Tag Archives: books by women

My Reading Year and Book of the Year for 2023

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Like many other readers, I set myself a challenge on Goodreads. For 2023 my goal was 30 books and I surprised myself by reading 41. My goal for 2022 was 24 and I read 35 so it looks like I need to set myself a higher target for 2024.

Here are the stats:

Pages read: 12555

Average book length: 306

Average rating I gave: 4.1 stars

How many books by women?: 31

How many Australian authors?: 27

What was my book of the year?

I had a number of five star reads, and like picking out a favourite child I found it quite difficult to single just one out. But if I really have to then, my vote goes to The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks which only just pipped all the others.

What’s your favourite book for 2023?

A snapshot of the books I read are below. How many of these have you read too?

Until next year…

Happy New Year everyone.

Book Review: Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

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Yellowface is a contemporary tale of two young women writers. Athena is Asian American and June is white and they forge a friendship spanning their college years until their late twenties.

Athena seemingly has it all, success and acclaim as a writer, a Netflix deal and a stunning apartment. While June with one unsuccessful published book under her belt, is struggling to gain any interest from her agent for a further book.

June is the only one present when Athena dies and takes the opportunity to do something with Athena’s unpublished and unseen manuscript, a first draft about Chinese labourer’s being recruited to the war effort in Europe. She begins reworking it, rewriting, and getting into a publishable state ostensibly as a tribute to her friend. But when the book is published under her new penname which sounds surprisingly Asian, a battle of conscious and guilt begins. Put that together with the fact that she is attacked in social media platforms and questioned about the authenticity of the writing and you have a manic story with themes of cancel culture, jealousy and the ugliness of twitter trolls.

I began reading this novel just as I was launching my own book, Sugar Creek and it probably wasn’t the right book to be reading at the time. The way Yellowface begins would put anyone off writing and looking to publish a book – ever! Kuang is brutal in her portrayal of the publishing industry and from my experience, she’s probably not too far off. Yet it was so fascinating that I couldn’t put it down.

Kuang admirably tackles themes of plagiarism and cultural appropriation, the mob mentality of negative social media and the effect on mental health. But it’s also a touching story of grief, vulnerability and the strength of friendship.

June is not a particularly likeable character but there were times when I was sympathetic despite being pulled into the dilemma of her theft and at other times so judgmental that even I was surprised. That’s what this book does to you as the reader is constantly asking themselves, what would you do?

Check this one out.

Book Review: Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

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I always like reading a Charlotte Wood novel and I particularly loved The Natural Way of Things for which she won the Stella Prize.

Stone Yard Devotional is a gentle rhythmic story of one woman’s withdrawal from her family, friends and society to live with a group of nuns in a religious community not far from where she grew up. There is no plot or fast-moving action just a contemplative reflection on the people who live there and exploration of the woman’s own guilt and failings about her parents and her part in bullying a young girl called Helen.

There are three significant events that happen while the woman is there. A mouse plague of biblical proportions arrives, the skeletal remains of a nun which is returned for burial with a woman who turns out to be Helen from her childhood.

The writing is as you’d expect, brilliant and I couldn’t help but be transported along this woman’s journey looking for forgiveness.

‘In the night I am drawn from sleep by a deep, thrumming rattle. I switch on my bedside lamp and see that the fly screen over my closed window is crawling with leaping, climbing mice. When the light goes on a shiver goes through the mass, and their scrambling becomes more frenzied.”

The mouse plague made my skin crawl and the mice grow more grotesque in description, the more uncomfortable the woman becomes with her reflections of guilt. It was a relief when the mouse plague ended for the reader and the woman. And that for me is the mark of great writing.

This book won’t be for everyone but it’s not long and I found myself rivetted even though we never really get answers to the question of why she decided to withdraw herself from everything. We contemplate and surmise it but the answer not handed to us.

It’s a thought-provoking personal story of a woman’s journey to find peace, beautifully told.

The Month that was…November 2023

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What a jam-packed month, November was. I’m only just recovering from my daughter’s wedding extravaganza followed by the publication and launch of my latest book, Sugar Creek.

It was all nerves and anticipation when I turned up to The Bank, Carnegie where guests freely mingled inside and out. The temperature was mild and the rain held off. Some grabbed a meal and a drink before the formal part of the evening.

AJ Collins kindly and generously gave up her time to say some glowing words to launch the book before I got up and spoke. Of course once you get me started, it’s hard to stop. When it came to question time I was surprised by the interest with questions such as how long does it take to write a book to… is there another one?

Just in case you haven’t caught up about Sugar Creek, read the blurb below.

A missing man, a stolen baby and a plot of land where nothing grows. Are they connected? One person knows.

