The Introverted Detective

 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...

 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...

 Let's talk about bunnies and war. I'm reading Watership Down, which is an allegory for war using rabbits.  Let's start with the basics. We have a warren near a field. Fiver and Hazel (both male rabbits) go to a field, where Fiver illustrates his prophetic gift - by seeing "a field of blood". There is a sign announcing land development on that field and a cigarette on the ground. There is a lot to unpack here, but this is only the basic plotline. I'll unpack more later. From here, Fiver and Hazel take a group to create a new warren, which looks more like defecting because their leader refused to move everyone. They are later proved right about the whole thing, when only two rabbits from the old warren make it back to tell the tale.  From here (and again, only doing basic plot) they find a bunch of rabbits bred to be killed by snares, free some hutch rabbits, rescue some rabbits from a warren resembling Nazi Germany, then have to fight those same rabbits at the...

 Here we are, at book four and level five of the dungeon crawl. If you don't know what I mean, please go back to the first book (titled Dungeon Crawler Carl) and go from there. I'll have the links to the other books before this at the end of this blog.  To catch you up since the last book, we have four different areas of level five to conquer. Also the AI was mad everyone teamed up to survive, therefore, everyone is in different biomes starting off. Let the chaos begin! The Review Carl, Katia, and Donut are in the air biome, with sand and camel-creatures. The town is Hump Town and the sign says "bang twice to enter". Cue the Picard face palm. The town is about drugs, sex, and money. The castle they need to storm is way above them. The crawlers all have to work together to storm it, and only a small portion of the crawlers are on each biome. Fun. This really does feel like a joke about breaking the AI bubble, as well as a punishment for the crawlers working together on...

 Today we review Bridgerton book eight, which is Gregory in the line of Bridgerton siblings. This will probably be spicy. Let's get into it.  This was a rather tame Bridgerton, featuring Lucy and Gregory (Bridgerton child #7). We have one sex scene, but a lot of adventure. We start with a prologue where Gregory is crashing a wedding. From there, we rewind it back to see how he got there, then continue forward. We have an arranged marriage, blackmail, treason, and a fascinating wedding afterparty.  Review I loved this one. Five stars, no notes. This had me wondering what would happen next. Lucy is arranged to marry someone (who is not into women). Gregory meets her while pursuing her cousin Hermione. After a while, they get the idea that they like each other. Hermione is caught messing around with Lucy's brother at a masquerade ball, so Hermione is off the table by now.  This is where things go off the rails. When Lucy expresses to her Uncle (who doesn't care about he...

 Today I'm reading another Ruth Ware book. Lenora, our main character, goes to a hen party under compulsion. Let's get into it.  This book is Agatha Christie coded. A bunch of people are brought into an isolated area for a hen party. That hen party goes off the rails and one person leaves before the real crap hits the fan. Our main character is in a hospital, remembering what happened. She has a gap in her memory and the police are saying someone is dead. By the end we know what happened. Until then, we get flashbacks between hospital interviews.  Our main character is Lenora, who goes by Nora and used to be called Lee. The frustrating thing is that she is being called Lee by our hen Clare who's getting married and Flo, the maid of honor. Flo is obsessed over "the perfect hen party" to a point that she's basically trying to control the social environment. After some jokes at her expense (a seance where they say "maxwell" says to "buy coffee...