The Introverted Detective

 I love Ruth Ware's other books and the prequel to this one, yet, I stopped at nearly 50 percent because I lost the drive to read this one. Let's talk about the only negative review I've ever done for a Ruth Ware, despite the fact I love her books the other 99 percent of the time.  The Woman in Suite 11 is the sequel to The Woman in Cabin 10. I would actually suggest reading the prequel and leaving this one well enough alone. Cabin 10 should be a standalone. Cabin 10 is a five star read. Suite 11? Not so much. I don't usually leave negative reviews. I need you all to know that I am hopelessly honest if it is a negative review. I love this author. Yet, here we are. Cabin 10 didn't need a sequel.  For another perspective, that does admit this isn't her best, Click Here. A Deeper Dive Into Why I DNFed It I started the book enjoying it, but the pace was slow. Slow, without the constant suspense. Lo is a fun character, yes, but the pace was losing me - fast. Cabin 10...

 I need quick content, so I'm going back to some Laurel and Hardy. Let's talk about Tit For Tat from 1935.  Laurel and Hardy have opened an electrical store. Naturally, they get into all kinds of trouble. Hardy gets stuck on a ledge, needs to use someone's stairs, and then there is a terrible misunderstanding. Meanwhile, one dude keeps stealing from the shop and they never stop him. They get in a fight with the grocer next door over the misunderstanding. Eventually a street cop decides to step in. By that time, that one guy who stole everything took all the shop, as well as the street cop eating an alum pastry.  This was clearly when Laurel was writing their content. The repeated jokes that get funnier as the bit gets longer are great. The bit that they are never in their store and the one guy keeps stealing everything not nailed down and the bit where they grab some pastry from the grocer and eat it by the door are repeated gags. The second bit leads to the grocer adding...

 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...

 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...

 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 ...

 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 ...

 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...

 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...