Over recent years, I’ve shared favourite Aussie reads of the year from various sources, with the specific sources varying a little from time to time. This year, a significant source – The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age – is unavailable to me as it is behind a paywall, and at this time of year I just don’t have the time to go to the library to access the paper. I have no problem with paywalling. We should pay for journalism, and I do. Just not these ones. (But, I am disappointed as they invite writers to identify their favourites and I always enjoy seeing their choices. I wish I could just buy an article.)

However, I still have other sources: ABC RN’s panel, Australian Book Review, The Australian Financial Review, The Conversation and Readings bookshop’s Ten Best Australian fiction. The picks range widely, with different “pickers” use different criteria, making this more of a serendipitous than an authoritative list. As always, I’m only including their Aussie choices. Do check the links if you’d like to see complete choices.

Last year, I noted that five of the “favourite” novels and short story collections were on my TBR, and this year I read four of those: Robbie Arnott’s Limberlost, Robert Drewe’s Nimblefoot, Kevin Brophy’s The lion in love, and Chris Flynn’s Here be Leviathans. This must be a record for me.

Novels

• Graham Akhurst, Borderland (Heidi Norman; Tony Hughes-D’Aeth; Tony Birch )
• Tony Birch, Women and children (“poignant novel about strong women, family, and the loss of innocence…”, Readings; Claire Nicholls; Kate Evans)
• Stephanie Bishop, The anniversary (“a tense and superb literary novel”, Readings; “addictive”, Carol Lefevre) (Kimbofo’s review)
• Shankari Chandran, Chai time at Cinnamon Gardens (Jason Steger) (on my TBR)
• JM Coetzee, The Pole and other stories (Cassie McCullagh; Geordie Williamson)
• Trent Dalton, Lola in the mirror (Hannah Wootton)
• Briohny Doyle, Why we are here (Tony Birch)
• Nicholas Jose, The idealist (“sophisticated and artfully restrained espionage thriller, Tony Hughes-d’Aeth) (Lisa’s review)
• Simone Lazaroo, Between water and the night sky (Julienne van Loon)
• Amanda Lohrey, The conversation (Felicity Plunkett) (Lisa’s review)
• Melissa Lucashenko, Edenglassie (“a tour de force”, Readings; Kate Evans; Jennifer Mills) (on my TBR – see my conversation post)
• Laura Jean Mackay, Gunflower (“McKay’s prose both illuminates and psychedelically reimagines our world”, Readings)
• Angela O’Keeffe, The sitter (“execution and reading experience are second to none”, Readings) (Lisa’s review)
• Matthew Reilly, Mr Einstein’s secretary (Jason Steger)
• Sara M Saleh, Songs for the dead and living (Jason Steger)
• Gretchen Shirm, The crying room (James Bradley) (Lisa’s review)
• Amy Taylor, Search history (“witty and insightful novel of our times”, Readings) (Kimbofo’s review)
• Lucy Treloar, Days of innocence and wonder (Kate Evans)
• Christos Tsiolkas, The in-between (changed her mind about the author, Beejay Silcox; “captivating novel by a writer in top form which has already won over new readers and old fans alike”, Readings; Jason Steger; Kate Evans) (Kimbofo’s review)
• Pip Williams, The bookbinder of Jericho (Readings; Jason Steger) (Lisa’s review)
• Charlotte Wood, Stone yard devotional (Kate Evans; “the haunting grammar of its title, the restrained artistry of its structure, and the elusive way that it explores modes of memory, grief, and regret”, Kerryn Goldsworthy; James Bradley) (Lisa’s review)
• Alexis Wright,  Praiseworthy (Tony Hughes-d’Aeth; “resists political simplifications”, Paul Giles; Philip Mead; “magnificent work of politics and imagination”, Jennifer Mills; “epic, addled, visionary examination of the contemporary implications of those foundational crimes”, Geordie Williamson) (Bill’s second post which includes a link to his first)
• Jessica Zhan Mei Yu, But the girl (“astute and witty coming-of-age novel”, Readings)

In a little shout out to our friends across the ditch – in new Zealand: Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood was chosen by AFR’s Hannah Wootton and ABC’s Claire Nicholls, and Pip Adams’ Audition by ABR’s Jennifer Mills and Emma Shortis.

Short stories

• John Morrissey, Firelight (“already widely considered the first instalment in a [First Nations] career to watch”, Readings)

Poetry

• Dan Hogan, Secret third thing (“a wildly inventive wordsmith whose work is as playful as it is political”, Yves Rees)
• Kathryn Lomer, AfterLife (Glyn Davis)
• Alan Wearne, Near believing (John Hawke)

Nonfiction

• Dean Ashenden, Telling Tennant’s story (Peter Mares)
• Ryan Cropp, Donald Horne: A life in the lucky country (Patrick Mullins; Glyn Davis; Mark McKenna)
• Graeme Davison, My Grandfather’s Clock: Four centuries of a British-Australian family (Bain Attwood; Penny Russell)
• Sarah Firth, Eventually everything connects: Eight essays on uncertainty (Jen Webb)
• Hannah Forsyth, Virtue capitalists: The rise and fall of the professional class in the Anglophone world, 1870–2008 (Penny Russell; Marilyn Lake)
• Kate Fullagar, Bennelong & Phillip: A history unravelled (“an inventive structure and humanistic care”, Patrick Mullins; Frank Bongiorno; Mark McKenna)
• Anna Funder, Wifedom (Jason Steger; Lisa Murray; Frances Wilson) (on my TBR)
• Richard Flanagan, Question 7 (Claire Nicholls; Jason Steger; Cassie McCullagh; “meditation on the mutability of family, place, the past, is imbued with wistful nostalgia, one that resonates deeply”, Des Cowley) (on my TBR)
• Richard King, Here Be Monsters: Is technology reducing our humanity? (James Ley)
• Catherine Lumby, Frank Moorhouse: A life (Glyn Davis; Mark McKenna) (Lisa’s review)
• Maggie MacKellar, Graft: Motherhood, family and a year on the land (Anna Clark)
• Kim Mahood, Wandering with intent (Peter Mares)
• David Marr, Killing for country: A family story (Geordie Williamson; Frank Bongiorno; Glyn Davis; Kieran Pender; Brenda Walker; Mark McKenna)
• Walter Marsh, Young Rupert: The making of the Murdoch empire (Patrick Mullins)
• Thomas Mayo, The Voice to Parliament handbook (Glyn Davis)
• Gemma Nisbet, The things we live with: Essays on uncertainty (Lynette Russell)
• Brigitta Olubas, Shirley Hazzard: A writing life (“one of the finest literary biographies published in Australia”, Peter Rose)
• Noah Riseman, Transgender Australia: A history since 1900 (Yves Rees)
• Alexandra Roginski, Science and power in the nineteenth-century Tasman world: Popular phrenology in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (“rich, enthralling account”, Penny Russell)
• Heather Rose, Nothing bad ever happens here (Tristan Banck) (on my TBR – see my conversation post)
• Alecia Simmonds, Courting: An intimate history of love and the law (“uniting zest for narrative with immense research and hard-hitting analysis”, Penny Russell)
• Ellen van Neerven, Personal score: Sport, culture, identity (“unique, poetic memoir and meditation on gender, sexuality, identity, and sport”, Kieran Pender)
• Chris Wallace, Political lives (Tom McIlroy)
• Sally Young, Media monsters: The transformation of Australia’s newspaper empires  (Frank Bongiorno)

Finally …

It’s interesting to see what books feature most. Popularity doesn’t equal quality, but it does provides a guide to the books that attracted the most attention in the year. Last year I noted that one of 2021’s most frequent mentions had won the 2022 Miles Franklin. In 2022, the two most frequently mentioned books were Robbie Arnott’s Limberlost and Jessica Au’s Cold enough for snow. Neither won the Miles Franklin, but both won significant awards during 2023 including the Prime Minister’s (Fiction) Literary Award for Jessica Au.

This year’s most mentioned books are fewer this year because that paywall issue significantly reduced significantly my “haul” but we still have some (and all are well-established authors):

Fiction

• Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (5 picks)
• Christos Tsiolkas’ The in-between (4 picks)
• Graham Akhurst’s Borderland, Tony Birch’s Women and children, Melissa Lucashenko’s Edenglassie, and Charlotte Wood’s Stone yard devotional (3 picks)

Nonfiction

Did you notice two books in this section were subtitled, “essays on uncertainty”? I’m intrigued.

• David Marr’s Killing for country (6 picks)
• Richard Flanagan’s Question 7 (4 picks)
• Ryan Cropp’s Donald Horne, Kate Fullagar’s Bennelong & Phillip, and Anna Funder’s Wifedom (3 picks)

An advantage of lists like this is discovering new books. I was excited to read about First Nations Kalkadoon writer John Morrissey’s Firelight, because it’s short stories and because the Kalkadoons were the first First Nations people I knew (back in the 1960s). Gemma Nisbet’s The things we live with: Essays on uncertainty has also caught my eye.

Besides the books which are already on my TBR, and hence known to me, there are others I had heard about and that interest me. David Marr’s Killing for country feels a bit close to home, but worth reading, as I too have “skin in the game”, as my brother calls it. The literary biographies I missed this year, including Olubas’s Shirley Hazzard and Lumby’s Frank Moorhouse, are also in my sights. And there are several First Nations books here, besides the Morrissey and Lucashenko, that I am keen to read. Birch and Ellen van Neerven, for example.

I could go on because, you know, readers love talking about books we’d like to read, but I also know when it’s time to stop and pass the baton on …

POSTSCRIPT: The day I posted this The Guardian Australia, as kimbofo shared in the comments, published their Top 25, which more or less reinforces these but adds some books not here, including one I’ve read, Rebecca Burton’s Ravenous girls (my review)!

Thoughts, anyone – on this or lists from your neck of the wood?