Week in Review #8

This week I read six books. 

16. The Great Good Thing (Sylvie Cycle #1) Roderick Townley. 2001? reprinted 2025. 224 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, mg fiction, books about books]

Read this if...

• you love reading books about books
• you don't mind books with some bittersweet sadness
• you don't mind books that think way outside the box

17. 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]

Read this if...

• you love The Velveteen Rabbit
• you love picture book biographies
• you love books about books

 16. Toto. Hyewon Yum. 2025. 40 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, picture book]

Read this if...

• you enjoy books about first experiences (starting school)
• you enjoy books about making new friends
• you are seeking out books about kids (people) with birthmarks

17. Big Changes for Plum. Matt Phelan. 2025. [January] 128 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, animal fantasy, early chapter book, j fiction]

Read this if...

• you have read the previous books in the series
• you hate change too
• you enjoy reading new early chapter books

15. Truth Unchanged Unchanging. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. 1951/1993. Crossway. 128 pages. [Source: Bought] [4 stars, apologetics, lectures, christian nonfiction, 1947]

Read this if...

• you enjoy christian apologetics
• you enjoy christian nonfiction
• you love clear gospel presentations

16. Psalms for My Day: A Child's Praise Devotional. Carine Mackenzie and Alec Motyer, Illustrated by Catherine Noel Pope. 2019. 96 pages. [Source: Bought] [4 stars, devotional, children's book]

Read this if...

• you are looking for christian children's books
• you are looking for a family devotional
• you are looking for something besides the traditional bible story book

Century of Viewing Round-UP for Week 8
1910s

• 1914 The Rounders is a Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle short. It is a good thing that it was not my first experience with Charlie Chaplin or Roscoe Arbuckle. I did not care for this one even a little bit.
• 1918 Out West is a Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton short. In this one, Buster Keaton is a saloon owner and Roscoe Arbuckle is a drifter...who becomes his bartender. When Wild Bill Hiccup comes to town, these two will have to make a stand....but does Wild Bill have a weakness??? 97% of this one was absolutely hysterically DELIGHTFUL. 3% was just distasteful. If you see it, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.
• 1919 The Hayseed is a Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton short. In this one, Buster Keaton plays a mail man. He witnesses a crime...for which his friend is later accused, I believe...this one has an onion skit at a dance that is quite funny.

1920s

• 1920 The Garage is a Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton short. They are working at a garage as mechanics AND doubling as volunteer firemen. When several guys become interested in the same girl, mischief happens. The highlight of this one, for me, was seeing them as firemen--in a way only slapstick can accomplish.
• 1922 The Electric House is a Buster Keaton short that I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED. It begins with graduation. Three graduates get their diplomas mixed up. Buster Keaton (whose character got a degree in botany) gets hired as an electric engineer. He accepts the job because of the cute girl. Will all go well???? Or will the jealous actual electrician ruin everything???? Filming was slowed down because that staircase broke Buster Keaton's ankle.
  
• 1923 The Ballonatic is a Buster Keaton short, one of his later [silent] ones. This one has a LOT of sports--hunting, fishing, etc. (There's a scene with a bear or "bear.") It's hard to tell if HE'S chasing the girl or the girl is chasing him. Definitely not my favorite of Keaton's shorts...however it does have its enjoyable moments.
• 1924 The Navigator is a Buster Keaton feature. I first watched this one in January. I loved it even more the second time around. I wouldn't be surprised if almost all his work gets moved to 5 stars by the end of the year. Two exes get stranded together aboard a ship, The Navigator.
• 1925 The Iron Mule is an Al St. John short featuring Buster Keaton in disguise. (His mother discovered at the movie theatre that he was in this short!) Al St. John was often featured alongside Roscoe Arbuckle, so many shorts feature these three. But Al St. John was teamed up with Roscoe first. (I believe both were Keystone???) This is a western and features the train from Buster Keaton's Our Hospitality.
• 1928 Plane Crazy (Mickey & Minnie) Mickey was quite the cad. Not sure that cad is exactly the right word??? Rascal might better suit. But Mickey is TROUBLE. So many red flags, run Minnie run.
• 1929 Spite Marriage is a Buster Keaton silent feature. He plays a man ABSOLUTELY smitten with a stage actress. She's absolutely smitten with her co-star. Her co-star is fickle--at the best of times--and is dangling several girls along. In a low moment, she proposes marriage to Buster's character. Will this marriage of convenience become the real deal? I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this one.
• 1929 The Barn Dance (Mickey & Minnie) Mickey and Pete the Cat compete for the attentions of Minnie. Mickey doesn't dance well. Pete does. But Mickey is persistent.
• 1929 Gallopin' Gaucho (Mickey & Minnie) Mickey and Pete the Cat are still rivals for Minnie. I think Pete the Cat kidnaps Minnie and Mickey rescues on a drunk ostrich????? Something weird like that. These early cartoons are just weird. Though I will say all three this week feature Buster-Keaton-like gags.

