This week I read SEVEN books. (I'm shocked too!!!)

At Operation Actually Read Bible, I reviewed a delightful Christian romance--historical set in Canada--titled The Lawyer and the Laundress. This is a marriage of convenience story and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Of course, technically it's a bit predictable. BUT I fail to see how that's anything but a positive.

At Becky's Book Reviews, I reviewed three books. I reviewed two audio books: FAHRENHEIT 451 a dystopian science fiction novel that I've read and reviewed dozens of times AND Anne of Ingleside, L.M. Montgomery's last published novel in the Anne series. Both of these books are old friends. Though they are completely and totally different from one another. The third book I reviewed was a review copy, Westfallen: Into the Fire. This is the sequel to Westfallen. Three friends in the past (1944) and three friends from the future (2023) make a grand mess of things when they learn the heard way about loose lips. To be fair, the kids from the future had no idea the dangers of talking freely about their present. And it started innocent enough. This second book is INTENSE. And it ends in a cliffhanger.

At Young Readers, I reviewed two picture books and one board book. The Animals of Farmer Jones is a classic Little Golden Book from the 1940s. Squirrel Sits Still takes place at a library, I believe, and Squirrel has a difficult time sitting still. If You Make a Call on a Banana Phone is a great picture book. A child makes a phone call on a banana....what will happen next?!?!


Century of Viewing #2

1920s

• 1927 Metropolis (Tubi, loopy-loop jazz soundtrack) The version I watched (the first time, yes I'm already contemplating a second time) was on Tubi. It had a looped jazzy-jazz soundtrack. Despite the fact that the soundtrack did not in any way complement the movie, I found the movie intriguing--fascinating--interesting--enjoyable. I have found a better version to watch....soon. Will it be this week? Maybe. Maybe not. Will it be tonight? Possible. Anything's possible. The plot?! Well, I believe it's set in 2026. A case of haves and have-nots. The underground worker city is looking for a Mediator as foretold by Maria. The son of the city's creator may just be that mediator. He's certainly smitten? mesmerized? under a spell when he first meets Maria. And then he goes underground himself and takes the place of a worker for a day--or night. Time is tricksy. There's also a SUPER mad scientist type who's created a robot. He wants to destroy EVERYBODY and everything.
• 1927 Metropolis (KINO, original score) This is the KINO restoration which is the closest to the original film in length. It also has the ORIGINAL score instead of the jazzy-jazz loop. Definitely seek out this version. The music is by Gottfried Huppertz. Science Fiction. Set in the future of 2026. Haves versus Have-Nots in society. "Head" versus "Hands" according to the movie. The movie is about the search for a MEDIATOR between the two. Also robots. Don't forget the provocatively dancing robot.

1940s

• 1948 Easter Parade I do not care for this Judy Garland and Fred Astaire musical. Is it better than Camelot?!?! YES. Is it the worst musical out there? Probably not. So Fred Astaire's dance partner is leaving him....and he has to find a new one...and so he trains up the Judy Garland character. She falls for him--why?!?!--and he doesn't really know she exists until she yells at him again and again for NOT noticing her like that. In the end, they end up together--at least temporarily. Will it last?! I don't know that I care enough to imagine all the scenarios. (Unlike Music Man. I have imagined all sorts of things about those characters).

1980s

• 1987 The Running Man. It is VERY, VERY, VERY 80s. The plot seems over the top. But it is--repeat with me--very, very, very 80s. It is strange...but I suppose that's to be expected. The plot? Criminals get a "second chance" on a reality television show. But 99% of this world is a lie...and nothing is as it seems.

1990s

• 1996 Escape from L.A.  Is it cheesy-cheeseful? YES. Was it meant to be? I think YES. Is the soundtrack horrible? I think it was almost meant to be. Maybe. My best friend said all the money went to hiring this cast and not to the special effects. Snake is back and this time he's doing a favor for ANOTHER president for another city.
• 1998 Lost in Space Do I want my time back? I probably would have wasted that time anyway all things considered. Was it time worst spent than playing WordScapes or Solitaire Farm Village? NO, not really. This "movie" is based on a television show. Not having seen the show, I'm not sure if it's a) more intelligent b) less intelligent or c) about the same.

2010s

• 2011 The Captains. My first documentary of the year though definitely not my last. This one is a documentary about Star Trek Captains. William Shatner interviews other Captains in the Star Trek series. This one being released in 2011 misses out on several shows, of course. BUT the interviews can be surprisingly deep and cover a wide range of topics. You expect fluff....and there is *some* fluff. But it isn't only fluff.

2020s

• 2024 VHS Christmas Carols. I love, love, LOVE, love this musical. The songs--most of them--are living rent free in my head. This is a mash-up of A Gift of the Magi, Little Match Girl, and A Christmas Carol. IT is EMOTIONAL and wonderful. I love it so much!!! I watched this one many times in December 2024 and many times in December 2025.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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

First sentence: "How white the moonlight is tonight!" said Anne Blythe to herself, as she went up the walk of the Wright garden to Diana Wright's front door, where little cherry-blossom petals were coming down on the salty, breeze-stirred air.

Anne of Ingleside was L.M. Montgomery's last (published) novel. In the novel, she is revisiting her most beloved heroine, Anne. The novel opens with Anne visiting Avonlea in the spring of 1900; she is pregnant with Rilla. She is spending time with Marilla and Mrs. Lynde, of course, and making time to spend one whole day with Diana. If memory serves, Diana is not really mentioned again in the series (Rainbow Valley, Rilla of Ingleside). After a short visit, she returns to her own home, her waiting family. There is Gilbert, of course, and Susan Baker, and her five children: Jem, Walter, Nan and Di (the twins), and Shirley. The book, I believe, mentions around here that she's been married nine years and her oldest is seven. Imagine five children under the age of seven with one more on the way! So Anne is extremely fortunate to have Susan helping her with all those children! There is one person Anne isn't looking forward to seeing, Gilbert's Aunt Mary Maria. She comes for "two weeks" and stays over a year! The chapter on how they accidentally send her off is one of my favorites!!!

The narration of Anne of Ingleside is interesting. Readers spend time inside the minds of Anne, Jem, Walter, Di, Nan, Rilla, and perhaps Susan. I don't recall Gilbert or Shirley or Aunt Mary Maria! Montgomery devoted a certain amount of time to each child. These chapters capture different aspects of being a child, different fears and anxieties, different hopes and dreams. There is Jem's one desire for a dog who really truly loves him. There is Di's friendship troubles, I believe. Nan has a chapter about bargaining with God. My least favorite chapter, unfortunately, is near the end. Anne loses touch with reality and thinks Gilbert doesn't love her anymore and that he regrets marrying her. Seriously I'm not sure what Montgomery was thinking with this one!

I read this one trying to always keep in mind that this book serves as a goodbye. The original Anne audience would have been born circa 1895-1900. The first book was published in 1908. The last book was published in 1939. Those that grew up with Anne would have been able to introduce their children to Anne as well! Anne may have felt like a kindred spirit indeed, as her original audience was reaching their mid-to-late teens, Anne was falling in love and getting married. (Anne of the Island was published 1915. Anne's House of Dreams was published in 1917.) The following books, which focus on her raising a family. Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside were published in 1919 and 1921. This was "the" Anne series for almost fifteen years. Anne of Windy Poplars was published in 1936 and Anne of Ingleside in 1939.

When I first wrote this review in 2013, I am not sure I was aware of how L.M. Montgomery ended her life. This greatly saddens me. AND I can't help wishing for one more visit with Anne and her family. To see Anne as a grandmother--to see her children grown, married, with children of her own. Perhaps gathering the grandchildren around to tell them stories, to hear their stories. Or perhaps to take nature walks with them. I could imagine scenes where young children want to hear more, more, more of her stories.

As for rating this book, it's hard. There are chapters I absolutely LOVE. There are chapters I merely like or tolerate. There are chapters that seem to flow EASILY together--those near the start of the novel. And then others feel like added on vignettes. I do wish more time had been spent on ALL the children. We get a lot of Nan and Di with a few of Jem. But not as many for Walter or Shirley or Rilla.

Favorite quotes:

The only time I feel I'm getting along a bit is when I look at pictures in the magazines. The heroes and heroines in them are beginning to look too young to me. 

We'll enjoy each other's friendship today even if we are to be parted tomorrow. 

Our friendship has always been a very lovely thing, Diana.
Yes...and we've always...I mean...I never could say things like you, Anne, but we have kept our old 'solemn' vow and promise' haven't we?
Always...and always will.
Anne's hand found its way into Diana's. They sat for a long time in a silence too sweet for words. 

It was never quite safe to sit down on a chair at Ingleside without first making sure there wasn't a cat in it. 

This is no common day, Mrs. Dr. dear, she said solemnly.
Oh, Susan, there is no such thing as a common day. Every day has something about it no other day has. Haven't you noticed?

Half an hour later, Susan, reading her nightly chapter in her Bible, came across the verse, "Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house lest he weary of thee and hate thee." She put a sprig of southernwood in it to mark the spot. Even in those days, she reflected.

If a minister preaches a sermon that hits home to some particular individual people always suppose he meant it for that very person, said Anne. A hand-me-down cap is bound to fit somebody's head but it doesn't follow that it was made for him.

I do not think, Mrs. Marshall Elliott, that people in these parts say half the things they are reported to have said.

© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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

First sentence: IF at first you don't succeed, cry cry again.

Premise/plot: Into the Fire is the second book in the Westfallen series by brother-and-sister authors, Ben and Ann Brashares. The premise is AWESOME. Three friends from the present (2023) "meet" three friends from the past (1944) and history is changed FOREVER-forever. (Or is it?!?!?!) Henry, Lukas, and Frances were at one time best, best, best friends though in recent years they've grown apart--far apart. Alice, Lawrence, and Artie are friends as well. These six friends become connected by a radio.

In the first book, loose lips from the future changes the past. They make an attempt to fix it for sure, but, that attempt is unsuccessful. America [and the Allies] lost the Second World War. Bad news all around.

The six kids working together--though NOT by magic radio--try time and time and time again to change the future by changing the past. That is the kids from 2023 are searching for clues in a future where they are strangers--strangers in a strange land if you will--to see WHAT events in 1944 led to this terrible, horrible future. IT is a mystery. The kids in the past are trying their best to look for clues too. To be careful and observant. To look for anything off--signs of treason within their neighborhood. WHO is it among them that would communicate with the BAD bad guys.

Will the future be changed? Almost four hundred pages of MORE attempts...is there any progress?!?!?!

My thoughts: I read the first book TWICE. It was awesome. It was thrilling and chilling. Did not disappoint. This second book is equally intense. Same premise BUT with an added layer of dystopia. The world-building IS intriguing--and terrifying. I do think some readers--perhaps older readers???--will piece together clues before the kids in the story. I did want to shout at the characters a few times. Did I expect a cliff hanger ending? I didn't. And that's probably all my own fault. I read this book in two or three sittings BECAUSE I thought at last, at last, at last RESOLUTION. There is no resolution. WAS it a great read? YES for the most part. At least as good as the first book. Perhaps I'm more invested for the second book. I want the third book NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW.


© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews