Week in Review #6

This week I read seven books!

I loved, loved, LOVED listening to Christopher Plummer narrate Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It included Through the Looking Glass as well! He did a fantastic job. I loved the first book best, but, the second book has its fun moments as well.

Eureka by Victoria Chang was my first (but probably not last) verse novel. This was historical fiction set in the 1880s in California.

I also finished listening to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein this week. It was a GREAT one to listen to on audio.

I enjoyed reading several of the Geisel honor books and the award winner! Stop That Mop was GREAT fun. I love, love, love Jonathan Fenske.

The Tunneler Tunnels in the Tunnel could be an enjoyable read depending on the energy you bring to it perhaps.

Earl & Worm are great characters. I loved reading "The Big Mess" and Other Stories.

Pizza and Taco Go Viral is another fun edition to that silly, super silly series.

Century of Viewing #6

I also saw about a dozen Twilight Zone episodes. Not sure how to talk about those.

1980s

• 1986 The Mouse and the Motorcycle. An adaptation of Beverly Cleary's children's fantasy novel. This one stars Ralph S. Mouse. Ralph lives at a hotel and befriends a kid guest, Keith, who has a toy motorcycle. When the mouse saves his life, Ralph gets to keep the motorcycle.
• 1988 Runaway Ralph. Ralph is still at the hotel, but, bossy bossy Uncle Lester has Ralph convinced to runaway. Will life at camp with a kid named Garf be any better?

1990s

• 1992 Ralph S. Mouse. I enjoyed this third movie about Ralph. Ryan takes his mouse friend, Ralph, to school. Well, Ralph insists on going to school. Many adventures are had. Each of these Ralph stories are about 40 minutes.
• 1998 You've Got Mail. I LOVE the soundtrack. The story is fun enough. It's been adapted many times. I have to assume that it started out life as a play perhaps? Or a short story? Anyway, Shop Around the Corner was the adaptation that I love most next to this one. (The Judy Garland adaptation is not my favorite or best, though it has been decades since I've seen it. So we'll see if my opinion changes if I watch that one too). Two people who are enemies don't know that they are pen pals.
• 1999 Galaxy Quest. One of my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, all time favorite movies. I adore this movie. It is perfectly perfect. So aliens believe a science fiction show from the past is a historical documentary and the actors are in for a shock...at a convention. MUCH fun. Highly recommend.

2000s

• 2005 War of the Worlds. Last year I saw the original 1953 adaptation of H.G. Well's novel. This one wasn't faithful to the book, BUT, it was gory and packed with action. Though I did consider that maybe was following Tom Cruise's character about. He never seemed to be out of danger. The aliens couldn't be everywhere-everywhere-everywhere at once. Would it have been a better strategy to stay put somewhere. Who knows. I don't know.

2020s

• 2026 Finding Her Edge. This miniseries is ridiculously bad for overthinkers who know anything about figure skating. If you're just in it for the love triangle drama, well, you may still be disappointed, but you'll probably be entertained. Few characters are likable. But if you're looking for a soap opera with figure skating as a story element, then this one might work.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

14. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

14. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll. Illustrated by John Tenniel. 1865/1871. 247 pages. [Source: Bought]

ETA: I listened to these two books on audio narrated by Christopher Plummer. The first book was AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING. The second book had some characters that were very obnoxious to hear narrated. I am not saying Plummer did poorly, just, that it is easier to take obnoxious characters when you don't have to hear them.

First sentence: Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’

Premise/plot: Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit hole and has several fantastical seemingly impossible adventures before waking.  
 
First sentence: One thing was certain, that the white kitten had nothing to do with it – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely. For the white kitten had been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter of an hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering): so you see that it couldn’t have had any hand in the mischief.

Premise/plot: Alice doesn't follow a rabbit on her second adventure; no, she crawls through the looking glass into the looking glass house. Just as she always imagined, life is very different on the other side of the mirror. (For one thing, the chess pieces are alive.) Readers follow Alice's adventures as a pawn as she journeys towards being queened. Like the first book, this one is full of fantastical impossibilities.

My thoughts: I love, love, LOVE Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I've read it in my life. It's a magical read filled with silly characters--quite a few I'd deem unforgettable. What stands out to me--even more than the characters--is the writing. There is just something quotable and ever-relevant about the narrative.

Favorite quotes from Alice in Wonderland:

‘Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?’ and sometimes ‘Do bats eat cats?’, for, you see, as she couldn’t answer either question, it didn’t much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and was saying to her, very earnestly, ‘Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?’, when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.’ For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

She generally gave herself very good advice (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. ‘But it’s no use now,’ thought poor Alice, ‘to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!’

Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is “Who in the world am I?” Ah, that’s the great puzzle!’

‘Perhaps it doesn’t understand English,’ thought Alice. ‘I daresay it’s a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror.’ (For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.) So she began again: ‘Où est ma chatte?’, which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. ‘Oh, I beg your pardon!’ cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal’s feelings. ‘I quite forgot you didn’t like cats.’

‘It was much pleasanter at home,’ thought poor Alice, ‘when one wasn’t always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn’t gone down that rabbit-hole – and yet – and yet – it’s rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought! And when I grow up, I’ll write one – but I’m grown up now,’ she added in a sorrowful tone: ‘at least there’s no room to grow up any more here.’

‘It’s really dreadful,’ she muttered to herself, ’the way all the creatures argue. It’s enough to drive one crazy!’

‘I didn’t know that Cheshire-Cats always grinned; in fact, I didn’t know that cats could grin.’
‘They all can,’ said the Duchess; ‘and most of ’em do.’ ‘I don’t know of any that do,’ Alice said very politely, feeling quite pleased to have got into a conversation. ‘You don’t know much,’ said the Duchess; ‘and that’s a fact.’

‘If it had grown up,’ she said to herself, ‘it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.’ And she began thinking over other children she knew, who might do very well as pigs, and was just saying to herself ‘if one only knew the right way to change them –’ when she was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire-Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.

 ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat. ‘I don’t much care where –’ said Alice. ‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat. ‘– so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation. ‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if only you walk long enough.’

‘In that direction,’ the Cat said, waving its right paw round, ‘lives a Hatter: and in that direction,’ waving the other paw, ‘lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.’ ‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked. ‘Oh, you ca’n’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’

‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice. ‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’

‘Then you should say what you mean,’ the March Hare went on. ‘I do,’ Alice hastily replied; ‘at least – at least I mean what I say – that’s the same thing, you know.’ ‘Not the same thing a bit!’ said the Hatter. ‘Why, you might just as well say that “I see what I eat” is the same thing as “I eat what I see”!’

