I can never remember how many books by Australian women writers I aimed to read in any given year. I seem to have read about twenty a year for the past few years, and 2018 was no exception, with a total of twenty-two books. And once again, even though I promised myself to read more fiction, I didn’t seem to get round to it – in fact, I can’t believe that I read so little!
History
“Girl Talk” by Gwenda Beed Davey
“And the Women Came Too” by Anne Marsden
“The Battle Within: POWs in Post-War Australia” by Christine Twomey
“Journeyings: The Biography of a Middle Class Generation” by Janet McCalman
“Six Bob a Day Tourist” by Janet Morice
“Chinese Market Gardens in Australia and New Zealand” by Joanna Boileau
“Australian Ways of Death” by Pat Jalland
Current Affairs
“Follow the Leader” by Laura Tingle
Biography
“The Enigmatic Mr Deakin” by Judith Brett
“Unbridling the Tongues of Women” by Susan Magarey
“The Unusual Life of Edna Walling” by Sara Hardy
“Frank Hardy: Politics, Literature, Life” by Jenny Hocking
“The Trauma Cleaner” by Sarah Krasnostein
“Swanston: Merchant Statesman” by Eleanor Robin
Memoir
“Ever Yours C. H. Spence” ed by Susan Magarey
“Almost French” by Sarah Turnbull
“The Year Everything Changed:2001” by Phillipa McGuinness
“From Strength to Strength” by Sara Henderson
Fiction
“A Week in the Future” by C. H. Spence
“The Museum of Words” by Georgia Blain
“Long Bay” by Eleanor Limprecht
“Mothers Grimm” by Danielle Wood
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 
Well done, Janine. I haven’t done my stats yet but I think that I may have read more women than men this year because more of them featured in my Best-of list.
Taken overall (as separate from Australian Women Writers), I’ve read more women than men this year too (37 women, 21 men). I’m surprised, actually, because I’ve read quite a few ‘War’ books this year and I thought that might have skewed it.
I haven’t decided yet whether to go all out and do proper stats and graphs like I did last year. It’s a lot of work, but it does offer insights that I wouldn’t get any other way, and I like being transparent about what I do.
I have my final AWW post scheduled for tomorrow night, and am working on my overall stats post. 70% of my reading this year was of female authors, which is actually a little less than year.
Interestingly last year, my non-fiction level was high … but this year I righted the balance somewhat.
Anyhow, thanks again for your contribution to the challenge and doing the History etc roundups. I always enjoy them.
My list is always the opposite, hardly anything but fiction! But I still have several titles waiting for me that I’ve bought from reading your AWW round ups. Also, you nominated 20 books for 2018, so well done on surpassing the target!