History, Memoir and Biography (HMB) was without a dedicated host for quite some time until Elizabeth asked me if I would like to take it on early last year. I was thrilled to be asked to be part of this amazing team and I’ve loved getting to know our regular bloggers and contributors as the year has progressed.
2015 saw 103 books reviewed in HMB comprising 82 different books and 86 authors.
The most reviewed books of 2015 were Rayner Roberts’ Cranky Ladies of History (with four reviews) and Robin Davidson’s Tracks, Kate Grenville’s One Life, Lee Kofman’s The Dangerous Bride and Tara Moss’ Fictional Woman (all with three reviews apiece).
Our most prolific 2015 HMB reviewer award goes to Jennifer via her Goodreads page with 10 reviews. She managed to review books under each of the history, memoir and biography tags – an impressive effort!
Next with nine reviews is one of our ex-pat reviewers, Ana Stevenson.
Janine @Resident Judge of Port Philip reviewed 7 (mostly history) titles.
Louise @A Strong Belief in Wicker (who reviewed one of the very few children’s history books for the year), Sue @Whispering Gums (who writes such thoughtful memoir reviews) and myself @Brona’s Books (with the only cookbook-memoir review for the year), all reviewed five HMB books apiece.
42 of the 103 reviews were books published in 2015, which, I think, shows that we like to stay current in our reading of HMB. The reappearance of Tracks in 2015, also highlights the power of a movie to reinvigorate interest in a book first published in 1980.
Our brilliant reviewers have covered everything from award winning books, academic texts, self-published titles, gender issues, diversity, Indigenous history, travel, literary figures and outback life.
I can’t wait to see what 2016 has in store for the HMB devotees!
Check out all the 2015 HMB reviews here.
About Bronwyn: I have been a book blogger at Brona’s Books since 2009 and a bookseller (specialising in children’s literature) in Sydney since 2008. Prior to this I was as an Early Childhood teacher for 18 years in rural NSW.
I taught myself to read when I was four by memorising my Dr Seuss books. I haven’t stopped reading since.
You can find me on Twitter @bronasbooks.
Thanks for the lovely write-up and kind mention Brona. It’s been great having you join our team this year. Glad you are continuing. After fiction, this area is my favourite, even though I only read two of the top five!