The Family Clause by J. H. Khemiri dissects the roles and dynamics within a family in a black-humoured manner.
Written from different viewpoints, the novel manages to emphasise the characters’ isolation unto themselves as well as their ultimate (reluctant) connection in the whole of family ties.
Emotionally moving, stylistically masterful.
The seventh book in the Jackelian series by Stephen Hunt: Mission to Mightadore (I’m reading them in the order I find them in the 2nd hand bookshop.)
Wildly imaginative steampunk, action-packed time-travel tale. Too bad I read it on my ereader in a horrible machine-translation.
My current main reading, late July 2025, Kindle edition. I also have library books on loan, plus other books ongoing in the house. I mainly read ebooks now because of huge problems reading print due to a progressive neurological disease. Gargantuan fonts on my Kindle keep me reading for extended periods.
A screenshot of a Kindle Paperwhite - black and white / greyscale - showing 2 rows of 3 book covers. At the top are “City of Vengeance: introducing Cesare Aldo” by D.V. Bishop (with an image of Renaissance Florence); “Forgotten Churches: Exploring England’s Hidden Treasures” by Luke Sherlock (with a cover image drawing looking down at an old church surrounded by gravestones); and “The Haunted Trail: Classic Tales of the Rambling Weird” edited by Weird Walk for the British Library “Tales of the Weird” collection (image of a spooky path in the countryside leading to a disturbing looking group of trees). At the bottom are “Is It My ADHD? Navigating Life as a Neurodivergent Adult” by Grace Timothy (image of a squirrel, looking distracted by lots of nuts); George Mackay Brown’s “Beside the Ocean of Time” (image of a turbulent sea beside high cliffs); and “The Complete Sherlock Holmes” anthology by Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlockian imagery, including a magnifying glass, and Holmes spoking a pipe while wearing a deerstalker).
Hah! Just today I was browsing in a bookshop in Oslo and they had a bunch of the Tales of the Weird collections on sale. Didn’t buy any though, because traveling by train with a backpack makes it hard to lug a bunch of new books around. I will have to check them out when I’m back home.
You haven’t tried to ask the bookseller if can send you by mail the books ? it’s an old, if not ancient, but still valid system, personally buying in the shop, asking to seller to mail the buyed items to your address.
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
That’s actually a really good idea. I never thought of letting the shop mail the books to my home. Thanks!
Behind The Walls Of Terra
“Salvation” by Peter F. Hamilton. The book starts very interesting and I’ve been promised that it’s well-plotted till the end.
In met Peter last Saturday in Berlin, in the very famous scifi bookstore “Otherland”. Unfortunately, he didn’t read anything, but he answered a great many questions from the audience and signed books. I found him to be extremely informative and open-minded. If you’re a science fiction fan and have the chance to meet him somewhere, take it.
I just finished The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling. One of my favorite reads so far this year—medieval fantasy horror starring three lesbians, what more could you ask for?
Four lesbians?
Current reading “The Lavalite World”, fifth in Philip Jose Farmer’s ‘World of Tiers’ series.
I can’t deliver that feature request 
two major NPC are enough work !
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn. I picked up this short work by asking the bookshop lady for her recommendation. Psychological thriller novella which references the Bluebeard fairytale, Hitchcock’s Birds, and the Norse myth of Baldur’s death. Claustrophobic suspense in the wide Norse fjörd landscape.
Phoebe checks into a luxury hotel, planning to indulge in one last room service meal with a view over the ocean before she commits suicide. But the hotel is booked for a week-long wedding, and she gets wrapped up in dealing with the bride’s uncertainties, and later on with a bunch of the other guests’ personal stuff too.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach:
Hilarious, deeply sensitive about humans being human with all the things humans do and feel and say.
Finished my reread of Ojamajo DOremi 16 Naive earlier this evening. Technically, the first chapter and a bit of the third volume, 16 Turning Point will be a reread as well, but I’ll be switching from rereading an old fan translation that stalled back in 2017 to reading the newer translation that starts from the third volume and goes through the remaining 8 volumes of the OD Light Novels.
A Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie. Most of the story is carried by other characters, but Poirot shows up a few times to show off his delightfully arrogant self, particularly for the dénouement.
I spent the past month binge reading the entire Phryne Fisher series by Kerry Greenwood, and am now binge watching the Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries show based on it. The series is so much fun and it’s an unexpected delight reading something set in Australia (where I live).
Just finished the novella Rose/House by Arkady Martine. Architectural sci-fi horror, with clear allusions to The Haunting of Hill House. Quite liked it!
I read the first book of John Flanagan’s Ranger Apprentice series, The Ruins of Gorlan. Not bad, but a bit bland. Run-of-the-mill fantasy apprentice story, sticks closely to the mould.
Current reading, mid August 2025 edition. Kindle books anyway, the main thing I read now, so I can have a gigantic font to cope with reading difficulties due to my progressive neurological disease. A mix of fiction and non fiction as always. I also have library books and others on the go.
Screenshot of a Kindle Paperwhite, black and white / greyscale colour, showing two rows of three books. On the top are “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil” by V.E. Schwab, “Restoration London: Everyday Life in London 1660-1670” by Liza Picard, and “The Lantern of Lost Memories” by Sanaka Hiragi. On the row below are “Forgotten Churches: Exploring England’s Hidden Treasures” by Luke Sherlock, “Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better” by Polly Atkin, and a “Complete Sherlock Holmes” collection.
