“Dark Emu Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?” By Bruce Pascoe

I’ve had several people recommend this book to me over the last few years, but also had some trouble tracking down a copy of it. After hearing the author speak at the free Open State festival in October my mind was blown. Fascinated, excited, ashamed at my ignorance, and upset about why this is not common knowledge that we celebrate as a nation. I bought the book at the festival. There’s a good Richard Fidler interview with Bruce Pascoe you can listen to if you are interested.

Started reading: 1st Dec 2017 (approx).
Finished: 10th Feb 2018 (approx).
My score/review: 10/10 - every Australian should read it.

"The Good People" by Hannah Kent

I’ll try to upload a proper review soon. I’ve hardly had any time to read novels this year (I think I’ve read about 3 compared to my usual 30+) but this was a good one by a young South Aussie in my fav genre - historical fiction. Not quite as good as her awesome first novel from her PhD “burial rites” but still very interesting and dark. I’ve been fascinated in faerie lore since I was about 7 years old (or younger - it was the day of Hayley’s comet sighting in Sydney in the 1980s) when I first saw (and was later given) a treasured book “faeries” by Brian Froud & Alan Lee by a family friend -Sandy.

My score: 7.5/10

"A fig at the gate" by Kate Llewellyn.

Borrowed this book from the local library. The author is one of the lovely ladies in my Strength For Life fitness classes that I teach at my local community centre, the one who brought me the most delicious fig from her garden a couple of weeks ago. This book is about her garden she set up in Adelaide in her 70s plus musings on life in general. Would love to see her garden one day.

 

April 2017.

 

 

 

"The Birdman’s Wife" by Melissa Ashley

This is an historical novel about the life of Elizabeth Gould, who was the talented artist who illustrated "Birds of Australia", written by her famous husband John Gould. I first heard of the book when I listened to an interview with the author on ABC Radio National.



Borrowed from the Library and started reading: 16th February 2017
Finished: 3rd March 2017. 
My score: 8/10.

"The Best of Adam Sharp" by Graeme Simsion

"The best of Adam Sharp" by Graeme Simsion. This book is written by the same author as "The Rosie Project" so hopefully it is good too, although hard to live up to such an excellent first book.

Started reading on my kindle: 7th October 2016
Finished: 15th November 2016.
My score: 5-6/10. Definitely not in the same league as "The Rosie Project" in my opinion.

Aussie Author Challenge 2016 - Accepted :-)

2016 will be the 4th year I have taken part in the Aussie Author Challenge hosted by Jo from the Book Lovers Book Review blog. I really recommend it, as it exposes you to a lot of new Australian authors and books that you might not otherwise think to read, and often they are very well written, on diverse topics and thoroughly enjoyable. I have a lot planned for 2016, so at this stage I am going for the Wallaroo level of the challenge (Read and review 6 books by Aussie authors, at least 2 by male authors and 2 by female authors and from at least 2 different genres). Depending how the year pans out I may upgrade to the Kangaroo level (12 books, and more categories).

For more info and to join up too, see the Challenge info on Jo's Book Lovers Book Review blog.

"Can you keep a secret?" by Caroline Overington

This is the fourth novel by Caroline Overington that I have read, and I read it as part of the Aussie Author Challenge. While this book was an easy read, it really did not engage me in the way that the other three books did, and I was a bit disappointed as I had scored "Sisters of Mercy" 9/10, "Ghost child" 8/10 and "I came to say goodbye" 7/10 when I read them.
I really found it hard to empathise or be really interested in either of the two main characters - Caitlin (a pretty but uneducated Australian who had an unconventional upbringing and left home at 16) and Colby (a rich American who works on Wall St). The unlikely pair meet when Colby and some other rich friends organise a Whitsundays yachting holiday to celebrate the end of 1999 while their offices are shut for the Y2K bug, and Caitlin, who had been working as a 'skimpy' waitress in a local bar, accepts a casual job as deckhand for the trip. The story starts off as a bit of an uninspiring teenage one-night-stand becomes romance scenario, then Caitlin moves to New York, leaving her mother with MS behind in a nursing home. The love story starts wearing thin then collides with the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, leaving Caitlin too scared to fly home and seeing therapists and Colby, despite being obviously bored with Caitlin even after 6 weeks together, marries her. For me, neither of the characters come across as likeable or really believable, more like stereotypes. Next great idea they have is to adopt a child from an orphanage in Russia, which predictably does not go to plan. As the book goes on Caitlin appears to be more delusional and very selfish in everything she is doing and things get less and less believable, while Colby distances himself as much as possible from her by working longer hours. I wont go on to describe the storyline in any more detail as it will give away the 'twist' at the end, but I did find this book quite shallow and disappointing compared to the other books I've read by this author. It hasn't put me off wanting to read her other books, but I do hope the rest are more like 'Sisters of Mercy' and less like 'Can you keep a secret?'.  

Started reading on my kindle: 30th December 2014
Finished: 31st December 2014
My score: 6/10
Aussie Author Challenge stats: female author, first published in 2014, genre: drama

"The Rosie Effect" by Graeme Simsion

 

"The Rosie Effect" is the highly anticipated sequel to "The Rosie Project", one of my favourite books that I read last year. I read it as part of the Aussie Author Challenge, but also because I had been looking forward eagerly to rejoining the crazy adventures of Don Tillman.

I really enjoyed "The Rosie Effect", Don Tillman cracks me up. I didn't think that the sequel was quite as good as "The Rosie Project", but that was always going to be a hard act to follow since it was so awesome. This book sees Don married to Rosie and living in New York and embarking on the "Baby Under Development (BUD) Project". Plenty of crazy situations arise that could only ever happen to Don, and many were pretty funny, although the story was not as light-hearted and hilarious as in the first book. Still, if there was a 3rd book in the series written, I would definitely look forward to reading it!

Started reading on my kindle: 28th December 2014
Finished: 30th December 2014
My score: 8/10
Aussie author challenge stats: male author, book first published in 2014, comedy/drama genre.

"Jasper Jones" by Craig Silvey

This book has been described as the Australian 'To kill a mockingbird', and has been shortlisted for and won some awards. I read it as part of the Aussie Author Challenge. I really enjoyed this book. The characters, the writing style, the storyline. I read the last two thirds of this book in one sitting while on a plane flight, it's one of those books that I didnt want to put down once I started reading it. 
The book is set in a small town in Western Australia in the 1960s. The main character, Charlie Bucktin, is a quiet, shy, bookish 13-year-old kid, somewhat lonely apart from his best mate, a Vietnamese boy Jeffrey Lu. Someone you wouldn't expect to be mixed up in any kind of crime or unlawful adventure. But suddenly he is sought out by the village outcast, Jasper Jones, who has a notorious reputation of being the source of almost every criminal or delinquent behaviour around the village. In the dead of night, Jasper knocks on Charlie's bedroom window and tells him that he needs his help with something urgently, and Charlie becomes deeply involved with Jasper trying to prove his innocence in what appears to be a horrific and violent crime in the woods surrounding the village. I guess you could say the book is a 'coming of age' story mixed with crime/mystery elements and dealing with racial tensions and attitudes in Australia (both against Australian Aboriginals and Vietnamese residents in Australia during the Vietnam war). The book also has young romance in it, and comedic moments (often brought to life in the banter between Charlie and Jeffrey Lu). I highly recommend it.
 
Started reading: 10th April 2014
Finished: 19th April 2014
My score: 10/10

Male author, New to me, unsure of the Genre: perhaps Young Adult Fiction?

"Maggie's Orchard" by Maggie Beer

I found this book yesterday at the second hand bookstall at the Adelaide Central Markets. It appears to be divided up by seasons, with chapters on particular seasonal ingredients, information and anecdotes by Maggie Beer, as well as recipes to showcase how to cook each ingredient. As Maggie Beer is South Australian, I thought this would be a great book to read to get ideas about which local produce to buy when, and interesting and tasty things to do with seasonal ingredients that I might not generally have considered cooking.

It's a non fiction book and full of recipes so I will be reading this slowly, in between reading novels. Once I finish reading the book I will post a review here, but it may be a while away :-)

Started reading: 23rd March 2014

"I Came to Say Goodbye" by Caroline Overington

When I was doing the Aussie Author Challenge and Australian Literature Month last year I discovered Caroline Overington's books. The first one I read, "Sisters of Mercy" still haunts me at times. While "I Came to Say Goodbye" was also a page-turner, I think "Sisters of Mercy" is a more complex and chilling story.

I'm beginning to notice a bit of a theme running through Caroline Overington's books though...she is very good at depicting realistic characters on the fringe of society; often mentally ill or intellectually challenged, living pretty sad lives, possibly failed to be cared for adequately by society, who are caught up in horrific crimes (as victims or perpetrators or both). I think part of the chilling aspect often comes from the fact that the person who commits the crime often seems to be without remorse or even without the ability to see what they have done is wrong, and sometimes even think they are in the right. Lots of small pieces come together to tragic effect, sometimes making the reader consider the systems in place in society and whether they could have been effective at preventing the crime if different action was taken earlier. Caroline often tells her stories from an interesting angle or side character rather than from the character in the centre of the novel, in this case, most of the story is told from the perspective of the grandfather of a missing child, who is writing down a statement for a court hearing of events leading up to the crime.
"I Came to Say Goodbye" starts with a situation caught on CCTV footage which appears to involve a woman brazenly walking into a hospital and placing a young baby from the maternity ward in a green Woolies shopping bag and simply walking back out of the hospital and driving away with the baby.  Then the story jumps forward in time to the grandfather of the kidnapped child, who provides all the background story, revealing what could have happened to someone in order for them to do such a thing. Unlike "Sisters of Mercy" which was criticised by some reviewers for having an ambiguous ending, "I came to say goodbye" has a clear ending, even if it is pretty heart-breaking.

