Farewell to a wonderfully bookish year

The past year has been exciting. My transition from employment to self-employment was definitely a highlight, as was my trip to Timor-Leste in August. My new work situation also meant I had more time for gardening than in the past ...

The day I dug out a huge weed, I sent a picture to

my partner. His response? 'Worst salad ever!' Ha ha

Anyway, something else I had more time for in 2018 was reading. (Reading for pleasure, in addition to all the reading I do in my role as an editor.) Here are some of the best books I've read lately.

Lost Horizon by James Hilton. Not a new book, by any stretch ... it was first published in 1933 and two film versions have been produced. It is a beautifully crafted tale of life in a mysterious Himalayan utopia. The sort of book you read slowly because you don't want it to end.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. An intricate story of a family unravelling. Hard to put down.

Multiple books by, and about, Madeleine St John! First I read the charming novel The Women in Black, set in Sydney in the 1950s, then saw the new movie version Ladies in Black. That led to curiosity about the writer so I read the fascinating biography Madeleine by Helen Trinca. That led to me reading The Essence of the Thing, Madeleine St John's Booker-shortlisted novel. All good.

The Dry and Force of Nature, both by Jane Harper. Gritty Australian crime/mystery novels. Jane Harper has recently written a third novel but she's clearly very popular ... I'm currently in 182nd place in my local library's queue to borrow it.

Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin. In addition to the excitement I felt this year (self-employment, gardening, travel) I also felt back pain. Quite a lot of it. I'm still not sure how it came about, but buckets of anti-inflammatory pills and many hours of physiotherapy exercises have helped. Crooked helped me to identify the different treatments on offer (evidence-based versus smoke-and-mirrors) and has allowed me to take a more active and focused role in the recovery process.

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. An amazing account of the transformative power of education.

Two excellent books on fast fashion and why we shouldn't buy it: Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline, and Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion by Tansy E. Hoskins. Not that I needed convincing – I've been a fashion minimalist for a long time – but well-argued reminders of the harms created by cheap, 'disposable' apparel.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Funny and thought-provoking.

The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein. A fascinating story of an interesting life and an unusual career.

Oh, and two books that 'bookended' my Timor adventure: A Woman of Independence by Kirsty Sword Gusmão and Crossing the Line: Australia's Secret History in the Timor Sea by Kim McGrath. I read Kirsty's book soon after it came out, more than ten years ago, and it kicked off my fascination with Timor-Leste and its history. I reread it (along with several other books on Timor-Leste) prior to travelling there. While in Dili, our tour group received a briefing on the maritime boundary negotiations between Australia and Timor-Leste, and Kim McGrath's book provides a detailed exposé of Australia's inappropriate behaviour toward its poorer neighbour.

My hopes for 2019 include yet more reading and more gardening! Happy New Year.