2017 – another year done and dusted – and what have we got to show for it?

Perhaps one of my fellow editors will confirm my findings, but I believe that we have experienced a HUGE year of reading and reviewing Australian Women Writers. Certainly the General Non-Fiction genre has had a very satisfying leap in reviews, reviewers and titles during 2017.

2016 saw 73 reviews of 52 books written by 55 authors.

2017 jumped to a tremendous 118 reviews of 76 books written by 92 authors.

If my calculations are correct that represents a 62% increase in general non-fiction books reviewed in 2017!

2017 saw 47 AWW reviewers engage in the General Non-Fiction genre. Our top reviewers were:

Jennifer Cameron-Smith @Goodreads with 11 reviews

Calzean @Goodreads and Anna Greenwood @Goodreads with 8 reviews apiece

Cass Moriarty @Goodreads, Nancy @NancyElin and Brona (me) with 6 non-fiction reviews each

The most reviewed authors were Elspeth Muir (7) for her Stella longlisted book, Wasted, Kate Grenville (6) with five reviews for The Case Against Fragrance and Larissa Behrendt for Finding Eliza and Kim Mahood for Position Doubtful with (4) reviews each.

Our general non-fiction reading encompassed issues such as feminism, refugees, diversity, indigenous, letters, science, politics, humour, philosophy, art, design, pets, writing, self-help, health and cooking.

I can’t wait to see what 2018 brings us!

I’m hoping to dive into the new True Stories: The Collected Short Non-Fiction by Helen Garner.

What about you?

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 country NSW.

I joined the AWW team in 2015 as the History, Memoir, Biography editor. In 2017 I moved to the General Non-fiction page.

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 and Litsy @Brona.