished: early January 2020
My score: 8/10

Aussie Author Challenge: Female author, historical/speculative fiction?

"The Old Lie" by Claire G. Coleman

Started reading: 4th October 2019
Finished:sometime in October 2019.

I read Claire's first novel "Terra Nullius" last year, and it was a very powerful book that had a huge impact on me. While very different in some ways, "The Old Lie" also has similar powerful themes throughout it, making you reflect on humanity, refugees, empathy, racism, colonialism, all while being gripped by a sci fi war story full of interesting characters whose paths eventually intertwine in unexpected ways. I thoroughly recommend it. The book also connects to one of the few poems I remember learning at high school that made an impression on me at the time - Wilfred Owen's "Death et Decorum est" - the beginning of the story definitely transported me into the scenes that poem evoked.

Aussie Author Challenge: Female author, Indigenous Australian Author, Science Fiction, Speculative 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

"Dyschronia" by Jennifer Mills

"Dyschronia" by Jennifer Mills is one of the short-listed books for the Miles Franklin 2019 awards. It is set in South Australia and has an environmental/climate change angle which of course makes it a must-read book for me.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that Jennifer Mills' writing is beautiful, unique, and skillful. I wrote down several quotes from the book as I read it because I was so captivated by the words and how she captured the tricky ways in which time can seem to move:

"Three years since she'd seen Ivy, maybe four. Twice that long since she had left saying she needed time, as if time wasn't everywhere, seeping into every crevice."

"It wasn't right the way these moments, the worst moments, could tear out of their resting places. As if nothing ever passed into history, as if everything was only another layer of now, sticking over and over itself like old wallpaper."

"And time came off it's axis and rolled away".

"Time doesn't stop until it stops for good. It only heals until it kills."

These are just some of the examples of the way time is described in "Dyschronia", and similarly other concepts, are written in a multitude of different ways that each seems to capture the essence of the thing being described so perfectly, only to have that thing described again in a completely different way at another point in the story that is perfect from another view.

The book itself can be hard to follow in some ways, deliberately so, as most of the book is told from the point of view of Sam, who suffers from migraines that appear to forewarn of the future, and each chapter jumps back and forth in time and between what is really happening and what Sam has 'seen' through her migraines over several decades of her life. As I have read mentioned elsewhere, the other chapters of the book are reminiscent of the 'chorus' from Greek Tragedies like King Lear or Antigone, and are told from the point of the collective town members.

The story itself is dystopian/speculative fiction, set in South Australia in a town called Clapstone with many similarities to real world Whyalla, including multiple references to the giant cuttlefish that spawn in that special part of the world. The book deals with climate change, it appears to be set in the very close future, and looking back at our current time in a nostalgic way, but this is mixed with a depressing acceptance of the new reality of unviable land, forced relocations of towns and cities, living in 'domes', never-ending drought, the death of all sea life, hardly any birds except drones that look like birds or caged pet budgies.. the book is quite bleak, and depressing, because it feels like this is eerily familiar to what we are on the cusp of now with the general apathy and lack of leadership in this country to address global warming and the climate crisis with the urgency and seriousness that it deserves. It's like we are sleep-walking into a dystopian migraine of a future that seems all too credible:

"For our generation, the course of life seemed tilted towards growth. The boom was infinite, like the ocean."

"But there's no safe, not after tomorrow. We exist between emergencies, emergency responses, more emergencies."

I would give this book 10/10 for the writing and the uniqueness, but I'm giving it 9/10 overall because I found the last few chapters unsatisfying in tying up the loose ends and was a bit confusing. It was probably intentional, and maybe I was unsatisfied because I wanted a positive outcome, but the ending is probably more in keeping with the themes of the book.

Started reading on my kindle: 4th August 2019
Finished: 13th September 2019
My score: 9/10

Aussie Author stats: female author, new author to me, dystopian/speculative fiction genre.

"Australia Day" by Stan Grant

I'll include a short review here once I finish reading it.

Started reading: 7th July 2019
Finished:
My score:
Aussie Author Challenge Stats: Male author, Indigenous Australian author, non-fiction genre

"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.

"The Rosie Result" by Graeme Simsion

After the depressing nature of the previous book that I read (Wimmera - by Mark Brandi), I decided I needed to find a lighter, more enjoyable read for my next book. So I chose to download "The Rosie Result" onto my kindle to read next as I loved the first book in this series - The Rosie Project.

"The Rosie Result" did not disappoint, it was a great end to the trilogy. It is both insightful and sensitive but also at times witty. It was easy to read and the characters by now are well-loved. As a scientist myself I find so many of the situations and experience and characters familiar and can readily relate to the stories in the Rosie trilogy.

Started reading: 7th April 2019
Finished: 18th April 2019
My score: 8/10
Aussie Author Challenge stats: male author, drama with humour genre

"Wimmera" by Mark Brandi

Initially when I started reading this book I was really excited as it reminded me a little of "Jasper Jones" but unfortunately as I read on it didn't live up to the high standard of Craig Silvi's novel. Both focus on teenage boys living in small Australian towns, navigating the experience of growing up, seeing things through a child's eyes then slowly becoming more aware of the darker side of adulthood and that not everything is as it may appear. While (mostly) not explicit, the dark side of this novel was sickening and disturbing, and I found the multiple failures of both the parents and the police/judicial system to protect the innocent kids in this book was depressing. 

Started reading: 31st March 2019
Finished: 3rd April 2019
My score: 4/10
Aussie Author Challenge stats: Male author, new to me author, fiction, crime-fiction.

"Fusion" by Kate Richards

I first heard of this book when Lucy Treloar posted about it recently on Instagram. It is a really unique book - the writing is quite beautiful, sometimes poetic, the central characters are unusual protagonists - adult conjoined twins named Sea and Serene who live in an isolated cabin in rural Victoria. For the beautiful writing and the thought-provoking uniqueness of the characters and the way they spoke/thought/interacted together I would rank this book very highly. However I found both the storyline and ending a little unsatisfying/underwhelming, so in the end I think I would rank it closer to 6.5 - 7 out of 10.

I read this book as part of the Aussie Author Challenge, the author has a medical degree and works part-time in genetics, it is the first time I have read a book by this author, I'm not sure what the genre would be, but I have heard the story described as a "modern Gothic tale" which seems to fit well I think. I'd definitely be interested to read other books by this author in future.

Started reading: 12th March 2019
Finished: 31st March 2019
My score: 7/10

Aussie Author Challenge stats: New to me author, Female author, genre - described as a 'modern Gothic tale'.

Aussie Author Challenge 2019 - with an Indigenous Australian focus.

I have participated in the Aussie Author Challenge at some level or other since 2013. This year I am participating with an added personal challenge of my own. 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 deliberately seeking out more books by Indigenous Australian authors to help continue learning more from them. So I thought I would combine this personal challenge I have set for myself to broaden my understanding and awareness of Indigenous Australian culture, challenges, discrimination, languages and reconciliation with the Aussie Author Challenge 2019. So I am attempting to read at least 6 books (Wallaroo level) by Indigenous Australian authors and/or focus on topics relevant to our First Nations people in the Aussie Author Challenge 2019.

"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.