Book Bingo 19: A Memoir and a book by someone under thirty.

Book bingo take 2

To make sure I manage to fit in the rest of the card evenly, this is one of a few posts that will have multiple squares marked off – progress has been a little slower, so some squares might have books from earlier in the year, but in different categories to the first card.

Book bingo take 2 .jpg

First square being marked off this week is a memoir – No Country Woman written by Zoya Patel, an Australian with Fijian-Indian heritage, about her struggle with identity, and reconciling her Fijian-Indian, Muslim heritage with an Australian identity, and looking for ways to embrace both, during a time when she felt like she had to make a decision as she grew up in Australia with modern Australian influences, as well as the traditional influences of her family, and the conflict that this brought with it, where an Australian life and the access she had to everything – vastly more than her parents had had as children – was at odds with her familial heritage. This memoir explores how she came to embrace both identities and her interactions with racism, feminism, and the intersectional feminism that can benefit all, and not just one group. the yellow house

It is eye-opening and informative – Zoya allows herself to reflect on things said to her, things she sees and the idea that everyone’s interactions with society are different based on how much access they are given or have, and there is no one experience of this, each one is different and some people get lucky and have more than others – she goes further in-depth than i have here, and she says it much more eloquently than I have, so go forth and read her book!

The second book I’ve marked off in this post falls under a book by a person under thirty years old. For this, I have chosen another Australian Woman Writer, Emily O’Grady, The Yellow House, examining whether having a serial killer in the family ensures a legacy of violence in later generations. It was intriguing and disturbing – it drew you in and even though there was a sadistic feel to it, as a reader, I felt I had to read on to find out what happened and how it all played out – it was quite different to the usual fare of crime novels I read but very well written.

So there are my latest two squares, with more to come as I tick them off.

Amazing Australian Women: Twelve Women Who Shaped History by Pamela Freeman and Sophie Beer

Title: Amazing Australian Women: Twelve Women Who Shaped History

Author: Pamela Freeman and Sophie Beer

Genre: Children’s Non-Fiction

Publisher: Hachette/Lothian

Published: 28th August 2018

Format: Hardback

Pages: 32

Price: $26.99

Synopsis: A bright and colourful look at twelve incredible Australian women who helped shape our country, from politics and the arts to Indigenous culture, science and more.

Meet twelve amazing Australian women who have changed the world, in small ways and large.

Some of them are world famous, like Annette Kellerman and Nellie Melba.

Some of them are famous in Australia, like Mary Reibey and Edith Cowan.

All of them deserve to be famous and admired.

These women are the warriors who paved the way for the artists, business owners, scientists, singers, politicians, actors, sports champions, adventurers, activists and innovators of Australia today.

The featured women are:
Mary Reibey, convict and businesswoman
Tarenore, Indigenous resistance fighter
Mary Lee, suffragist
Nellie Melba, opera singer
Edith Cowan, politician
Tilly Aston, teacher, writer and disability activist
Rose Quong, actress, lecturer and writer
Elizabeth Kenny, nurse and medical innovator
Annette Kellerman, swimmer and movie star
Lores Bonney, aviation pioneer
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, artist
Ruby Payne-Scott, scientist

~*~

History is filled with amazing people and stories that for some reason, we’ve never heard of, never read, and never seen. Whatever the reason, many of these previously unknown or hidden stories and figures are being revealed now, and it is making the study of history that much more interesting – though I have always loved it, knowing some of the stories coming out now would definitely have made things more interesting to dig into and discover. As part of this movement, especially in promoting the histories of women in all walks of life, Hachette have released this picture book today by Pamela Freeman and Sophie Beer, Amazing Australian Women: Twelve Women Who Shaped History.

The women included in this new book cover each state and territory in Australia and come from various backgrounds, and occupations, covering recorded Australian history from 1788 onwards. Mary Reiby, a convict and businesswoman opens the book, and from their it moves onto Indigenous women like Tarenore, an Indigenous resistance fighter – a story I would like to know more about and that should be taught in history because it is a part of our history as well as the usual facts and events we learn about. There suffragists such as Mary Lee – not as well-known as other suffragettes such as Edith Cowan or Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, but no less important, and many other lesser known women whose stories might not have been shared before. In fact, of the twelve in the book, the only two I had learnt about through my own reading and studies were opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, and Sister Elizabeth Kenny -nurse and medical innovator. So, finding out a little bit about these other women was refreshing, and any of these women – had I known a bit more about them – would have made for excellent research projects in history courses and classes where topics and questions for essays were not pre-determined.

This book runs the spectrum of scientists, artists, political activists and businesswomen who all had a role to play in shaping our country into what it is today. It is these stories that need to be told in history class alongside what we are already taught about the ANZACs, the world wars, Federation and other aspects of Australia’s history from 1788 onwards. It tells unknown and known stories, sparking an early interest in history, but also, acting as a starting point for research so anyone wishing to read more has a starting point for names and dates to track down more on people they might not have heard about otherwise.

Adding lesser known stories to history – especially when it comes to groups often ignored by the official records or at least, marginalised by them – allows history to become richer, and more complex and much more interesting, diverse and more of a shared history, because it allows us to explore a world beyond what we have been taught. Pamela Freeman writes historical fiction for adults as Pamela Hart, with strong female characters who do not let the confines of what is expected of them define who they are, and they forge their own paths through their lives – yet still have to work within some of the confines imposed upon them, they manage to break out of some. Exposing children early – whatever their gender – to these sorts of stories about people who weren’t what society expected of them not only shows that the stereotypes are not real, but that history is actually diverse and interesting.

A great picture book and introduction to significant women who contributed to Australian history and society.

No Country Woman by Zoya Patel

no country woman.jpg Title: No Country Woman

Author: Zoya Patel

Genre: Autobiography/Memoir

Publisher: Hachette Australia

Published: 14th August 2018

Format: Paperback

Pages: 264

Price: $32.99

Synopsis: ‘An ambitious, nuanced and confident debut: Patel writes with passion, curiosity and purpose.’ Maxine Beneba Clarke, bestselling and award winning author of The Hate Race, Foreign Soil, The Patchwork Bike and Carrying The World A fresh and exciting feminist memoir about what it means to never feel at home where you live.

‘I was born in a hospital in Suva, Fiji. I can’t recall ever seeing the building on my trips back to the city, first as a child or later as an adult. I imagine it in shades of blue and brown, the plastic waiting room chairs covered in the fine film of moisture that creeps over everything there. It is not a place I’ve thought of often, but I think of it now and wonder how it has shaped me. I am Fijian-Indian, and have lived in Australia since I was three years old. Memories of my early life in Fiji are limited to flashes, like an old film projector running backwards. I remember a blue dress, a trip on a boat where my father handed me a dried, floating starfish that I clutched in my fingers, determined not to lose it back to the ocean.’

No Country Woman is the story of never knowing where you belong. It’s about not feeling represented in the media you consumed, not being connected to the culture of your forebears, not having the respect of your peers.

It’s about living in a multicultural society with a monocultural focus but being determined to be heard.

It’s about challenging society’s need to define us and it’s a rallying cry for the future.

It’s a memoir full of heart, fury and intelligence – and the book we need right now.

~*~

No Country Woman by Zoya Patel is a story of identity – the intersection of three cultures and nations across generations – Fiji, India and Australia, and how these contributed to the identity of Zoya, and how the clash of her Fijian-Indian identity, to her, felt like it was at odds with the Australian identity that she grew up with. Zoya grew up in flux and flitting between her Fijian-Indian identity and culture at home with her family, and her Australian identity at school, with friends, that saw her feeling like she had to choose between her identities, and where it took her many years to realise she could embrace both of them equally and find solace in each – that being Fijian-Indian-Australian was who she was and each culture, country and heritage was who she was. Grappling with how to navigate the traditions of her family, parents and the culture they grew up in with her new life in Australia, where she found herself faced with the conflict of trying to embrace an identity as a Fijian-Indian, a migrant and an Australian – all of which were, to Zoya, felt as though they were competing against each other and she could only choose one.

Zoya’s story reflects her own experience as a migrant, as someone of non-Anglo heritage, and her experiences of racism and prejudice.

Zoya’s story isn’t chronological, but rather, thematic. Each chapter is related to a theme, and sometimes various family events: moves, school, weddings, or going back to Fiji to see family – and through these experiences, Zoya felt different all the time – too Australian for Fiji and family, yet too much of her Fijian-Indian identity to be fully Australian – not realising that there was a way for her to be both while she was growing up.