‘You might just as well say,’ added the Dormouse, which seemed to be talking in its sleep, ‘that “I breathe when I sleep” is the same thing as “I sleep when I breathe”!’

Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life: it was all ridges and furrows: the croquet balls were live hedgehogs, and the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

The players all played at once, without waiting for turns, quarreling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting ‘Off with his head!’ or ‘Off with her head!’ about once in a minute.

“Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.” ’ ‘I think I should understand that better,’ Alice said very politely, ‘if I had it written down: but I ca’n’t quite follow it as you say it.’ ‘That’s nothing to what I could say if I chose,’ the Duchess replied, in a pleased tone.

‘I make you a present of everything I’ve said as yet.’

‘A cheap sort of present!’ thought Alice. ‘I’m glad people don’t give birthday-presents like that!’

‘He taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.’ ‘So he did, so he did,’ said the Gryphon, sighing in his turn; and both creatures hid their faces in their paws. ‘And how many hours a day did you do lessons?’ said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject. ‘Ten hours the first day,’ said the Mock Turtle: ‘nine the next, and so on.’ ‘What a curious plan!’ exclaimed Alice. ‘That’s the reason they’re called lessons,’ the Gryphon remarked: ‘because they lessen from day to day.’

Favorite quotes from Through the Looking Glass:

‘Kitty, can you play chess? Now, don’t smile, my dear, I’m asking it seriously. Because, when we were playing just now, you watched just as if you understood it: and when I said “Check!” you purred! Well, it was a nice check, Kitty, and really I might have won, if it hadn’t been for that nasty Knight, that came wriggling down among my pieces. Kitty, dear, let’s pretend –’ And here I wish I could tell you half the things Alice used to say, beginning with her favourite phrase ‘Let’s pretend.’

Oh, Kitty, how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking glass House! I’m sure it’s got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let’s pretend there’s a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let’s pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it’s turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It’ll be easy enough to get through—’ She was up on the chimney-piece while she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. And certainly the glass was beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist.

She was out of the room in a moment, and ran down stairs – or, at least, it wasn’t exactly running, but a new invention for getting down stairs quickly and easily, as Alice said to herself. She just kept the tips of her fingers on the hand-rail, and floated gently down without even touching the stairs with her feet: then she floated on through the hall, and would have gone straight out at the door in the same way, if she hadn’t caught hold of the door-post. She was getting a little giddy with so much floating in the air, and was rather glad to find herself walking again in the natural way.

‘It’s a great huge game of chess that’s being played – all over the world – if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I wish I was one of them! I wouldn’t mind being a Pawn, if only I might join – though of course I should like to be a Queen, best.’

‘Well, in our country,’ said Alice, still panting a little, ‘you’d generally get to somewhere else – if you ran very fast for a long time as we’ve been doing.’ ‘A slow sort of country!’ said the Queen. ‘Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!’ ‘I’d rather not try, please!’ said Alice.

‘He’s dreaming now,’ said Tweedledee: ‘and what do you think he’s dreaming about?’ Alice said ‘Nobody can guess that.’ ‘Why, about you!’ Tweedledee exclaimed, clapping his hands triumphantly. ‘And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you’d be?’ ‘Where I am now, of course,’ said Alice. ‘Not you!’ Tweedledee retorted contemptuously. ‘You’d be nowhere. Why, you’re only a sort of thing in his dream!’

‘Well, it’s no use your talking about waking him,’ said Tweedledum, ‘when you’re only one of the things in his dream. You know very well you’re not real.’ ‘I am real!’ said Alice, and began to cry. ‘You wo’n’t make yourself a bit realler by crying,’ Tweedledee remarked: ‘there’s nothing to cry about.’ ‘If I wasn’t real,’ Alice said – half-laughing through her tears, it all seemed so ridiculous – ‘I shouldn’t be able to cry.’ ‘I hope you don’t suppose those are real tears?’ Tweedledum interrupted in a tone of great contempt. ‘I know they’re talking nonsense,’ Alice thought to herself: ‘and it’s foolish to cry about it.’

‘The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day.’

‘It must come sometimes to “jam to-day”, ’ Alice objected. ‘No, it ca’n’t,’ said the Queen. ‘It’s jam every other day: to-day isn’t any other day, you know.’ ‘I don’t understand you,’ said Alice. ‘It’s dreadfully confusing!’ ‘That’s the effect of living backwards,’ the Queen said kindly: ‘it always makes one a little giddy at first –’ ‘Living backwards!’ Alice repeated in great astonishment. ‘I never heard of such a thing!’ ‘– but there’s one great advantage in it, that one’s memory works both ways.’

‘Consider what a great girl you are. Consider what a long way you’ve come to-day. Consider what o-clock it is. Consider anything, only don’t cry!’

‘Can you keep from crying by considering things?’ she asked. ‘That’s the way it’s done,’ the Queen said with great decision: ‘nobody can do two things at once, you know.

Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

‘I never ask advice about growing,’ Alice said indignantly. ‘Too proud?’ the other enquired. Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. ‘I mean,’ she said, ‘that one ca’n’t help growing older.’ ‘One ca’n’t, perhaps,’ said Humpty Dumpty; ‘but two can. With proper assistance, you might have left off at seven.’

‘they gave it me – for an un-birthday present.’ ‘I beg your pardon?’ Alice said with a puzzled air. ‘I’m not offended,’ said Humpty Dumpty. ‘I mean, what is an un-birthday present?’ ‘A present given when it isn’t your birthday, of course.’ Alice considered a little. ‘I like birthday presents best,’ she said at last. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about!’ cried Humpty Dumpty. ‘How many days are there in a year?’ ‘Three hundred and sixty-five,’ said Alice. ‘And how many birthdays have you?’ ‘One.’ ‘And if you take one from three hundred and sixty-five, what remains?’ ‘Three hundred and sixty-four, of course.’

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’

‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master – that’s all.’

‘I can repeat poetry as well as other folk, if it comes to that –’ ‘Oh, it needn’t come to that!’ Alice hastily said, hoping to keep him from beginning.

‘I see nobody on the road,’ said Alice. ‘I only wish I had such eyes,’ the King remarked in a fretful tone. ‘To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it’s as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!’

