Michelle Johnston
@eleytherius.bsky.social
Artisanal mess-creator, writer of novels, life-long student of bewilderment, doctor in the trenches. Carnie in a past life, probably. Has trouble writing bios.
Book 10/30 Field Notes from Death's Door. Katie Treble. One of the most compelling medical memoirs I have read (and I have read a few). A rare wonder, surging with humility & humanity. The unfettered, uplifting, harrowing truth of the MSF experience in the Central African Republic. I stand in awe.
November 27, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Book 10/30 Field Notes from Death's Door. Katie Treble. One of the most compelling medical memoirs I have read (and I have read a few). A rare wonder, surging with humility & humanity. The unfettered, uplifting, harrowing truth of the MSF experience in the Central African Republic. I stand in awe.
Book 9/30 Woo Woo. Ella Baxter. I worship at the altar of a great opening sentence. It tells you everything: the swagger; the style; the entire story encapsulated in one brief string of words. Plus, Woo Woo is unhinged, wild, dark, light & shines that brilliance on our weird conceptions of art
November 26, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Book 9/30 Woo Woo. Ella Baxter. I worship at the altar of a great opening sentence. It tells you everything: the swagger; the style; the entire story encapsulated in one brief string of words. Plus, Woo Woo is unhinged, wild, dark, light & shines that brilliance on our weird conceptions of art
Book 8/30 Nightingale. Laura Elvery. How rich. How enticing. How puzzling is this book. A story drifting between times & styles & narrative as though it's on a whimsical wind. Entering history through a side door, it's only PARTLY about the world's most famous nurse. It deserves all the accolades.
November 24, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Book 8/30 Nightingale. Laura Elvery. How rich. How enticing. How puzzling is this book. A story drifting between times & styles & narrative as though it's on a whimsical wind. Entering history through a side door, it's only PARTLY about the world's most famous nurse. It deserves all the accolades.
Book 7/30 The Peak. Sam Guthrie. I fell for this one. Ruthless, sneaky Australian politics, a global apocalyptic crisis, and that excellent thing, a STORY. Blade sharp writing with an insider's understanding of the fragile, geopolitical tectonic plates we muck around with. It really is a cracker.
November 24, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Book 7/30 The Peak. Sam Guthrie. I fell for this one. Ruthless, sneaky Australian politics, a global apocalyptic crisis, and that excellent thing, a STORY. Blade sharp writing with an insider's understanding of the fragile, geopolitical tectonic plates we muck around with. It really is a cracker.
Book 6/30. A Century of Poetry from The New Yorker. This book has made me stupidly, deliriously happy. 1000 pages of poetic glory. Every day, a number from 1-1000, chosen at random, letting the poem of the page speak. The advice I've got! I highly recommend this mode of living, pals.
November 23, 2025 at 5:12 AM
Book 6/30. A Century of Poetry from The New Yorker. This book has made me stupidly, deliriously happy. 1000 pages of poetic glory. Every day, a number from 1-1000, chosen at random, letting the poem of the page speak. The advice I've got! I highly recommend this mode of living, pals.
Book 5/30. First Name Second Name, Steve MinOn. Another flight of glorious imaginative fancy - a peripatetic odyssey - reaching back through our peppered Australian past with the undead jianghsi as our wry guide. Superb. Deserving of all its awards and accolades.
November 22, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Book 5/30. First Name Second Name, Steve MinOn. Another flight of glorious imaginative fancy - a peripatetic odyssey - reaching back through our peppered Australian past with the undead jianghsi as our wry guide. Superb. Deserving of all its awards and accolades.
Book 4/30 The 31 Legs of Vladimir Putin. Oof - this wild flight of imaginative conceit, a barreling journey into comedic, absurd possibility. The ordinary juxtaposed with the powerful terror-wielders. 16 bewildered Putin lookalikes, around the world, on retainer. Glorious, mad, prescient.
November 21, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Book 4/30 The 31 Legs of Vladimir Putin. Oof - this wild flight of imaginative conceit, a barreling journey into comedic, absurd possibility. The ordinary juxtaposed with the powerful terror-wielders. 16 bewildered Putin lookalikes, around the world, on retainer. Glorious, mad, prescient.
Book 3/30 The Safekeep. Van Der Wouden. It hardly makes me original, but this piece of magnificence, managing to both glance off the holocaust & be profoundly, close to unbearably erotic (who can DO that?) was near perfection. I want to shout it from all the rooftops. The Safekeep! The Safekeep!
