Mr. Burke's Reading List

Grimm's Fairy Tales , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (unknown) The ebook has a publication date of 2012 online. The book itself has a date of 1922, which I assume is for the illustrations. Wikipedia puts publication at 1812. Over the past few years, I have read a few books that were updated takes on fairy tales : either continuations or retellings from a different point of view, with or without "modern sensibilities". Going through some of these made me realize that I've never read the original fairy tales, even though I've had hard-cover copies of them. I don't remember when I downloaded this book, probably a couple of years ago. Like with most fairy tale books, though, I can only read so many before I need to move on to something else and get back to it. Basically, I started this sometime last year, reading a tale or two on short train rides or when I was between books. Most of familiar with the sanitized or "Disney-fied" versions of t...

A Brave and Startling Truth , Maya Angelou (1995) I saw this in the school library, a slim volume of poetry, and I needed something to read while I was on hallway duty. I am not going to critique Maya Angelou , but I will comment. First off, this wasn't a collection, it is a single poem, which she read at the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. It is about the people of this planet coming together, united. To talk about my usual poetry complaints: they aren't here. This is free verse that is pleasant and pleasurable to read. The line breaks make sense. The page breaks (which would be stanza breaks) make sense. Also, I love the imagery and word choice. Just to pick a couple of lines out: When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate And the faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean Minstrel shows are offensive. The characters have faces blackened with soot (or makeup), and the players scrub them clean afterward. "Sooted with scorn" carrie...

Black Cat, Volumes 1-4 Kentaro Yabuki (2006) Unlike the last series I read, there are more than 4 volumes of Black Cat . It's an ongoing series, but only the first four were available for me to read. The series was release in 2001, with the English versions arriving in 2006. The series follows the exploits of Train Heartnet, once an assassin for an organization called "Chronos", who now makes a living as a "sweeper" or bounty hunter. Train has a tatoo of the Roman numeral XIII, which is as much a reference to bad luck as the name "Black Cat" itself. The name "Chronos" would indicate time, and the fact that he is number 13 is a little odd, but definitely keeping with his character. He's also an expert marksman, having as much luck as skill with his pistol. He can hit other people's bullets mid-flight. The organization he worked for, and those who know of it, believe that the Black Cat has been dead for the past two years. ...

Life's Little Instruction Book, Vol III H. Jackson Browne, Jr. (1995) I probably picked up this little gift-book edition sometime in the late 1990s and it's been sitting on a shelf or in a box ever since. You could classify it as self-help or inspirational or something like that, but it's a list of 500+ things that you could or should do to make your life, or the lives of those around you, better. This is the kind of thing you could probably find on a list on the Web somewhere. Even in 1995, this could probably be found on a "listserv" or a place like "cathouse.org". (I have no idea if that site still exists, and I'm not checking.) Most of these instructions are short, pithy one-liners, reminders of advice that your parents or grandparents might've told you. There are things that they told you that you should do, but you didn't know why, so maybe you don't. But then you realize, what if you did? Would things be better? Sugg...

Azumanga Daioh, Volumes 1-4 Kiyohiko Azuma (2000-2004) I had a recent assignment in the Library of the school to which I'm currently assigned. I spent part of that day organizing the manga shelves. Part of the reason for this was to scope out something new to read. Oddly, despite all the volumes, the choices where slim. I wanted something where the first volume wasn't missing nor were there any early gaps in the sequence in case I got interested and the story dragged out for multiple books. Of the ones that qualified, quite a few were romance books, which I wasn't interested in. And one seemed to be about chess, which was a maybe. But I saw the four volumes of Azumanga Daioh , so I took the first one. It wasn't objectionable, so I borrowed the other three as well. First off, I'm not the target audience. Secondly, I understand that there's animation of the series (doesn't surprise me), and if it were available on some platform I currently subscr...

Thank you for visiting my blog. This blog is a list of my recently read books. It's actually meant for me to keep track of the things I've read with a few notes about what the book was about or the characters involved. That's how it started. I don't mean for it to be a "book review" site, although it will sometimes read like that. I try to avoid spoiling ending or anything in case someone stumbles onto this page by accident. Once I remind myself what a book was about, I should remember the ending. And if I don't, well, then it wasn't worth remembering. Comments are welcome, as are suggestions based on other things I've read. Fact checking is welcome, as well, as I type from memory. For the purpose of this blog, while I desire accuracy, it is not mandatory. However, corrections can be made if I'm way off on something. -- Christopher Burke

O is for Outlaw Sue Grafton (1999) Up until now, we've only had glimpses into the earlier life lived by Kinsey Milhone before she became a detective, and we've even discovered, as she did, that what we knew wasn't totally true. We know she'd been orphaned, and raised by her aunt. We know that she'd been a cop, and married twice. We thought we knew that she had no other living relatives, until they suddenly showed up and we learned more about them. Now we get to learn more about her ex-husband from her short-lived first marriage. First off, his name is Michael Macgruder, aka Mickey, and secondly, well, we learn about his past more than his present. He doesn't get to say much in the here and now. Kinsey doesn't have a case this time. She's on her own. In fact, she'll even be a suspect before it's over. The novel opens with Kinsey getting a call from someone who has a box of her old possessions, report cards, yearbooks and the like. The...

One of the problems I always have with lists of the "best" books of any given year is that I rarely get to read books in the year that they are published. I guess I rely so much on word of mouth for new things, and if they are popular, I won't see a copy of it. Secondary problem, I'm at a point where I have way too many books, so I don't purchase too many. I might get a new book as a gift, or if I'm getting it signed by the author, which hasn't happened for a new release since I worked in midtown Manhattan. My reading time could be summed up as follows: before bed, on the subway (not buses), and lying around in the pool. (Yes, in the pool, so my choices are limited -- no ebooks, obviously.) Looking at this blog, there were 20 entries from 2017. One of those had two books, and another mentioned 30 volumes of manga read over a 12-month period. Assuming half of those were read in 2017, that's 35 books, which isn't bad. Add to that a few more book...