Last week, Deb made the comment: “Christmas isn’t Christmas in our house without listening at least once to Elvis’s Christmas album—that is a mainstay.” And just by chance, I stumbled over these Christmas Elvis CDs (while searching for something else). Elvis Christmas is the only Elvis Christmas CD you really need to listen to. It includes all of the Christmas songs Elvis sings so well.

In the everlasting quest for Truth in Advertising, I’m including the other two Elvis Christmas CDs I found: Elvis Presley Blue Christmas and Elvis sings The Wonderful World of Christmas. If you check the Track Lists, you’ll find they’re identical (except for the deceptive titles and different album covers).

Do you listen to Elvis at Christmas time? Do you have a favorite song? GRADES: Elvis Christmas—A, Elvis Presley Blue Christmas and Elvis sings The Wonderful World of Christmas — B

TRACK LIST:

		Santa Claus Is Back In Town	2:24
		White Christmas	2:23
		Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)	1:54
		I’ll Be Home For Christmas	1:52
		Blue Christmas	2:07
		Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)	1:52
		O Little Town Of Bethlehem	2:36
		Silent Night	2:13
		(There’ll Be) Peace In The Valley (For Me)	3:21
		I Believe	2:05
		Take My Hand, Precious Lord	3:17
		It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)	3:54
		O Come, All Ye Faithful	2:48
		The First Noel	2:10
		On A Snowy Christmas Night	2:50
		Winter Wonderland	2:19
		The Wonderful World Of Christmas	1:59
		It Won’t Seem Like Christmas (Without You)	2:42
		I’ll Be Home On Christmas Day	3:50
		If I Get Home On Christmas Day	2:53
		Holly Leaves And Christmas Trees	2:14
		Merry Christmas Baby	5:45
		Silver Bells	2:27

TRACK LIST:

O Come All Ye Faithful	2:47
		The First Noel	2:08
		Winter Wonderland	2:17
		Silver Bells	2:27
		Blue Christmas	2:05
		Silent Night	2:23
		White Christmas	2:23
		I’ll Be Home For Christmas	1:54

TRACK LIST:

O Come All Ye Faithful	2:47
		The First Noel	2:08
		Winter Wonderland	2:17
		Silver Bells	2:27
		Blue Christmas	2:05
		Silent Night	2:23
		White Christmas	2:23
		I’ll Be Home For Christmas	1:54

One look at the cover of No One Will Come Back For Us gives you a big hint about why I like this book: TENTACLES! That’s a dead give-away that Cthulhu and the Shoggoths are in the house! My favorite story in  No One Will Come Back For Us is “The Adventurer’s Wife” where a famous explorer goes to Africa and finds the ruins of an ancient race. The people in the village that protect the ruins warn the explorer not to take any of the ruins…but of course you know what happens.

Premie Mohamed’s other stories deal with monsters, gods, chaos, and strange beasts. The blurb on the back cover of No One Will Come Back For Us calls her stories “contemporary cosmic horror and dark fantasy.” That pretty much sums her work up. If you’re in the mood for some stories that will widen your eyes and send chills down your back, give No One Will Come Back For Us a try. GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Below the kirk, below the hill — 11

Instructions — 25

The evaluator — 31

At the hand of every beast — 49

The adventurer’s wife — 61

The general’s turn — 73

Sixteen minutes — 97

Fortunato — 101

The honeymakers — 121

Four hours of a revolution — 131

For each of these miseries — 145

Everything as part of its infinite place — 171

No one will come back for us — 191

Willing — 215

Us and ours — 225

The redoubtables — 243

Quietus — 259

Story notes — 275

Publication History — 289

Acknowledgements — 291

About the Author — 293

Daniel Boyd (aka, Dan Stumpf) is back with another Streak Wilson novel.  The first Streak Wilson book, The Devil and Streak Wilson (you can read my review here) , was an unusual Western with an unpredictable plot and vivid characters.

            Gone to Graveyards presents a series of surprises:  Streak Wilson gets pummeled into unconsciousness.  A young boy screams bloody murder with eerie fright after he sees something unworldly.  And that unworldly creature terrorizes the community with its superhuman strength, its ability to travel undetected, and to munch on humans like they were Lay’s Potato Chips.

            Streak Wilson, a man who’s quick with a gun (not so much with his fists) is hired by a Wells Fargo executive to hunt down the deadly creature.  But Streak Wilson is a damaged man.  He fought in the Civil War and sustained a head injury that almost killed him.  Streak Wilson’s recovery was incomplete.  Streak has a “wall” in his brain that he had be unable to climb to discover memories hidden from himself.  

            This all comes into play during the hunt and Streak learns key aspects about his Past and that results in a change in Streak’s future.

            If you’re in the mood for a Western that breaks the traditional modes of story-telling, give Gone to Graveyards a try. Well done, Dan! GRADE: B+

For that voracious reader on your Holiday Gift List, you might consider Kenneth C. Davis’s Great Short Books! I found Kenneth C. Davis an engaging guide to these great short novels. You might remember one of Davis’s other books: Don’t Know Much About History. The same clear writing and perceptive analysis from Don’t Know Much About History shows up in Great Short Books.

How many of these great short books have you read? Do you see some titles of books you’d like to read? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: Notes of a common reader — xv

Agostino / Alberto Moravia — 1

Animal Farm: A Fairy Story / George Orwell — 7

Another Brooklyn / Jacqueline Woodson — 13

The Awakening / Kate Chopin — 19

Ballad of the Sad Café / Carson McCullers — 25

Big Boy Leaves Home / Richard Wright — 31

Bonjour Tristesse / Françoise Sagan — 39

Candide, or Optimism / Voltaire — 45

Charlotte’s Web / E. B. White — 53

A Clockwork Orange / Anthony Burgess — 57

The Country Girls / Edna O’Brien — 65

Death in Venice / Thomas Mann — 71

Dept. of Speculation / Jenny Offill — 77

The Dry Heart / Natalia Ginzburg — 83

Ethan Frome / Edith Wharton — 89

Evil Under the Sun / Agatha Christie — 95

The Fifth Child / Doris Lessing — 101

The Ghost Writer / Philip Roth — 107

The Great Gatsby / F. Scott Fitzgerald — 113

The Hour of the Star / Clarice Lispector — 119

The House on Mango Street / Sandra Cisneros — 125

If Beale Street Could Talk / James Baldwin — 131

If This Is a Man [Survival in Auschwitz] / Primo Levi — 137

July’s People / Nadine Gordimer — 143

The Lathe of Heaven / Ursula K. Le Guin — 149

Lord of the Flies / William Golding — 155

The Lost Daughter / Elena Ferrante — 161

The Lover / Marguerite Duras — 167

Lucy / Jamaica Kincaid — 173

Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History / Art Spiegelman — 179

Middle Passage / Charles Johnson — 185

Mrs. Dalloway / Virginia Woolf — 191

The Hours / Michael Cunningham — 197

The Nickel Boys / Colson Whitehead — 203

No One Writes to the Colonel / Gabriel García Márquez — 209

The Old Man and the Sea / Ernest Hemingway — 215

On Chesil Beach / Ian McEwan — 223

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich / Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn — 229

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit / Jeanette Winterson — 235

Pale Horse, Pale Rider / Katherine Anne Porter — 241

A Pale View of Hills / Kazuo Ishiguro — 247

Passing / Nella Larsen — 253

The Perfect Nanny / Leïla Slimani — 261

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man / James Joyce — 267

The Postman Always Rings Twice / James M. Cain — 273

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie / Muriel Spark — 279

The Red Badge of Courage / Stephen Crane — 285

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption / Stephen King — 291

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea / Yukio Mishima — 297

The Stranger / Albert Camus — 303

Sula / Toni Morrison — 309

Surfacing / Margaret Atwood — 315

Their Eyes Were Watching God / Zora Neale Hurston — 321

Things Fall Apart / Chinua Achebe — 327

Tokyo Ueno Station / Yu Miri — 333

Waiting for the Barbarians / J. M. Coetzee — 339

We Have Always Lived in the Castle / Shirley Jackson — 343

Wide Sargasso Sea / Jean Rhys — 349

Afterword: What’s not here — 355

My favorite fifteen great short books — 361

Index of entries by date of publication — 363

Index of entries by author’s last name — 365

Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates in this book — 367

More Great Short Books — 369

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 371

Notes About the Books — 373

The 10-3 Dallas Cowboys take on the 7-6 Buffalo Bills in the rain today. The Bills are inexplicably 2 1/2 point favorites. The Cowboys have put up a lot of points in the past few games so the Bills will have to play their “A” game if they hope to win. How will your favorite NFL perform today?

Shot in the Summer of 2023, Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas is reminiscent of the traditional Christmas Specials of the 1960s and 1970s: singing, dancing, special guests, comedy, and–of course–beautiful clothes!

Most American audiences will recognize Hannah Waddingham from her role as  Rebecca Welton–the owner of a soccer team–in the comedy series Ted Lasso (2020–2023),  But Waddingham is much more than a talented actress. In Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas she proves she’s a talented singer, too. Waddingham talks about going to the London Colosseum–the site of this extravaganza–as a little girl to listen to her mother, an opera singer, perform on its stage. Those experiences sent Hannah Waddingham into a career of acting and singing.

Because Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas was filmed live, it has the feel of a musical. Waddingham has duets with Leslie Odom Jr. (of Hamilton fame) and her friend, Luke Evans. Waddingham also has not just one, but TWO choirs–the English National Opera and the London Gay Men’s Choir–to amp up the Christmas carols. All in all, Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas put me in the mood for the Holidays! GRADE: A

MUSICAL NUMBERS:

• What Christmas Means to Me. 03:13.
• The Man With The Bag. 03:00.
• Please Come Home For Christmas. Hannah Waddingham feat. Leslie Odom, Jr.
• O Holy Night. Hannah Waddingham feat. The ENO Chorus
• Run Rudolph Run. Hannah Waddingham feat. Sam Ryder
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Hannah Waddingham feat. Phil Dunster & The Fabulous Lounge Swingers
• Winter Wonderland. Hannah Waddingham feat. Luke Evans
• It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Hannah Waddingham feat. The London Gay Men’s Chorus

I first read The Space Merchants as a serial in Galaxy around 1961. The Space Merchants is a 1952 science fiction novel by American Science Fiction writers Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth. Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine as a serial entitled Gavy Planet, the novel was first published as a single volume in 1953, and has sold heavily ever since.

The Space Merchants was the first Science Fiction novel I had ever read that mixed business and sociological elements into a plot about the Future. I was astounded by the world C. M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl created where marketing ruled (even more than today!).

The Space Merchants deals satirically with a hyper-developed consumerism, seen through the eyes of an advertising executive. In 1984, Frederik Pohl published a sequel, The Merchants’ War. In 2012, The Space Merchants was included in the Library of America omnibus American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1953–1956 (you can read my review here). Pohl revised the original novel in 2011 with added material and more contemporary references.

In 1955, Kornbluth and Pohl published another SF sociological novel, Gladiator-At-Law, that gave new meaning to “court battle.” I plan on rereading Gladiator-At-Law for a FFB in 2024. Sadly, the early death of Kornbluth brought an end to this fabulous SF team that produced so many great short stories and ground-breaking SF novels. If you haven’t read this SF classic, ask Santa to bring you a copy! GRADE: A

Although Diane owns over 100 Christmas CDs, somehow we add a couple more each Holiday Season. Amanda Shires For Christmas was recorded during a four-day heatwave in July 2021. According to Shires, the Nashville studio was decorated with sparkly decorations and the musicians wore Christmas hats to celebrate the spirit of a season.

I love Amanda Shires’ opening ballad ‘Magic Oooooooh’, where Shires trills: “It’s Christmas time in June”. This CD includes mostly original compositions (there are two covers, one with new lyrics). Some people say that Amanda Shires sounds a bit like Dolly Parton. Check out the video below and make your own judgement.

While Amanda Shires takes some risks with her Christmas songs, James Taylor plays it safe with A Christmas Album. Most of the songs are familiar favorites. Diane finds James Taylor’s voice soothing and pleasant, especially while we were decorating our Christmas Tree. If you’re looking for some agreeable Christmas music, here it is. What Christmas music are you listening to? GRADE: B (for both)

TRACK LIST:

A1	Amanda Shires , Featuring The McCrary Sisters–	Magic Ooooooh	4:13
A2	Amanda Shires–	A Real Tree This Year	3:15
A3	Amanda Shires , Featuring The McCrary Sisters–	Let’s Get Away	3:21
A4	Amanda Shires–	Home To Me	3:39
A5	Amanda Shires , Featuring The McCrary Sisters–	Blame It On The Mistletoe	3:18
B6	Amanda Shires–	Slow Falling Snow	3:39
B7	Amanda Shires–	What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?	2:28
B8	Amanda Shires–	Silent Night	4:13
B9	Amanda Shires , Featuring The McCrary Sisters–	Gone For Christmas	3:52
B10	Amanda Shires–	Wish For You	3:28
B11	Amanda Shires , Featuring Lawrence Rothman–	Always Christmas Around Here	3:12

AA

TRACK LIST:

		Winter Wonderland	3:36
		Go Tell It On The Mountain	3:48
		In The Bleak Midwinter	4:18
		Baby, It’s Cold Outside	4:19
		Santa Claus Is Coming To Town	2:58
		Jingle Bells	3:55
		The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On The Open Fire)	3:54
		Deck The Halls	2:51
		Some Children See Him	4:41
		Who Comes This Night	4:17
		Auld Lang Syne	3:41

In his informative Introduction, Robert Silverberg tells how he and Randall Garrett became writing partners. “We worked and reworked each other’s manuscripts until they blended invisibly into a single style. Randall and I were, I suppose, science fiction’s odd couple, but we did get the work done, plenty of it, and I remain forever grateful to him for the way he accelerated my incipient carer. When we set up shop toghteter in the summer of 1955, I was a college student who had sold four or five stories and was struggling to get a start as a science-fiction writer. Thrieetn months later, thanks to his tutelage, I had dozens and dozens of stories in print and was voted the 1956 Hugo award as that year’s most promising new author.” (p. 13)

My favorite story in this Crippen and Landru collection from 2008 is the title story, “A Little Intelligence.” In the future, humans and an alien species are at war. A negotiation session is arranged to help stop the war. A group of aliens come to a religious site when Sister Mary Magdalene gets involved in the investigation when one of the aliens is murdered. Did a human commit the crime…or one of the other aliens. I enjoyed the mix of science fiction and crime detection.

Three of the stories in A Little Intelligence are pure detective stories taking place in the future and/or on other planets: “Deadly Decoy,” “The Slow and the Dead” and “A Little Intelligence.” The other stories mix SF elements with occasional crime elements. I wish Silverberg and Garrett had written more stories like these. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION by Robert Silverberg –7

Catch a thief — 15

Deadly decoy — 31

The slow and the dead — 47

The mummy takes a wife — 75

No future in this — 105

Deus ex machina — 127

A little intelligence — 151

Sources — 175

Diane, my niece Elise, and I sat in the balcony while Patrick, Katie, and their friend Josephine danced on the floor of this interactive musical. Platforms moved the people on the floor around throughout the show. Other platforms carried the actors across the venue during the performance.

Here Lies Love is a musical with music by David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) and Fatboy Slim, and lyrics by Byrne. This biographical musical is based on Byrne’s and Slim’s concept music album based on Byrne’s research on the life of former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos. The musical’s score is described as “disco pop.”

The sold-out performance, full of flashing lights, archived photos and videos from the 1960s to the 1980s show the tragic story of the Philippine Government drifting into an autocratic regime ruled by Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Imelda grew up in poverty but found her way into the wealthy ruling class of the Philippines–she had a 1000 pairs of shoes!–and purged her poverty-stricken past.

Dancing, singing, impassioned speeches (quoted from the originals) prove to be a heady mix of music and corrupt politics. Many people around us cried as the tragedy unfolded. Here Lies Love crackles with energy and unique staging while telling a heart-breaking story. GRADE: C+

MUSICAL NUMBERS:

Musical numbers

“American Troglodyte” “Here Lies Love” “Child of the Philippines” “Opposite Attraction” “The Rose of Tacloban” “A Perfect Hand” “Eleven Days” “When She Passed By” “Sugartime Baby” “Walk Like a Woman” “Don’t You Agree? / Pretty Face” “Dancing Together” “The Fabulous One”

“Men Will Do Anything” “Star and Slave” “Poor Me” “Please Don’t” “Solano Avenue” “Riots and Bombs” “Order 1081” “Seven Years” “Gate 37” “Just Ask the Flowers” “Why Don’t You Love Me?” “God Draws Straight”