Courtney Johnston
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auchmill.bsky.social
Courtney Johnston
@auchmill.bsky.social
Tumu Whakarae | Chief Executive Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She / her.
This was probably my favourite middle grade read last year. Stead is just so good at family dynamics and tender friendships and this story’s VERY quirky premise sets these off beautifully
January 8, 2026 at 6:33 AM
Little interlude with a novella by a writer I’ve never read before — a mash-up of Bluebeard and the Garden of Eden
January 8, 2026 at 1:21 AM
My summer re-read of Margaret Mahy’s 1980s YA (the author was so prolific that this constitutes a reading project) reached The Catalogue of the Universe today
January 7, 2026 at 9:53 AM
Weighing up watching A Room with a View

Pro: the way HB-C says “Cecil” and her fringe pouffe

Con: never revisit the things you loved at high school
January 6, 2026 at 6:22 AM
I saved up @elizabethknoxnz.bsky.social’s latest book for the summer break and was DELIGHTED to re-enter her fictional world of Southland, the setting of Dreamhunter + Dreamquake, brought up to the current moment
January 5, 2026 at 9:20 PM
I reserved this thinking it was one of Strange’s longer novels, but it’s actually from a series she’s done for Barrington Stokes, an imprint of Collins that publishes short books by British children’s writers that are designed (writing, layout, typeface, paper stock) to be dyslexia-friendly
January 2, 2026 at 8:51 PM
Rediscovering how complex Melvin Burgess’s “Bloodtide” is. Based on the Völsung epic, set in a London abandoned to warring gang factions, fringed by human-animal-machine hybrids, told from multiple perspectives, & with a long passage I’ve just listened to that I suspect is based on Princess Diana
January 2, 2026 at 4:46 AM
First day of the new year reading … something old …
January 1, 2026 at 1:02 AM
Snapdragon seed cases look like tiny little screaming heads of doom
December 29, 2025 at 4:30 AM
You really should read this
December 28, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Today I managed to get three English batters out by walking into the lounge and saying “What’s happening in the cricket?”
December 27, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Thank the lord for secondhand bookshops that serve up tween classics at just that moment when you realise all the books you brought on holiday are just a touch too earnest
December 24, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
‘Elizabeth Knox navigates, with impressive skill and sensitivity, some of the very real anxieties confronting the young adults who will, I feel certain, be her many avid readers.’
December 18, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Can’t for the life of me keep my Books Thread threaded. So we start over again with a must-read: one of those ones all the American podcasts recommend and you’re like “do I really need a addiction-recovery-war-abandonment memoir” in my life? and then you read it and YES you do
July 27, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
Great news that Ralph Hotere’s monumental Black Phoenix is back on show at Te Papa: check it out for Matariki! In celebration of its return here’s a poem about it from Chris Price’s 2016 collection, Beside Herself
June 19, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Bringing the last of summer home on the train
April 13, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Hard agree on this assessment. The point in L:AED where Peet zooms out from two lovestruck teens to the Cuban missile crisis is extraordinary. It’s got the intense teen boy emotion of Mitchell’s “Black Swan Green” & storytelling inventiveness of Marcus Sedgwick’s “Blood Red, Snow White”. Unmissable.
Reminding myself what a great writer Mal Peet was. If you’ve never read him, you’re in for a treat. Life: An Exploded Diagram is like no YA novel you’ve ever seen.
March 24, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Just spotted a man walking fast up Mt Vic AND reading a hardback Elizabeth Strout. Respect.
March 21, 2025 at 9:59 PM
👑🐠👑 We have a winner! Is it any surprise the blobfish took out Fish of the Year for 2025? 👑🐠👑 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
March 18, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
'Whenever I take up a new activity, I secretly believe I am going to be brilliant at it. I go in expecting that I will nail it on my first attempt and be, even in middle age, something of a prodigy.' The great Kate Camp on swimming and writing.
thespinoff.co.nz/books/15-03-...
March 15, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
The Spinoff Essay: Diary of a writers’ festival
The Spinoff Essay: Diary of a writers’ festival
Adelaide Writers' Week was vibrant, resourced and thriving. So why, returning home with a head full of plans, did Claire Mabey feel unexpectedly sad?...
thespinoff.co.nz
March 7, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
On the cutting room floor is the bit where the host introduced their interview series, The Interview, and I asked how long it took to come up with the name. Anyway, here’s me talking about birds and science and burnout and moving through the world. The photo’s nice! www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...
‘The Interview’: Ed Yong Wants to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World
The Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer talks about burnout from covering the pandemic and how bird-watching gave him a new sense of hope.
www.nytimes.com
February 22, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Nearly 25,000 votes have been counted and Aotearoa has now crowned the Ngāokeoke | Velvet Work as Bug of the Year 👑
February 21, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
And all the #FACT2025 sessions are now up online with recordings and illustrated summaries. Enjoy - there's a lot to watch and they are jam packed with ideas and hope www.acmi.net.au/projects-par...
Future of Arts, Culture & Technology Symposium
Rewatch the 2025, 2024 and 2023 Future of Arts Culture & Technology symposia
www.acmi.net.au
February 21, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Courtney Johnston
New #podcast episode just dropped, coming to you live from #Antarctica!

We talk to @notothentoma.bsky.social about the amazing adaptations of #Antarctic #fish: Clear blood, antifreeze and parental care.

www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/055-...
Fishes of Antarctica — Armatus Oceanic
We talk to Antarctic fishes expert Thomas Desvignes about the fishes that are only found there and their amazing adaptations.
www.armatusoceanic.com
February 21, 2025 at 3:48 PM