‘Who did you pass on the road?’ the King went on, holding out his hand to the Messenger for some more hay. ‘Nobody,’ said the Messenger. ‘Quite right,’ said the King: ‘this young lady saw him too. So of course Nobody walks slower than you.’ ‘I do my best,’ the Messenger said in a sullen tone. ‘I’m sure nobody walks much faster than I do!’ ‘He ca’n’t do that,’ said the King, ‘or else he’d have been here first. However, now you’ve got your breath, you may tell us what’s happened in the town.’

‘I was wondering what the mouse-trap was for,’ said Alice. ‘It isn’t very likely there would be any mice on the horse’s back.’ ‘Not very likely, perhaps,’ said the Knight; ‘but, if they do come, I don’t choose to have them running all about.’

‘Always speak the truth – think before you speak – and write it down afterwards.’

 What do you suppose is the use of a child without any meaning? Even a joke should have some meaning – and a child’s more important than a joke, I hope. You couldn’t deny that, even if you tried with both hands.’ ‘I don’t deny things with my hands,’ Alice objected. ‘Nobody said you did,’ said the Red Queen. ‘I said you couldn’t if you tried.’ ‘She’s in that state of mind,’ said the White Queen, ‘that she wants to deny something – only she doesn’t know what to deny!’ ‘A nasty, vicious temper,’ the Red Queen remarked;

‘It’s too late to correct it,’ said the Red Queen: ‘when you’ve once said a thing, that fixes it, and you must take the consequences.’

 It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that, whatever you say to them, they always purr. ‘If they would only purr for “yes”, and mew for “no”, or any rule of that sort,’ she had said, ‘so that one could keep up a conversation! But how can you talk with a person if they always say the same thing?’

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

13. Eureka

13. Eureka. Victoria Chang. 2026. 272 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, YA Historical Fiction, MG Historical Fiction, verse novel]

First sentence: "Eat before you go out,"
says Ma Ma. "And be
back for Chinese school!"
Ma Ma says this to me
every single day.
I'm not allowed to go to a public school
in San Francisco
with the American kids.

Premise/plot: Eureka is historical fiction set in 1884/1885 California. When Mei Mei's parents feel their young daughter is in danger if she remains in San Francisco (in danger of being taken and sold), they send her--for her own good--to Eureka, California, little knowing that they are sending her to even greater danger. In just a few months, all the Chinese will be expelled--much violence--from Eureka. Mei Mei and her new friends will have to find their own way back to San Francisco in the hope of finding refuge.

My thoughts: I enjoy verse novels. I enjoy historical fiction. I definitely enjoyed this one. It was a quick read.


© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

12. Frankenstein

12. Frankenstein (Oxford World's Classics). Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. 1818/1998. 261 pages. [Source: Library, Audiobook, classic, science fiction, speculative fiction.]

First sentence: You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.

Premise/plot: Robert Walton is on the adventure of a lifetime; he's always, always, always wanted to be an arctic explorer. He just wishes he had a best-good-buddy to share it with. As he's sharing his longing for a friend with his sister--via letter--he stumbles across a candidate for the job. He's a strange, odd man with one super-crazy story to tell. He's also a man full of warnings and woes. His name is Victor Frankenstein. You might have heard of him. Maybe.

Victor Frankenstein understands dreaming big. If asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he might have responded oh-so-seriously: GOD. You see, Victor spends way too much time thinking about how life is created. Well. Perhaps I should rephrase that. When he's thinking about creation, he's thinking about how to reanimate DEAD BODIES and RECREATE life.

Frankenstein becomes more than a little obsessed with his science project. I personally could never figure out the appeal. He isn't interested in bringing the dead back to life--as is. That is, reanimating the life of a specific person. He is interested in piecing together bits and pieces of dead humans into a new super-human form. Taller. Stronger. Bigger. And definitely uglier. He isn't interested in prolonging life or reuniting families. What does he hope to gain by his creation? Does he see himself as a Creator? What does he owe his creature--if anything? What does his creature owe him--if anything?

If man is created in the image of God, is the monster created in the image of Frankenstein? Does the monster share the characteristics of Victor Frankenstein? Are the two more alike or different? Does the monster reveal the heart and mind of his Creator?

My thoughts: I've read Frankenstein so many times now. I think I've really only ever read the 1818 text of the novel. Most of the time I stick with the same copy I used in college.

I love the book.

 

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

January Reflections

In January, I read twenty-one books and watched thirty-two movies. (I won't always include movies in the reflection post. Probably. Maybe.)

I listened to eight books on audio. I read eight e-books. I read five physical books.

Books Reviewed at Becky's Book Reviews

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

2. Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury. 1953/2011. 194 pages. [Source: Library][5 stars, audiobook, dystopia, science fiction, adult classic]

3. Westfallen #2: Into the Fire. Ann and Ben Brashares. 2025. 384 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, series book, mg speculative fiction]

4. Anne of Ingleside. L.M. Montgomery. 1939. 274 pages. [Source: Bought] [3 stars, audio book, classic]

5. Little Town on the Prairie. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Illustrated by Garth Williams. 1941. 374 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, audiobook, historical fiction, children's classic]

6. These Happy Golden Years. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Illustrated by Garth Williams. 1943. HarperCollins. 289 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, historical fiction, classic, audiobook]

7. The First Four Years. Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1971. 134 pages. [Source: Library] [historical fiction, classic, series book, 3 stars]

8. By the Shores of Silver Lake. Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1939. 290 pages. [Source: Library] [audiobook, j historical fiction, series book, 4 stars]

9. The Running Man. Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman). 1982. 317 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, action, thriller]

10. Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte. 1847. 532 pages. [Source: Library] [audiobook, classic, adult romance, 5 stars]

11. The Experiment. Rebecca Stead. 2025. 288 pages. [Source: Review copy] [j fantasy, j fiction, mg fantasy, mg fiction, j mystery, mg mystery, j science fiction, mg science fiction, 4 stars]


Books Reviewed at Young Readers

1. The Animals of Farmer Jones. Leah Gale. Illustrated by Richard Scarry. 1942. 32 pages. [Source: Bought, 4 stars, Golden Books, children's classic, farm stories]

2. Squirrel Sits Still (Board Book). Christianne Jones. Illustrated by Jayri Gomez. 2026. 20 pages. [Source: Library] [board book, 5 stars, animal fantasy]

