What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was a manga, The Troublesome Guest of Sotomura Detective Agency, by Sakae Kusama. I haven’t written up a review about it yet, but personally I wasn’t a huge fan of the art, and felt that a bit more character development (and a bit less random sex during which one of the partners is pretending to be mad about it) would’ve suited my reading tastes better. Still, it was fun to give it a try, and reminded me of reading FAKE (and rereading it a couple of years ago). Nostalgia!

Other than that, I finished rereading Finn Family Moomintroll, by Tove Jansson; I’ve been rereading the series in order, having not read the novels since I was a kid (though I read collections of the comics when I was at university). I have such an appreciation for Moominmamma and the way she welcomes every single unexpected visitor as a beloved guest.

What are you currently reading?

I’m slowly working my way through The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans: although the main protagonist (Sybil) is nothing like me or my grandmother, nonetheless it’s perhaps a little raw to read an epistolary novel in which letters are vitally important to the protagonist, given my recent loss of my grandmother to whom I wrote every week from 2022 to 2025.

Other than that, I have a few books on the go, but most actively A History of the World in 47 Borders, by Jonn Elledge. It’s very light and often flippant, but I do have some serious holes in my understanding of history, so even that fills up some of the corners. It does have some sources and an index, so it’s not totally casual, but still.

What will you be reading next?

The next Moomin book is The Memoirs of Moominpappa, so I guess that’s the most likely next read! Other than that, I have so many books on the go that I should probably focus on one of those, and perhaps return to Medieval Bodies, by Jack Hartnell, since that’s the one I was most recently reading before I got distracted…