Week in Review #31

This week I read five books.

82. Skipshock. Caroline O'Donoghue. 2025. 400 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, YA dystopia, YA speculative fiction, YA romance]

Read this if...

• You enjoy YA dystopias with romance (but no love triangle!)
• You enjoy premise-driven novels
• You enjoy world-building

83. Unboxing Libby. Steph Cherrywell. 320 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, MG Fiction, MG speculative fiction, MG science fiction]

Read this if...

• You enjoy MG speculative fiction
• You enjoy fiction set on Mars
• You enjoy fiction with robots

84. The Return of the King. (Lord of the Rings) J.R.R. Tolkien. 1955/1965. Houghton Mifflin. 440 pages.

Read this if...

• You enjoy adult classics
• You enjoy fantasy novels
• You enjoyed the movies

58. These Blue Mountains. Sarah Loudin Thomas. 2025. 352 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, historical fiction, historical romance]

Read this if...

• You enjoy christian historical fiction
• You enjoy christian romance novels with a love triangle
• You enjoy fiction set in the 1930s

7. ESV Bible with Creeds and Confessions. Crossway. 2020. 1424 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Read this if...

• You enjoy the Bible
• You enjoy the ESV
• You enjoy a Bible with a few "extras"

Century of Viewing, Week #31

1960s

• 1965 Crack in the World. Was it meant to be comedic? Probably not. Was it supposed to be a heart-pounding, edge-of-your-seat drama? Perhaps. Probably. Maybe. So there are some mad scientists--obviously--who want to drill to the earth's core and detonate a nuclear device--you know, as one does. One man in the project stands opposed, but, alas his warnings go unheeded. After the detonation, there's a mad rush to "fix" the catastrophe. Also there's a romance. I greatly enjoyed this one.

1990s

• 1995 Johnny Mnemonic. I would have liked this one more if the language hadn't been so rough. (A lot of taking the Lord's name in vain). That being said, this one packs in drama and action and twists and turns. I am glad I watched it for sure. But extremely violent. So the plot is essentially, couriers risk it all to carry information back and forth...but one courier overloads his system....and his message may just save the world if it can be downloaded in time.

2000s

• 2005 Sound of Thunder. Time travel. Ray Bradbury. Need I say more? So mad scientists are throwing all caution to the wind and time traveling to prehistoric times as a tourist attraction, when one trip to the past goes drastically wrong, the world as we know it is put into great jeopardy. Can the team survive long enough to fix the situation by going back yet again in time?

2010s

• 2016 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I don't regret my time. I don't. Yet I wanted more quirky and less violent monsters. I don't know if I'd like the books better? Maybe. I don't tend to imagine violence so graphically.

2020s

• 2022 Who Done It? The Clue Documentary. I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Clue (which I watched last week). This is a documentary of how it became a beloved "cult" classic. Plenty of interviews with those involved in the making of the movie. Some clips from previous interviews with the cast. Overall, definitely an enjoyable documentary.

(Alphabet of Viewing) I decided upon this challenge on August 1. So movies watched before August 1, I'm not going to carry over to this alphabet mini-challenge.

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J -- Johnny Mnemonic. I would have liked this one more if the language hadn't been so rough. (A lot of taking the Lord's name in vain). That being said, this one packs in drama and action and twists and turns. I am glad I watched it for sure. But extremely violent. So the plot is essentially, couriers risk it all to carry information back and forth...but one courier overloads his system....and his message may just save the world if it can be downloaded in time.
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z



© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews