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.
💖 then I’m glad I’ve posted them, for you alone.
December 7, 2025 at 8:52 AM
💖 then I’m glad I’ve posted them, for you alone.
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 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 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
we've got 22 more to go ... ☺️
November 25, 2025 at 6:13 AM
we've got 22 more to go ... ☺️
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.
MAYBE I'M JUST PROVING I DIDN'T STEAL IT, MARTIN
November 23, 2025 at 5:11 AM
MAYBE I'M JUST PROVING I DIDN'T STEAL IT, MARTIN
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.
Perfectly put!
November 21, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Perfectly put!