Brona’s AusReadingMonth Bingo

Journal: 040

Brona’s AusReadingMonth Bingo, November 2019

Australian reading bingo’s in the past, I have dealt with by waiting until the end of the period in question and then filling the squares with books I have read during the previous 12 months. On that basis, this is as close as I could go today to filling in Brona’s Bingo card (by setting, rather than by home state of author), and closer than I expected:

NT     Alexis Wright, Tracker (here)
Tas    Krissy Kneen, Wintering (here)
SA
Vic    Peggy Frew, Islands  (here)
Free Claire Coleman, The Old Lie (here)
WA    Alice Nannup, When the Pelican Laughed (here)
Qld    Anne Gambling, The Drover’s De Facto (here)
NSW David Ireland, The Unknown Industrial Prisoner (here)
ACT   TAG Hungerford, The National Game (short story here)

I chose Claire Coleman for “Free” because I got to it first, but as I scanned my reviews I must say I was tempted by Behrouz Boochani, No Friend but the Mountains (here) and Rosaleen Love, The Total Devotion Machine (here). I’m sorry about the empty SA. The last I can remember reading, and I recommend it, is Cassie Flanagan Willanski’s, Here Where We Live (here) from 2016. Though I did review Joseph Hawdon’s Journal of a Journey from NSW to Adelaide (in 1837) a year and a week ago (here).

Brona made a list of suggestions for non-fiction (it’s apparently also Non fiction November) and for poetry. I could, surprisingly!, get half way round the country with poetry (by going back more than one year):

NT
Tas
SA
Vic     Allan Wearne, The Nightmarkets  (here)
Free
WA    Green & Kinsella, False Claims of Colonial Thieves (here)
Qld
NSW  Alison Whittaker, Blakwork (here)
ACT   

and probably more than halfway with Indigenous authors, Science Fiction, and maybe even Journals. But here is a suggested reading list, because it fits in with the general theme of this blog, for Pre-1950s Women:

NT    Mrs Aeneas Gunn, We of the Never Never
Tas   Tasma, What an Artist Discovered in Tasmania (short story, here)
SA     Catherine Helen Spence, Mr Hogarth’s Will (here)
Vic    Eve Langley, The Pea Pickers  (here)
Free Catherine Martin, An Australian Girl (here)
WA    Katharine Susannah Prichard, Working Bullocks
Qld    Rosa Praed, Lady Bridget in the Never Never Land (here)
NSW  Eleanor Dark, Waterway (here)
ACT   Miles Franklin (Brent of Bin Bin), Ten Creeks Run (here)

Yes, I had to cheat a bit with that last, but Miles’ heroes and heroines ride backwards and forwards through what later became the ACT to get from their properties to Goulburn and on to Sydney. (See also my post Miles Franklin, Canberra, the Griffins). And there’s plenty more pre-1950s women in my AWW Gen 1, Gen 2 and Gen 3 pages.

As for what I’m actually planning to read, I currently have Elizabeth Jolley’s Milk and Honey on the go (WA), I should do another David Ireland (NSW), I’ve just purchased Charlotte Woods’ Weekend, without knowing what state she’s from, and I would love to come up with another Marie Munkara (NT). Unfortunately I chose the audiobooks for my current trip without thinking about Brona, but I have listened to The Rosie Result (Vic) which I’ll review as soon as I get a day off.

 

Currently Reading:

Elizabeth Jolley, Milk and Honey
Lily Brett, Just Like That
Mike McCormack, Solar Bones