2014 A Year in Review: Challenges + Highlights
This year has just flown by!It's been a super busy year both in my professional life and personal life. I've had a tree change, renovated a house and holidayed in Scotland. I submitted my romantic suspense novel Critical Response to a publisher (*fingers crossed*) and participated in NaNoWriMo working on a crime fiction novel (working title: Exposed).The downside to all that hard work is that I've been less active on my blog, I've read far less books than usual and reviewed even less. Even so, I've accepted far less review books and have leisurely enjoyed picking up books that have been sitting on my TBR shelf for years. Many of my favourite books read in 2014 weren't actually published this year.I've not been very active on others' blogs either which I feel a little bad about. I promise I do read your posts! I have email subscriptions to more than a dozen and I love reading reviews about books I've never heard about or books I'm about to pick up and read. Reading the book is only half the fun- talking about it is just as satisfying!I've taken to being the local library lending service at my work to make up for it, with plenty of books out on loan at the moment to colleagues who have interests in lots of different genres. I love getting requests and coming home to browse my shelves to find something that will be a good fit for their interests. So much fun!So here's an update on the two challenges I participated in this year: The Australian Women Writer's Challenge 2014 and the 2014 Goodreads Reading Challenge.
The Australian Women Writer's Challenge 2014
This was my third year participating in the Australian Women Writer's Challenge. I can proudly say that half the books I read this year were written by Australian Women Writers. I pledged to read 12 books for the challenge, but I ended up reading and reviewing 24. I rated 8 of those books 5/5 and another 6 books 4/5.
Here are my top Aussie Women Writer reads of 2014 (all rated 5/5 or 4.5/5):
Come Back to Me by Kate Foster
A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn
Iron Junction by Charlotte Nash
Charlotte's Creek by Therese Creed
Goodreads Reading Challenge 2014
I set my target for 50 books in 2014 and I'm pleased that I managed to read 52 books in the past twelve months. It's a huge drop since the 129 books of 2013, the 198 books of 2012 and the 112 books of 2011. I am thankful that I'm still reading, I'm still blogging and I'm still reviewing- even if it's on a much smaller scale than in the past.
To my followers:
I want to thank everyone who has subscribed to my blog, those that read my reviews, comment and reach out to me via FB and GR. I look forward to forming new connections in 2015.