John Purcell

Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban What a captivating, wryly humorous novel this is – a life-affirming read with none of the schmaltz or saccharine this description might suggest! It’s my book group’s current read, and I can’t wait …

From the archive for Russell Hoban, #BornOnThisDay in 1925, my thoughts on TURTLE DIARY.

A wry, piercingly perceptive exploration of different facets of loneliness & the fear of stepping outside one’s comfort zone in the maelstrom of middle age. #BookSky 💙📚

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Another excellent Upswell title, this memoir by Erin Vincent is mesmeric and moving. Recommended.

It's hard to know what's good good in these times of mob rule. Even trusted allies must lie for a living. Perhaps there needs to be an innocuous word we slot into reviews to indicate when something is actually worth our time & attention.
So much praise for worthless things could be safely ignored.

Photo of the paperback advanced reading copy of Glyph by Ali Smith

I got me an early copy of Glyph by Ali Smith. Not to be confused with Gliff by Ali Smith. And I am very happy.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Leonard Cohen

Big fan of John Cowper Powys. Love to see him being mentioned. I read the Picador edition of A Glastonbury Romance and found this hardcover years later.

Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash book description: The Flynns are not alright. It's been disastrous since Bud and Catherine opened up their marriage, and none of the Flynns can remember the last time a meal was cooked, a load of laundry done, or a social code abided by. Their daughters spiral in their own chaotic orbits: Abigail, the eldest, is dating a man in his twenties nicknamed War Crime Wes; Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist; the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone or something - is monitoring the town's citizens. Casting a shadow across their lives, and their small coastal town, is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster's machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy - one that may just, finally, bring them closer together. Rippling with humour, warmth and style, Lost Lambs offers a stunning portrait of the perverse pleasures and perils of our most intimate reality: our family

The cover of the proof copy/arc of Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash

I am really enjoying Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash. Inventive, irreverent, funny and true.

Sorry, not out until Feb. Add it to your shopping list.

See pic for book description.

Pop this in.

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns There is something distinctly English about the world that Barbara Comyns portrays in this novel, a surreal eccentricity that could only be found within the England of old. Set in 1911, three years…

From the archive for Barbara Comyns, #BornOnThisDay in 1907, thoughts on WHO WAS CHANGED AND WHO WAS DEAD, in which the inhabitants of an English village fall victim to a series of disturbing occurrences.

Surreal, distinctive & utterly compelling. #BookSky

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Done www.thenile.com.au/content/best...

The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is. Willa Cather

I love Willa Cather.

My Ántonia by Willa Cather First published in 1918, My Ántonia is a story of the American Midwest, of the pioneers and European immigrants who settled in the prairies in the late 19th century. The novel is narrated by Jim Bu…

A few days late with this one, but the novel is so well suited to the season...

From the archive for Willa Cather, born on 7th Dec 1873, some thoughts on MY ÁNTONIA.

This classic novel, set in 19thC America, seems to embody the pioneers' spirit. 💙📚

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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.

The Children of Dynmouth
August is a Wicked Month
Milkman
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Forgotten Waltz

I have never seen someone's work inside the cover of another. But I have seen misprints that repeat the first fifty odd pages over & over. And books bound upside down, I cut the heart out of one & used it as my bookshop 'safe'. My copy of Klaus Mann's Mephisto, like a scratched record, never ended.

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 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.

Deal news! So delighted to share that Mali Cornish’s second novel, the crazy-good psychological thriller The Missing Mother, will be appearing from Cate Patterson at @atlanticbooks.bsky.social / @allenandunwin.bsky.social in May next year!

A screenshot of The Nile Online Bookshop's Classic Literature page featuring books by Dostoyevsky, Spark, E.M. Forster, Yates and many others.

I have been pimping out The Nile's Classic Literature page. Such fun. Nowhere near finished. Work in progress. More stock every day. Have a look: www.thenile.com.au/books/classi...

Photo of the cover of the hardback edition of Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

Seascraper is such a perfect little novel. Keeps within its world. Happy to be a small story beautifully told. Captures the strange pull of dreary places so well. The power of being expert in one thing, no matter how small. The sharp tang of the new. And the tug of big, unlikely dreams on all of us.

If a novel has been in the bestsellers list for two hundred plus years, it's safe to say, the author got something very, very right. So, when turning it into a film, there is only one safe approach, keep it as close to the original as possible. There endeth the lesson.

Tom Gauld on the desk of a late, great author – cartoon Lacks polish, has legs …

Tom Gauld on the desk of a late, great author – cartoon www.theguardian.com/books/pictur...

58 Books You Need to Read (Recommended by People Who Know) In honor of Literary Hub’s tenth birthday, we asked over 200 authors, editors, booksellers, publishing professionals, and other literary luminaries to weigh in on a few questions about the pa…

42 Writers, Editors, and Booksellers on the Best Books They've Read in the Last 25 Years

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Thank fuck for books. No other media can explore ideas as thoroughly, thoughtfully or as intelligently.

Yes, I am watching a documentary on TV.

On the Reading train is a trip down memory lane. Last century sat opposite F.R.Leavis .He disappeared into the toilet, leaving his briefcase on the seat. What was a young English Lit student to do ? What if Leavis had joined God’s other Great Critics in the sky?

It’s Sam Altman: the man who stole the rights from copyright. If he’s the future, can we go backwards? | Marina Hyde His AI video generator Sora 2 has been reviled for pinching the work of others. One giant leap for Sam: for everyone else, not so much, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

Marina Hyde nails the AI bosses' brazen theft of work that legally belongs to its creators. The tech bros say their industry will collapse without stealing our stuff - it's that valuable. But also so unimportant & worthless they won't pay for it or ask consent.
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