australian women writers challenge

AWW Update

13 Oct 2020 3 Comments

by Amy in Australian Women Writers Tags: #aww2020, aussie, aussie books, australian women writers challenge, aww 2020, aww20 update

This update includes all the AWW books I have read so far this year. Ideally I would have broken this up into three posts but so I don’t create too many out of place posts I’ve added them into one. There will still be the last update and final wrap up in December though. Looking at the list I have once again come out of the gate with a bang, then the April-June slump is to be expected but not a bad effort there, and as we head back on track with July-September it is a tad directionless but still some good titles in there. I am hoping I can actively direct my reading back to Aussie women, the last few months have only caught AWW titles around the edges, I’m aiming for some intentional reading for the final quarter.

Reviews obviously are behind but I have a lot of these coming up over the next few weeks so hopefully that will boost my review numbers significantly.

January-March

Fairytales for Feisty Girls by Susannah McFarlane

Growing Up Queer in Australia ed Benjamin Lee – Review

Summer Time by Hilary Bell

Goodwood by Holly Throsby – Review

A Day at the Show by Gwyn Perkins – Review

Just the Way We Are by Jessica Shirvington – Review

Shout out to the Girls – Review

Meerkat Choir by Nicki Greenberg – Review

Celeste the Giraffe Loved to Laugh by Celeste Barber – Review

Charlotte Pass by Lee Christine

Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend

The Mistake by Wendy James

Meet Me at the Intersection ed Rebecca Lim

Welcome to Orphancorp by Marlee Jane Ward

Clancy the Quokka by Lilli Wilkinson – Review

Star Crossed by Minnie Darke – Review

A Trip to the Beach by Gwyn Perkins

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood

Faking It (#2) by Gabrielle Tozer – Review

April-June

The Ex by Nicola Moriarty

Those Other Women Nicola Moriarty

The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl by Melissa Keil

What I Like About Me by Jenna Guillaume

The Anzac Bilby by Claire Saxby

The Easter Bunnyroo by Susannah Chambers

Archibald the Naughtiest Elf in the World Causes Trouble for the Easter Bunny by Skye Davidson

Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Before You Forget by Julia Lawrinson – Review

July-September

Queer Stories ed. Maeve Marsden

Ella and the Ocean by Lian Tanner

My Friend Fred by Frances Watts

Blinky Bill: The Quaint Little Australian by Dorothy Wall

Blinky Bill Grows Up by Dorothy Wall

Blinky Bill and Nutsy by Dorothy Wall

AWW20 TOTAL

Read: 35/40

Reviewed: 11/35

Whitney and Britney, Chicken Divas by Lucinda Gifford

09 Oct 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Australian Women Writers, The Picture Book Corner Tags: #1millionkidsreading, #aww2019, #nss2020, aussie books, australian women writers challenge, aww 2019, children's picture book, four stars, lucinda gifford, national simultaneous storytime

Published: 1st October 2019
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
Illustrator: Lucinda Gifford
Pages: 35
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

Whitney and Britney are two gorgeous chooks, Fluffy and silky with stunning good looks. Dora is perplexed about where her chooks go each night. Little does she know, they are Whitney and Britney, Chicken Divas!

Filled with dazzle and sparkle this is the vibrant story of Whitney and Britney, two chooks owned by Dora Von Dooze. The story itself is straightforward enough, but Gifford adds some sparkle with fun rhymes and pacing that helps add to the pizazz of the story. The rhymes are simple and easily flow with the story, the melody and rhythm of Gifford’s writing making reading effortless with help from fun formatting to promote emphasis and exaggeration.

The illustrations are also wonderfully fabulous. With a mixture of full page and split page illustrations Gifford’s style is full of sparkle and dazzle which is ideal given the key characters, but she also captures the tone and environmental changes in her colours and designs. Whitney and Britney are decked out to look like the divas they are and Gifford’s use of strong contrasting colours highlights each bit of bling and sparkle these girls have to offer.

This is a fun and uncomplicated story about celebrating your inner diva and having unbridled fun.

