9 Books Monday is a feature here on Bookish Wanderess, where I talk about 9 books that have positive representation of diverse experiences including the experiences of people of the LGBTQIA community, Native people, people of color, people with physical and cognitive disabilities or mental illnesses, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities.

In the past, I have done posts about 9 book with: Bisexual female mc, Latinx mc, Black mc, Muslim mc, Lesbian mc, Asian mc, Trans mc, and Anxiety rep. (mc=main characters).

This time I’m doing 9 books with Autism Representation:

3 Books I Read and Loved

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

The autistic rep in this is #ownvoices and it’s insightful and touching. Stella is succeseful and caring, she fixates on routines and obsesses over things and sometimes misses some social cues and she is wonderful and I loved getting to read…

The 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards were announced tonight.

It was an epic fail for ANZ LitLovers: the only book I’d read and reviewed was by Taboo by Kim Scott. which won the Prize for Indigenous Writing.

Victorian Prize for Literature ($100,000) and Victorian Premier’s Literary Prize for Non-Fiction,($25,2000)
No Friend But the Mountain: Writing from Manus Prison, by Behrouz Boochani, translated by Omid Tofighian

(Ironically, I’m writing this post late at night, because I’ve just been to see a great play called Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story. There are two more performances in Melbourne, and some tickets are still available.  Get there if you can.)

Prize for Fiction
The Madonna of the Mountains by Elise Valmorbida

Prize for Drama
The Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver

Prize for Poetry
Tilt by Kate Lilley’s

Prize for Writing for Young Adults
Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina

Prize…

via Pixabay by Stefan Keller

Dead Planet

Our planet died, for no living thing can thrive forever beneath the grinding thumb of neglect. But the blue squalls and wind-carved rime weren’t the first to herald a long overdue demise. We endured fires, then the parched ash and dust of rainless drought. Snow seemed almost a blessing until summer never returned.

Now we trek south, burdened only by the essentials, all luxuries of the past abandoned along the way. Lighten the load. Always lighten the load. Learn to survive with less because that’s become the single, intentional goal. To survive.

I wonder, do the southerners trek north? Will we meet in the middle and goggle at each other, our doom reflected across the narrow gap separating our frozen breaths? These are the things I ponder as my snowshoes cut a jagged groove through the crust.

We reach the mountains’ divide. Finally…

 So, I’ve broken my book buying ban with only one fucking day to go in the month. Why did I do it? Because I knew that I wouldn’t finish either of the books I’ve got on the go by the time I had to write this review. So, I popped into my local bookshop to see if I could find a quick read that looked interesting. I found it in the small selection of graphic novels and, after reading the quote on the front, decided I couldn’t not read it. “A story of courage and heroism to inspire young people everywhere.” I mean who could ignore an endorsement like that? Especially when the back cover reveals that Malala Yousafzai was also a fan. The graphic novel version of Deborah Ellis’ The Breadwinner is actually the adaptation of the 2018 animated film based on the book. So, I have just read…

I know a blog a day won’t keep the doctor away, like an apple might. However, blogs help us in a multitude of other ways. A blog can teach us how to do an algebra problem, find information on a medical condition, learn about a new culture, or find a great recipe. With over 150 million blogs and a new one being created every half second, you can bet there is a blog for everything and everyone.

A Blog A Day offers readers a month of random (and totally awesome blogs) that they can check out each day. If a blog is of interest please consider following it.

Here is the list for the month of February 2019:

February 1 – Salt & Pepper ~ Adventure – Photography – Travel

February 2 – Renew or redo ~ Home refurbish projects. Decorating, Design And General Life Activities

February 3 – Landscape…