Australian Women Writers Challenge – 2018 wrap up (?)

The Australian Women Writers’ Challenge is part of a world-wide movement to raise awareness of excellent writing by women. It helps readers to challenge the subconscious stereotypes that govern our choice of books to read. The challenge encourages avid readers and book bloggers, male and female, Australian and non-Australian, to read and review books by Australian women throughout the year. You don’t have to be a writer to sign up. You can choose to read and review, or read only.

Last year, I failed both the reading challenges I set myself (Goodreads and Australian Women Writers), largely because I spent a lot of the year absorbed in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive books, and those things are huuuuuge.

So this year I moderated my expectations of myself — reading and reviewing 10 books by Australian women writers (instead of 15), and reading 30 books overall instead of 40. But I’m up to date on my Stormlight books.

All this is by way of explaining why we’re only halfway through the year and I’m writing my “mission accomplished” post for the AWW challenge. :p

Here is a link to each review, as well as my star rating for each book. They are listed in chronological order.

• The Last Days of Us by Beck Nicholas — 4.5 stars
• Losing Faith by Jennifer Ryder — 3.5 stars
• Seeking Faith by Lauren K. McKellar — 5 stars
• Silver and Stone by Felicity Banks — 4 stars
• Ice Wolves by Amie Kaufman — 4 stars
• Honest Love by Lauren K. McKellar — 4 stars
• Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff* — 5 stars
• Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend — 5 stars
• Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner** — 4 stars
• A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews — 5 stars

*Yes, Jay is a dude, but Amie isn’t. So nyah.

** Yes, Meagan is American, but Amie isn’t. See above re: “nyah”.

And here’s a genre breakdown for those that like numbers:

• Romance: 3
• Young adult contemporary: 2
• Speculative fiction: 5
  • Middle grade fantasy: 2
  • Science fiction: 2
  • Steampunk historical: 1

There are other excellent books by Australian women on my TBR pile, so I’m sure I’ll add to this list as the year progresses (I want to get to at least 15, to prove that I can). Still, I can tick this challenge off for the year. Woohoo!