3. If You Make a Call on a Banana Phone. Gideon Sterer. Illustrated by Emily Hughes. 2025. 48 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, imagination, picture books]

4. Traitors in Space. Tim Collins. 2025. 192 pages. [Source: Review copy] [3 stars, pick your own path, choose your own adventure, science fiction, space, aliens]

Books Reviewed at Operation Actually Read Bible


1. The Lawyer and the Laundress. Christine Hill Suntz. 2025. 368 pages. [Source: Review copy] [5 stars, christian fiction, christian romance, christian historical fiction]

2. Pilgrim's Progress Adapted by Anna Trimiew from John Bunyan's classic allegory. 2013. 111 pages. [Source: Bought] [3 stars, children's books, adapted books, abridged books, allegories]

3. The Story of Corrie ten Boom: The Watchmaker Who Forgave Her Enemies. Jennifer T. Kelley. 2025. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy] [5 stars, children's book, biography, history, world war II, missionary]


4. 10 Questions About Pain and Suffering: 30 Devotions for Kids, Teens, and Families. Beth Broom. 2025. 128 pages. [Source: Review copy] [5 stars, christian nonfiction, devotions]


5. 12 Truths Every Teen Can Trust: Core Beliefs of The Christian Faith That Will Change Your Life. Paul David Tripp. 2025. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy] [christian nonfiction, christian theology, teen books, teen devotional]


6. The Fault Between Us. Stephanie Landsem. 2025. 344 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, historical fiction, christian fiction]

Bibles Reviewed at Operation Actually Read Bible

none!

Totals for 2026

Totals for 2026
Books Read in 2026	21
Pages Read in 2026	5,119

January Totals
Books Read in January	21
Pages Read in January	5,119

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Century of Viewing, January

In January, I watched thirty-two movies (or shows). I did watch Metropolis twice. Once with the original score which earned it 5 stars, and once with a jazzy-loopy-loop that earned it 4 1/2 stars.

My top five favorite movies from January are: IVANHOE, MUSIC MAN, GROUNDHOG DAY, STRICTLY BALLROOM and WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING. Honestly, it may be a tie between While You Were Sleeping and Overboard.

Other five star movies include: Bride and Prejudice, Gilded Age season 3, Metropolis, Overboard, The Thirteenth Floor, and VHS Christmas Carols. I would watch all of these happily again. They were solidly enjoyable. (Overboard as I mentioned is SO, SO, SO good).

My four and four 1/2 star movies this month include:

• Escape from LA (4 stars)
• Chaos on the Bridge (4 1/2 stars)
• Starship Troopers (4 stars)
• Marjorie Morningstar (4 1/2 stars*)
• Millennium (4 stars)
• Red (4 stars)
• A Wrinkle in Time (4 stars)

*Honestly I would NOT watch Marjorie Morningstar again but I thought Natalie Wood did a fantastic job in the movie and I am glad I saw it once.

Millennium and Red are movies I would definitely watch again!

I did watch TWO one star movies. I would not watch Camelot or We Three Kings again.


© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Week in Review #5

This week I read three books.

I reread one of my favorite classics Jane Eyre. I listened on audio. It was wonderful!

I read a middle grade science fiction book, The Experiment by Rebecca Stead! I loved the beginning and middle more than the end, but it was still an enjoyable read!

I read a Christian fiction novel--historical fiction--The Fault Between Us by Stephanie Landsem. It is set in Yellowstone National Park in 1959.

Century of Viewing #5

I did not realize that I did NOT include the Great British Sewing Bee seasons one through three in my round-ups. I don't remember when I finished each season of this competition show.

I also have watched TEN episodes of the Twilight Zone. Seven or eight episodes of Star Trek The Original Series. And one episode of Space 1999. I honestly don't know what to do about individual television episodes.

1980s

• 1985 1918. Horace Foote's 1918. This period drama is emotionally intense. But it is thought provoking. HISTORY and family history often are. You can think *how* did they cope with so many, many losses, so many, many struggles. This one deals with World War I and the influenza epidemic. One really sees how BIG an impact they could have on one community. And this one is set in Texas.

2000s

• 2003 A Wrinkle In Time. It's been ages and ages since I've read the book. I can't tell you if it was faithful to the book or not, but, it was a great way to spend the evening with my best friend. Two siblings (Meg and Charles) along with a friend (Calvin) travel the galaxy in an attempt to save Charles and Meg's father from great darkness. IT must be stopped.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

11. The Experiment

11. The Experiment. Rebecca Stead. 2025. 288 pages. [Source: Review copy] [j fantasy, j fiction, mg fantasy, mg fiction, j mystery, mg mystery, j science fiction, mg science fiction, 4 stars]

First sentence: Nathan had spent the morning re-reading comics in bed before sliding into a long nap that ended when his dad tapped twice on the door and called out, "Are you conscious?"

Premise/plot: Nathan, our young hero, is disgruntled. Just because he grew a tail over vacation and may no longer be able to conceal his alien-ness, life as he knew it is threatened. Several of his other alien friends have already vanished--did they grow tails too???? It is just a matter of time, he feels, until they come for him. His parents--also aliens--do not want to be separated from him, but, how much say will they have when it's time to return to the WAGON?!?!

Over a short period of time--a week, two weeks????--Nathan wrestles with EVERYTHING he knows to be true. Who he is, who his parents are, who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, who is telling the truth, his very reality. And his closest friends may just be his tail--whom he names TUCK--and his best friend, Victor.

My thoughts: I am incredibly conflicted. I am. The Experiment is speculative fiction that does keep you guessing. It isn't that Nathan is an unreliable narrator--far from it. Nathan is just about one or two steps ahead of the reader in what he knows. But both Nathan and the reader are "in the dark" as to what is really going on. Nathan and the reader find things out at almost the exact same time for most of the novel. It is slightly a mystery, but, not a mystery with clues for readers to find. Not really. So there isn't much predicting exactly and precisely what may happen next. Life with all its uncertainties are unfolding one moment at a time.

It IS a coming of age story with plenty of fantastical elements.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

10. Jane Eyre

10. Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte. 1847. 532 pages. [Source: Library] [audiobook, classic, adult romance, 5 stars]

First sentence: There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

Premise/plot: Can a plain, orphan governess find true love and a happily ever after? Yes, if she's willing to speak her own mind, stay true to herself, and fight for the one she loves. Jane's journey to her happily ever after certainly wasn't easy or typical. 

