Week in Review #1

 In the last days of 2025, I did review two books and a Bible. I also watched a handful of movies. However, I've decided to just include the ones reviewed and/or watched in 2026 proper.

I DID review one book this week. (My numbers can only go up from here!) That one book is THE LONG WINTER by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This is a fabulous, fabulous read. I listened on audio book. I do recommend listening to the series on audio because of the fiddle bits. Every time there is a song--where Pa plays his fiddle--there's FIDDLE. It does immerse you more in the story which is lovely. This one is best read UNDER a blanket or two.

Century of Viewing Week #1

1960s

• 1962 Music Man Is The Music Man my absolute and favorite musical?!?!?! Probably. Maybe. Definitely top three if not the top slot. A traveling sales man sells the town on boys' band, but, his less than honest past may catch up with him before the end. But the love of a GOOD librarian may just lead to the best resolution of all.
• 1967 Camelot. My second one-star movie of the year is CAMELOT (the musical). It had probably been three decades since I last saw it. I had a vague memory of some of the songs. And curiosity enough to rewatch it. Camelot is not made for an overthinker like me. IF I'd watched it in the daytime, I'd have probably had words with the screen. As everyone was sleeping, I had to keep my loud thoughts quiet. (Or quieter.)

1980s

• 1982 Ivanhoe THE one and only. THE best way to start New Year's Day. This Swedish tradition of watching Ivanhoe on New Year's Day is all kinds of awesome. I just had to borrow the tradition once my friend "Anonymous L" shared about it. THE story is full of action, adventure, and ROMANCE. Love, love, love this one so much.
• 1987 Overboard How many people go overboard in this romantic comedy? Quite a few--but many are repeats. This comedy is delightful--a bit over the top...dare I say a bit overboard. HOWEVER, I think this prank soon becomes oh-so-real as feelings get involved. I love how this found family saves her.

1990s

• 1995 While You Were Sleeping. I started this one a few days ago. It's a great movie to watch in between Christmas and New Year's Day. It's SO quotable and funny and enjoyable. Just a delight to watch this romantic comedy that is quirky and family-focused.

2020s

• 2020 We Three Kings. This is a bio pic, a period drama, a movie based on true events. It is about how the Christmas Carol "We Three Kings" was written. In theory, it shouldn't be *that* bad a movie. I don't know if it's the actors fault for not being great actors, or the fault of those who cast this movie in the first place, or perhaps the fault is the writers. THE costumes are lovely. But the acting and/or the writing is very stilted, unnatural, awkward. The writing does have a lot of info-dumping.

 

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

1. The Long Winter (Audiobook)

1. The Long Winter (Little House #6) Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1940. 334 pages. [Source: Library][audiobook, historical fiction, classic]

 First sentence: The mowing machine's whirring sounded cheerfully from the old buffalo wallow south of the claim shanty, where bluestem grass stood thick and tall and Pa was cutting it for hay.

Premise/plot: The Ingalls family--and the whole community/territory--face a brutal, harsh, and terribly long winter full of blizzards. 

This first chapter is called "Make Hay While the Sun Shines" and if it's found within a book called THE LONG WINTER, the reader knows what to expect even if the characters don't. The book opens with Ma and Pa and family getting ready for harvest and winter. Laura is helping out Pa. Mary and Carrie are helping out Ma. Laura is especially pleased that she's old enough (around 14 now) to help Pa and do outdoor chores.

The Ingalls family is living in their claim shanty. This would be the first fall/winter they've been there. And they know it will be tough, but when the first blizzard comes in October, they know that it wouldn't only be tough to survive but impossible to survive if they were to try to stay on their homestead. Fortunately, Pa owns property in town. A place where they can be nice and warm and cozy for the winter. Or so they think.

What no one could know is just how hard, how long, how tough this winter was going to be. Some folks are prepared--the Wilder boys for instance--but most are not. Most are relying on the train making regular stops in town. The trains are essential for stocking the stores of supplies. But when almost every day brings a blizzard--with clear days coming only one at a time and never on a predictable schedule--it soon becomes clear that the trains will not be saving the day. Not til spring. The town's survival, the Ingalls' family survival, is a big if at this point.

Cold. Hunger. Starvation. No supplies. What's not to love?