1948: Sugar Creek seemed such a welcoming town for Ellen, a young woman keen to share the news of her pregnancy with her fiancé Billy. When Billy signs up for extra work testing topical creams at the local military base, to earn money for their wedding, Ellen is nervous. Now it seems her fears were founded. Billy has disappeared. Devastated, Ellen begins to ask questions, turning the locals against her and putting her life at risk as she desperately searches for him.


2000: Instead of beginning her career with a dream job as a GP in a suburban practice, Dana has found herself jobless and facing the hospital board for a mistake she made with a patient. Herb Hipworth, mayor of Sugar Creek, is desperate for a town doctor and makes Dana an offer she can’t refuse. But when Dana arrives in the remote tropical town, she discovers the locals are plagued with unexplained health issues. Now, as she digs for the cause, she stumbles upon a decades-long conspiracy leading to an environmental disaster.

Sugar Creek is available on Amazon

What I’ve been watching…

I’ve launched back into the second season of Julia, the series about Julia Childs and it has inspired me to do a little more cooking…if only.

What I’ve been reading…

I’ve caught up a little on my reading so watch out next month for my reviews of these interesting and heart-felt novels.

Happy reading and writing everyone as we prepare for the festive season and the end of another big year.

Until next month…

Book Review: The Hummingbird Effect by Kate Mildenhall

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I always enjoy a Kate Mildenhall novel and this one was no exception. This is a story told from the points of view of four different women and four different timelines.

We start with Peggy in 1933 in a Melbourne meat works and follow her journey into the workforce, marriage to a meat worker and automation of work and it’s consequences. Then we skip ahead in time to Hilda in an old people’s home in 2020 when the pandemic begins. The third story is set in 2031 about La who is forced to work in a warehouse dealing with automation and robots where work time is clocked to the mini-second.  Fast forward to 2181 where we learn about Maz and Onyx living in a post- apocalyptic world where their work continues to control them.

Each story delves into the everyday lives of work, the environment and how each woman fights to survive. The stories alternate with each other which for some may be off-putting and confusing. Of course, I love an alternate chapter. Its not until the end that we see the connections. And in between, AI is asked for an analysis of what went wrong with humanity.

I really enjoyed this book, what it had to say, the observations of women’s lives and the world they occupy. I particularly enjoyed Peggy’s story which I think stood out as the strongest for me. I warmed quickly to each of the characters who are well drawn by the skilful Mildenhall.

A mix of historical fiction, fantasy and dystopian, it has a lot to say. Easy to read and thought-provoking, I recommend this one.

Book Review: Bridge Burning and Other Hobbies by Kitty Flanagan

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This is another of Kitty’s books which I listened too. Her narration is terrific and makes it all the more enjoyable. But this one is very different as it is autobiographical.

It’s a collection of anecdotes and observations from her life. We are privy to her life with her family, her awkward teenage years, loves and travels. Her self-reflection and her review of her personal relationships is told honestly yet with a side of humour.

Her recollection of her work life was funny although the fact that she was locked in a freezer by a boss who just wanted to shut her up was eye-opening and made me shudder at the wrongness of it. Yet it reminded me of so many work practices that were unjust back then.  

The book is divided into sections and the one about her relationships was funny particularly the grave digger. Yet I was very sympathetic to the young Kitty whose relationship controlled her and her difficulty of escaping it.

I learnt a lot more about Kitty, yes I truly am a fan and appreciated her candour and honesty told with incorrigible humour.

If you’re a fan or not, this is a good one.

Book Review: The Mother’s Promise by Sally Hepworth

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Finally catching up on this authors backlog and she releases another – The Darling Girls, another one to read.

The Mother’s Promise, like all the others is again a gripping page turner, full of emotion and family intricacies.

Alice, a single mother is dying but she keeps this information from her anxiety-ridden teenage daughter, Zoe. Alice is not in touch with the father of her child, has no friends and the only family she has is her alcoholic brother who can’t look after himself let alone a teenage girl. Enter two other women, Kate her oncology nurse who has had several miscarriages and social worker, Sonja whose marriage in trouble. They each must navigate through their problems and with a couple of bombshells along the way, it makes for a riveting read.

Hepworth deals with numerous themes of cancer, anxiety, OCD, abuse, and alcoholism. The dilemma of what should happen to a child after their mother dies and how the foster and health system deals with this, is explored well.

The characters were all likeable but I particularly warmed to Henry, Zoe’s only friend and Kate the caring nurse.

The ending is neatly wrapped up and probably a bit too Hollywood, but nevertheless satisfactory. If you’re looking for a good story, this one won’t disappoint.