Jane Eyre, our heroine, is an orphan who never in her wildest dreams imagines living happily ever after. Raised by a cruel aunt and taunted by mean-spirited and selfish cousins, she only hopes to escape misery and find contentment--albeit humble. Her adventure--or misadventure--begins after graduating Loward School as she takes the position of governess at Thornfield Hall. There she meets her charming and precocious pupil, Adele, and the brooding Mr. Rochester. The two enjoy each other's company--perhaps because no one else quite understands them. But the two aren't courting--at least not at first. Jane falls for him. But is he falling for her? Could he fall for her? Does she want him to reciprocate her feelings? Could the master of the house and a governess ever marry and live happily ever after?! But it isn't just social class dividing these two--Mr. Rochester has a dark secret from his past that might prove a dangerous obstacle for our loving couple.

My thoughts: Jane Eyre is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite novels to read and reread. I cannot believe it's been five or six years since I last read and reviewed it!

Do you love Jane Eyre too? Do you have a favorite scene? a least favorite scene? What is your favorite adaptation? What scenes do you find essential in an adaptation?

Some of my favorite quotes:

He had been looking two minutes at the fire, and I had been looking the same length of time at him, when, turning suddenly, he caught my gaze fastened on his physiognomy. “You examine me, Miss Eyre,” said he: “do you think me handsome?” I should, if I had deliberated, have replied to this question by something conventionally vague and polite; but the answer somehow slipped from my tongue before I was aware—“No, sir.” “Ah! By my word! there is something singular about you,” said he: “you have the air of a little nonnette; quaint, quiet, grave, and simple, as you sit with your hands before you, and your eyes generally bent on the carpet (except, by-the-bye, when they are directed piercingly to my face; as just now, for instance); and when one asks you a question, or makes a remark to which you are obliged to reply, you rap out a round rejoinder, which, if not blunt, is at least brusque. What do you mean by it?” “Sir, I was too plain; I beg your pardon. I ought to have replied that it was not easy to give an impromptu answer to a question about appearances; that tastes mostly differ; and that beauty is of little consequence, or something of that sort.” “You ought to have replied no such thing. Beauty of little consequence, indeed! And so, under pretence of softening the previous outrage, of stroking and soothing me into placidity, you stick a sly penknife under my ear! Go on: what fault do you find with me, pray? I suppose I have all my limbs and all my features like any other man?” “Mr. Rochester, allow me to disown my first answer: I intended no pointed repartee: it was only a blunder.” “Just so: I think so: and you shall be answerable for it. Criticise me: does my forehead not please you?” He lifted up the sable waves of hair which lay horizontally over his brow, and showed a solid enough mass of intellectual organs, but an abrupt deficiency where the suave sign of benevolence should have risen. “Now, ma’am, am I a fool?” “Far from it, sir. You would, perhaps, think me rude if I inquired in return whether you are a philanthropist?”

“You looked very much puzzled, Miss Eyre; and though you are not pretty any more than I am handsome, yet a puzzled air becomes you; besides, it is convenient, for it keeps those searching eyes of yours away from my physiognomy, and busies them with the worsted flowers of the rug; so puzzle on. Young lady, I am disposed to be gregarious and communicative to-night.” With this announcement he rose from his chair, and stood, leaning his arm on the marble mantelpiece: in that attitude his shape was seen plainly as well as his face; his unusual breadth of chest, disproportionate almost to his length of limb. I am sure most people would have thought him an ugly man; yet there was so much unconscious pride in his port; so much ease in his demeanour; such a look of complete indifference to his own external appearance; so haughty a reliance on the power of other qualities, intrinsic or adventitious, to atone for the lack of mere personal attractiveness, that, in looking at him, one inevitably shared the indifference, and, even in a blind, imperfect sense, put faith in the confidence. “I am disposed to be gregarious and communicative to-night,” he repeated, “and that is why I sent for you: the fire and the chandelier were not sufficient company for me; nor would Pilot have been, for none of these can talk. Adèle is a degree better, but still far below the mark; Mrs. Fairfax ditto; you, I am persuaded, can suit me if you will: you puzzled me the first evening I invited you down here. I have almost forgotten you since: other ideas have driven yours from my head; but to-night I am resolved to be at ease; to dismiss what importunes, and recall what pleases. It would please me now to draw you out—to learn more of you—therefore speak.” Instead of speaking, I smiled; and not a very complacent or submissive smile either. “Speak,” he urged. “What about, sir?” “Whatever you like. I leave both the choice of subject and the manner of treating it entirely to yourself.” Accordingly I sat and said nothing: “If he expects me to talk for the mere sake of talking and showing off, he will find he has addressed himself to the wrong person,” I thought. “You are dumb, Miss Eyre.” I was dumb still. He bent his head a little towards me, and with a single hasty glance seemed to dive into my eyes. “Stubborn?” he said, “and annoyed. Ah! it is consistent. I put my request in an absurd, almost insolent form. Miss Eyre, I beg your pardon. The fact is, once for all, I don’t wish to treat you like an inferior: that is” (correcting himself), “I claim only such superiority as must result from twenty years’ difference in age and a century’s advance in experience. This is legitimate, et j’y tiens, as Adèle would say; and it is by virtue of this superiority, and this alone, that I desire you to have the goodness to talk to me a little now, and divert my thoughts, which are galled with dwelling on one point—cankering as a rusty nail.” He had deigned an explanation, almost an apology, and I did not feel insensible to his condescension, and would not seem so. “I am willing to amuse you, if I can, sir—quite willing; but I cannot introduce a topic, because how do I know what will interest you? Ask me questions, and I will do my best to answer them.”  

Besides, I know what sort of a mind I have placed in communication with my own: I know it is one not liable to take infection: it is a peculiar mind: it is a unique one. Happily I do not mean to harm it: but, if I did, it would not take harm from me. The more you and I converse, the better; for while I cannot blight you, you may refresh me.”

