iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Samuel Johnson, father of AI: “The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book.'

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There's a new biography of X. I shall review it as I am actually the only person alive fit to tell X's story. I once saw X on a train remonstrating with a conductor over the conduct of four youths. That was X in a nutshell. Nasty piece of work. As to the novels, most wouldn't find a publisher today.

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AC Fick 📚 @acfick72.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

10/10 Question 7! 🤣

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Read some bloody good books lately. John of John by Douglas Stuart, The Left and the Lucky by Willy Vlautin, Dodge City by Patrick deWitt, Whistler by Ann Patchett and The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout. And also, Stations by Louise Kennedy and Heart the Lover by Lily King. And and and.

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

'She tells the truth in her own way, and many writers don’t tell the truth, and if they do, they don’t tell it in their own way,' says Shelia Heti of Gwendoline Riley as quoted in this interesting interview. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/s...

nytimes.com

Resist Assuming Her Life Is Like Her Books

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New York Review Books @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Rave review of Gwendoline Riley's new book, The Palm House in @thetimes.com "I read it in a single sitting, then immediately read it again to test its spell, which grew stronger. It establishes Riley as one of our most brilliant fiction writers"

thetimes.com

This goes straight onto my list of favourite modern novels

A ‘thick-skinned philistine’ takes over a fading literary magazine … The Palm House establishes Gwendoline Riley as one of our foremost fiction writers

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

On the tenth anniversary of Brookner’s death, Hermione Lee reflects on the novelist’s mystery, wit, and emotional courage—ahead of her forthcoming biography from Chatto & Windus. share.google/S7n5NWbm6NaO...

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Looks as though my new book The Amateur's Guide to Killing Bad Guys is going to be published later in the year. It's a work of fiction, alas. www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/202...

booksandpublishing.com.au

Larrikin acquires Purcell novel | Books+Publishing

Purchase a subscription to view job ads and other premium content on Books+Publishing.

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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

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 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/04/20/t...

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

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 …

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Michael Winkler @micwink.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

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

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

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.

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

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.

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

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

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

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

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.

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

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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

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 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2021/05/11/w...

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

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…

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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

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. 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/m...

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

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…

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Michelle Johnston @eleytherius.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

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.

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Michelle Johnston @eleytherius.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

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.

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Michelle Johnston @eleytherius.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

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.

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Michelle Johnston @eleytherius.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

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.

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

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!

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

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...

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

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

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.

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

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

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.

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Thank fuck for books. No other media can explore ideas as thoroughly, thoughtfully or as intelligently. Yes, I am watching a documentary on TV.

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Kaz Cooke @kazcooke.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

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. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

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

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

A bookshop announcing the cancellation of an author event just said the quiet part out loud: 'Unfortunately due to lack of numbers we have had to cancel this event. We apologise for any inconvenience.' Pretty much every author's worst nightmare (and daily reality). The truth must not out.

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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

“He had no doubt that she had earmarked him for future use, in which case she had made a grave mistake. He was not so stupid as to take her on trust or to tolerate any demands she might make of him. No doubt she thought to seduce him into this.” #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/a...

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

A Private View by Anita Brookner

I’ve been making my way through Anita Brookner’s exquisitely written novels slowly but steadily over the past eight years. As a long-term reading project, I’m finding it fascinating to see how Broo…

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

'A stunning tour de force, Man in the Holocene constructs a powerful vision of our place in the world by combining the banality of an aging man's lonely inner life and the objective facts he finds in the books of his isolated home.' Delightful Saturday reading. Or my life.

Photo of the paperback of Man in the Holocene by Max Frisch

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones was just on. I have heard their stuff all my life so I never pay any attention to their lyrics. Then I thought I heard something lewd. So, of course, I looked it up. Yep, that's what I heard.

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

I think it's odd that after all this time publishers are still not aware of all the unintended signals they send to cautious booksellers about their upcoming titles. Long before the marketing kicks in publishers might have killed a book's chances by any number of, for them, workaday decisions.

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Andrew Roff @roffwrites.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

I do! I do love to see it!!

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Kill Your Darlings @kydmagazine.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Are blurbs and endorsements on book covers pointless? Author @damonyoung.com.au digs into whether the industry should do away with the puff.

killyourdarlings.com.au

To Puff or Not to Puff

Do away with blurbs? I don’t think so.

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

You can tell when a writer hasn't done the work. I don't mean research, I mean, hasn't lived fully. Hasn't read widely & deeply. Hasn't tried to see the world as it is, even if they only have access to a small patch of it. Hasn't taken the time to befriend people they have nothing in common with. 🌍📚

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

I only just noticed the quote on the front of Gliff by Ali Smith. 'Miraculous... tender, hilarious and ultimately uplifting. A ray of hope' Paul Murray, Irish Times Hilarious?

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Alice Grundy @alicektg.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

It felt like Australian publishing was shrinking with mergers and the shock closure of Meanjin - waiting to see the full story behind that! But there's a few new players bring fresh energy and new books in recent months. With thanks to @jocaseau.bsky.social for excellent editing.

theconversation.com

5 new Australian publishers are making defiant, weird, grass-roots books

The launch of 5 new Australian book publishers is good news, for once. Meet Perentie Press, Pink Shorts Press, Evercreech Editions, Aniko Press and Bakers Lane Books.

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Opinion pieces follow the same tiresome pattern. Headline promising a solution. Retreat in the opening passages to dull scene setting, often with way too much personal information. Followed by detailed reiteration of the problem & a recap of the current inciting incident. Then, no solution. End.

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Unnamed Press @unnamedpress.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Are you starving for beauty? Well feast your eyes on the official 2026 Smith & Taylor Classics line-up! 📮 Preorder our annual subscription service at unnamedpress.com now to receive books throughout the year!

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John Purcell @bookeboy.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Just saw a novel called Water Dressed in Brown. Which I know as an Ani DiFranco lyric. 'And the coffee is just water dressed in brown.' Which is probably what the title is referring to because it's about being young in the nineties. But now I'm wondering if DiFranco is quoting a famous line? Anyone?

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Richard Littler @richardlittler.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

When you tell people you're trying to sell one novel and are writing another, they look at you like you've just told them you soil yourself because you enjoy it.

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Martin Shaw @thebooksdesk.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Deal news! Really excited to share that @justinehausheer.bsky.social's book debut, "The Vanishing Wild. Australian Wildlife and the Fight Against Extinction", will be appearing courtesy of @newsouthpublishing.bsky.social in May next year! unsw.press/news/the-van...

unsw.press

NewSouth Acquires Justine E. Hausheer's The Vanishing Wild

NewSouth Publishing is thrilled to announce the acquisition of world rights to The Vanishing Wild: Australian Wildlife and the Fight Against Extinction, via literary agent Martin Shaw, a powerful and ...

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