This week I reviewed six books.
34. Dead Happy (HappyHead #2) Josh Silver. 2024. [May] 416 pages. [Source: Library] [YA fiction, YA dystopia, 3 stars]
Read this if...
- You enjoyed HappyHead (which I reviewed in March)
- You enjoy YA dystopias (this one is a queer dystopia)
- You enjoy suspenseful survival stories
35. The Enemy's Daughter. Anne Blankman. 2025. 288 pages. [Source:
Library] [MG Historical fiction, MG coming of age, MG fiction, 3 stars]
Read this if...
- You enjoy historical fiction; this one is set during World War I
- You enjoy shipwreck stories
- You enjoy coming of age stories with a strong friendship theme
31. Wrong Time Rooster. Michael Parkin. 2025. 32 pages. [Source:
Library] [3 star, picture book, telling time, concept book, farms]
Read this if....
- You are looking for a concept book about telling time set on a farm
32. Monti and Leo: A Mystery in Pocketville. Sylvie Kantorovitz.
2025. 80 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, early chapter book,
friendship, animal fantasy]
Read this if....
- You enjoy early chapter books
- You enjoy early chapter book mysteries
- You enjoy early chapter book series
3. KJV Large Print Journal the Word Bible. God. 1769. 2016 pages. Thomas Nelson Publishers. [Source: Bought] [5 stars]
Read this if...
- You enjoy the KJV
- You want a journaling Bible with LARGE PRINT and actual WIDE MARGINS
30. The Screwtape Letters. C.S. Lewis. 1942. HarperCollins. 224 pages. [Source: Bought]
Read this if...
- You enjoy C.S. Lewis
- You enjoy Christian classics
- You enjoy Christian fantasy
Century of Viewing Week #14
1910s
- 1913 Mabel's Dramatic Career. This Mabel Normand picture provides perspective. Perspective on what other comedy shorts were like. Perspective on how other actors....act. If you've mostly seen just Buster Keaton--with or without Roscoe Arbuckle--then you don't really have a clear idea of the big picture. This one features Roscoe Arbuckle in a minor role--audience member in a movie theater. So essentially Mabel Normand is in relationship with Mack Sennett. The two are having issues. BIG issues. He's all flirty with other girls. His mother disapproves of Mabel. He asks for the engagement ring back. She cries. She begs. She fights the other woman. Etc. Years later he sees her IN the movies--on screen. She's now a famous star and he's ALL KINDS OF JEALOUS and regretful. He makes poor decisions. This short was so incredibly stupid. The acting was SO BAD. Like SO, SO, SO, SO bad. And Mabel Normand was supposed to be one of the best? Anyway, nice to have perspective in what early comedies were like.
- 1917 The Butcher Boy Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton (and Al St. John) star in this short. Roscoe and Buster both have vaudeville backgrounds. I believe Roscoe had been in the movie business since 1909? 1910? He meets Keaton and asks if he wants to give movies a try...and Keaton improvises his way right into Roscoe's next picture. Keaton has charisma and the IT factor for sure. The camera loved him. And the rest is history. As for plot, as I said, the story is mostly improvisation. Roscoe is 'the butcher boy' at a general store. Keaton is a customer. Al St. John is the rival in a love triangle.
- 1917 The Rough House Keaton and Arbuckle's second collaboration. Again starring Al St. John. (Al St. John, I believe, is Roscoe's nephew.) The plot is again a low priority. Buster plays a delivery boy in love with a maid....and eventually he becomes a cop. This one isn't my favorite or best. But it's not horrible.
- 1917 His Wedding Night is another Keaton and Arbuckle collaboration. (Again starring Al St. John). Keaton plays a delivery boy. He's delivering a wedding dress to Alice, Roscoe's girl. The jealous rejected rival, Al St. John, kidnaps Buster (dressed up in the wedding gown as model)....everyone thinks Alice has been taken. The race to the justice of the peace....leads to a surprise for one and all. Buster is a delight. It's very silly.
- 1917 Oh, Doctor! This one is definitely my least favorite Arbuckle/Keaton collaboration. Buster may commit 100% but it's not an easy sell even when you have as much commitment as Buster. Anyway, this one has Buster being a CHILD and Roscoe's son at that. To see a grown man act like a seven year old boy is a little much--short pants and all. And Roscoe's character is a rascal at that.
- 1917 Coney Island Another Keaton/Arbuckle collaboration. Roscoe is at the beach with his wife. Buster is on a date with his girl. But he doesn't have money to get into the amusement park. Al St. John steals Buster's girl. Roscoe, Buster, the girl (Alice), and Al St. John all end up in the amusement park/beach. Antics are had. It's HILARIOUS. Mostly. And Buster Keaton AS LIFE GUARD.
- 1918 Out West This one is close to being my favorite. I apparently ADORE Buster Keaton as saloon owner/sheriff in a top hat. This one is problematic for about two minutes--give or take. But most of it is delightful. Roscoe is a drifter who drifts into a western town--a small western town--that has a problem with law and order. There's a girl to be rescued, and drinks all around.
- 1918 The Bellboy Yet another Arbuckle/Keaton collaboration. This one has all three--Al St. John, Roscoe Arbuckle, and Buster Keaton--working at a hotel. Plenty of acrobatics and mix-ups. Overall fun.
- 1918 Moonshine Still yet another Arbuckle/Keaton collaboration. This one has Keaton and Arbuckle as revenuers hunting down bootleggers. Very meta. Very fun. Poor video quality. But plenty of laughs. Not my absolute favorite....but enjoyable.
