bookeboy.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

I was in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Booklist newsletter yesterday, talking about my bamboo writing screen (and some daily writing habits).

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

New on the blog today, I've written about MONSIEUR MONDE VANISHES by Georges Simenon (tr. Jean Stewart). A seemingly respectable man, frustrated with his stifling life, rebels against convention in this intriguing novella by one of my favourite writers! 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/05/08/m...

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

My English teacher wife asked me to write a novel for her Year 7 and 8 boys who say they don't like reading, but love fishing and four-wheel-driving. If you know any kids who fit the bill, click on the link to read the blurb and get a copy. ozbookstore.com/products/hig...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Really sad to hear that the Oz author and academic Tracy Sorensen passed away in recent days. Beautiful that she still managed to publish this before she passed www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments

Well, here's a bit of news! Larrikin House is going to publish my new actiony thriller! My strict diet of Lee Child and Georges Simenon has finally paid off! More details to come. But for now, I'm just going enjoy the moment. #booksky #bookcontract #thriller

submitted 9 days ago • 4 comments

Snuck in the hundred or so pages of Maigret Mystified (1932) as I moved house. Amongst packing boxes while waiting on deliveries, while on hold arranging broadband and electricity, Maigret methodically, sometimes ploddingly, solved the murder of Roger Couchet. #booksky

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

A good line from @alicektg.bsky.social in @aunz.theconversation.com: "Australia has bid farewell to manufacturing and other industries, but we cannot produce our culture overseas." theconversation.com/whos-eating-...

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

New on the blog today, my thoughts on THE REEF by Edith Wharton, in which a foolish American diplomat finds himself trapped in a deliciously complex love triangle (or quadrangle?) with devastating results. Fans of THE AGE OF INNOCENCE should seek it out! 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/04/29/t...

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments

Born in 1870, Henry Handel Richardson started writing her memoir, Myself When Young, while the Luftwaffe were flying over her cottage on the south coast of England. She died before she could finish it. The memoir stops in 1895. What she left is a gift but also a tease. I am left wanting so much more

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

In The Details we read about the influence of Helen Garner on Tegan Bennett Daylight's early work, examine what George Saunders does that few else can, touch on Moby Dick, Proust, The Triffids, the death of friends, of parents and we feel sad for Holden Caufield. Just my kind of wet weather reading.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

In The Details we read about the influence of Helen Garner on Tegan Bennett Daylight's early work, examine what George Saunders does that few else can, touch on Moby Dick, Proust, The Triffids, the death of friends, of parents and we feel sad for Holden Caufield. Just my kind of wet weather reading.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

I have just popped the prologue to my novella, Separation, on my blog. Let me know what you make of it. www.johnpurcellauthor.com/blog/the-pro...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Read in one sitting. A very short, evocative read, Joshua Spassky by Gwendoline Riley.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

I have just popped the prologue to my novella, Separation, on my blog. Let me know what you make of it. www.johnpurcellauthor.com/blog/the-pro...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

As you can see in my unhinged review, I loved Unless by Carol Shields. #booksky #bookreview #carolshields

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

I still haven't read Crossing to Safety...

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

A writer writing about writers writing in Unless by Carol Shields, a writer writing about writers writing.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

I haven't read any Carol Shields before now. Started reading Unless last night. So far, so good. Another novel with a novelist narrator. Something I seem particularly drawn to for some reason. Unless could be the cousin of yesterday's read, Diving, Falling. Similar themes. Companionable voice.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

I haven't read any Carol Shields before now. Started reading Unless last night. So far, so good. Another novel with a novelist narrator. Something I seem particularly drawn to for some reason. Unless could be the cousin of yesterday's read, Diving, Falling. Similar themes. Companionable voice.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

I like a book I can read in one sitting, especially if it treats me like an adult and serves up moral complexities without fear or favour.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Beside myself right now with how amazing this review is (and she quoted so many of my favourite parts!!) 🥰

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Very lucky to find this today: Maigret and the Headless Corpse by Georges Simenon. Thriller book club edition. Are there any other Simenon addicts out there? #simenon #booksky

submitted 24 days ago • 4 comments

I can't pass an op shop without checking out if they have any books. The Blue Mountains op shops and bookshops are keeping me sane. Lucked upon these beauties yesterday. I am especially pleased about the Fanny Burney, been hoping to find one for years.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

I loved Turtle Diary when I read it well over twenty years ago. I think I'd love it even more today. Makes note to reread Great review Jacqui.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

I like how in her essay My Year of No Shopping, Ann Patchett quickly lets us know that although she is quitting shopping she will continue to buy life's essentials, food and BOOKS. 📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

A quick review of Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham. Spoiler: I loved it.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

I am reading Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham and this line struck me as being particularly cruel: 'No bazaar lacked an autographed copy of at least one of his books.'

submitted 28 days ago • 3 comments

A Superb lyrebird near Echo Point. (Did they get to choose their own name? Call me The Superb John Purcell from now on. Ta.)

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

New on the blog today, I've written about STONE YARD DEVOTIONAL by Charlotte Wood. I loved this unsettling, slow-burning narrative about loss, grief, forgiveness, guilt and death - one of the best contemporary novels I've read in recent years. #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/04/15/s...

submitted 30 days ago • 3 comments

Sad to be leaving Pyrmont. I have enjoyed the village atmosphere, the walks by the harbour, the sunsets and the bridge. Back to the mountains I go. But not for long. I will be back in Sydney soon.

submitted 30 days ago • 1 comment