The ease of his manner freed me from painful restraint: the friendly frankness, as correct as cordial, with which he treated me, drew me to him. I felt at times as if he were my relation rather than my master: yet he was imperious sometimes still; but I did not mind that; I saw it was his way. So happy, so gratified did I become with this new interest added to life, that I ceased to pine after kindred: my thin crescent-destiny seemed to enlarge; the blanks of existence were filled up; my bodily health improved; I gathered flesh and strength. And was Mr. Rochester now ugly in my eyes? No, reader: gratitude, and many associations, all pleasurable and genial, made his face the object I best liked to see; his presence in a room was more cheering than the brightest fire. Yet I had not forgotten his faults; indeed, I could not, for he brought them frequently before me. He was proud, sardonic, harsh to inferiority of every description: in my secret soul I knew that his great kindness to me was balanced by unjust severity to many others. He was moody, too; unaccountably so; I more than once, when sent for to read to him, found him sitting in his library alone, with his head bent on his folded arms; and, when he looked up, a morose, almost a malignant, scowl blackened his features. But I believed that his moodiness, his harshness, and his former faults of morality (I say former, for now he seemed corrected of them) had their source in some cruel cross of fate. I believed he was naturally a man of better tendencies, higher principles, and purer tastes than such as circumstances had developed, education instilled, or destiny encouraged. I thought there were excellent materials in him; though for the present they hung together somewhat spoiled and tangled. I cannot deny that I grieved for his grief, whatever that was, and would have given much to assuage it. Though I had now extinguished my candle and was laid down in bed, I could not sleep for thinking of his look when he paused in the avenue, and told how his destiny had risen up before him, and dared him to be happy at Thornfield. 

I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously arrived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.

“He is not to them what he is to me,” I thought: “he is not of their kind. I believe he is of mine;—I am sure he is—I feel akin to him—I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him. Did I say, a few days since, that I had nothing to do with him but to receive my salary at his hands? Did I forbid myself to think of him in any other light than as a paymaster? Blasphemy against nature! Every good, true, vigorous feeling I have gathers impulsively round him. I know I must conceal my sentiments: I must smother hope; I must remember that he cannot care much for me. For when I say that I am of his kind, I do not mean that I have his force to influence, and his spell to attract; I mean only that I have certain tastes and feelings in common with him.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Week in Review #4

This week I read three books.

I read 12 Truths Every Teen Can Trust by Paul David Tripp. (Last week I read another book for teens. So already I've read more 'teen books' than I did last year.)

I read By The Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The library was late in getting this in on audio, so I read it after 'finishing' the last book in the series. I do have Farmer Boy I could choose to read.

I read Running Man by Stephen King. I didn't love it, but, I think I did like it more than the movie.

Century of Viewing #4

1950s

• 1958 Marjorie Morningstar This romantic drama (or melodrama) stars Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood (also Ed Wynn plays an uncle early on in the film). She falls madly, madly, madly in love with someone not at all suited--not just because of society's conventions and rules. Their relationship is passionately toxic and the more their love grows, the worse he spirals. He just lacks what it takes to put others first AND to grow up. Will she grow up? Will she move beyond this first love? 4 1/2 stars for me. The acting was great. Particularly her acting. Gene Kelly's character was tragically flawed. But he played that well, so there's that. Glad I saw it once.

1960s

• 1961 The Pleasure of His Company. What a strange, strange, strange movie. An absentee father (Astaire) comes back into his daughter's life (Reynolds) as she is preparing to marry. Intentionally or not, he's out to steal the show and if possible prevent his daughter from marrying--he'd like to steal her away for a private six week cruise around the world. As the wedding approaches, father-and-daughter go out clubbing and dancing every single night. She can't get enough of his company even preferring him over the man she'll be marrying in a few days. Her mother is alarmed...and her ex-husband is also trying to charm his way back into HER arms. Life is disrupted by his presence, many feel that showing up when she's a grown woman is too little, too late. She even considers leaving with him because she doesn't want him to be "alone" in his old age. Fortunately, there are characters that talk sense into her. BUT this is a strange, strange movie. And it's not without its issues.

1970s

• 1979 The Shape of Things To Come The opening credits may be one of the highlights of this movie. Good for a giggle category. I am surprised that there aren't gifs of this movie honestly. So futuristic--obviously, look at those robots and men wearing capes--and set in space. An evil overlord with an evil robot army has grander schemes. A rogue starship from a moon colony goes to save the day--or does it? One thing is for sure, this movie ends abruptly. Resolution???? There is not. Comedic scenes they have in abundance. Were they meant to be funny???? Maybe. Maybe not. Surely they were, right. I mean you don't have a disco ball do what THIS disco ball does without knowing.

1980s

• 1980 Raise the Titanic This action-thriller, that I'd personally consider speculative fiction perhaps, asks some what-if questions. It is based on a book (that I haven't read). When it is discovered that a super-rare, highly sought-after mineral was part of the cargo on the ship--pure fiction for this premise--men set out to find it, raise it, and obtain the loot before the bad guys do. This movie (and book) were before the ship was, you know, actually-actually found. It was a fairly interesting premise. I did enjoy the soundtrack.
• 1989 Millennium I honestly am left speechless. Is this the best worst movie I've seen? What I love: the sci-fi premise. It's so OUT THERE and committed to the strangeness. It's SPOOKY and STRANGE and intriguing. What I mostly love: this has some quotable lines that are wonderfully hilariously bad. What I don't love: how jarring the genre-smashing is. It's 45% Dynasty-style SOAPINESS. And the rest is all SCI-FI. I think if the acting had been better, it would have been less jarring. My rating is somewhere between 4 stars and 4 1/2 stars. Definitely not a five stars. BUT it is memorable.

1990s

• 1992 Strictly Ballroom The scenes I love, I really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. It is quirky, fun, spirited, addictive. That ending is ABSOLUTELY one of my favorite, favorite, favorite movie endings ever. Scott wants to dance his own steps. Fran wants Scott to dance his own steps....with her as his partner. He will be defying his parents and the rules of the federation, but, it may just be worth risking everything. This one is a bit like Dirty Dancing minus many of the dirty bits.
• 1999 The Thirteenth Floor. Same year as Matrix. Just as plot-twisty. Mystery. Thriller. Science-Fiction. I LOVED watching it with my best friend. While it doesn't hurt to read the plot description with this one, half the fun is discovering it as it unfolds....

2010s

• 2010 Red. If you are looking for the most action-y action movie, this one might be just what you are looking for. I enjoyed it. I was watching at a super-super low volume because I was the only one awake, BUT, I probably will watch it again at some point. I thought it had a great cast. An ex-agent finds himself targets so he goes after those who are after him.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

9. The Running Man

9. The Running Man. Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman). 1982. 317 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: She was squinting at the thermometer in the white light coming through the window. Beyond her, in the drizzle, the other highrises in the Co-Op City rose like the gray turrets of a penitentiary.

