Reincarnated as a Sword, Vol. 1 begins as a sort of meh light novel with nothing that in any way subverts expectations. The talking sword even uses that by saying things like, "If this was a light novel, I would have an Identify spell. Ah, there it is." But then, the sword meets a slave girl, and the story becomes a whole lot better.

I loved The Three Musketeers the first time I read it. However, that was nearly all I remembered about it. Having read it again, I have to say that some parts are great, but the last quarter was lackluster, in my opinion.

Stray Cat Strut is generally a fun read, although don't expect a lot of depth. At first, I thought the world seemed pretty interesting. However, the most depth you get is from the little quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Each character can be summarized in one or two lines, which are often repeated, and some of the writing is a bit clunky. However, the story is quick and fun.

His Quiet Agent is a wonderful romance with intentionally zero spice. Seriously, there is not even a kiss. What it does have is a wonderful intensity with at least as high stakes as your normal romance novel. Rather than trying to get into Martin's pants, Arthur's achievement is getting Martin to open up enough to actually have a conversation. By the end, I really felt like it was a victory that I could savor.

This is an updated review of the books of Robert Harris's trilogy about Cicero, composed of the books Imperium, Conspirata, and Dictator, which depict the events leading up to the fall of the Roman Republic from the point of view of Tiro, Cicero's slave and scribe. The depiction is apparently fairly accurate and definitely very compelling.

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is not the story from any of the movies, as there is no Maid Marian, and while they kind of help the poor, they mainly prank people and keep guys who ran afoul of the law from getting killed. However, the stories are classics, and this version does cover most of the major characters.

The Moving Target by Ross MacDonald is an interesting enough mystery, although it isn't very original. The main character is a sort of philosophical detective, who also describes the breasts of all the women he meets in detail. Even I, perhaps the human least able to predict what will happen in a mystery, saw the ending coming a mile away.

This short introduction to the apocryphal gospels is exactly what it says it is: an introduction. However, the book is detailed enough to allow the reader to get a clear impression of the subject, rather than the hazy feeling of reading a summary.

If you are learning your first language in 2014 and are a beginner, Fluent Forever is super useful. In 2026, it is still pretty useful. Unfortunately, if you are looking for insights for advanced learners, you'll find only a little. Wondering how to keep multiple languages from getting confused in your head? Despite the author talking about how many languages he speaks, he doesn't shed any light on that at all.

The Soul of a New Machine starts out talking about a man going sailing. Then, it drifts on to some other stuff. Eventually, it starts talking about a team that is going to try to build a new computer. Because of the weird way the author went about telling the story, I was never entirely sure what the real topic of the book was, and that is - apparently - what the author was going for.