1930s

• 1932 The Passionate Plumber is a 'talkie' Buster Keaton romantic comedy set in Paris. He plays a plumber who invents on the side. His love interest is a rich, spoiled woman who is madly in love with a "married man." He's fixing the plumbing in her bathroom--think master suite--when this "married" lover storms in and thinks the worst, slapping him [Elmer] with a glove and declaring his intent to duel. I believe this is yet another movie where he plays a character named Elmer. I personally enjoyed despite critics then and now. I actually found myself laughing quite a lot.
• 1935 Top Hat is a delightful film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Mistaken identities is essentially the plot. She thinks that Fred Astaire's character is the husband of a close friend. (He's not.) This one features some great song and dance sequences....and the dialogue is great. 
• 1936 Grand Slam Opera is a Buster Keaton TALKIE short. In it, he plays ELMER. He's trying to make it "big" and is trying to win a radio contest--talent contest. First he has to find a talent...one that will work for the radio. He ends up trying to JUGGLE with commentary. Will he win the money???? I love this one for the SINGING and DANCING. There's a DELIGHTFUL, ADORABLE dance sequence. He's out in the hall listening to a music performance in the contest, as the band changes styles, so does his dancing. It shows his incredibly diverse talents.
• 1939 The Roaring Twenties. I don't exactly want my time back. However James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart play DESPICABLE people and I don't necessarily like spending time with characters I don't like. Still, it was a movie that I intended to watch this year if I could. I am immersing myself in the 1920s this year apparently, and I thought it would be fitting. It was recently added to Tubi (I believe for the first time???) and so I definitely had it as a priority. Anyway, this one covers from the end of world war I through the end of prohibition in the early 30s.

1950s

• 1957 An Affair To Remember is a Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr movie. I don't hate it. I don't. I don't even dislike it. There are a few scenes I do genuinely love. I just don't think this is the best two-lovers-meet-on-a-cruise story. If the music was better--say with Frank Sinatra's Strangers in the Night--then I might enjoy it more?

1960s

• 1965 HELP is one of my favorite films. (Is it really???? It is when I remember it.) I first discovered it in November 1995 in the midst of the Beatles Anthology documentary debuting on ABC. I believe it was PBS that aired Hard Day's Night and Help the same week. Both the album and the movie are SO INCREDIBLY good. I stand by that for the album for always. The movie is 100% slapstick. Which since I am in my Buster Keaton era of loving slapstick, this one was just what I wanted/needed.

1980s

• 1987 Dirty Dancing has the BEST SOUNDTRACK EVER. Okay, maybe not best soundtrack SCORE which I have a lot of opinions about. But the music carries this movie, in my opinion. I do adore it. I think I fell in love with the edited-for-television movie of my youth....but the music still saves it. Now is this one I'd binge-watch every single day for weeks, months, years???? Probably not. But still fun to revisit. And I don't *have* to watch it to enjoy the soundtrack.

1990s

• 1992 My Cousin Vinny is an R-rated court comedy. I am SO conflicted. On the one hand, I absolutely love the characters and the story. It is funny and enjoyable. On the other hand, I don't love all the curse words, in particular the f-word which is prolific.
• 1993 Babylon 5: The Gathering. This one is the pilot episode/movie. The characters aren't quite right, the make-up and costumes aren't quite there. Yet it is the place where the show gets it start. And I do adore Babylon 5.
• 1998 Babylon 5: In the Beginning. This is a prequel filmed AFTER the series. It is so dark and melancholy yet it has its moments. I definitely am glad I rewatched this one. Yes, I am planning on rewatching the series.

2020s

• 2025 Miss Scarlet season 5, I believe??? Whatever season just finished airing. I really really really LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the Duke. For the first four seasons, this one was MISS SCARLET AND THE DUKE. The Duke left last season--moving to New York--because he couldn't take waiting for Miss Scarlet any longer. Inspector Drake has replaced him....and the show goes on. Each season is just six episodes. Which seems short even for British television. I liked it well enough.

© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews