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 21/30. Death Valley. Melissa Broder. A glorious surreal wander through Death Valley, the mind and a magical cactus. Another unhinged masterpiece (my preferred genre, it might appear).
December 8, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Book 21/30. Death Valley. Melissa Broder. A glorious surreal wander through Death Valley, the mind and a magical cactus. Another unhinged masterpiece (my preferred genre, it might appear).
Book 20/30 By Her Hand. Marion Taffe. An extraordinary feat of storytelling, built on meticulous research. Tenth century England, alive and pulsing in your own hands. A tapestry, a grab-bag, a lens on history, where women have always fought to have their stories heard.
December 7, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Book 20/30 By Her Hand. Marion Taffe. An extraordinary feat of storytelling, built on meticulous research. Tenth century England, alive and pulsing in your own hands. A tapestry, a grab-bag, a lens on history, where women have always fought to have their stories heard.
Book 19/30 Fundamentally. Nussaibah Younis. I adored this utterly irreverent, ridiculously funny, blade-sharp commentary on international aid. Described somewhere as a 'Muslim Fleabag' and I cannot better that. A slap-in-the-face surprise and a joy.
December 6, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Book 19/30 Fundamentally. Nussaibah Younis. I adored this utterly irreverent, ridiculously funny, blade-sharp commentary on international aid. Described somewhere as a 'Muslim Fleabag' and I cannot better that. A slap-in-the-face surprise and a joy.
Book 18/30 Underland. Robert Macfarlane. Truly a dazzling wonder. The enormity and exquisite beauty of the planet and its beating heart below our own blithe, indifferent feet. Seeing things anew in the most spectacular and astonishing way. It is both lyrical and political, educational and dreamy.
December 5, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Book 18/30 Underland. Robert Macfarlane. Truly a dazzling wonder. The enormity and exquisite beauty of the planet and its beating heart below our own blithe, indifferent feet. Seeing things anew in the most spectacular and astonishing way. It is both lyrical and political, educational and dreamy.
Book 17/30 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. El Akkad. This book does the impossible - takes our formless internal howling shame & fire and crafts it into cogent, humble, generous, beautiful words. It is truly courageous, revolutionary & urgent. Such a must read.
December 4, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Book 17/30 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. El Akkad. This book does the impossible - takes our formless internal howling shame & fire and crafts it into cogent, humble, generous, beautiful words. It is truly courageous, revolutionary & urgent. Such a must read.
Book(s) 16/30 Assorted poetry. 'Twas a fool's errand to choose the poetry book I loved most over this year. How different poems will speak to you at different times, with their perfection of language, JUST when you need or desire them. Clever universe. Anyway, here is a selection of books I adored.
December 3, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Book(s) 16/30 Assorted poetry. 'Twas a fool's errand to choose the poetry book I loved most over this year. How different poems will speak to you at different times, with their perfection of language, JUST when you need or desire them. Clever universe. Anyway, here is a selection of books I adored.
Book 15/30 To Sing of War. Catherine McKinnon. A magnificent, lyrical weave. A braided story of war, love, Virgil, Oppenheimer, Indigenous Australia, New Guinea and the quiet heroics of ordinary humanity in Nagasaki. McKinnon is a master-storyteller, and this is one beautiful epic.
December 2, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Book 15/30 To Sing of War. Catherine McKinnon. A magnificent, lyrical weave. A braided story of war, love, Virgil, Oppenheimer, Indigenous Australia, New Guinea and the quiet heroics of ordinary humanity in Nagasaki. McKinnon is a master-storyteller, and this is one beautiful epic.
Book 14/30 Praiseworthy. Alexis Wright. From the opening pages a voice that curls around you like a playful serpent, taking you to the wildest of places, places you want to go, you need to go. It's all Australia, its epicness, its humour, its shame, its wonder. Its donkeys. Big. Beautiful. Bold.
December 1, 2025 at 5:43 AM
Book 14/30 Praiseworthy. Alexis Wright. From the opening pages a voice that curls around you like a playful serpent, taking you to the wildest of places, places you want to go, you need to go. It's all Australia, its epicness, its humour, its shame, its wonder. Its donkeys. Big. Beautiful. Bold.
Book 13/30. No One is Talking About This. Patricia Lockwood. A sublime whirlwind and emotional carnival ride, every page an adventure in language. It's an intimate portrait of love, the internet & grief. Nothing in the known world is the same once Lockwood turns her gaze upon it.
November 30, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Book 13/30. No One is Talking About This. Patricia Lockwood. A sublime whirlwind and emotional carnival ride, every page an adventure in language. It's an intimate portrait of love, the internet & grief. Nothing in the known world is the same once Lockwood turns her gaze upon it.
Book 12/30. I'd Rather Not. Robert Skinner. Unhinged madness, real, Australian, preposterously funny & not to be read in public. It is one unrelenting guffaw "I was sleeping in what might reasonably be described as a ditch, though I tried not to think of it in those terms for morale reasons ..."
November 29, 2025 at 5:24 AM
Book 12/30. I'd Rather Not. Robert Skinner. Unhinged madness, real, Australian, preposterously funny & not to be read in public. It is one unrelenting guffaw "I was sleeping in what might reasonably be described as a ditch, though I tried not to think of it in those terms for morale reasons ..."
Book 11/30 The Cost of Living. Deborah Levy. Levy reaches out from her own Republic of Writing, giving us a book written in a garden shed with leaves and silence, gracing us with what it means to create, to write, to risk everything, to love and to lose, like an expired marriage vow. Supreme.
November 28, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Book 11/30 The Cost of Living. Deborah Levy. Levy reaches out from her own Republic of Writing, giving us a book written in a garden shed with leaves and silence, gracing us with what it means to create, to write, to risk everything, to love and to lose, like an expired marriage vow. Supreme.
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