My Reading Year 2023

I managed to get my reading mojo back in 2023 and have enjoyed a wonderful year of books. I also spent a week at the Sydney Writers' Festival which introduced me to many new books and authors. 

My reading goal for 2023 was 30 books, which I achieved, reading 33 titles this year. When planning for 2023 at the start of the year, I had a stack of books on my to-be-read pile, and managed to read most of them.  I also updated my reading bingo card  to help me diversify my reading. While I didn't read all categories, I succeeded in most of them (highlighted below). 

So here's what I read in 2023:

Fiction

I wanted to read some classics this year. In January I discovered the #BigBronteReadalong on Instagram and so joined that group online. I have read all the Bronte novels before, but many decades ago (indeed, last century!). I managed to read four Bronte novels - Jane Eyre, Shirley, The Professor and Agnes Grey. I tried to read Wuthering Heights again, but still did not like it, and lost my Bronte momentum, after slogging my way through Shirley and The Professor.  So I never did re-read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall or Villette. While my readalong was a bit of a fail, I quite enjoyed the idea of it and may see if I can join one next year for a #DollopofTrollope or similar. Regardless I will continue my reading of classics as I work my way through my Fifty/Five list.

Some of the more modern classics I read this year include George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Elizabeth Von Armin's Vera, Winifred Watson's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and John William's Stoner. I enjoyed all of these novels and am so glad I pulled them off the shelf. Orwell was a re-read but all the others were new to me but had been on my wishlist for many years. The delightful Winifred Watson novel was so hard to come by, but has made me want to search out other neglected books by women writers published by Persephone.

My interest in feminist retellings of ancient myths continues. This year I read two novels based on myths - although not the ones I had on my to be read pile! I picked up two new novels published in 2023 - Jennifer Saint's Atalanta and Costanza Casati's Clytemnestra. Both were really enjoyable and I look forward to reading more myths in 2024.

I read quite a few Aussie Noir crime novels this year. Hayley Scrivenor's Dirt Town was brilliant and I have been recommending it to everyone I know who loves a good page turner. In 2022 I heard Scrivener speak at the Sydney Writers Festival on a panel with Garry Disher. This started my love of Disher's Hirschhausen series and after reading Bitter Wash Road last year, I gobbled up Peace and Consolation this year.  Likewise, I enjoy Chris Hammer's novels and read two in the Lucic/Buchanan series - The Tilt and The Seven. Both were excellent. 

I also read some crime/thriller novels by non-Australian authors. I pre-ordered the latest Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) novel in the Cormoran Strike series, The Running Grave. It was such an enjoyable read and my favourite in the series so far. Dervla McTiernan is another gifted crime writer and I was delighted to learn about her Cormac Reilly series through reading The Ruin. I pre-ordered Eleanor Catton's novel Birnam Wood and was delighted to get to meet her at the Sydney Writers' Festival. This novel had me gripped from the outset and lingered long after the last page was read. Likewise Percival Everett's magnificent The Trees has not left my mind. I heard about this novel when it was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, but had difficulty finding a copy. I am so glad to have read this and look forward to exploring more books by Percival Everett. 

The Sydney Writers' Festival was also a chance to meet Colson Whitehead. I absolutely loved his novel The Nickel Boys and at the time I declared it would be a contender for one of my favourite books of the year. I am looking forward to reading more of Whitehead's books in 2024. 

Award longlists provide me with much reading inspiration but this year I didn't read as many longlisted novels as I normally do, in part because the ones I was most interested in were hard to find. 

Sophie Mackintosh's Cursed Bread was longlisted for the 2023 Women's Prize and sounded really intriguing, but unfortunately left me disappointed. Likewise, Jessica Au's Cold Enough for Snow has won countless awards and was on my wishlist for ages. I read it as my #NovellaInNovember and was underwhelmed. I had avoided Sally Rooney's Normal People for years due to the hype around it but finally read it this year and can now understand why it was so popular. Another much hyped novel is Ann Patchett's Tom Lake which I read and enjoyed with the audiobook performed by Meryl Streep - the first novel I have read which features the COVID-19 pandemic. I also read Miriam Toews' Women Talking, as I wanted to see the film but read the book first. Both the novel and the film were great! 