Zoya has also tried to tease out some of the complexities of how we interact in a multicultural society, and the different ways in which people experience privilege and disadvantage – race, gender, sexuality, class, and disability – and how this can differ for each person, yet there are also common experiences of privilege, disadvantage and discrimination that affect everyone in different ways, or ensure there is some kind of hierarchy, even if it is one that we cannot always see and that is not always obvious.

It is eye-opening and reflective, a book where people can learn what racism looks like and hopefully, fight against it and feel like they can – as allies or as those often discriminated against. Zoya teases out the complexities of all these issues, through her lens but also, through her interactions with various people along the way, looking at as many sides as possible whilst still exploring her identity and what each interaction means, how each interaction affects how she sees herself, then and now, and her journey to reconcile her whole identity as a Fijian-Indian-Australian, who has spent time living in Edinburgh, without having to give anything up, and knowing her identity is a combination of her ancestral and familial past, her life in Australia and her time spent in Edinburgh, where she was writing this book.

I enjoyed reading this, and gaining a greater understanding of what someone like Zoya goes through and how they might deal with it. Zoya’s openness and desire to communicate to her audience is fresh and easy to understand, with a flow to her story that ensures it is engaging, and is filled with humour and humanity, where Zoya discovers what feminism means to her and her identity – an identity that she comes to discover over time, where she can embrace every part of it: as a Fijian-Indian, as a migrant, and as an Australian, and a feminist.

A wonderful memoir that that explores the intersection of vastly different cultures, religions, nations and race, alongside feminism, and how this shaped Zoya and her world, whilst recognising how the factors that make up an individual’s identity – whatever their race, gender, beliefs and ability – are as individual as hers, and whilst there are common experiences related to these aspects of identity, and assumptions made based on these factors, each individual experience is always going to be different in some ways, and similar to the common experiences in others.

Australian Women Writer’s Check-in three: thirty-one to forty-five

My next fifteen takes me to book 45 of the challenge – The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell. In this set, I read a wide array of fiction – all by authors I had never read before, from contemporary fiction, to historical fiction, literary fiction, and kids’ books that delved into the world of spies, and one of my favourite periods of antiquity, the Minoans and the explosion of Akrotiri on Thera. I read a non-fiction book by Kitty Flanagan, which was more like an extended comedy routine, to mysteries and family legacies.

From World War Two seen through the lens of Jewish refugees in Shanghai, to book illumination in the middle ages, and the melding of various mythologies and histories to create unique characters and voices that stretch out across the decades and centuries to tell stories of war, family, fear and mystery, and the fun of child spies and wildlife adventures.

These next fifteen were recently completed and, the last fifteen will take me to the start of August. Just over half way done for the year, I have read four times what I pledged, and hope to read many more in the months to come, adding to my ever growing list.

Books thirty-one to forty-five

So far I haven’t mentioned favourites on any lists, because there have been so many on the others, but on this one, The Jade Lily, Kensy and Max, Swallow’s Dance and The Peacock Summer are the ones that stood out for me and that I enjoyed the most for various reasons, all stated in my reviews on these books.

Australian Women Writer’s Challenge check in two – books sixteen to thirty.

Marking off the half way point for my first sixty books as it stands on the 11th of August, is my second post, with the next fifteen books up to thirty. These range from books for kids, to choose your own adventure to historical fiction, and nearly everything in between. This post, there is much more diversity in the authors read – including some short stories, surprise arrivals and a fairy tale retelling. There were a few World War Two based books – this was around the time I read many Holocaust influenced stories from authors from around the world, one of them a true story – The Tattooist of Auschwitz – and after reading this one and going onto other Holocaust stories, it made me wonder -how many people from those stories did Lale tattoo, how many did he see – the faces that were clear as characters and historical figures in the novels would have been just numbers once he had tattooed them.

This next allotment also marks, with book sixteen, the beginning of my quiz writing job, and at times I have reviewed some of the books I have been sent, but not all. Not many are picture books on my list here, but a couple have pictures – be they photos related to the true story a novel is based on, or pictures that accompany and complement the text for younger readers, such as in Grandpa, Me and Poetry.

Sixteen to thirty:

xthe-most-marvellous-spelling-bee-mystery.jpg.pagespeed.ic.zY67unNXcl

My next list will be thirty-one to forty-five. The vast array and mix of books I have read this year is interesting and has definitely been fun to read. Once the posts for the first sixty are up, upon the completion of the next fifteen, another post will go up – whether this is monthly or less frequently, these will act as little capsules of books to show what I have been reading in short bursts.

