The Wrap Up

2025, like all the years before it, was a mixture of good and bad around here. Health issues became a little more challenging this year and took up more time, but I feel like I’m still in pretty good shape for an old-timer. My writing production isn’t what it once was, but I managed to turn out more than half a million words, which amounted to almost six novels. No short stories this year. Most importantly, I feel like the work is still pretty good quality. My schedule is fairly full again for 2026, but changes are looming. But when aren’t they?

Of course, reading is still very important to me, as it has been ever since I first visited the bookmobile when I was six years old. I read 149 books this year, a nice number but down some from last year. Here are my ten favorite books (not best, necessarily, but favorite) that I read this year, alphabetical by author:

SHARPE’S TIGER, Bernard Cornwell

GANGLAND’S DOOM: THE SHADOW OF THE PULPS, Frank Eisgruber Jr.

RANCHO BRAVO #1: CALHOON, Thorne Douglas (Ben Haas)

THE CHRONICLES OF HANUVAR, VOLUME 2: THE CITY OF MARBLE AND BLOOD, Howard Andrew Jones

LONGHORN STAMPEDE, Philip Ketchum 

SARA AND THE MAD DOG, Stephen Mertz

ROBERT E. HOWARD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A TEXAS WRITER, Willard M. Oliver

SOMETIME LOFTY TOWERS, David C. Smith

STORYTELLER: HELPFUL HINTS AND TALL TALES FROM THE WRITING LIFE, Carlton Stowers

’NADA, Daniel Boyd (Dan Stumpf)

At least a dozen more books could have made this list and some of them probably would have on a different day. I read a lot of good books. I believe all of those listed above are still in print and easily available except for the Western novel by Philip Ketchum.

So what does 2026 hold in store? Who knows? I plan to keep writing and reading for the foreseeable future, and I figure most of the other stuff will take care of itself. My thanks to all of you reading this, some of whom have been here for more than twenty years. We’ll see how long we can keep it going.

UPDATE: In response to a request in the comments, here are the other books I considered for my top ten list, in the order in which I read them: THE RULE OF THREES, Jeffrey Deaver; THE ART OF RON LESSER, VOLUME 2, Robert Deis, Bill Cunningham, eds.; ONCE A FIGHTER, Les Savage Jr.; SWITCHEROO, Emmett McDowell; GUN LAW AT VERMILION, Matt Stuart (L.P. Holmes); HAMILTON'S HAREM, William Kane (Ben Haas); THE JOY WHEEL, Paul W. Fairman; KNIGHT OF DARKNESS: THE LEGEND OF THE SHADOW, Will Murray; THE WILD ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, VOLUME 5, Will Murray; OVERBOARD, George F. Worts; THE BULLET GARDEN, Stephen Hunter; THE RED TASSEL, David Dodge; DREAM TOWN, David Baldacci; MARIHUANA, William Irish (Cornell Woolrich); and EYE WITNESS, George Harmon Coxe. Any of these books are well worth your time.

Review: Sharpe's Tiger - Bernard Cornwell

My history with Bernard Cornwell’s fiction has been odd. I read THE ARCHER’S TALE, the first book in his Grail Quest series, loved it, and never read any more of them. I read REBEL, the first of his Nathaniel Starbuck series, loved it, and never read any more of them. For a long time, I’ve been wanting to try what’s arguably his best-known series about British soldier Richard Sharpe, but I worried I’d read one and never get back to them. But you never know without trying, and since I own almost all of the series in one form or another, I decided I might as well go ahead and read the first one, SHARPE’S TIGER.

Actually, this is the first Sharpe book chronologically but not the first one published. After the series was well-established, Cornwell went back and wrote several books filling in the character’s early history in the army, beginning with Sharpe being a private during the British forces siege of the Indian city of Seringapatam in 1799. Sharpe, who was a thief before joining the army, is pretty much of a rogue, but he’s a great fighting man and has a core of decency to him. He runs afoul of a truly despicable villain, a brutal sergeant named Obadiah Hakeswill, and is tricked into committing a crime that gets him sentenced to a flogging of two thousand lashes, an extreme punishment that will probably kill him.

However, before the sentence can be carried out fully, Sharpe is picked for a vital espionage mission. He has to pretend to be a deserter, get into the besieged city, and rescue a captured British officer who has some vital intelligence that may mean all the difference between victory and defeat. Failing a rescue, Sharpe is supposed to obtain the information from the officer and then escape.

That’s the basic plot, but while it’s fairly simple, Cornwell layers in some twists and turns that are very clever and still sticks pretty close to the actual history while at the same time giving the fictional Richard Sharpe plenty of important stuff to do. I was really impressed by the way Cornwell manipulated his plot and characters in this novel. To be honest, I thought this book started on the slow side and I was beginning to wonder about the series’ sterling reputation, but when things kicked into gear about a quarter of the way in, I was really hooked and dragged along. I mean, Sharpe fights giant warriors, has to escape from a vicious tiger, and blows a bunch of stuff up. I was really flipping the pages to see what was going to happen next.

There are also epic, very well-written battle scenes, vividly drawn historical characters, effective touches of humor and pathos, good supporting characters, and a top-notch protagonist in Richard Sharpe himself. SHARPE’S TIGER is a terrific book, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. If you’re a fan of historical adventure novels, I give it a very high recommendation. It's available on Amazon in e-book, audio, hardcover, and paperback editions.

And now the question remains . . . will I read more of the series? I’m pretty sure I will, but as always, we’ll have to wait and see.