Of all the novels I read this year it is really hard to pick a favourite. My top five would be:

• Eleanor Catton - Birnam Wood
• Coleson Whitehead - The Nickel Boys
• Hayley Scrivinor - Dirt Town 
• Percival Everett - The Trees
• Robert Galbraith - The Running Grave

Non-Fiction

This year I didn't read as much non-fiction as I had planned to. It was a difficult year for me on many fronts, so perhaps I needed the escape that novels provide!

In January I read Julia Gillard's excellent essay collection Not Now, Not Ever - which looks back at the infamous misogyny speech she gave while Prime Minister and the aftermath ten years later. I loved this book and the diversity of voices she gathered to reflect on politics, sexism and the unfinished business of equality. Another revelatory book on Australian politics was Margot Saville's The Teal Revolution. I attended a session with Saville at the Sydney Writers' Festival and heard her speak about the wave of women entering politics as independents. I found her book a fascinating insight into the current shake up of Parliament.

I also read some interesting memoir this year. Grace Tame's memoir The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner was an interesting exploration of the life of this remarkable woman. While the book was challenging and in need of an edit, I have nothing but admiration for Tame.  Similarly Britney Spears' The Woman in Me was not particularly well written but was such as interesting read. It is a fascinating look at the music industry and the perils of early fame, and I really loved this book and the audiobook performed by Michelle Williams. 

Another memoir of sorts was Anna Funder's Wifedom - a look at the life of Eileen O'Shaunessy Blair, wife of George Orwell. I love Anna Funder and would read anything she writes. I pre-ordered this book as soon as it was announced.  Wifedom does not fit neatly into any category as Funder fuses styles, melding her life with Eileen's. I found it an engrossing read, and made me look at Orwell and his work in a new light. Definitely my favourite non-fiction this year.

Other Genres

I also explored a mishmash of other genres in 2023. 

I re-read a play I had studied in high school, Our Town by Thornton Wilder, to assist me in my reading of Ann Patchett's Tom Lake, and found I still didn't love it after all these years. Shirley Jackson's Dark Tales - a collection of her eerie short stories, was wonderful and made me want to read more of her work.  I also read an amazing poetry collection - Sarah Holland Batt's award winning The Jaguar. I picked this up after hearing her read from the collection at the Sydney Writers' Festival and have savoured her verse.

Best of 2023
I read so many great books this year. I loved and highly recommend:

• Anna Funder - Wifedom 
• Britney Spears - The Woman in Me
• George Orwell -  Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
• Sarah Holland Batt -  The Jaguar
• Hayley Scrivinor - Dirt Town
• Chris Hammer - The Seven
• Percival Everett - The Trees
• Robert Galbraith - The Running Grave
• Eleanor Catton - Birnam Wood
• Coleson Whitehead - The Nickel Boys

If I had to choose my absolute favourites, I would pick Anna Funder's revealing exploration Wifedom and Eleanor Catton's page-turning eco-thriller Birnam Wood.

Well, that's my year of reading! A new year starts tomorrow and I cannot wait to discover new books and rediscover old favourites. Happy New Reading Year!

Cover the Bones

The third novel in Chris Hammer's series featuring Detective Ivan Lucic and his plucky partner Nell Buchanan has recently been published. The Seven (2023) sees the partners investigating a homicide in Yuwonderie, a fictional town in the Riverina area of New South Wales. 

A body is found in the canal that runs through the heart of Yuwonderie. Lucic and Buchanan drive down from their base in Dubbo to investigate. The victim is a local accountant, Athol Hasluck, who has died in mysterious circumstances. They quickly learn that Hasluck is from one of 'The Seven' - the seven families that built and established the town one hundred years earlier. These families created the irrigation scheme - a system of canals that bring water from the Murrumbidgee River into the town - central to the prosperity of the community. But the detectives soon discover that there are dark secrets beneath the facade presented by this planned community, and the more they uncover the more dangerous their investigation becomes. 