Australian Women Writer’s Challenge Check-in One – books one to fifteen

All year I have been meaning to write progress posts for every month, or every ten books. Until now, I have woefully neglected this activity, and having read 61 books already, am breaking it up into posts of fifteen – and will continue to do this until the end of the year/early 2019, making the collation of posts for my final wrap up of this challenge easier than last year’s attempt. Each list will be varied, with review books and ones I chose to purchase making up my count – they will be diverse in terms of story, genre, fiction or non-fiction, readership, age and as many other aspects of diversity as I have stumbled across on my reading journey – greatly depending on what I have been able to find, have been sent and what I have access to, but also, I choose books based on what I enjoy as well, and in doing so, I feel like I hit as much diversity in my reading as possible without too much trouble.

These lists – to date so far by today, are a little less than half of my total books logged for the year, which on the 11th of August, stands at 115, and counting. I have well surpassed my goal of fifteen for the challenge – a conservative estimate as I often have a list in mind of upcoming releases and books I own, yet also don’t always know what else will come my way. I find it best to underestimate – and then anything extra becomes bonus points.

So below is my first batch of fifteen out of sixty one, with links to each review.

First fifteen

Skin-in-the-Game_cover-for-publicity-600x913

Coming up next, posts sixteen to thirty of the Australian Women Writer’s challenge and at some stage, a Book Bingo wrap up post for both of my rounds of the challenge with Mrs B’s Book Reviews and Theresa Smith Writes.

Book Bingo Take Two

As per my post two weeks ago when I completed the first round, this is my second go at the bingo card, having completed it early, due to my filling in several squares at once in some posts. This time around. I’ll be trying to only do one book and square a fortnight, so I don’t finish early.

To begin, the text list of my categories is here, clean and empty for me to begin in my next post.

Book bingo take 2

Challenge #4: Book Bingo Take 2

(Rows Across)

Row #1 – –

A book set more than 100 years ago:

A book written more than ten years ago:

A memoir:

A book more than 500 pages:

A Foreign translated novel:

Row #2 –

A book with a yellow cover:

A book by an author you’ve never read before:

A non-fiction book:

A collection of short stories:

A book with themes of culture:

Row #3: –

A book written by an Australian woman:

A book written by an Australian man:

A prize-winning book:

A book that scares you:

A book with a mystery:

Row #4

A forgotten classic:

A book with a one-word title:

A book with non-human characters:

A funny book:

A book with a number in the title:

Row #5

A book that became a movie:

A book based on a true story:

A book everyone is talking about:

A book written by someone under thirty:

A book written by someone over sixty:

Rows Down

Row #1 – –

A book set more than 100 years ago:

A book with a yellow cover:

A book written by an Australian woman:

A forgotten classic:

A book that became a movie:

Row #2

A book written more than ten years ago:

A book by an author you’ve never read before:

A book written by an Australian man:

A book with a one-word title:

A book based on a true story:

Row #3: –

A memoir:

A non-fiction book:

A prize-winning book:

A book with non-human characters:

A book everyone is talking about:

Row #4

A book more than 500 pages:

A collection of short stories:

A book that scares you:

A funny book:

A book written by someone under thirty:

Row #5

A Foreign Translated Novel:

A book with themes of culture:

A book with a mystery:

A book with a number in the title:

A book written by someone over sixty:

I have not started in this post, as I have not chosen where to start yet, but I have some ideas of the books I want to add this time. I will be aiming to read and include the latest Jackie French book in the Miss Lily series, and some others that I have not had a chance to get around to yet. The first post will either be up today, the second or next bingo week, the sixteenth. I have been enjoying this book bingo and will enjoy having another go at it using as many different books as I can.

The Book Muse

Books, reading and writing

Category: non-fiction

Book Bingo 19: A Memoir and a book by someone under thirty.

Amazing Australian Women: Twelve Women Who Shaped History by Pamela Freeman and Sophie Beer

No Country Woman by Zoya Patel

Australian Women Writer’s Check-in three: thirty-one to forty-five

Australian Women Writer’s Challenge check in two – books sixteen to thirty.

Australian Women Writer’s Challenge Check-in One – books one to fifteen

Book Bingo Take Two

Books, reading and writing

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