#MurderEveryMonday Crime fiction title with the word sleeping

Without surprise, my choice for todays’s #MurderEveryMonday is Miss Marple’s last case, Sleeping Murder. The book was written during the Second World War and given as a gift (its copyright) to her husband Max. Curtain, the last case of Poirot, was also written around the same time and given to her Daughter, Rosalind. in her autobiography, Christie adds the manuscripts were put into a bank vault. Sleeping Murder was published in 1976, after Christie’s death.

#AgathaChristie #BookLook #books #ColecçãoVampiro #MissMarple #readings

Ben Lerner Reads “The Readers”

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-writers-voice/ben-lerner-reads-the-readers

4 titles for #MurderEveryMonday Crime fiction with an archaeology theme or connection

Today’s #MurderEveryMonday theme, an activity created by Kate Jackson, is a crime fiction book with an archaeology theme or connection. My first thought went to an Agatha Christie short story published for the first time in a magazine in 1923, as it common at the time, and then compiled in a book form in 1924, called The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb.

This is one of my favorites because Agatha Christie challenges our beliefs. The story revolves around the excavation of the tomb of the Pharaoh Men-her-Ra and an Egyptian curse, where the people related to the excavation start dying. Poirot is called by the widow of the archaeologist to investigate and accepts saying he, too, believes in the forces of superstition, which surprises both Hastings and the reader. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but we know Poirot is always right in the end, so if you want to know why you need to read the story. It is also interesting that there was what become a great archaeology discovery in 1922 by Howard Carter and his patron, the Earl of Carnarvon. The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun and the fact that the Earl of Carnarvon died soon after filled the newspapers at the time with stories about curses, so this may be the source of inspiration to this short.

Two novels with an archaeology theme, which make use of the knowledge Christie had with excavations, are Appointment with Death and Murder in Mesopotamia, and while I like them both, if I had to choose I would go for the second.

I also want to add to the pile a non-fiction book Come, tell me how you live, a book Agatha Christie wrote during the second world war as a way of remembering her expeditions in Syria with her husband Max Mallowan. The book answers the questions other people asked her about how it was to live the excavations sites and it written in a light and humorous way: a delight that I truly recommend!

#AgathaChristie #BookLook #CrimeFiction #livros #readings

Andrea Bajani Reads “Constellation”

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-writers-voice/andrea-bajani-reads-constellation

Saturday, June 06, 2026
Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
#faith
#readings
#ordinarytime2026

Jamil Jan Kochai Reads “The Twice-Widowed Khala Helai”

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-writers-voice/jamil-jan-kochai-reads-the-twice-widowed-khala-helai

Taiye Selasi Reads “Firstborn Immigrant Daughter”

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-writers-voice/taiye-selasi-reads-firstborn-immigrant-daughter

What is the problem to which cognitive outsourcing is the solution?

This paper by Thomas Corbin et al reports on a pilot study of philosophy undergraduates exploring their use of AI-reading tools. Their analysis of half of students using generative AI tools in some way for reading. Interestingly, the vast majority (79.1%) recognised the importance of this reading while also citing limited time (65.7%) and intellectually difficulty (33.3%) with the texts. They suggest a positive trend underlying the familiar fears about cognitive outsourcing. From pg 6:

The strong positive sentiment toward GenAI availability (76.2%) suggests these tools are making students more comfortable with challenging content, potentially lowering anxiety barriers to engagement with complex reading material. By providing alternative entry points to challenging texts, GenAI tools may help democratise access, particularly for students who face epistemic barriers to traditional engagement with reading materials. However, this optimistic interpretation must be balanced against potential risks. While GenAI may help students overcome initial barriers, over-reliance on AI-generated summaries could potentially impede the development of critical reading and interpretive skills that are essential to philosophical education.

This is what I mean about the need to respond diagnostically to student AI use. There are real problems in teaching and learning being surfaced by developing trends in student AI-use. What is the problem to which cognitive outsourcing is the solution for students? In asking this question it becomes possible to diagnose the underlying challenges which pre-existed generative AI, as well as to better understand student use in a manner which enables us to steer them towards active rather than passive use of AI.

This is a way of approaching student practice which enables us to surface difficulties. It still leaves us with the question though of which difficulties are undesirable obstacles and which difficulties are constitutive challenges. What do students need to work through in order to learn (and how do we help them with this?) versus what aspects of teaching and learning get in the way and should potentially be dispensed with? Is this part of the solution to my overarching question of what it means for students to use AI in active rather than passive ways?

Who can authoritatively judge whether a difficult falls is undesirable or constitutive? I think it has to be disciplinary-based expertise. If you don’t keep the link with disciplinary expertise then you can’t solve the problems of generative AI. That at least is the conclusion I’m rapidly coming to, which I’ll explore in future posts in this series.

#AI #assessment #cognitiveOutsourcing #literature #malpractice #readings

Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, Priest
#faith
#readings
#ordinarytime2026

#MurderEveryMonday Christie, Stout, & Wentworth

For #MurderEveryMonday crime fiction originally published in 1955, I’m choosing Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie, translated to Portuguese as Poirot and the mistakes of the typist. The title is from a nursery rhyme, and the story sees Poirot investigate a series of strange stolen items in a student’s hostel. We also know in this book that Miss Lemon has a sister.

I’m also adding to the pile, Before Midnight by Next Stout, and The Gazebo by Patricia Wentworth. I’ve read many Nero Wolfe books a long time ago and like them in general. I never read anything by Wentworth, but I’ve told you before that I want to go through her Miss Silver series, so this is one on my TBR.

#AgathaChristie #BookLook #books #ColecçãoVampiro #CrimeFiction #Policiais #readings