November 20, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Book 3/30 The Safekeep. Van Der Wouden. It hardly makes me original, but this piece of magnificence, managing to both glance off the holocaust & be profoundly, close to unbearably erotic (who can DO that?) was near perfection. I want to shout it from all the rooftops. The Safekeep! The Safekeep!
Book 2/30. Arborescence, by @rhettsdavis. Entrancing, otherworldly & sharp as an axe, it's a transporting story of people deciding, or not deciding, to turn into trees as a sideways answer to the Anthropocene. Startling dialogue, intense characters. PLUS a little hat-tip to Lumen? Loved it.
November 19, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Book 2/30. Arborescence, by @rhettsdavis. Entrancing, otherworldly & sharp as an axe, it's a transporting story of people deciding, or not deciding, to turn into trees as a sideways answer to the Anthropocene. Startling dialogue, intense characters. PLUS a little hat-tip to Lumen? Loved it.
Book 1/30
Dear Lord, I loved this book. The buzz & hum of the Sydney restaurant scene. Characters alive with the sadness & wonder of reality. Cracking dialogue. Light & shade co-existing within the sentence. The complexity of women's relationships with their bodies. The Big Merino. Supreme.
Dear Lord, I loved this book. The buzz & hum of the Sydney restaurant scene. Characters alive with the sadness & wonder of reality. Cracking dialogue. Light & shade co-existing within the sentence. The complexity of women's relationships with their bodies. The Big Merino. Supreme.
November 18, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Book 1/30
Dear Lord, I loved this book. The buzz & hum of the Sydney restaurant scene. Characters alive with the sadness & wonder of reality. Cracking dialogue. Light & shade co-existing within the sentence. The complexity of women's relationships with their bodies. The Big Merino. Supreme.
Dear Lord, I loved this book. The buzz & hum of the Sydney restaurant scene. Characters alive with the sadness & wonder of reality. Cracking dialogue. Light & shade co-existing within the sentence. The complexity of women's relationships with their bodies. The Big Merino. Supreme.
Mad thrilled to have The Revisionists as Apple's 'What To Read This Month' book. Want a story about love and war and Dagestan and bad decisions and money and the malleability of memory? You could do worse :-)
apple.co/WhatToReadThisMonth apple.co/new-release-...
apple.co/WhatToReadThisMonth apple.co/new-release-...
July 7, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Mad thrilled to have The Revisionists as Apple's 'What To Read This Month' book. Want a story about love and war and Dagestan and bad decisions and money and the malleability of memory? You could do worse :-)
apple.co/WhatToReadThisMonth apple.co/new-release-...
apple.co/WhatToReadThisMonth apple.co/new-release-...
Book lovers, friends, countrypeeps, if anybody was out and about on these dates and wanted to come and talk The Revisionists and all things bookish - writing, war (!), bad decisions, New York, Dagestan, language, memory - I would LOVE to see you at one of these events! Come say hello!
June 23, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Book lovers, friends, countrypeeps, if anybody was out and about on these dates and wanted to come and talk The Revisionists and all things bookish - writing, war (!), bad decisions, New York, Dagestan, language, memory - I would LOVE to see you at one of these events! Come say hello!
No Kings, except for this one - King of the bins, screeching out at his subjects, opening his massive birdy bowels over all his lands.
June 15, 2025 at 7:28 AM
No Kings, except for this one - King of the bins, screeching out at his subjects, opening his massive birdy bowels over all his lands.
which crazy cat came up with the ESR? oh yeah, how about how fast your blood falls means how sick you are? like a party trick for illness
February 14, 2025 at 11:44 PM
which crazy cat came up with the ESR? oh yeah, how about how fast your blood falls means how sick you are? like a party trick for illness
Seems a tad unusual to be displayed on the counter of the little old lady volly lolly shop, but who am I to judge?
February 14, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Seems a tad unusual to be displayed on the counter of the little old lady volly lolly shop, but who am I to judge?
The super gorgeous Rochelle launching the Perth phase of her book Double Happiness. She is authentic, courageous and that little bit sassy. Thank you @thebooksdesk.bsky.social for the introduction of the thoroughbred in your stable.
November 25, 2024 at 12:18 PM
The super gorgeous Rochelle launching the Perth phase of her book Double Happiness. She is authentic, courageous and that little bit sassy. Thank you @thebooksdesk.bsky.social for the introduction of the thoroughbred in your stable.