This week I reviewed one book. I read The French Kitchen by Kristy Cambron.

I am reading books. But they are LONG books, thick books, books that are taking me a good bit of time to read. I did check out some picture books a few days ago, so at the very least I should be able to read and review those next week.

Century of Viewing #12

1950s

• 1957 The Brain from Planet Arous If you love sci-fi with "horror" elements, then I highly recommend this film from the 1950s. It was silly and fun. The premise, MYSTERY MOUNTAIN is a dangerous, dangerous place. Two scientists--presumably friends--investigate strange readings of radiation that they can pinpoint from their lab to a specific spot on Mystery Mountain. They investigate...but one never returns...and one returns as another....because he has met THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS. The brain has TWO things on his mind. SALLY (whom he definitely, definitely "elated" by (his words) and world domination. Can the world be saved from this amorous power-loving alien????
• 1958 The Day the Sky Exploded. Italian science fiction. The audio was English. I'm assuming dubbed at some point. This meteor movie lacks intensity. Unless you are thrilled about a showdown over air conditioners. It's good the earth was saved because the air conditioner was turned back on. This movie was strange but not in a great way.

1960s

• 1967 Those Fantastic Flying Fools (Blast Off) Changing the name doesn't help this movie be more than one star. I think it was supposed to be a comedy, perhaps a slapstick comedy, but it's just a mess of a movie. Too many actors. Too little story. Not enough comedy. It isn't as simple as well, not funny enough to be a comedy it must be something else...like a drama or tragedy. But nope. It's a void. So bumbling fools are trying to get to the moon via a cannon. This makes The Great Race (1965) look intelligent. Neither movie is funny. Both are too long.
• 1968 Finian's Rainbow. WHAT is this movie?!?! Well, it's a long movie. It's a song and dance movie. It's got an amorous leprechaun. It's got several weird stories going on. It's extremely unique. I guess a one sentence description would be, "Be careful what you wish for." It hasn't been a great year for watching Fred Astaire movies. Though I suppose I'm glad enough I persevered through this one.

1980s

• 1988 The Bourne Identity. Two part made for television movie. IT had suspense, action, and romance. I definitely am glad I watched this one!!! It has been so long since I watched the newer Bourne Identity, but, this one was GOOD and according to the comments on YT faithful to the book (which I haven't read so I can't judge for myself).

2020s

• 2022 Jurassic World Dominion. I loved seeing some of the characters from the Jurassic Park series come back for this one. The story is dinosaur-packed. It's action-y. It's dinosaur-y. I liked it well enough.
• 2023 Shari & Lamb Chop A documentary film on Shari Lewis (and her wonderful, wonderful, wonderful puppets). IT was a good documentary. I wanted more, more, more of Lambchop. But it was fascinating to see her whole life and not just a small bit of it. Would recommend.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

This week I reviewed two books.

I finished the RSV Sovereign Bible.

I finished listening to Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Century of Viewing #11

1930s

• 1937 Telephone Operator. Sometimes you watch movies with low expectations. This one wasn't wonderful. But it was surprisingly packed with plot. A Telephone Operator, Helen, risks her reputation AND her life for her job. So two telephone lineman come to town to put in a telephone line near the dam. Supposedly it's been raining weeks and weeks and weeks though we never see any FILM of it raining at all. And we have a good many outside scenes. Anyway, Rickard, the main 'hero' of the film falls hard (there's even a cement joke) for Helen. She doesn't want to like him at all. But when he proves heroic not once...but twice. She may just find herself saying yes to his proposal when he says he's going to find a justice of the peace that can swim. ONE of the dramatic rescues being when the dam breaks.

1950s

• 1953 Dangerous Crossing. Ruth is a newlywed traveling with her husband, John. They've been marred less than half a day...and there's already trouble. It starts when he vanishes on their honeymoon cruise trip. No one has "seen" her husband and he is not listed among the passengers. The ship's doctor thinks Ruth is incredibly beautiful but perhaps confused or sickened with grief. He's the good guy, by the way. Everyone else's view of Ruth...well...let's just say the powers that be vote to lock her in her cabin so 'she's not a danger' to herself or the rest of the passengers. This movie is very Twilight Zone in some ways. But essentially a mysterious mystery.

1960s

• 1969 Wake Me When the War Is Over. Was this one written by a team of monkeys? Maybe. Maybe not. Was it made for television? YES. Is it super ridiculous??? Also yes. A Baroness "rescues" an American soldier who parachuted behind enemy lines during the Second World War. She "hides" him for years AFTER the war is over. She has friends wearing uniforms that pretend to 'raid' her estate every single week looking for him. Meanwhile, he's getting cozy with a maid. When he does escape, well, things don't go well. He's determined to do his part for the war...that only exists in his mind. The maid is trying to get him to her uncle who speaks better English...and her uncle has a bad sense of humor and "interrogates" him instead continuing the illusion. This movie is......well...at least it's not a long movie.

1990s

• 1998 Dark City. I watched Dark City last year with my best, best, best friend and loved it. IT has spooky, creepy sci-fi and horror vibes. Nothing is as it seems. NOTHING. I do recommend this one.

2000s

• 2003 Mona Lisa Smile. I love, love, love the songs on the soundtrack though I prefer the original artists for some songs. Or different artists perhaps. I love the setting/atmosphere of this one 1953/1954. A few years ago I listened to all the #1 hits of 1953 AND 1954. It was a whole project. Anyway, I love the vibes of this one. The plot, well, is almost secondary to the vibes. So the "story" for what it's worth is that an art teacher shakes things up at a traditional college and her students are given much food for thought in her art appreciation class. LOTS of familiar faces.

2010s

• 2016 Wedding Bells For what it is, it isn't bad. Hallmark movies are Hallmark movies. And this one had its charming moments. A maid of honor and best man fall for each other....when they're left to plan an entire wedding for their friends after catastrophic financial news leave the bride's wealthy parents unable to pay up. Working on an extremely tight schedule, they spend all their time together planning the perfect "budget" wedding (I have thoughts on how "budget" it really is). But is the wedding more their style than their friends????

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

29. Farmer Boy. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Illustrated by Garth Williams. 1933. 372 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, audiobook, children's classic, historical fiction]


First sentence: It was January in northern New York State, sixty-seven years ago. Snow lay deep everywhere. It loaded the bare limbs of oaks and maples and beeches, it bent the green boughs of cedars and spruces down into the drifts. Billows of snow covered the fields and the snow fences.

Premise/plot: Farmer Boy is the second book (technically) in the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. (The first book is Little House in the Big Woods). The book (fictionally) chronicles Almanzo Wilder's childhood. (Presumably based on stories he told his wife through the years.) I believe it covers roughly one year of his life. It begins and ends in (different) winter(s). The focus, as you can imagine, is on his farm life. He spends a lot of time with horses, cows, pigs, and various crops like corn, wheat, pumpkins, etc. There's also a chapter on cutting ice. (I couldn't help but think of Almanzo hauling ice in the television show).

My thoughts: I must have read the original series a dozen times growing up. And I did always enjoy Almanzo entering the story in The Long Winter. But I never read the second book. Never. I just didn't see the appeal. It was about a boy, a farm boy, a boy who spent way too much time with livestock and crops. 

Was I right to skip it? Probably. It is all subjective, I know. Plenty of girls--plenty of kids--go through a horse phase, where they read anything/everything with horses. That never happened to me. I never went through a horse phase. And this book is only about a step above watching grass grow. In my opinion.

 I do think it provided a window into the past. And in some ways, two windows into the past. Readers can get a glimpse into Almanzo's childhood. (If my math serves, roughly 1866/1867). But readers also get a glimpse into the 1930s. People certainly viewed the world different in 1866 than they do now...and same with the early 1930s. You can't expect today's values and viewpoints to be present in a book written in 1933...especially when that book was telling the story of a boy growing up in the 1860s.

ETA: This was my first time to reread Farmer Boy. Technically, I listened on audio. I still don't love it. But it does have some of the same vibes as Little House in the Big Woods.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

This week I read eight books.