Premise/plot: Ben Richards enters the games out of desperation. His young daughter is sick and the family who is already struggling to pay for the barest of bare necessities cannot afford to get her medical help. He may not be of much worth to his family as he is, but if he entered the games then there's a chance his death may help his family just enough. And, of course, he may beat all odds--unlikely--and bring home money as well. It's an option that he feels is his one and only option.

The book is set in the bleakest of bleak dystopian worlds. The games on Free-Vee offer entertainment amidst the bleakity-bleakness of life. BUT they are anything but fun.

Ben Richards agrees to the rules of the game. He'll send in TEN MINUTES OF VIDEO FOOTAGE per day while being hunted by those professionals IN the game and those outside the game. There's a reward for ANY person reporting his whereabouts. There is no continual surveillance. There is not a studio where this game is filmed. He can literally GO anywhere in the world--so long as he can manage his own way around. 

This is a game of strategy and some luck.

My thoughts: I saw the movie from the 1980s recently. This book is absolutely NOTHING at all like it--not even a little bit. Two or three names are the same, perhaps. Do not expect the book to be like the movie.

I didn't love the movie, so I was happy to see the differences. That being said, the first two-thirds of this one was a bit on the slow side. I joked with my best friend that it was 80% hiding and 20% running. And I wasn't wrong--at that point in the book. The ending IS fast-paced. You reach a point where it is ALL thriller-action-intensity.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

8. By the Shores of Silver Lake

8. By the Shores of Silver Lake. Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1939. 290 pages. [Source: Library] [audiobook, j historical fiction, series book]

First sentence: Laura was washing the dishes one morning when old Jack, lying in the sunshine on the doorstep, growled to tell her that someone was coming. She looked out, and saw a buggy crossing the gravelly ford of Plum Creek. "Ma," she said, "it's a strange woman coming."

By the Shores of Silver Lake is one of five Newbery Honors that Laura Ingalls Wilder received for her historical fiction "Little House" series. (For those that are curious: 1938 for On the Banks of Plum Creek; 1940 for By the Shores of Silver Lake; 1941 for The Long Winter; 1942 for Little Town on the Prairie; 1944 for These Happy Golden Years).

The novel takes the Ingalls family into South Dakota around DeSmet where the rest of the series is set.

As a child, By The Shores of Silver Lake wasn't my favorite of the series. I blame Jack's death for that. But as an adult, I've come to appreciate By The Shores of Silver Lake more, seeing it as more than just a transition between On the Banks of Plum Creek and The Long Winter.

In By the Shores of Silver Lake:

• Mary goes blind, Laura is "asked" to be her eyes
• Pa is offered a new job, a job with the railroad, which he takes
• He goes by wagon, Jack dies BEFORE Pa's departure
• The rest of the family travels most of the way by train
• They continue the rest of their journey (a day or two or three) by wagon
• They settle in for a while, Pa talks about the claim he hopes to claim later that year or whenever his job is finished and he's able to go out seeking a claim of his own
• Pa's job isn't always safe; he's the paymaster for the railroad, and he has to calm down an angry mob in this one.
• They meet the Boast family
• They spend the winter in the 'biggest' house Laura has ever lived in
• Winter may be lonely (no neighbors, no town) but the spring will see plenty of people come and go. EVERYONE stops at their house on their way west
• The family learns that there is a school for the blind, they all decide Mary should go there.
• The family decides to claim land near De Smet, South Dakota
• Laura catches the tiniest glimpse of Almanzo Wilder's horses

I definitely am enjoying rereading these books. By The Shores of Silver Lake may not be my favorite of the series, but, I'm glad I reread it.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Week in Review #3

This week I read seven books!

I read three Laura Ingalls Wilder book on audio: Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years. The library now has By the Shores of Silver Lake and Farmer Boy on audio. They didn't last week or the week before. So I may go back and read these to complete the series. (I read some of this series in December 2025.)

My least favorite book of the week is Traitors in Space. It's not that I think it's a bad book. I do think there will be young readers who do enjoy this choose your own adventure book. I think IF you approach it over a series of days or even weeks. If you read the story-path you've chosen ALL at once--beginning to end, and stay immersed in the story, it might work well. When you just read it super methodically and just pick things up at your last choice, well, the flimsy story becomes flimsier.

I read three Christian children's books this week! Two nonfiction books and an adaptation of Pilgrim's Progress. The other two were The Story of Corrie Ten Boom and 10 Questions about Pain and Suffering.

Century of Viewing #3

1980s

• 1980 Saturn 3 may have its share of fans. I'm not one of them exactly. Sci-fi-thriller with some gore involving a robot gone awry perhaps because his programmer was....less than fit psychologically. Shakespeare's tragedies may have a larger surviving cast. I also found some scenes to be....questionable. However to each their own.
• 1984. Nadia. It didn't take me very long to realize this must be a made for television movie and one that didn't concern itself with the actual actual facts of the people involved. It is a biopic that is 99.999999999% fiction. Well, that might be unfair. 99.2% fiction perhaps. They have a few names right AND the fact that Nadia got perfect tens and won Olympic medals. Still, if I'd known this movie existed as a kid, I might have watched it over and over again because I loved watching gymnastics.

1990s

• 1993. Groundhog Day is one of my favorite, favorite movies to again-again. Which seems right. I love the transformation of Phil. I do. It's funny and sweet and quirky
• 1993 Thing Called Love. I didn't enjoy this 1993 movie enough for it to be five stars, though it had its moments. Four people in Nashville trying to make it into the music business...Miranda "no relation" Presley is the center of attention--not that she's an instant success making it into the business, mind you. Just that it's insta for all the guys she meets. She falls for a bad boy type whom everyone warns her about...they even marry or "marry" as the case may be. Will they get a happy ending? Maybe. Maybe not. But it is an ending of sorts. I did like all the country music.
• 1997 Starship Troopers. Watching this one with my best, best friend. It is very much Beverly Hills 90210 in space, but, it's FUN or fun enough. I've just started reading the book. I'm going to guess the book is better. Perhaps. Maybe. Probably. The movie isn't so much about future space wars as it is hormones. Again some scenes slightly questionable, though there's plenty of unquestionable scenes as well. This one I rated 4 stars. It may be closer to 4.25 honestly.

2000s

• 2004 Bride and Prejudice. Bollywood retelling of Pride and Prejudice. I remember loving this musical when it first came out. It was FUN. I haven't watched it in ages. I found myself still loving all the music. AND being surprised at recognizing the cast from other stuff. Like the Darcy character being "Jack Sheridan" from Virgin River. OR Balraj being "Sayid" from LOST. I am glad I revisited this one!!!

2010s

• 2014 Chaos on the Bridge. I rate this one--right now upon first impressions--a 4 1/2 stars. I am tempted to give it five stars. BUT I'm just not sure that I'll still *feel* it 5 stars a few days, a few weeks, a few months from now. William Shatner is director and host of this Star Trek documentary. It is the story of STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION. Plenty of interviews with those who worked on the show behind the scenes. A few interviews with those who starred in the show. It's a colorful documentary.

2020s

• 2025 Gilded Age, Season 3. What a season?!?!?!?! There were a few things that I loved about season 2 and a few things that I definitely absolutely did not like at all. Season 3 has drama, drama, and more drama. YET there is lightness and hope and joy as well as drama. The last two episodes are SO INCREDIBLY INTENSE that you might lose all sense of time.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

7. The First Four Years

7. The First Four Years. Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1971. 134 pages. [Source: Library] [historical fiction, classic, series book, 3 stars]

First sentence: The stars hung luminous and low over the prairie.

The First Four Years was published several decades after the death of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was published after the death of Laura and Almanzo's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. It is based on three hand-written notebooks. The story is believed to have been written in the mid to late forties. It is also believed to have been shelved by Laura Ingalls Wilder after the death of Almanzo. She never went back to work on it again. She never polished it up. She never sent it to the publishers. It is what it is, a first draft.

It has a completely different feel than the other Little House books. It doesn't have chapters, for one thing. But more than that there is an emotional undertone of sadness and regret that makes it pointedly different than its predecessors. It is just very melancholy. Yes, it captures all the horrible things that happened next. Yes, it's probably accurate enough to assume that most if not all farmers experienced this many brutal hardships. The other Little House books often dealt with hard issues as well. But I suppose they felt more balanced. I think she injected enough hope and light to lift them up.

Personally, I'd rather have the "happily ever after" ending of These Happy Golden Years than the brutal hardships of The First Four Years. Not that I'm promoting the unrealistic fairy-tale ending where marriage is problem-free. But to read of all the hardships with the farm, the land, the money problems, the debt, the worries, the health problems, the weather/environment problems, etc. It's just so hard, so brutal, so depressing.





© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

6. These Happy Golden Years

6. These Happy Golden Years. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Illustrated by Garth Williams. 1943. HarperCollins. 289 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, historical fiction, classic, audiobook]

First sentence: Sunday afternoon was clear, and the snow-covered prairie sparkled in the sunshine. A little wind blew gently from the south, but it was so cold that the sled runners squeaked as they slid on the hard-packed snow.

Why is it that reading These Happy Golden Years makes me giddy? Could it be my actual favorite of the series after all? Perhaps. It has been such a treat for me to reread these Little House books this past month. I've enjoyed visiting with Laura and her family. I've enjoyed watching 'the romance' unfold with Almanzo in Little Town on the Prairie and These Happy Golden Years.

In These Happy Golden Years Laura has accepted--for better or worse--that she is all grown up. In this book, she teaches several different schools. Each teaching term is short--a few months here, a few months there. Her first teaching position lasts eight weeks, and, it is mostly a nightmare for her. She's rooming with Mr. and Mrs. Brewster. And Mrs. Brewster must be suffering from some mental illness. I feel sorry for Mr. Brewster and their baby, Johnny. There's a helplessness in the situation. Laura realizes how blessed she's been for a happy home life. The opening chapters dwell on her homesickness and gratitude. And she owes much to Almanzo Wilder. For HE comes to "rescue" her from the Brewsters every single weekend no matter how cold the weather. And it all comes as such a surprise to her that she'll get to spend her weekends at home.

When she's not teaching school, she's attending it. Every few months, it seems, she receives an opportunity to teach and earn money, and she'll take a teacher's exam, and get another certificate. But teaching isn't the only way she's able to earn money. She really, truly wants to earn money, not for herself, but to help keep Mary in college.

Most of the book focuses on the courtship of Laura and Almanzo. How he comes to take her sledding or for buggy rides. Laura does love his horses.

I love this book! I do.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

5. Little Town on the Prairie

5. Little Town on the Prairie. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Illustrated by Garth Williams. 1941. 374 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, audiobook, historical fiction, children's classic]

First sentence: One evening at supper, Pa asked, "How would you like to work in town, Laura" Laua could not say a word. Neither could any of the others. They all sat as if they were frozen.

I enjoyed rereading Little Town on the Prairie. Is it completely perfect in every way? Probably not. (The idea of Pa joining in a minstrel show performance still doesn't sit well with me. Just like I don't like the dialogue of the Native American in The Long Winter--when he warns them of the winter ahead. But other than that, I don't have any real issue with the book). In this book:

• The family moves back to their homestead for the summer and fall
• The Ingalls get a cat AFTER Pa's hair is "cut" by mice in the night!
• Laura gets a job assisting a seamstress
• Laura and Carrie and Pa go to a fourth of July celebration; lemonade is involved
• Blackbirds come and threaten numerous crops; some of the corn is saved and will be dried for winter consumption
• Mary goes away to college
• The family moves back to the town for the winter
• Laura and Carrie attend school
• Nellie Oleson is one of the 'country' girls attending school
• Nellie becomes teacher's pet; the new teacher is Eliza Jane Wilder
• Laura gets her first ride behind Almanzo's horses (she's running late for school, she had to order name cards)
• A Literary Society (of sorts) is formed in town for the winter
• The book actually covers TWO winters in town, but, we barely learn anything about the spring/summer/and fall in between the winters.
• Laura attends several revival meetings and Almanzo asks to see her home each night!
• Almanzo hints that he wants to take her sledding.
• Laura gets her teaching certificate

Plenty of lovely things happen. I love the progression of the series. This book just makes me smile as I'm reading it. I often forget just how much I like this one since I love, love, love THE LONG WINTER, and I always associate These Happy Golden Years with having THE romance. I don't give this one enough credit for being OH-SO-GOOD.

I listened to Little Town on the Prairie on audiobook! It was fantastic!


© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews