2014 Aussie Author Challenge | The Five-Eyed Bookworm

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman Book Review
The Light Between Oceans
Author: M.L. Stedman
Designed by Carla Jayne Jones
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: Australia
Published July 2012 by Scribner
Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice for Best Historical Fiction (2012) • Women’s Prize for Fiction Nominee for Longlist (2013) • Winner of three ABIA awards for Best Newcomer, Best Literary Novel and Book of the Year • Winner of two Indie Awards for Best Debut and Book of the Year • Winner of the Nielsen BookData Bookseller’s Choice Award for 2013

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My first encounter with a story book set in Australia was in secondary one. Our English teacher asked us to read Walkabout by James Vance Marshall. Before that most of what I know about Australia revolved around kangaroos, koala bears and the Sydney Opera House. Yes, I wasn’t a very good reader before – I stuck to authors and titles familiar to me (R.L. Stine, Carolyn Keene, Roald Dahl, Stephen King, etc.). My English teacher changed that.

My goal for this year is to be a more ‘diverse’ reader and a better armchair traveler. When I saw the 2014 Aussie Author Challenge over at Booklover Book Reviews, I was quite hesitant to join as I’ve already signed up for quite a few reading challenges this year. I was thinking over it last night and thought why not? I’ve been making good progress with the other challenges and I’ve already read a few great books from Australian authors last year (Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief and Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project). Plus I have a few books written by Australian authors in my TBR list this year.

I’m sure there’s a participation level that will suit everyone who is interested to join. I’m signing up for WALLABY which means I need to read 3 books written by Australian authors. You can read more about the challenge in the dedicated page which you can visit here. If you are clueless about which books to read, there’s a list in that post too, under “Useful Resources”.

For this challenge here is a tentative list of books I want to read; although I might find other books fit for the challenge: