I’ve been a fan of Kelly Clarkson for some time and decided to give her Christmas album, Wrapped in Red (2013), a listen.

The standard Christmas songs, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Run Run Rudolph,” “Please Come Home For Christmas,” “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” “White Christmas,” “My Favorite Things,” and “Silent Night” all sound…Christmassy!

What makes this Christmas album different are the newer songs, and one cover. “Underneath the Tree,” really grabbed my attention. “Winter Dreams” and “Just for Now”–a cover of an Imogen Heap song–are special. If you’re looking for a different Christmas album for the season, you might try this blend of old and new songs sung superbly by Kelly Clarkson. Do you see any of your Christmas favorites here? GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:

Kelly Clarkson–	Wrapped In Red	3:36
	Kelly Clarkson–	Underneath The Tree	3:49
	Kelly Clarkson–	Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas	3:39
	Kelly Clarkson–	Run Run Rudolph	2:27
	Kelly Clarkson–	Please Come Home For Christmas (Bells Will Be Ringing)	3:19
	Kelly Clarkson–	Every Christmas	3:46
	Kelly Clarkson–	Blue Christmas	2:52
	Kelly Clarkson Featuring Ronnie Dunn–	Baby, It’s Cold Outside	3:01
	Kelly Clarkson–	Winter Dreams (Brandon’s Song)	3:22
	Kelly Clarkson–	White Christmas	3:02
	Kelly Clarkson–	My Favorite Things	2:49
	Kelly Clarkson–	4 Carats	3:28
	Kelly Clarkson–	Just For Now	3:30
	Kelly Clarkson Featuring Reba* And Trisha Yearwood–	Silent Night	4:09

15		I’ll Be Home For Christmas (ITunes Session)Bass – Einar PedersenDrums – Miles McPhersonElectric Piano [Wurlitzer] – Jason HalbertMixed By – Jason HalbertOrgan [Hammond B3] – Jason HalbertPiano – Jason HalbertProgrammed By – Jason HalbertRecorded By – Jason HalbertTrumpet – Leif ShiresWritten-By – Buck Ram, Kim Gannon, Walter Kent	2:55
16		Oh Come, Oh Come EmmanuelKeyboards – Greg KurstinWritten-By [Christmas Carol] – Traditional

I’ve been a fan of the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child for years. Otto Penzler, editor of Mysterious Press, is also a Jack Reacher fan. Otto asked Lee Child if he was interested in a limited, exclusive edition of the Jack Reacher series. Child agreed and the publishing processes began. Otto also asked Child if he would write a short essay for each Jack Reacher volume explaining how the book came about. Child agreed to that, too.

Those short essays have now been collected in Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories. If you’re a Jack Reacher fan, you’ll be delighted by the detail Child provides about genesis of each Jack Reacher book.

My favorite story in Reacher is how Lee Child wrote Make Me while being observed by an academic who wanted to study Child’s writing process. That is all explained in  Andy Martin’s Reacher Said Nothing: Lee Child and the Making of MAKE ME (2015) (you can read my review here).

And, as a bonus, Reacher includes a new Jack Reacher short story: “A Better Place.”

If you have a Jack Reacher fan on your Gift List, Reacher would be perfect! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1INTRODUCTION By Lee Child — ix

2ESSAYS:

2.1Killing Floor (1997) — 1

2.2Die Trying (1998) — 7

2.3Tripwire (1999) — 13

2.4Running Blind (2000) — 21

2.5Echo Burning (2001) — 27

2.6Without Fail (2002) — 33

2.7Persuader (2003) — 39

2.8The Enemy (2004) — 45

2.9One Shot (2005) — 51

2.10The Hard Way (2006) — 59

2.11Bad Luck and Trouble (2007) — 65

2.12Nothing To Lose (2008) — 71

2.13Gone Tomorrow (2009) — 79

2.1461 Hours (2010) — 87

2.15Worth Dying For (2010) — 95

2.16The Affair (2011) — 101

2.17A Wanted Man (2012) — 109

2.18Never Go Back (2013) — 119

2.19Personal (2014) — 129

2.20Make Me (2015) — 139

2.21Night School (2014) — 151

2.22The Midnight Line (2017) — 163

2.23Past Tense (2018) — 173

2.24Blue Moon (2019) — 183

NEW REACHER SHORT STORY

“A Better Place” — 191

Afterword by Otto Penzler –217

I DVRed Moonflower Murders back in 2024. I had read Anthony Horowitz’s book of the same title back in 2020. Moonflower Murders is the second Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville) and Atticus Pünd (Tim McMullan) mystery in the series (Marble Hall Murders published in May 2025 is the third and possibly final book in the series).

Moonflower Murders begins with Susan Ryeland lured back to England by a couple whose daughter has gone missing after she announced she knew who murdered a guest at her parent’s hotel eight years ago. The daughter had read Atticus Pund Takes the Case and claimed a clue in the book reveals the real killer. And then, she disappeared.

The frantic parents offer Susan Ryeland £10,000 to try to find their missing daughter. The hotel on Crete that Susan and her boyfriend Andreas (Alexandros Logothetis) are operating is struggling. And infusion of cash could save the operation so Susan agrees to investigate. The parents are convinced that Susan–who was the editor for Atticus Pund Takes the Case–will discover the same clue that their daughter did.

Like the first book, Magpie Murders (2016), the chapters alternate between the real world and Atticus Pünd’s fictional world. I’ve enjoyed all three Susan Ryeland and Atticus Pünd mysteries and I’m looking forward to the third PBS series likely to be broadcast in early 2026. GRADE: A

Celebrated Robert E. Howard scholar and contributor to this blog, Fred Blosser, has just done all of the Solomon Kane fans around the world a Big Favor with this instant classic: The Solomon Kane Companion. Last week I refreshed my memory of the Solomon Kane saga by reading The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane (you can read my review here).

Fred’s “informal guide to Robert E. Howard’s Dark Avenger” provides a detailed tour of Howard’s precursor to his legendary Conan the Cimmerian. Solomon Kane is a Puritan wanderer who is obsessed with fighting Evil and righting wrongs. Kane’s adventures involve battling some occult forces. While Kane is an expert swordsman and a deadly shot with his I particularly enjoy when Kane uses his juju staff. Kane’s friend N’Longa, an African shaman, gave Kane a juju staff for protection against evil and to be wielded as a weapon against Dark Magic. Kane uses it to kill vampires and supernatural spirits. In “The Footfalls Within”, it is identified as the mythical Staff of Solomon.

I enjoyed Fred’s analysis of the development of Solomon Kane from story to story. Kane’s adventures begin in 1553 and stop in 1610. But after Robert E. Howard’s death, Solomon Kane stories appeared as pastiches. I remember reading MARVEL’s Solomon Kane series years ago.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Solomon Kane can be found between these pages. Fred Blosser has written a great book about a great character. Don’t miss it! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction — vii

CHAPTERS

1. Puritan Marvels and Mysteries — 13
2. King of Swords — 17
3. The Crimson Trails of Solomon Kane: First Phase — 23
4. The Crimson Trails of Solomon Kane: Second Phase — 29
5. The Crimson Trails of Solomon Kane: Third Phase — 35
6. The Crimson Trails of Solomon Kane: Final Phase — 41
7. Damsels Demure, One Damsel Destructive — 45
8. Demons and Devils — 57
9. Despots and Desperados — 69
10. Magi and Men-at-Arms — 81
11. Haunted Places and Lost Cities — 93
12. Variant & Associated Stories in Solomon’s Kane Saga — 105
13. Shrouded in Mystery — 111
14. Solomon Kane and the Lost Continent — 115
15. Dark Avenger versus Eldritch Horrors — 119
16. Did Solomon Kane Ever Meet…? — 123
17. Solomon Kane’s Ruthless Other — 131

APPENDICES

A. SOLOMON KANE in the Comic Books — 137

B. The SOLOMON KANE Concordance –165

C. SOLOMON KANE Chronology — 175

D. Why I Wrote This Book — 181

E. The Essential SOLOMON KANE — 183

F. A Guide to Further Reading — 187

G. Red Shadows — 189

About the Author — 223

The Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers play a Must-Win game today. The Bills are 3-point favorites, but after the 23-19 loss to the Houston Texas a week ago and with mounting injuries–two of the starters on the Bills Offensive Line will be out for this game–I’m cautiously pessimistic about the outcome of this game.

Aaron Rodgers, who turns 42 next week, sat out the Steelers’ 31-28 loss to the Bears in Week 12 with a fractured left hand, but it is reported he will play against Buffalo this afternoon. The Bills defense is riddled with injuries, too. A loss for either team will send them plummeting out of the Playoff category and into the dubious In the Hunt status.

How will your favorite NFL perform today?

Diane and I went to the BABEL event and listened to Hernan Diaz speak about his writing process and how he came to write Trust, a novel that won the Pulitzer Prize.

I was struck by Hernan Diaz’s range. His first novel, In the Distance, is a Western that surprisingly was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2017. Trust is an historical novel about capitalism. In the Q&A session, Diaz told the audience of about 500 people that his next novel will be set 400 years from now and centers around Artificial Intelligence. Talk about three very different novels by the same writer!

Diaz earned a PhD from NYU and wrote Borges: Between History and Eternity. Diane and I came away impressed by this writer. Are you familiar with Hernan Diaz?

I became a fan of MARVEL Comics in the early 1960s (you can read about it here), but it took me until the mid-1960s before I discovered Doctor Strange. The story of a gifted surgeon who loses his ability to operate gripped me. Stephen Strange’s search for an answer to relieve his afflictions take him to Asia and becoming a student of a Sorcerer Supreme, The Ancient One. Strange learns magic exists and that Earth is just one location in a multiverse of dimensions.

At the time I started reading Doctor Strange comics, the artist and prime mover was Steve Ditko who specialized in surreal artwork to capture the weirdness of the various dimensions where Doctor Strange travels to while defending Earth from invasion by powerful entities.

Doctor Strange uses a variety of  mystical objects, including the powerful Eye of Agamotto and Cloak of Levitation to help defend our planet. Strange resides in a mansion referred to as the Sanctum Sanctorum, located at 177A Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. 

While other MARVEL super-heroes use super powers, Doctor Strange has to manipulate the occult forces of magic and sorcery to defeat multidimensional threats. Doctor Strange: A Decade of Dark Magic provides a guided tour into the development of one of MARVEL’s most enigmatic characters. GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

The Ancient Tomes — xi

Prologue: Set Time to Swirling — 1
1. 1963-1964: The Gossamer Thread — 8
2. 1964-1966: A Nameless Land, a Timeless Time — 27
3. 1966-1969: Other Realms, Other Voices — 47
4. 1970-1972: The Flickering Flame — 71
5. 1972-1973: Man Nor Magic — 87
Epilogue One: Over Credits — 111
Epilogue Two: After Credits — 113

Acknowledgements — 121

Illustrations — 123

Bibliography — 126

About the Author — 130

Hope you all don’t eat too much turkey!

Robert E. Howard is best known for his stories of Conan the Barbarian. But Howard was a prolific writer who created several characters. One of Howard’s oddest, but compelling, characters is Solomon Kane, a Puritan adventurer. The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, a Del Rey collection from 1998, brings the stories from 1930s back into print for a new generation of readers.

Most of Solomon Kane’s tales involve occult powers and creepy settings. Whether it’s a battle in the Black Forest or a scary trek through the jungles of Africa, Solomon Kane faces many forms of Evil.

My favorite Solomon Kane story is “The Moon of Skulls” where Kane takes on the beautiful vampire queen of Negari. Another jungle adventure, “Red Shadows,” features battles between Kane and the cunning Frenchman, Le Loup.

Robert E. Howard is one of the greatest writers of fantasy fiction. The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane contains hours of high entertainment. Are you a REH fan? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Foreword by Gary Gianni	xi
	In Memoriam: Robert Ervin Howard By H. P. Lovecraft	xiii
	Skulls in the Stars	1
	The Right Hand of Doom	19
	Red Shadows	29
	Rattle of Bones	73
	The Castle of the Devil	85
	Death’s Black Riders	93
	The Moon of Skulls	97
	The One Black Stain	171
	The Blue Flame of Vengeance	177
	The Hills of the Dead	223
	Hawk of Basti	255
	The Return of Sir Richard Grenville	269
	Wings in the Night	273
	The Footfalls Within	323
	The Children of Asshur	347
	Solomon Kane’s Homecoming	379
	Solomon Kane’s Homecoming (Variant)	385
	Appendices
	A Short Biography of Robert E. Howard by Rusty Burke	393
	Gary Gianni	407
	Notes on the Original Howard Text	409

Much of Western NY was tuned in to The Hallmark Channel over the weekend to watch Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story, a Hallmark movie mostly shot in local settings like Highmark Stadium, Canalside, and Chestnut Ridge Park. Buffalo Bills fans loved to see Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott and Bills players Damar Hamlin, Dion Dawkins, Dawson Knox, Reid Ferguson, DeWayne Carter, Ray Davis, Joshua Palmer showing up on their TV screens.

For those of you who missed Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story you can catch it on Wednesday, November 26 at 8:00 PM. There’s a search for a Secret Santa. Two lifelong Buffalo Bills fans, Morgan Quinn (Holland Roden), a doctor, and Gabe DeLuca (Matthew Daddario), the man in charge of construction for the new Highmark Stadium in Buffalo provide the Love Interest. The two friends have lived next door to each other since childhood and their families are close. Their search takes them all around Western NY…and brings them together romantically.

If you’d like to see what my community looks like and how Bills fans support their team, you might want to give Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story a try! GRADE: A