You can purchase Whitney and Britney Chicken Divas via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Angus and Robinson

Fishpond | Amazon Aust

Star Crossed by Minnie Darke

25 Mar 2020 2 Comments

by Amy in 2 Stars, Australian Women Writers, Bookish Bites Tags: #aww2020, aussie books, australian women writers challenge, aww 2020, Bookish Bites, fiction, two stars

Published: 5th Mark 2019
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Pages: 387
Format: Paperback
Genre: Fiction
★ ★ – 2 Stars

Sometimes even destiny needs a little bit of help. When childhood sweethearts Justine (Sagittarius and serious skeptic) and Nick (Aquarius and true believer) bump into each other as adults, a life-changing love affair seems inevitable. To Justine, anyway. Especially when she learns Nick is an astrological devotee, whose decisions are guided by the stars, and more specifically, by the horoscopes in his favorite magazine. The same magazine Justine happens to write for.

As Nick continues to not fall headlong in love with her, Justine decides to take Nick’s horoscope, and Fate itself, into her own hands. But, of course, Nick is not the only Aquarius making important life choices according to what is written in the stars.

Charting the ripple effects of Justine’s astrological meddling, STAR-CROSSED is a delicious, intelligent, and affecting love story about friendship, chance, and how we all navigate the kinds of choices that are hard to face alone.

Why rely on fate when you can rewrite the stars?

When Justine Carmichael (Sagittarius, aspiring journalist and sceptic) bumps into her old friend Nick Jordan (Aquarius, struggling actor and true believer) it could be by change. Or perhaps it’s written in the stars.

Justine works at the Alexandria Park Star – and Nick, she now learns, relies on the magazine’s astrology column to guide him in life.

Looking for a way to get Nick’s attention, Justine has the idea of making a few small alterations to ‘Aquarius’ before it goes to print.

It’s only a horoscope, after all. What harm could changing it do?

Having read the blurb for this when it came out, I was really intrigued because it sounded fun and light-hearted. Unfortunately when it came to actually reading it, I couldn’t engage with the story and found myself skimming quite a lot. The story shows how changing something as innocent as the horoscopes can affect others, but it is long, clunky, drawn out and often uninteresting. The premise sounded great but the actual writing is what turns you off. I think it would have benefited from being shorter, to keep it a more succinct series of events. I understand you need to have it take place over a long time to get the benefit of multiple horoscopes but this could have been done without so much extra detail.

To Darke’s credit, I initially enjoyed the interweaving moments of other people’s lives to see how it wasn’t just Nick’s life Justine was affecting, but they had no connection to the story that I saw and I skipped those after a while to try and get through the story faster. Eventually I skimmed the last half to get the gist of the story and see how it concluded, but I had no connection to the characters or had any interest in whether they got together or not so sitting through page after page of the drama and lead up to that wasn’t worth the time.

You can purchase Star Crossed via the following

Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery | Fishpond

Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Faking It (#2) by Gabrielle Tozer

19 Mar 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 2 Stars, Australian Women Writers, Young Adult Tags: #aww2020, australian women writers challenge, gabrille tozer, two stars, young adult

Published: 23rd January 2015
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 368
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★ ★ – 2 Stars

Things are looking up for Josie Browning. Her boyfriend, James, is crazy about her, and she’s scored a writing job at indi. Now the pressure is on for Josie to prove she’s got what it takes to help plan indi’s launch. Plus, she’s battling with flatmates, frenemies and confusing feelings for travel writer Alex.

High on the perks at indi, Josie’s doing a pretty good job of faking her way in the industry – even though she still hasn’t mastered her hair straightener. But when Josie is invited to a media junket, she accidentally sets off a string of lies that threaten to ruin her reputation, love life and career forever.

Second book, second chance to warm up to main character Josie but once again it did not happen. I liked her even less this time around. I didn’t like her character and I can’t understand how she changed from one book to the other. There doesn’t seem to be a huge shift but the small moments of poor behaviour in the first book seem to be her dominate trait this time around. After fighting for James her eyes start to wander, after landing her dream job she sabotages her chances, what annoyed me most is she becomes the kind of person who would out a piece of clothing just because some guy made a joke about them.