Started reading on my kindle: 21st March 2014
Finished: 22nd March 2014
My score: 7/10
Aussie Author Challenge Stats: Female author; Genre: crime

"Sorry" by Gail Jones

This book was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2008, and was recommended to me by a lady who works in Dymocks bookshop in Rundle Mall as a great 'Aussie author'.

I found the actual writing style and prose of this book to be quite captivating, it was simply beautifully written. I enjoyed reading the book just for the beauty of the language used. However as the book progressed I was left a bit unsatisfied with the actual story; it was quite a short book (approximately 200 pages), and so many of the themes and characters could have been explored in more detail. All the characters seem to be lonely misfits in one way or another, and the characters and the story are all quite tragic, and pretty far-fetched and unbelievable in many ways. Little snatches of Shakespeare appear throughout the book, and while at first I enjoyed this, it soon became overdone and a bit ridiculous in the remote Outback setting. The main character, a girl named Perdita, lives in the outback with her two strange, apparently mentally-ill parents.  The book spends a lot of time skirting around a traumatic event in Perdita's life that leaves her with a debilitating stutter, and although it is finally explained towards the end of the book, there is no justice, so I found the ending pretty empty and sad. My favourite characters were Perdita's two friends - a deaf and mute boy, Billy, and an Aboriginal girl, Mary, - they were by far the characters that I felt the most empathy for, and I would have liked to read more about them, and less about Perdita and her melodramatic mother and unlikable father.

Started reading: 9th March 2014
Finished: 21st March 2014
My score: 6.5/10
Aussie Author Challenge stats: Female author, New to me, Genre: Literary fiction.

"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.

"Everything I Knew" by Peter Goldsworthy

I read this book as part of the Aussie Author Challenge. I have previously read two other books by this author ("Wish" and "Honk if you are Jesus") both of which I thought were excellent. This book was quite different. It was set in Penola, South Australia. It reminded me more of Tim Winton's style of writing rather than the style I associate with the other Peter Goldsworthy books I've read. Basically it follows the story of a young teenage boy and his infatuation with his teacher. Some very creative aspects, but inevitably tragic, like a train crash watched in slow motion. The ending was not satisfying to me, and actually reminded me of when I had creative writing assignments at school and was criticised for ending my stories with "and then she woke up and it was all a dream". Peter Goldsworthy is  a great writer and captures so many details of the era and the atmosphere of a small country town in South Australia, but it left me wanting more from the last 1/4 of the book. 
 
Started reading on my kindle: 19th October 2013
Finished: 26th Oct 2013
My score: 6/10

"People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks

I read this book as part of the Aussie Author Challenge 2013. I found it to be a very interesting story woven throughout hundreds of years and delving into lots of countries and religions and fascinating characters. I really enjoyed this book, it is a very rich historical novel and appears to be very well researched with lots of tiny details from many countries, religions and ages. It's basically the story of a very special illuminated religious (Jewish) book that turns up in modern day times in Sarajevo, and the main character who is a kind of scientist who preserves and conserves ancient books & manuscripts comes along to study the book before it is put on display in a museum. The tiny bits of evidence she finds throughout the book from stains, to insect wings are all brought to life by going back in time to show you how those things came to be there, and how such a contentious book survived through wars and religious conflicts. I am an atheist, however I appreciate everyone's right to have their own opinion and beliefs and I also find it interesting to learn some of the history behind various religious beliefs and conflicts through time...so I found this book (which included aspects of Jewish, Catholic and Muslim religions) from the 1400s up until the 2000s very interesting and also very entertaining, the characters were mostly very believable, with just a few scenes/aspects of characters seeming a bit far fetched, at least to me.

Started reading on my kindle: 19th August 2013
Finished: 24th August 2013
My score: 9/10 
Aussie Author Challenge 2013: Female author, historical fiction.

Aussie Author Challenge

 

Earlier this year (in April), I decided to consciously try to read more books by Australian authors. At that stage I was not aware of the "Aussie Author Challenge 2013", but I participated in the "Australian Literature Month" which I heard about on the "Reading Matters" blog. April saw me read two Australian books, both by authors who were new to me at the time (Caroline Overington - "Sisters of Mercy" and M.L. Stedman "Light between oceans"). Inspired by the Australian Literature Month, I have continued to read quite a few more books by Aussie authors this year, and now that I have stumbled upon this "Aussie Author Challenge 2013" on the Book Lover Book Reviews website, I have decided to officially accept the Challenge at the Fair Dinkum level (see below). I'm hoping it is acceptable to include Australian books that I have read earlier this year as my intention to read more Aussie books and to discover new Aussie authors was the motivation behind reading these books, even before I heard of the Challenge today, and the books have all been read during 2013.