- 1918 Good Night, Nurse. Another Arbuckle/Keaton collaboration. This one is mostly odd. Very surreal. Almost all of it is a dream. Keaton plays a WOMAN WITH UMBRELLA which is just fun. You never see his face. He's not meant to be "Buster Keaton" exactly. But he's unmistakable. This takes up about two minutes of screen time. Just a snippet of delight. Roscoe is a DRUNKEN MAN ON STREET trying to light up a cigarette. He befriends fellow drunks and brings everyone (and a monkey) home to his unhappy wife. To the NO HOPE SANITARIUM he goes the next day....Buster Keaton plays a doctor. Then it turns into a DREAM with all the weird/odd/surreal dream logic.
- 1918 The Cook is probably my favorite-favorite-favorite Arbuckle/Keaton collaboration. This one does star Luke the Dog. Roscoe Arbuckle is THE COOK and Buster Keaton is THE WAITER. There's dancing. Broken dishes. Unhappy customers. A robbery. A chase. SPAGHETTI. Plenty of fun to be had. This one is so enjoyable, so delightful.
1920s
- 1926 The General. I watched The General twice this week. First, I watched the CARL DAVIS soundtrack The General. This one is probably the most familiar to the most amount of people. This was my first time to see it. It is several minutes longer than the one I've been watching all these months. Second, I watched the WILLIAM PERRY The General. Carl Davis has multiple instruments. I'm not sure it's a 'full orchestra' mind you. But definitely a handful of instruments at the very least. The William Perry is just piano. I love, love, love, love the William Perry soundtrack. It lives in my head rent free. I adore it. I love everything about it. I had heard Carl Davis' soundtrack on Spotify a handful of times. So it is a little familiar. The movies are obviously mostly the same. But scenes have been re-arranged. I enjoyed BOTH. I see myself watching the Carl Davis one again-again too. So the story--if you haven't noticed it in any other week--is Johnnie Gray loves TWO THINGS....his engine and his girl, Annabelle. When both are taken by Northern spies (this is a Civil War drama-comedy-action-romance), Johnnie goes in pursuit of his love(s).
1930s
- 1935 Hayseed Romance is a Buster Keaton (talkie) short. It is WONDERFUL. No exaggeration. I watched it three times in one day. I made my Dad watch it before I even finished it once. It was just so WONDERFULLY funny. It had me laughing out loud in a handful of places. So a man, Buster Keaton, answers a want ad placed in a paper. Farm Help needed, object matrimony. But who placed the ad???? And will Buster Keaton suit!!!!
- 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood. This one stars Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. It is fabulous. Highly recommended. Soundtrack is awesome. Lots of sword-fighting and dashing adventures.
- 1939 Bachelor Mother. Ginger Rogers and David Niven star in this New Year's themed semi-holiday romance. Why did I watch it in the last part of March? Because it was going off Tubi on March 31! I will watch again-again when it comes back later in the year. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this shopgirl marries store-owner's son story. Sound familiar? It's essentially the same plot as IT (a silent movie) and BUNDLE OF JOY a Debbie Reynolds musical from the 1950s. So Ginger Rogers' character finds a baby on a doorstep of a children's home....she's assumed to be the mother....and her job depends on her pretending it is so. This one is FABULOUS and quotable.
1950s
- 1955 My Sister Eileen is a Jack Lemmon MUSICAL. Two sisters come to New York City. One wants to be a writer--and submits her work to Jack Lemmon's magazine--and the other wants to be an actress. Both sisters will fall in love....but not without obstacles. And the conga! It's enjoyable. I think this is the third time (in my life) that I've watched it. I do not own it. So I just wait for it to come around on Tubi.
1960s
- 1962 The Notorious Landlady is a Jack Lemmon movie. Black and white. Multiple genres. Is it a mystery? Yes. In part. Is it romantic comedy? Yes. In part. Is it COMEDY with slapstick elements? For sure. Does it have FRED ASTAIRE. Indeed it does. The last fifteen minutes of this one is a riot. Of the laughing sort I mean. If Buster Keaton didn't have a hand in this, then it certainly is almost influenced/inspired by his kind of antics. It was a HOOT. I mean a movie ending doesn't really get more hysterical than this one does. No matter how many times I watch it, I still LAUGH until it hurts.
- 1965 The Great Race is a Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon movie. Jack Lemmon plays a mustached villain. Natalie Wood plays a revolutionized woman. (This is a period drama). The 'race' is an automobile race. On paper, this seems like it would suit me just fine. In actuality, well, I want my time back. Seriously want it back. Still a little bitter a week later. I love and adore Jack Lemmon, I do. BUT NOT IN THIS ONE.
1980s
- 1980 Hollywood. 13 part documentary series narrated by James Mason. Each episode was on a different topic pertaining to early Hollywood. Twelve were focused almost exclusively on silent films. The thirteenth episode was about the transition to sound. LOTS of interviews with silent movie stars still living. Also cameramen and stunt men, etc. Definitely glad I watched it.
2020s
- 2025 The Lady's Companion. Not recommended. Not really. Oh I suppose you might like it more than me....if you like generic non-specified period dramas that do not accurately convey any period in history. If you are all about breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the narrator voiceover, if you like addressing the audience directly. If you don't mind modern music (like ALL BY MYSELF, etc.) blaring in period pieces. If you want modern values and opinions to be the norm in generic historic "past." If you don't mind smut. (I fast forwarded and/or kept my eyes closed and listened to the music to give hints of when it was safe to open my eyes again.)
© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
