Kate Mathieson Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Kate Mathieson is an Australian published author.

Born in Sydney, Australia, she found out that she would like to be a writer at a young age. When she was eight years old, it was her enjoyment of the Nancy Drew mystery books that gave her the inspiration to begin writing.

She went to Africa on a one way ticket in 2009. Her experiences would form the basis of her memoir, which was titled Ways to Come Home. The book came out from Ventura Press and Simon & Schuster. It was also nominated as a finalist for the Finch Memoir Prize in 2017.

She has interviewed celebrities in the nineties for Dolly Magazine and has been a writer in residence. She is an author, poet, and naturalist. One of the things that makes her the happiest is when she is outside and can feel the wind blowing on her face and discovers that there are leaves stuck in her hair.

Kate had admitted that she is a huge lover of cheese as well as whiskey. One of her favorite things to do is go for a walk when it’s raining, preferably with the company of Maximus, her rescue dog with one eye, by her side.

Ways to Come Home is a memoir by Kate Mathieson. It goes over her time in Africa.

While she was there, she was fully immersed in nature and the wild. She observed while she was there that everything that was present seemed to constantly be in motion. Whether it was the ocean or river, the wolves, sharks or elephants, she noted that no matter what it was it was never existing in the same place for long. She says that she wanted to imitate this and to be like them, with the only natural solution being continual movement without stopping.

This is an incredible personal memoir that is great if you love hearing personal stories or just love to travel. In this story she reflects on the ways that we have marked out our lives, whether it is from the type of school that we went to to our careers, who we marry or don’t marry, whether we have children, whether we choose mortgages, and more. She also writes about that other life, the one that we dream about or that calls to us from books.

These calls suggest to the author that our lives that we currently live may not entirely be ours. They are just temporary things that we have chosen but are not what we truly want. While in her own life, Kate utilizes books so that she can escape from the realities of her life. This is in part due to her life having a lack of wildness, and instead a house that is adorned and an abundance of business suits stacked up in her closet. Keats and Thoreau do okay to soothe her yearning, but when she finds an older copy of the book The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, she truly realizes that it is this work more than any other that has come to mirror her life.

The main character of this story is Esther Greenwood, who slips into a depression where she constantly considers dying. Even though she is living an internal depression, she still carries on with her life. She spends time with friends, and goes out and has new experiences, even dating, all while putting on the external facade that she is fine even though the truth is that she is not at all.

The author writes that one particular passage of The Bell Jar haunted her, the part speaking about the character viewing all of her options as figs on a fig tree. She thought that Esther sounded like her and was totally relating to the passage and its ideas, even though it had been at least fifty years since this was written. She was having similar thoughts about all the figs that she could be, but could similarly feel the bell jar coming down upon her.

This is the story of one woman’s personal journey. Kate mulls over whether there is a certain pleasure when it comes to choosing to let go. Her heart is calling her to set out from the life that she has molded for herself and instead follow the call for her curiosity. She’s always wanted to travel all around the world but has not let herself follow it.

This starts what will become her travels across Africa. In the process, she goes through uncharted lands, beautiful places, through all sorts of scenery such as deserts and forests, all under the stars and the day skies. This is an experiment in her own boldness, and she extends the challenge to her readers to continue moving and to be bold and listen to what your inner voice says.

As readers follow along with her, they may be similarly inspired to be themselves. Even if it is not taken well or causes others to rebel, considering what they think we should be. This memoir has common themes of wildness, family, isolation, exile, passion, nature and dreams. Perhaps the reader will be inspired to find a way to create the life that they want, just as Kate was inspired to.

Just As You Are is the first fictional book to come out from Kate Mathieson. Great if you love works by Sophie Kinsella or Mhairi McFarlane. Full of romantic fun and quirks as well as funny moments!

The main character in this story is named Emma Londstown. She’s a young woman that lived her twenties up but spent most of it traveling. Now she’s a bit older and feels the need to compensate for the time that she lost.

Most of the friends that she has have already gotten married. Now they’re doing the normal thing of having kids and living in their own domestic world. Emma wants to have that too and desperately feels like she has to catch up to them.

So she does what anyone would do and gets into dating quickly. But she finds that men that are single in Sydney are usually a type. They either are rude, don’t read, or work in IT in some type of nerd fashion.

Can Emma be herself and find the perfect guy for her? Read this book to find out!