I figured I’d better do a wrap up post for the only challenge that I actually successfully completed for the year of 2015! This is the fourth year in a row I think, that I’ve done this challenge now.
Overall I read 93 books that counted towards this challenge which is mostly on par with my effort in previous years. I didn’t review all of those 93, in fact I might have only reviewed 50 or so and halfway through the year I got really slack with stuff like blog maintenance, uploading reviews to Goodreads and linking my AWWC reviews on the website. My time was simply occupied elsewhere and although I did still write some reviews, it wasn’t as many as I would’ve liked, nor did I do as much promotion as I would’ve liked for some titles and the challenge in general.
Books for the AWWC did provide me with some of my favourite reads for the year…. Books such as:
- Season of Shadow & Light by Jenn J McLeod
- Head of the River by Pip Harry
- The Road to Hope by Rachael Johns
- Captive Prince & Prince’s Gambit by C.S. Pacat
- Northern Heat by Helene Young
- A Dangerous Arrangement by Lee Christine
- The Homestead Girls by Fiona McArthur
- Cloudwish by Fiona Wood
- The Patterson Girls by Rachael Johns
- So Far Into You by Lily Malone
- Every Move by Ellie Marney
- The Red Queen by Isobelle Carmody
- Outback Promise by Maggie Bolitho
…all of which I rated a 9/10. There were countless other 8s too, so 2015 was a year of good reading from Australian women authors for me.
I will be signing up for the challenge in 2016 but I think that I need to work on something to make it more of a challenge for me. It’s obviously not a challenge to get myself to read books written by Australian female authors, I think I have managed either 100+ or close to 100 every single time I’ve attempted the challenge. I need to find a way to make it less about the numbers and perhaps more about diversity or exploration. Opening myself up to new authors perhaps, or different types of genres.
Something to think about!
All The Books I Can Read 
Wow! Thanks Bree! I feel honoured to be on this list! All the very best for 2016!
Same to you 🙂 Hope it’s a great year!
Congratulations, Bree, and thanks for participating. Keep an eye out for the AWW Bingo card. That might provide you with a bit of a challenge.
I’m looking forward to it Elizabeth, I need something a bit more narrow and focused so that should be perfect 🙂
That’s a huge number Bree – I don’t know how you find the time…
I only read 16 books for AWW (out of the 74 I read all year) but interestingly none of what I read are on your list of favourites (three of the books I read are in my top 10 reads of 2015), which says something about genres (and how you might make it more ‘challenging’ for yourself next year).
I had a lot of fun this year joining in on the Stella Prize shortlist reading group (run via Twitter) – did force me to read a few things out of my ordinary genres.
I do like the idea of the Stella Prize reading group…..I was interested this year, it just happened to be at the wrong time of year for me. I’ll keep an eye out this year, hopefully I can join in!
The Stella Prize reading group was at a tricky time (over Easter school holidays) – I think I was able to keep up because I’d already read a couple of the books. All the discussion happened via Twitter and it was great to be involved.
I was in a book club for 20 years and the best thing about it was that it pushed me to read genres out of my comfort zone. Similarly in my writing, I have challenged myself to write in more specific and different genres. You don’t know what new authors you’ll enjoy until you read beyond your regular genres. Good luck in your 2016 challenge!
I was in a book club for a little while but it more seemed to focus on what sort of travelling everyone was doing, rather than the books set each month – a lot didn’t even bother to read the book so I kind of stopped bothering too after a while. I’d love to find a bookclub that is super passionate and enthusiastic.