Ten people arrive on an island, and are murdered one by one for past crimes.

An interesting story, as there isn’t an inspector on the island to piece everything together. To some degree, the reader is left to try to figure it out.

Recommended for a different approach to murder mysteries (than what I’m accustomed to).

Miss Gracechurch is painfully shy—or rather, she finds that social settings cause her strong anxiety. To avoid social interactions, and especially marriage, she invents a Scottish captain that she writes letters to.

Except that Captain MacKenzie is both very real and very much alive. He’s intent on marrying Miss Gracechurch, because he’d like her castle and lands to provide his men homes. And he’s received all of her letters.

The two fall in love, but I find that I have a hard time believing it, in large part because of the lies that they must put behind themselves to move forward. I also had a hard time when MacKenzie insists that Gracechurch is ready for her, but that’s likely my own hangup after learning how desire works (this is a recommendation to check out Nagoski’s Come as You Are).

Overall, it is a good book, and I recommend it.

Nausicaä is in with the Touremician, heading toward a large forest. She’s doing as much as she can to save innocent people (and not just her own) at great harm and risk to herself. All the while she’s doing her best to avoid involvement as a particimant in the fighting.

Montell describes how cults rely on language to spread their views. She investigates how charismatic cult leaders used language to gain members and deceive people, offering them a path to a better world that only the leader understands.

She also looks at how multi-level marketers use language to ensnare people, and finally at fitness groups. It’s fascinating at how similar both groups’ language and tactics are similar to cults.

She ends by pointing out that research shows that folks with little education tend to believe in ghosts, but that folks with more education are more likely to follow charlatans. A very sobering conclusion.

Overall, I recommend this book.

Shane explores how large language models and other generative algorithms work, how they don’t work, and problems that they have. It’s a fascinating look into the current technological hype along with the types of attacks that it suffers from.

An excellent book.

Rumors swirl that Catherine Benson lost her virtue. Therefore, her marriage to Andrew Davener is, if nothing else, a marriage of convenience for Andrew. Catherine’s dowry ensures that Andrew can finally rebuild his family’s estate.

However, Catherine longs for love. She knew that her marriage to Andrew wouldn’t provide love. But as her regard for him grows, Catherine can’t help but feel hurt that Andrew doesn’t seem to return her love.

The art is beautiful while subdued. The story leaves the possibility for future titles with other characters.

I enjoyed the book and recommend you give it a read.

Young Esme learns that some words are given more significance than others simply due to who uses them, who writes them, and the esteem that the collectors of words hold for those individuals.

Esme’s dad is a lexicographer working on the Oxford English Dictionary, an undertaking of a lifetime. Esme notices that words used by women or other underclasses aren’t included in the dictionary, and therefore she starts collecting words.

I enjoyed how words shaped and played such an important role in Esme’s life, the power that words have, and the power that academics have in uplifting or silencing people. Recommended.

I continue to find it fun to see how the story in manga format is different from the movie. For instance, the grandmotherly seer in the movie is a priest in the manga. Events occur in the manga in different order or are accomplished by different characters than in the movie.

Chloe Fong is a shy girl, very good at making lists, and intends to seek revenge on the folks that stole her father’s sauce recipe.

Jeremy Wentworth intends to marry Chloe, but hides a terrible secret in his mind—he’s the Duke of Lansing

Things aren’t all as they seem in this story. Good suspense and humor. Very good!

The Lamy 2000 looks and feels like a futuristic pen, which is quite a feat considering it is a design released about 58 years ago.

I loved the material and how warm it felt in hand, the satisfying click when capping and uncapping the pen, and the smooth action of the piston when filling and cleaning the pen.

My experience was mixed, though. I purchased a medium nib, and it tended toward broad in everyday use. The nib was acceptable when writing in print, but I found it a liability for legibility when I wanted to write in cursive. While changing nibs doesn’t seem to be officially supported by Lamy, it is possible. My understanding is that Lamy’s nibs for the Lamy 2000 have the same tolerances as the Lamy Safari and AL-Star; which is to say that a fine nib can fall within the ranges of an extra-fine or a medium nib.

Cleaning can be an annoyance. While you can take the pen apart, it is incredibly easy to over tighten the pen and crack the section, something that I personally experienced. Repairing the pen wasn’t difficult, thankfully, but I put it off for some time because I was fairly disappointed that it cracked. Within two years of repairing it, I sold the pen.

I expect that I’ll own this pen again in the future, but I plan on buying it and having the nib tuned to ensure that it falls within an extra-fine (preferably a Japanese extra-fine, if possible).