Australian authors I have loved.

I originally posted this in 2018 and I wanted to update it a little to add some other Australian authors that I have since discovered and thoroughly enjoyed. It’s going to make it a chonky post so I hope you make it all the way through.

John Marsden – born in Victoria in 1950, he had an interest in writing from a young age. He was a teacher and has written many books, he is successful internationally as well as at home.

The Tomorrow when the War Began series was my favourite series as a young teen. A group of kids go camping for a weekend and when they get back they discover that their area/country has been invaded. Their loved ones are held captive, so they do the only thing they can do – Guerrilla warfare. Ellie and her friends are a diverse bunch with many skills, they use these country kid skills to cause mayhem for the invading forces. I absolutely loved the idea of kids kicking arse and taking it to the bad guys. The relationships between the kids were complex and well written. John Marsden didn’t skim over the details, he handled the mental challenges the kids faced really well, the fallout for them. It’s not all sunshine and lollipops, these kids go through hell and their mental health reflects this. I still reread this series every couple of years. I cannot wait for my daughter to read this series. There are seven books in the series and I just discovered a follow-up series called the Ellie Chronicles that I have yet to read.

(2021 update – My daughter was not a fan of this and didn’t even make it through the first book… Does this mean I failed as a mum? lol)

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Goodreads  –  Amazon

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The Empyrean Gate (Part 1) by Z. Rockward

Getting the readers attention within the first couple of paragraphs is pretty important. For me as a reader, I love nothing more than reading an intriguing, high stakes intro. And with a banging first paragraph The Empyrean Gate caught my attention, shocked me and had me re-reading the synopsis to see what exactly I was in for.

WWW Wednesday

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, you answer 3 questions and hey presto, you are all done.

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

I'm taking part in the Olympic Games Readathon this month so I have paused a book and am starting fresh. 

Currently reading –

The Book Of Koli by M.R Carey

The Olympic Games

In June I’m going to be participating in a reading challenge inspired by the Percy Jackson series. The Olympic Games is a fun way to come up with a TBR for the month and distract myself from all the reviews I have yet to write up. I have serious reviewers block and a serious backlog of reviews that need to be written up. Anyway, this challenge has been created by ISHI and if you click her name it will take you to her video. She is joined by a team of hosts and the challenge can take place across all platforms. The effort that has gone into the set up of this is amazing.

How does the challenge work? You take the quiz to determine your cabin and then follow the reading prompts for the god your representing. There are 5 prompts for each god and once those are completed you have the option of completing the advanced prompts.

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

The Collapsing Empire is a sweeping space opera that makes you lose track of time. A book almost impossible to put down. A book full of characters so compelling and addictive that you are going to want to have book two lined up and ready to go.

WWW Wednesday

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, you answer 3 questions and hey presto, you are all done.

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

My 2019 in review

  Hey, Hello, Welcome. Its been well over a month since I even attempted to do anything blog related. I have a habit of going hard at something and then completely dying in the arse and it’s very obvious when you look at the way I post. Some months I post several times a week, others I only post once and December, well that was the month of silence. I didn’t even read a book in December. I had a dnf but that is it. I was all kinds of busy in December, it was chaos. The erratic posting probably won’t change in 2020.
My productivity levels are often tied to my mental health, which cycles throughout the year. When I’m hyper focused I can smash through posts, but once my brain starts to fog up, I struggle to push through that and that is when I divert my attention to real life stuff. My mental health has definitely done it’s best to kick my ass this past year, and I’ve had months of bouncing of the walls and weeks where I felt like I was suffocating and I didn’t know how to keep functioning. But I have a fantastic support network, a wonderful psychologist, a family that loves me and a husband who can let me hide when needed, hug me when needed and remind me to put the phone down and pay attention to my kids when needed. This isn’t a woe is me post, I don’t expect or need sympathy, it is exactly what the title suggests, a review of my year. All of my year.

Sci-Fi wrap up

Sci-Fi month has come to an end. A big thank you to our two lovely hosts, Lisa and Imyril both had a massive job on their hands and they nailed it.
I said at the start of November that reading more Sci-Fi was one of my goals this year and I think it’s safe to say I’ve done way better than I expected. Throughout November I managed to smash out a series that I’ve had on my shelves for years and another couple from NetGalley. I realised that there is so much more to the Sci-Fi genre than spaceships and other worlds.

Stacking The Shelves

A weekly post where I can brag about my new books? Yes please. Granted I definitely won’t have something to post every week, I’ll just do it as required. I will be including everything from my purchases, to NetGalley, gifts and books from authors.
For more information head over to Tynga’s Reviews.

As it’s Sci-Fi Month, I may have got a little click happy over in NetGalley. Also, I took full advantage of a couple of authors having their first books on Amazon for free. I think at least 90% of the books I gathered over the last 6 weeks are Sci-Fi.

WWW Wednesday

I’ve come across a weekly meme that I can do, but will probably only do every now and then. It’s super simple, which I love.
Hosted by Taking on a World of Words you answer 3 questions and hey presto, you are all done.

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m still on a sci-fi kick due to sci-fi month, so I’m currently reading Betrayal by Pippa DaCosta. I’m 33% in and I’m not sold. I’m glad it’s only a 200 page book as I’m not sure I would keep going if it was much longer. It’s my first book by her and I have a few others on my kindle, so I hope they are an improvement.

I recently finished Shadow City by Anna Mocikat. It’s light sci-fi, end of days kind of thing. Humans are almost wiped out, creatures have entered our world and the vampires have come out of hiding. Hopefully I will have a review up soon.

Next up I plan on finishing Chasing Graves by Ben Galley and getting stuck into Skycircus by Peter Bunzl. I have loved Chasing Graves so far, but put it on hold for sci-fi month and Skycircus is a fun, magical middle grade read.