Time to wrap up what I read and reviewed for the Australian Women Writers Challenge during 2016.

This year I read 35 books and reviewed 12 – up on my reading tally and down on my reviewing from previous years. Although I kept reading in the latter part of the year, I didn’t find the time or energy to review. This was especially true if I left too much of a gap between finishing and putting fingers to keyboard. I tried to make the effort when a publisher sent me a review copy. Of the books I read but didn’t review, the majority were bought or borrowed from the library – or, in the case of My Sister Rosa, won in a competition. (Thanks, Newtown Review of Books!) Some books were chosen simply to help me fill the AWW Challenge Bingo cards. Others were selected as part of my research into 19th- and early 20th-century Australian life, something I’ve become interested in since helping my 93-year-old aunt with her memoirs and researching our family tree.

In terms of categories, my reading lived up to my blog title, “Devoted Eclectic”. Books read included psychological suspense, classics, literary, historical and speculative fiction, YA, “women’s fiction”, romance and nonfiction. Books reviewed tended to be what I think of as “intense human drama”, stories that got my heart and mind churning. Of these, the one that has stuck in my mind most is Dying in the First Person by Nike Sulway. I’m hoping it gets to the Stella Prize long list – if not further! A book I wished I’d made the effort to review is In the Quiet by Eliza Henry-Jones. A very moving debut.

So, here are the books, including hot links to reviews (the first twelve). The remainder includes some books I reviewed on Goodreads but, as they only contained a few lines, I haven’t bothered giving links. (Though every little review helps the authors’ visibility, I’m told. I must update the rest!)

1. That Devil’s Madness by Dominique Wilson
2. The Light on the Water by Olga Lorenzo
3. Ghost Girls by Cath Ferla
4. I For Isobel by Amy Witting
5. Out of the Ice by Ann Turner
6. Dying in the First Person by Nike Sulway
7. Wild Chicory by Kim Kelly
8. A Loving, Faithful Animal by Josephine Rowe
9. Hired By the Brooding Billionaire by Kandy Shepherd
10. Running Against the Tide by Amanda Ortlepp
11. Our Eva by Anna Jacobs
12. Rebellious Daughters eds Maria Katsonis and Lee Koffman
13. Crown Prince’s Chosen Bride by Kandy Shepherd.
14. All The Birds Singing by Evie Wyld (audio book)
15. Defying Doomsday eds Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench
16. Like I Can Love by Kim Lock
17. The Group Settler’s Wife, a novella by Anna Jacob
18. A Pennyworth of Sunshine by Anna Jacob
19. Intensive Care by Nikki Edwards
20. Desperate Deception by DB Tait
21. My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier
22. Wild Lavender by Belinda Alexandra
23. Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
24. In the Quiet by Eliza Henry-Jones
25. Heat and Light by Ellen Van Neerven
26. Hopscotch by Jane Messer
27. The Time of the Peacock by Mina Abdullah and Ray Mathew
28. The Little Bush Maid by Mary Grant Bruce
29. Reluctantly Charmed by Ellie O’Neill
30. Small Acts of Disappearance: Essays on Hunger by Fiona Wright
31. The Safest Place in London by Maggie Joel
32. Greek Tycoon’s Mistletoe Propoal by Kandy Shepherd
33. A Match Made in Mistletoe, a novella by Anna Campbell
34. Millionaire Under the Mistletoe, a novella by Kandy Shepherd
35. Festive Deception, a novella by DB Tait

How did you go with the challenge? Are you going to participate next year? You can sign up for #aww2017 here. And a reminder that we now have a new Facebook group for AWW challenge participants, and another for authors’ and publishers’ news. Hope to see you there!