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The Butcher's Masquerade - Dungeon Crawler Carl book 5 review

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 We start at the sixth floor this time, and if you have not tuned into the previous book reviews, you need to do that or read up until this point. I leave stuff out of these reviews, so please read the actual books for the juicy bits. Let's dive in.  At this point it is hard to sum up this book. This floor is the hunters versus the crawlers. With the help of the cookbook we all know and love, Carl and Donut and most of their friends make it through to the end of the level. At this point, that great goat Prepotente breaks the seventh level and plunges all of them into the eighth level. Unfortunately, we lose some great crawlers on the way. We also learn Lucia is a lot of people in one body, all children.  Review I already knew something was wrong with Lucia Mar. In this book we learn that she is multiple personalities in one body, which explains some of the interaction with Donut in that ursine town. Someone is controlling her to be an absolute monster, so my one friend w...
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The Odyssey Book 5 Review

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 Let's dive into Odysseus starting his journey home. I'll post the previous blogs on The Odyssey (books 1 -4) at the end, in case you aren't caught up. This is book/chapter 5 of The Odyssey.  I always start with watching a recap video, which is here:  MoAn Inc Book 5 summary We start at Calypso's island, where he's captive with Calypso, who is basically making him her sex slave against his will. He's crying on shore when we meet him. Hermes is sent to tell her that the fun is over and she has to give up Odysseus. After he is let go (after 7 years!) he goes to sea on a boat he built and finds out just how much Poseidon hates him. He ends up on another island after a whole lot of water issues. He doesn't know where he is. Athena guides him on what to do.  The Review First of all, I learned a sea-mew is a seagull. Second of all, Calypso calls out the male gods for their double standards. She's still a little twisted, but she has points. She's toyed with...
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The Odyssey Book 4 Review

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 Today I'm reviewing Book/chapter 4 of The Odyssey. If you would like to catch up on my reviews for book 1 - 3, I'll put the links at the end of the blog. Let's dive into it.  As always, I watched an expert summarize it before I hit the poetry that is Homer's work. Here's the video link:  (1) ODYSSEY BOOK 4 SUMMARY (Homer) - YouTube Telemachus is now visiting Menelaus and we hear a story about someone dressing up as a seal. Menelaus dresses up as a seal to find out which god he angered. Other stories are also thrown around about Troy. Everyone is telling stories. The video above says it so much better.  Also, now Telemachus' journey is leaked to the suitors. Oops. They are now going to try to ambush him. Oh no. Penelope is mad, obviously, so now she's really unwell. Athena has to intervene via a dream to tell her to relax.  The Review I rate it for story and readability. That means I have two star ratings to give. The first is for story. The story is really ...
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Thornhedge - a book review

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 Thornhedge is a twisted fae tale, where the princess in the tower is evil and the fae creature is in the right to put her to sleep. This is a twist on sleeping beauty by T. Kingfisher. Let's get into it.  This book, a 4 hour audio experience, is so deep and wonderful, while still being dark. This twist on the sleeping beauty story plays with dark fae lore and the idea that we heard the original story incorrectly, that the tower was originally meant to protect us from a changling.  Review Our story begins with Toadling, a woman who is and isn't fae. Read it and you'll understand. She is the original daughter that the changling replaced. She's half-fae because she was raised by fae and changed to become fae. I know, it's confusing. She was sent back to make sure the changling child "did no harm to those around her", which was a tall order to say the least.  After a while, 200 years in fact, a knight comes by and doesn't leave until he knows the secrets ...
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Forced Reading vs Leisure Reading

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 The difference between forced reading in school and leisure reading can be felt more than seen. You had no choice in the book when forced to read it. Leisure is when you get a whim to read something in your own free time, a free choice to make. Let's dig into the difference, and why forced reading might deter some kids from reading later on.  Forced reading is what makes some kids regard books as homework, making kids who read a lot 'nerds'. Reading is a fun time, but does forced reading assignments make kids put it into the 'chore' category? That's one of the topics at hand today.  The other topic is the major difference between forced and leisure. Leisure readers are many in this world, myself included. This form of entertainment will never die. It feeds the film industry ideas, lets introverts tell a story without making eye contact, and expands our minds to many different ideas. It is not forced reading because the avid readers in the world pick what they l...
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The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley - Book Review

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 The Ministry of Time is described as hard to put in one genre, which sounds like my kind of book. I'm going in with an entirely open mind and high expectations. Let's dive in together.  This book follows a woman working for a time travel ministry, where they've taken people who would've died anyway and they've taken them through time to see what actually happens to them in the process. It is an unethical experiment, but they do it anyway, because if the people die in the process history is not changed. Our main character is paired with a man who would've died in the Arctic, unrescued. Her job is to both monitor him and orient him to his new reality. It is a forced proximity situation, a scifi romance if you will. It is about 25 percent romance and 75 percent thriller.  The Review Our main guy, Commander Graham Gore is witty, confused, and makes jokes every once in a while. He doesn't like the world he's now in because too many people are crammed into Lo...
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Book Vs Movie - Shutter Island

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 I watched Shutter Island, after reading the book. Aside from maybe two missing lines I would have loved to have heard in the film, it was amazing. Let's dive in.  First of all, I'd like to address the film vs movie issue. A film and book are not the same medium and must be converted with adjustments to make them work. Not everyone will sit for four hours and see a completely perfect book to film conversion. Audiences have an attention span, especially these days. As long as the essence and plot points of the film are all in there, you did great. Exact dialogue can get you bonus points, which this film has.  The only difference between this and the book is literally the last line of the film, where instead of just rapidly regressing alone, he actually decides to choose the lobotomy and "die a hero" vs "living as a monster". The accuracy on dialogue is amazing. 10 out of 10. The only thing they didn't put in was the most offensive part of the warden's...
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