Mr. Burke's Reading List

Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation , Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw (2019) Not really a review, just reminding myself about some of the details of what I read ... A couple months back, I got to see Tim McGraw and Jon Meacham at The Beacon Theater . I put the names in that order because, frankly, I had no clue who Meacham was, and I was going to see and hear Tim McGraw. Yeah, it wasn't that kind of show. Not that it was bad. It was basically an evening of talk and song that promoted their new book, which was conveniently on sale in the lobby. I got my copy from the library. Twice -- there was such a demand that I couldn't renew it without waiting again. The book analyzes how music has influenced and been influenced by events in American history, going back as far as "The Liberty Song" written by John Dickenson in the years before the first Continental Congress. Meacham is a presidential biographer, and that experience i...

Superman: Zero Hour , Writers: Dan Jurgens, Karl Kesel, David Michelinie, Louise Simonson (1994) Not really a review, just reminding myself about some of the details of what I read ... I vaguely recall when Zero Hour happened in DC Comics , but if I had to guess it was back in 1994, I would have been way off. I remember the bit where every comic was Issue #0 for that month, but I wasn't regularly reading any comics by that point. This was also sometime after the Doomsday plot line where Superman died and there were suddenly four new Supermen. Again, I never read that story line, but it did make it into the papers and get discussed at a convention. Plus, later on, I listened to an audio presentation of it in my car. (Back in the days of the 50-mile one-way commute.) The stories up front are connected because of some time storm happening, which causes characters to shift universes. This allows for Batman to appear numerous times, as various incarnations that have been pu...