Speculating on SpecFic

This challenge hopes to help counteract the gender bias in reviewing and social media newsfeeds that has continued throughout 2011. It actively promotes the reading and reviewing of a wide range of contemporary Australian women’s writing throughout 2012, the Australian National Year of Reading.

The goal of the challenge is to read and review books written by Australian women writers. There are three challenge levels:

• Stella (read 3 and review at least 2 books)
• Miles (read 6 and review at least 3)*
• Franklin-fantastic (read 10 and review at least 4 books)*

* The higher levels should include at least one substantial length review

There are also genre challenges:

• Purist: one genre only
• Dabbler: more than one genre
• Devoted eclectic: as many genres as you can find

I am aiming for Franklin-fantastic – read and review 10 books authors – as a Dabbler (more than one genre – if fantasy and science fiction are considered two different genres). I’m choosing to focus on authors because I read a lot of fantasy where stand-alones are difficult to find, and it seems unfair to count one author’s work as 3 books. Plus this was I get to read TEN Aussie authors!

The books on my to-read list for this challenge are:

• Dragonclaw by Kate Forsyth
• The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke
• Medalon by Jennifer Fallon
• Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Casey
• The Violet Eden Chapters by Jessica Shirvington (Embrace, Enticed, Emblaze, Endless)