The novel unfolds on three timeframes. The present, where Lucic and Buchanan are investigating Hasluck's death.  Thirty years earlier, in 1993, when Davis Heartwood, one of the Seven families, begins researching the origins of the irrigation scheme for his thesis. And 1913, when a young Aboriginal woman named Bessie arrives in the area to work for one of the families and writes to her mother who lives on a mission. Over the course of the novel, the three timeframes are interwoven and reveal information essential to this story. 

In the previous instalment of the series, Buchanan was the focus. In this novel, we learn more about Ivan Lucic and his past. We also have characters from previous Hammer novels - like Martin Scarsden from Scrublands - make appearances in this book. While it helps to have read the previous Lucic novels, The Seven can be read as a standalone book.

Once again, Hammer has called upon Aleksander J Potocnick to create a map of the fictional town. This is a handy reference when reading to help understand the topography of the landscape and the proximity of various locations. 

I really enjoyed this novel. It is a gripping murder mystery, with interesting characters and a clear sense of place. I hope that Hammer continues to write this series, as I want more Ivan and Nell! 

My reviews of other Chris Hammer novels are available on this blog: Scrublands (2018); Silver (2019); Trust (2020); Treasure and Dirt (2021) and The Tilt (2022).  For readers outside Australia, the Lucic/Buchanan novels are published under different titles - look for Opal Country (Treasure and Dirt), Dead Man's Creek (The Tilt) and Cover the Bones (The Seven) instead.

Only Connect

For my 'Novella in November', I chose Jessica Au's Cold Enough for Snow (2022), a book I have been longing to read. It won the 2020 Novel Prize, the 2023 Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction. With all the accolades, I had high expectations for this book, but unfortunately it left me cold.

The story involves a woman who arranges to meet her mother in Tokyo and travel around Japan together.  Narrated by the daughter, she describes their visits to art galleries, restaurants, temples and stores. The two are estranged and while they are travelling together, they share little - even at an art gallery they view the works separately. For the daughter, this trip is a chance to escape her daily life and contemplate her future. Through flashbacks we learn about the narrator's sister, an uncle in Hong Kong, her partner Laurie - but we learn little of the mother and daughter. In an effort to please each other, neither says what is on their mind. Can they bridge the distance between them?

Jessica Au writes in a beautifully observant sensory style. She describes places and things meticulously. The way our narrator describes what she sees is evocative, contemplative and delightful. For example, 

'When my mother finally appeared, she might as well have been an apparition. She came with her puffer jacket zipped up to her chin, and in the cold night air her breath came out in a little cloud, like a small departing spirit' (p. 90).

I loved Au's descriptive prose, admiring each sentence. The author forces you to slow down, savour every word.  However the overall stream-of-consciousness style without chapter breaks did not work for me. I wanted more from this book, to gain a better understanding of the characters, to feel more substance. Not unlike the narrator, I longed for connection.

Our Town

Ann Patchett's latest novel Tom Lake (2023) is set on a Michigan cherry farm in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. Lara and Joe's three adult daughters have returned home to support the family farm and live out lockdown in their childhood home. The eldest Emily will inherit the farm and likely marry her sweetheart on the neighbouring farm. Middle child Maisie is a local veterinarian and youngest Nell is studying to be an actor. While they pick cherries in the orchard, the girls ask their mother to tell them about how she once had relationship with Hollywood heartthrob Peter Duke. Lara tells the tale of how she did a summer stock production of Our Town at Tom Lake, a festival town, where she met Duke and had a summer romance.

Told in flashbacks, Lara recounts the story from her early twenties when she was cast to star as Emily in Thornton Wilder's classic play Our Town (1938) and Mae in Sam Shepard's Fool For Love. The summer she spent at Tom Lake was filled with rehearsals, performances and lazy days of swimming and hanging out with her friends - Duke, his brother Sebastian, and Pallace (Lara's understudy). After this summer of passion, Duke went on to become a star and then converted his celebrity into an Oscar winning performance in a serious dramatic role. Lara had a brief moment of fame, starring in one film before retiring in her mid-twenties and retreating to the farm. Her daughters are keen to know how Duke and Lara's paths converged and then separated, and ultimately how Lara ended up on the farm instead of a mansion in Hollywood.  

It helps to have knowledge of Wilder's Our Town when reading Tom Lake. A few chapters in,  I decided to refresh my memory and found my browning 1985 edition of the play. In my high school drama class I did a scene from Our Town, playing Emily Webb opposite a classmate's George. I have no doubt that my Emily was not unlike the many dud Emilys, Lara observed during auditions!  Our Town is essentially a play about life in a small town and the preciousness of the little things in life. I didn't really appreciate the play when I read it as a teenager, but can understand it more now. The folksy tale of life in Grover's Corner is an excellent parallel for Tom Lake. 

I read Patchett's Tom Lake while listening to the audiobook performed by Meryl Streep. She read this book with warmth and embodied Lara perfectly. Interspersed between Lara's memories of one golden summer, is the present on her family's orchard. The novel explores the joys of family, and the slowness that the pandemic brought as people formed protective bubbles. Lara explains the choices she made without regret. Along the way we learn more about her daughters and her husband and life on the farm. Lara revels in the preciousness of each day and the joys of having her children close by.  Tom Lake brings about a coziness, like comfort-food - a cherry pie enjoyed while wrapped in a patchwork quilt by a roaring fire. 

My review of Ann Patchett's State of Wonder (2011) is also on this blog.

Warrior Queen

Clytemnestra is best known as the sister of Helen of Troy and the wife of Agamemnon, the brutal King of Mycenae. She is often depicted as a villain who murdered her husband. Clytemnestra appears in Aeschylus' Oresteia (5th century BCE), Homer's Odyssey (8th century BCE) and elsewhere, where she appears as a peripheral character, cast in a vengeful light. In Clytemnestra (2023), author Costanza Casati seeks to understand this complex woman and tell her story, in this impressive debut novel.

Born in Sparta, Clytemnestra is raised alongside her sister Helen and her brothers Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux) and younger siblings. Her father Tyndareus is King of Sparta. Her mother Leda was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan, resulting in her drowning her trauma in alcohol and raising her daughters to fight, routinely testing each other's strength in the wrestling ring. The girls know it is their lot in life to be married off to form strategic alliances. Helen choses Menelaus. Clytemnestra marries for love, choosing Tantalus the King of Pisa, with whom she has a young son. In a grotesque act of betrayal, her husband and son are murdered and Clytemnestra is forced to marry the man who caused her grief - Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae - with whom she has Iphigenia, Electra and Orestes. 

When Helen runs off with Paris, the Trojan War begins. Menelaus asks his brother Agamemnon for assistance. The Greek troops meet at Aulis, and soon Agamemnon sends for his wife and daughter who is to be wed to Achilles. When the women arrive at Aulis, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter in exchange for favourable winds. This second act of betrayal hardens Clytemnestra's heart and she vows her revenge. 

While Agamemnon is away for the ten years of the Trojan War, Clytemnestra serves as Queen of Mycenae. She manages trade negotiations, resolves disputes, dispenses justice. She is a driven, capable leader. Casati presents her as a woman in full - a daughter, a sister, a lover, a wife, a mother, a queen, a survivor. I particularly enjoyed the way Casati portrayed her as a sister - supporting her brothers, defending Timandra, worrying for Helen.

I have read many retellings of ancient myths, and the characters routinely overlap. I had worried that I might not enjoy another story covering the same ground, but Casati has found a new way of telling a familiar story to make it feel fresh. Casati has given Clytemnestra a voice, and created a sympathetic portrait of a woman who experienced multiple traumas and endured. In doing so, she has recast the villain as a survivor.  Highly recommend this for fans of ancient myths.