The rules of the Aussie Author Challenge 2013 - Fair Dinkum level are:

- Read and review 12 books by Australian Authors
- Ensure at least 4 of the authors are male, at least 4 of the authors are female and at least 4 of the authors are new to you
- Ensure at least 2 of the books are non-fiction and at least 4 fiction genres are represented amongst your 12 titles.
Balanced and diverse reading is the objective here.

~~~

So far the books I have read this year which I am including as part of the Aussie Author Challenge are:

"Sisters of Mercy" by Caroline Overington (Female, Fiction, New to me, Crime) April 2013
"Light between oceans" by M.L. Stedman (Female, Fiction, New to me, Historical novel) April 2013
"Ghost child" by Caroline Overington (Female, Fiction, Crime) June 2013
"The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion (Male, Fiction, New to me, Comedy/Humourous) June 2013
"Dirt Music" by Tim Winton (Male, Fiction, Drama) July 2013
"Wish" by Peter Goldsworthy (Male, Fiction, Science) August 2013

"Wish" by Peter Goldsworthy

I read a review of this book on page 12-13 of the current issue of "The Adelaide Review" which prompted me to download it onto my kindle. This book is a novel set in Adelaide about a sign language teacher who teaches Sign to a gorilla liberated from a Melbourne research lab. This isn't a new book, but it has been recently re-released with a new introduction. Peter Goldsworthy is an Australian medical practitioner who also writes amazing books. I found this novel to be really interesting, page-turning, powerful, sometimes confronting which felt almost non-fictional in it's believability, exploring the boundaries between human and ape, language, intelligence. Unlike anything I have read before. It's also set in Adelaide (where I live now) so a lot of the setting is very familiar and makes the book come to life even more for me. This book, combined with recently seeing Adam Hills' live comedy performance translated for the deaf has seeded a desire in me to attempt to learn the basics of Auslan (Australian Sign Language). I thoroughly recommend this book.

Started reading on my kindle: 3rd August 2013
Finished: 4th August 2013
My score: 9.5/10

"Dirt Music" by Tim Winton

Tim Winton is an Australian author. Some of his books I absolutely loved and couldn't stop turning the pages (e.g. "Breath"). "Dirt Music" however was not one of my favourite of his books. There were some lovely descriptions capturing landscapes and emotions and situations in unique ways in this book. But many of the characters were unlikable and the tone of the book was as if you were constantly just waiting for something violent and destructive to occur, as if you were in the eye of a storm. I also found the lack of quotation marks to indicate what was being said and by which character pretty distracting and annoying - not sure how much this had to do with me being tired when I was reading but it constantly kept frustrating me as I had to re-read bits to figure out who was speaking..

Started reading on my Kindle: 20th June 2013
Finished: 6th July 2013
My score: 6/10

"The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion

This is the first book I've read by Graeme Simsion, an Australian author. It was recommended to me by 3 different friends who all independently rated the book as a '10 out of 10'.
I found it to be hilariously funny and a great romantic comedy crossed with science geekiness. It's about a genetics professor who seems to have Asperger's syndrome (a kind of Autism) without being aware of it, who is highly intelligent but lacks some social skills. He decides it's time he finds a wife, and sets about devising a questionnaire to give to women to eliminate the incompatible candidates quickly. His interactions with various people and the hilarious adventures that ensue as he searches for a perfect wife are priceless. Never read a book like it before, thoroughly enjoyed it, was only disappointed that it wasn't longer!

Started reading on my kindle: 19th June 2013, finished the same day.
My score 10/10!

"Ghost Child" by Caroline Overington

This is the second book I have read by the Australian author Caroline Overington. Similar to "Sisters of Mercy" it is written in a realistic crime/mystery style which deals with some pretty dark and unpleasant aspects of child abuse and failures of the welfare system and foster carers in Australia. It is a novel, but told in a way that seems very real, and with lots of little details that make the story convincing. The story is told from several people's viewpoints, including Lauren, Harley and Hayley - 3 siblings whose brother died at the age of 5 under suspicious circumstances. Despite the troubling topics raised in this book, I give it 8.5/10. It's definitely not a happy feel-good story, but brought up lots of issues to think about and I have the feeling I wont be forgetting this book any time soon. I preferred "Sisters of Mercy" but both were well written and I'd definitely be keen to read other books by this author.

Read on my Kindle: 11th - 12th June 2013.
My score: 8.5/10