I read and reviewed Karen Witemeyer's newest historical romance, Taming Lady Temperance.

I read three board books by Jamie Oliver. Let's Make Pizza. Let's Make Pancakes. Let's Make Pasta.

I read a silly early reader, Two Ballerinas and a Moose by James Preller.

I listened to two audio books this week! The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

I read a middle grade historical novel set during the Second World War: The Lions' Run by Sara Pennypacker.

Century of Viewing #10

1980s

• 1987 Can't Buy Me Love This teen rom-com was fun. Definitely silly, but in the most 80s way possible. The soundtrack was fun, the plot was predictably silly. The main character learns several lessons.
• 1989 Steel Magnolias Absolutely one of the funniest AND one of the saddest movies ever. So extremely very quotable. Uplifting and extremely heartbreaking. Truly bittersweet. But I do absolutely love this one. Shelby lives life on her own terms, and her friends are always there to support her.

1990s

• 1990 The Hunt for Red October. Glad I watched it. Definitely had a LOT of familiar actors in it. This submarine movie is a lot less intense than the one I watched last year set during the Second World War.

2000s

• 2007 Life Free or Die Hard. I still haven't seen the third movie. I want to see the third movie. This one was action-packed...just as action-packed as you expect. He has a lot of really bad days. I do wonder if every single day is this bad.

2010s

• 2013 Parkland Sad. Dramatic. Glad I watched it once. This one follows the assassination of JFK and the aftermath. It begins the day of the assassination and ends with the funeral. There isn't one main character, but many, many, many.
• 2018 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom I definitely liked this one more than Jurassic World. Perhaps because I already knew the characters? Perhaps because it offered three or four times the amount of drama and action. I also liked the introduction of Maisie. This is my first time watching the Jurassic World movies so I know nothing of what may come, but, so far I'm hopeful.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

28. To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee. 1960. 281 pages. [Source: Library][Audiobook, 5 stars, classic, coming of age]

First sentence: When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.

To Kill A Mockingbird is one of my favorite, favorite books. I love, love, love the movie. And I adore the book as well. It's a simple novel rich in truth. I love the narrative voice of Scout. I think Scout is one of the most memorable narrators ever.

One of the things that I think makes the book work so well is how it is able to be serious and dramatic AND comical. It captures the little every-day moments so well. Family relationships. Community relationships. Nosy neighbors or spooky ones. A good balance of summer-time freedom and the structure of school. It's definitely one of the best coming-of-age stories. At the same time, it is a very honest examination of racism and injustice.

To Kill A Mockingbird has a great, compelling story to tell. And Harper Lee knew how to tell a story. But it isn't the story alone that is unforgettable: it is the characters. Such characterization!!! Such depth!!! Who could not love Scout, Jem, and Atticus?! Who could not love Calpurnia, Dill,  Miss Maudie, and Boo Radley?!

I first reviewed it in October 2007. I also reviewed it in August 2010.

Favorite quotes:

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. (18)

"First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--"
"Sir?"
"--until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." (30)

"If you shouldn't be defendin' him, then why are you doin' it?"
"For a number of reasons," said Atticus. "The main one is, if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent the county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again."
"You mean if you didn't defend that man, Jem and me wouldn't have to mind you any more?"
"That's about right."
"Why?"
"Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Scout, simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least once in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one's mine, I guess. You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will: you just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don't you let 'em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change...it's a good one even if does resist learning. (76)

Atticus said to Jem one day, "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
"Your father's right," she said. "Mockinbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. (90)

It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. (112)

In Maycomb County, it was easy to tell when someone bathed regularly, as opposed to yearly lavations: Mr. Ewell had a scalded look; as if an overnight soaking had deprived him of protective layers of dirt, his skin appeared to be sensitive to the elements. Mayella looked as if she tried to keep clean, and I was reminded of the row of red geraniums in the Ewell yard. (179)

"How could they do it, how could they?"
"I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it--seems that only children weep. Good night." (213)

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews