Finding a reflective frame of mind at the moment, has been hard to do. As an eastern sea-boarder feeling rather overwhelmed by the fire crisis of the past three months, I’m not sure that taking stock is something I can do until the fires are out. Or maybe I just need to see blue skies and cute, fluffy cumulus clouds again (now you understand my criteria for this year’s image)!

I will be curious to see, though, if our 2020 non-fiction reading is affected by the bushfire crisis. Will we suddenly feel the need to read science and environmental books about climate change and taking care of nature and our planet? Or will we all seek comfort in our favourite escapist stories?

Only time will tell. For now, let’s turn to the comfort of a good stat.

The stats for Non-Fiction (General) 2019 are:

129 reviews by 39 different reviewers across 85 books written by 80 Australian Women Writers.

This is an outstanding leap from our 2018 numbers – double the number of reviews in fact! Congratulations one and all for such an outstanding non-fiction reading year.

Our general non-fiction reading encompassed categories that included feminism, diversity, Indigenous issues, letters, science, politics, gender, journalism, essays, fashion, environment, refugee issues, travel, health, humour, parenting, art and cooking.

Our top reviewers for 2019 were:

Jennifer Cameron-Smith @Goodreads with 14 reviews

N@ncy @NancyElin with 12 reviews.

Cass Moriarty @Goodreads with 11 reviews.

 Brona (me) with 9 reviews.

Followed by Kate @Books Are My Favourite and Best, Kim @Reading Matters and Shellyrae @Book’s Out all with 5 reviews each.

The Poetry stats for 2019 included:

27 reviews by 8 different reviewers across 23 books written by 19 Australian Women Poets.

Our 2019 poetry reading covered diversity, Indigenous issues, gender and the environment.

Jonathan @Me fail? I Fly! and N@ncy were the stand out contributors with 9 reviews each.

Cass Moriarty also contributed 4 reviews.

I can’t wait to see what 2020 brings us!

If you’d like to join us in 2020 please consider doing signing up to the AWW Challenge. It’s easy and it’s fun – just sign on here.

Meanwhile, I thank all of you who have contributed reviews throughout 2019. Non-Fiction and Poetry may not be the high profile pages on this ever growing site, but every single review helps us achieve our goal of highlighting our wonderfully diverse Australian Women Writers.


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 and in 2018 I picked up the role of editor of Poetry. You can also find me at The Classics Club as one of the new Gen 2 moderators.

dragonflyI 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.