My thoughts: The Long Winter has always been one of my favorites of the Little House series. I'll admit it tends to make you cold and hungry. But that's not a bad thing, right? I didn't think so. Only two books can trick my mind and body--okay maybe three--into thinking it's cold and hungry. One, of course, is The Long Winter. The other two are by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I think one of the reasons I love The Long Winter is that it introduces Almanzo Wilder onto the scene. True, there was Farmer Boy, but not every reader takes the time to read Farmer Boy. I spent forty plus years avoiding it. I read it earlier this year for the first time. But this Almanzo is a man--a young man it's true--19 years of age. And he's acting "manly" alright when it's time to save the day. I love every scene Almanzo is in. Laura first meets him when she's lost and trying to find her Pa in the slough of hay. Here is the description: "His blue eyes twinkled down at her as if he had known her a long time." Anyway, I love this book.

Is it my favorite and best from the series? Probably. I do love These Happy Golden Years. So those two are my favorite and best. But I really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one so much.

ETA: I listened to The Long Winter--a book I've read dozens of times--on audio narrated by Cherry Jones. The audio book is a little over seven hours.


© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2025 Year in Review, Century of Viewing

The 'century of viewing' covered 1900 to 2025. I watched movies, shorts, cartoon shorts, television series, television episodes, YouTube documentaries, etc.

• 40.4% of my viewing was black and white. (242)
• 58.4% of my viewing was color. (350)
• 1.2% of my viewing was both black and white and color. (7)

Which decade did I watch the most from?!?!?!

• 1920s 20.7% (124)
• 1990s 10.9% (65)
• 2020s 10.4% (62)
• 1980s 8.0% (48)
• 2000s 7.8% (47)
• 2010s 7.7% (46)
• 1910s 6.7% (40)
• 1930s 6.2% (37)
• 1970s 6.0% (36)
• 1950s 5.8% (35)
• 1960s 5.3% (32)
• 1900s 0.7% (4)

Stars Upon Thars --

• 1 star 0.3% (usually because I would stop watching if I thought it was *that* terrible. Two movies were rated one star.)
• 2 stars 6.5% (this includes 2 1/2 stars, which is CENTER of what a movie can be) (39 movies)
• 3 stars 25.9% (again including 3 1/2 stars) (155 movies)
• 4 stars 29.9% (again including 4 1/2 stars) (179 movies)
• 5 stars 37.4% (this does include repeats) (224 movies, again this includes those I watched more than once)

Genres. This isn't really completely accurate...because silent movies most of them would also count as COMEDIES or romances or drama or whatnot. And I did combine categories--on my spreadsheet I had three different descriptions for 'action' (action superhero, action thriller, and action/adventure). Same with other categories. Romantic comedies AND romantic dramas were combined to romance. And it does not take into account holiday romantic comedies or holiday romantic dramas.

• Silent movie 26.9% (161)
• speculative fiction 17.6% (105)
• romance 9.2% (55)
• musical 7.5% (45)
• comedy 6.4% (38)
• holiday 5.5% (33)
• action 5.2% (31)
• period drama 5% (30)
• animated 5% (30)
• documentary 3.5% (21)
• drama 3.2% (19)
• mystery/crime 2.7% (16)
• war drama 1.7% (10)
• sports 0.5% (3)
• competition 0.2% (1)
  
  

Top three movies from January: Ivanhoe, The General, Seven Chances
Top three movies from February: Groundhog Day, The Camerman, Benny & Joon
Top three movies from March: What About Bob?, Sherlock Jr., You Can't Run Away From It
Top three movies from April: Hayseed Romance, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Gospel of John
Top three movies from May: Remember the Day, Music and Lyrics, Battling Butler
Top three movies from June: Batman (1966), Kate & Leopold, Spite Marriage;
Top three movies from July: Blast from the Past, Clue, Time After Time
Top three movies from August: Primeval, Adventures in Babysitting, Big Fish
Top three movies from September: The Fifth Element, Edward Scissorhands, Poseidon Adventure
Top three movies from October: Lethal Weapon  (all of them), The Martian, The Invisible Man
Top three movies from November: Dinosaurus, The Day Day the Earth Stood Still, The Time Machine
Top three movies from December: VHS Christmas Carols, Die Hard, Muppet Christmas Carol



© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Century of Viewing #12

In December, I watched fifty-one things.

December's five star movies

• A Biltmore Christmas
• Borrowed Hearts
• Charlie Brown Christmas
• Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
• Die Hard
• Garfield Christmas
• Holiday Inn on Broadway
• How To Train Your Dragon (animated)
• It's a Wonderful Life
• Miracle in Bethlehem, PA
• Miracle on 34th Street
• Muppet Christmas Carol
• North and South
• Scrooge
• Surviving Love
• Undercover Christmas
• VHS Christmas Carols
• White Christmas

Decembers 4 1/2 and 4 star movies

• Little Women (1933)
• The Christmas Toy (1986)
• Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024)
• Brazil (1985)
• Downton Abbey: Grand Finale
• Sister Swap: Hometown Christmas
• Die Hard 2
• A Christmas Carol (1999)
• An American Christmas Carol (1979)
• Call the Ml the Midwife Holiday Special (2025)
• Gattaca
  
• War of the World (1953)
• Thrill Seekers (1999)
• Beatles Anthology (1995/2025)

© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2025 Year in Review (Books)

 

 In 2025, I read 342 books! I listened to audio books, read e-books, and read book-books.

46 audio books

126 e-books

170 books

July 2025 was my best reading month with 37 books read. August 2025 was my best reading month for number of pages read!

The first book review of the year: Cloaked in Beauty by Karen Witemeyer! The last book review of the year was the NASB 1977 Inductive Study Bible!

I mostly-mostly read books I enjoyed or LOVED, loved, loved.

1 book was 1 star
5 books were 2 stars
89 books were 3 stars
112 books were 4 stars
135 books were 5 stars

I reread 80 books while 262 were new-to-me!

79% of the books I read were from the library! (Other sources being bought, gifted, review copy, or read online from Project Gutenberg, etc.)

My genres:

Bibles 5.1%
Christian fiction 7.4%
Christian nonfiction 10.8%
speculative fiction 15.1%
historical fiction 8.0%
romance 0.3%
realistic/general fiction 3.7%
poetry 1.1%
play 0.3%
picture books 21.3%
board books 7.4%
nonfiction 5.4%
classics 5.1%

early readers/early chapter books 5.7%
graphic novels/comic books 2.0%
mystery 1.7%

My top ten books

The Blue Castle. L.M. Montgomery. 1926. 218 pages. [Audio book, Library, 5 Stars]

Kidnapped From Ukraine Under Attack. Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. 2025. 320 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, mg realistic fiction, mg fiction, survival, war stories]

Kidnapped From Ukraine #2 Standoff. Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. 2025. 288 pages. [Source: Library] [realistic fiction, family, drama, war] [5 stars]
Pocket Bear. Katherine Applegate. Illustrated by Charles Santoso. 2025. 272 pages. [Source: Review copy] [5 stars, J fiction, J fantasy, animal fantasy, toy fantasy]
Stitch: Reimagining Frankenstein. Padraig Kenny. 2025. 208 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, mg speculative fiction, mg fantasy]
Skipshock. Caroline O'Donoghue. 2025. 400 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, YA dystopia, YA speculative fiction, YA romance]
The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum. Thornton W. Burgess. 1914. 139 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, classic, children's classic, animal fantasy]
The Tides of Time. Sarah M. Eden. 2025. 368 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, time travel, adult romance, historical fiction]
The Secret of Honeycake. Kimberly Newton Fusco. 2025. 368 pages. [Source: Library] [j historical fiction, j fiction] [5 stars]
Becoming Real: The True Story of the Velveteen Rabbit. Molly Golden. Illustrated by Paola Escobar. 2025. 48 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, nonfiction picture book, book about books, author biographies]

Honorable Mentions:

Wolves at the Door. Steve Watkins. 2024. [December] 288 pages. [Source: Library] [MG historical, MG fiction, world war II, 5 stars]
19. My Wonderful World of Slapstick. Buster Keaton with Charles Samuels. 1960. 340 pages. [Source: Library] [adult biography, adult autobiography; film-making, show business, comedy]
Death in the Jungle. Candace Fleming. 2025. 346 pages. [Source: Library] [YA nonfiction, nonfiction, true crime, 5 stars]
Echoes of the Sea. Sarah M. Eden. 2025. 320 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, adult romance, adult historical, proper romance, clean romance, time travel]
Westfallen. Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares. 2024. 384 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars] [MG speculative fiction, MG science fiction, MG dystopia, TIME TRAVEL, alternate history]


© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews