Hello friends!

In this edition of #BookishBloggersUnite, we’re looking back through our achievements of 2018 and some of our favourite reads from the year. This week the lovely emmy from Books Beyond Binaries is hosting – make sure you check out their blog!

First of all – Challenges:

I nailed my Goodreads challenge – I tend to set it low so I don’t stress myself out. It was set at 150, and at the moment I’m at 215 books for the year. I’ll probably finish another couple before the year is out but I’d be surprised if I made it to 220. Either way I’m happy with that number.

I have finished the Read Harder Challenge and my Aussies Rule Challenge. I’m one book off finishing the Reading Women Challenge and I may not get there.

Even thought I was trying really hard to read more Aussies this year I’m finishing with Aussie authors as 21.8% of my total. I really want to do better with that next year. My Authors of Colour percentage was a lot higher at 47.4% but I still want to get that higher next year as well. I haven’t really focussed on LGBTQ authors this year so that percentage is woeful and will be another area of focus for me next year. I’m really hoping to find more queer Aussie authors next year to support and I’ve found a lot more resources this year to help me find queer reads in general.

Favourite reads this year:

I have read a bunch of amazing books this year. I picked up my first Candice Fox book and was hooked. The Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant books I read this year were so good, and ditto for Martha Wells’ Murderbot books.

Here are my top 5:

1. Terra Nullius by Claire Coleman

2. Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar

3. Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee

4. The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

5. A Planet for Rent by Yoss

Another special mention for Melanin Garden by Anisa Nandaula, which is a stunning book of poetry from a local author and slam poet. I hope we get more to read from her soon!

How was your 2018 in reading? What were your favourite reads this year? Did you meet your goals? Do you have places where you want to improve next year?

Cheers,