I understand that she is thrust into a new role and she tries to be something and someone she isn’t, which is an uncomfortable experience but she is meant to be smarter and have more common sense than this, it’s built up in her backstory and by her previous experiences unless she has learnt nothing from the events before. Like last time I had to remind myself of her age constantly, she is only 18, but the drama and troubles around her were so petty telling myself it was a flights and fancy of a naïve, immature 18 year old was a stretch given everything she has experienced.

I tried so hard to love this book. I connected more with the first book than I did this and the fact I can’t even bring myself to give it three stars says a lot. I wanted to put this down so many times and I did but I always picked it up again. I couldn’t take Josie and everything in this book and so I’d take a break and try and come back but another paragraph and I’d have to stop. I was frustrated and annoyed and I wasn’t invested enough to care about anything happening. The fact I finished it even with the strong desire to quit at every turn was only to see the story through despite having no real interest in the outcome.

You can purchase Faking It via the following

Dymocks | Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

The Intern (#1) by Gabrielle Tozer

17 Mar 2020 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, Australian Women Writers, Young Adult Tags: #aww2017, australian women writers challenge, gabrielle tozer, three stars, young adult

Published: 1st February 2014
Publisher: Harper Collins AU
Pages: 327
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★ ★ ★ – 3 Stars

Josie Browning dreams of having it all.

A stellar academic record, an amazing career in journalism – and for her current crush to realise she actually exists. The only problem? Josie can’t get through twenty-four hours without embarrassing her sister Kat or her best friend Angel, let alone herself.

Josie’s luck changes though when she lands an internship at the glossy fashion magazine Sash. A coveted columnist job is up for grabs, but Josie’s got some tough competition in the form of two other interns. Battle lines are drawn and Josie quickly learns that the magazine industry is far from easy, especially under the reign of powerful editor, Rae Swanson.

From the lows of coffee-fetching and working 10-hour days, to the highs of mingling with celebrities, scoring endless free beauty products (plus falling for her cousin’s seriously gorgeous flatmate James) this is one year Josie will never forget.

Totally fresh and funny, this debut novel from industry insider Gabrielle Tozer reveals just what is behind the seeming glamour and sparkle of the magazine industry.

This is a light, fun story that is good but doesn’t really have a lot of substance. It was new for me to have a YA where the character was solely at a job and not in high school, Josie is at university for some parts but even that is something different.

I have mixed feelings about this story, I enjoyed it but things were annoying as well. Perfect coincidences, unrealistic situations, and I couldn’t connect with the main character. I never felt that fond of Josie, she was nice, but I never clicked with her. I really had to remind myself that she was only 17 because it made me not excuse, but understand her behaviour a little better. Her impulsiveness, her complaints, even her behaviour didn’t fit in with the good student she was meant to be and it was jarring to see contrasts in her portrayal.

I can see how Josie is meant to be a reflection on real life; good grades, great opportunity but the strange and daft moments of being human and human behaviour can still get in the way. Josie’s flaws are there to have her be flawed but they were annoying after a while.

All the characters have stories and complexities, whether they all get explored in detail is another thing. There were stereotypical characters and different personality types but even if there was a reason for their actions the characters weren’t given enough depth for me to understand who these people were and why they do what they do.

Tozer captures the chaos of working for a magazine and the behind the scenes of what goes on for photoshoots and getting articles out. Josie is thrown into this world with her internship and after a rocky start starts having opportunities conveniently thrown at her which is a win for her but is slightly unbelievable for the reader.

I wanted to enjoy this more, and I think I did reading it, but reviewing it has made me think more about the problems I saw. While there are entertaining moments and funny parts, you have to suspend some parts of believability to really enjoy the story. Overall it was a nice story that has a bit of drama, romance, and humour but nothing too serious either.

You can purchase The Intern via the following

Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust