Mr. Burke's Reading List

ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, September 1971 The ninth issue in my Analog Deep Dive. One Year is now in sight -- I didn't think I would keep it up this long! For anyone finding these reviews, my purpose is two-fold: enjoying some "classic" sci-fi, and looking for stories that I think could be adapted for TV broadcast since so much of what shows up on anthology shows is rough to awful. Additional Note: I do NOT work in television. I just watch it. Overall, a good issue, with some good stories. In this issue: The Editorial: "Ecological Notes", by John. W. Campbell. John talks about Instant Experts with Immediate and Simple Answers that MUST be put into place Right Now despite the problems that the solutions might cause. Some things never change. Ralph Nader gets called out. Among the issues mentioned were air bags that were installed before the technology was ready, which caused damage to the drive shafts; phospates ...

Don't Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason, by Dave Rubin (2020) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) Walking from the anime shelf at the library toward the science fiction books, I was passing by the 300 section when I spied the words DON'T BURN THIS out of the corner of my eye. Stickers were covered the word "BOOK" on the spine. I stopped and pulled it from the shelf. I saw the title with the unlit wooden match on it. A striking cover (so to speak) that caught my attention. The subtitle "Thinking for Yourself" goes against the grain of all social media (and a lot of mainstream media) unless what you think for yourself agrees with without everyone else thinks. The oddest part was that I didn't know who Dave Rubin was. I recognized the name, probably heard it online. The funny ...

Vampire Addiction: The Vampires of Athens, by Eva Pohler (2014) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) This popped up as a free ebook in a mailing list along with The Crime Beat . Yes, this was going to be a teenage paranormal romance. I downloaded it anyway. It was pretty much what I expected and not much more. Book 1 of a series, this one takes place in Athens, Greece and ties vampires into Greek mythology, dating them back to Dionysus, who first created them. Killing a vampire means destroying all the vampires they've created (unless they're still young enough to be healthy living adults). If you kill one of the first generation of vampires, that would be really bad. Gertie is sent there from her mansion in NYC to spend a year aboard at a school in Athens. She believes her parents don't love her, or just don't ...

Shadow of the Batgirl, by Sarah Kuhn and Nicole Goux (2012/2015) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) The cover art told me that this would be a Young Adult take on the character, and probably similar to the Supergirl comic I just read. It also told me that Batgirl wasn't going to be a redhead. This would be someone new. The comic reads like a book, which is great, because I'm tired of random and incomplete collections of stories reprinted from comics. It opens with Cassandra Cain (note that it wasn't "Kane") who is a teenaged assassin, trained by her father to kill but not to speak. When she here's one of victims use the word "daughter" in a way unlike how she's always heard the word, something changes within her. She runs away. She ends up in a library when she comes across a wheelchair-boun...

While cleaning up my hard drive, I found files where I kept track of the books I read for a given year. Someone had given me the idea (back in the 90s, I believe) to open a text file, and add the name of the book I'd read. What follows below looks like an "end of the year" post made to a bulletin board somewhere. It's past my time on Usenet. Many of these may have appeared elsewhere in this blog, if not the entire post itself. I'll post these files one per month. It looks like 2006 wasn't a big year, but I did get a lot of graphic novels out of the library. 2006: The Year in Review Asimov's Galaxy , Isaac Asimov The Earth Lords , Gordon Dickson i sing the body electric! , Ray Bradbury The Transparent Life: 30 Proven Ways to Live Your Best , Naomi Judd The Funhouse , Dean Koontz The Joy of Pi , David Blatner A is for Alibi , Sue Grafton B is for Burglar , Sue Grafton The Outsiders , S. E. Hinton The End , Lemony Snic...

The Crime Beat, Episode 1: New York, by A. C. Fuller (2019) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) This popped up as a free ebook in a mailing list where most of the free ones look like some sort of paranormal or magic teen/young adult romance. Nothing wrong with that, but I've read a few of those and I have so many other things to read before I download another. Crime Beat at least sounded like it'd be different. It was. First impressions, these were guesses based on the title and the blurb. The words "Episode 1" make it sound like it's a pilot for a TV show, and at times reads like that. In fact, I could see this as an episode of a network TV show (not basic cable or streaming). Second, the part that says "New York", as if later books will take place in other cities. Considering that one of the two pa...

Ultraman Vol 2, by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguch (2012/2015) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) I found the second volume. A very quick read. A lot of great artwork. The younger hero is accepting the job as Ultraman and making appearances "saving the day". He fights one new alien who eats people because he finds them delicious. This battle covers the latter half of the book. The alien analyses the new hero a bit. But then gets beat. Yeah, I'll look for more of these. And if I get a few at a time, I'll make a single entry for them.

The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones (2020) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) This was the book group's pick for September, and I read it already. It was a bit of a quick read, and a strange one as well. I'm not that much into horror, so this was a little out there. (That said, the historical romance a few months ago wasn't what I generally read, either, but that wasn't so bad.) It starts with a Blackfoot Indian named Ricky, who has left his reservation, leaving a bar to pee outside because there's too long of a line inside. Out in the lot, an elk starts jumping on and damaging trucks. When angry bargoers head outside, all they see is an Indian, so they want to get the Indian. Ricky tries to flee the angry mob and almost makes it, except he runs into a herd of elk. That's the last we hear of Ricky...

My Monster Secret, by Eiji Masuda (2013) I read the English version, naturally (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) When I dropped off the Supergirl comic, I found the next Ultraman and a couple other things. One of them was "My Monster Secret" which had a girl with bat wings hushing someone on the cover. It was voulme 1, so I gave it a shot. Basically, it's a high school story with a boy who can't keep a secret, mostly because his face gives everything away. He's known as the "Holey Sieve" (even though sieves are supposed to have holes?). He likes this one girl but is afraid to approach her. He was shot down by another girl before he even had a chance to tell her how he felt. His friends convince him to talk to this girl, who always arrives early and stays late. He finds her in a classroom a...

Supergirl: Being Super by Mariko Tamaki and Joelle Jones (2018) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) Back at the library, looking for the next Ultraman, when I spotted a Supergirl book. Unlike other graphic novels, this one looked like it was made to be a trade paperback. Maybe it was, and maybe it was not. I just now, while searching for the image, saw images of the individual comic. The cover of this book is modified from issue #1, but this looks better. However, unlike the recent Superman book I read, this is all one story, not parts of stories here and there. But I have to say that the fact that this was an actual comic first just makes it even more confusing. Not that I liked it less. Supergirl is one of those charcters that has gone through many changes over the years. I remember when she was Linda Lee Danvers before she w...

Ultraman Vol 1, by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguch (2012/2015) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) Back at the library, walking among the manga and graphic novels. I saw Ultraman 1 was there (while My Hero Academia 1 was not), so I gave it a go. A little online research says that its a sequel to the TV series, not a sequel to a different manga. I was curious because of the "Beginning of a New Era" on the cover. The legendary "Giant of Light" now a memory, as it is believed he returned home after fighting the many giant aliens that invaded the Earth. Shin Hayata's son Shinjiro seems to possess a strange ability, and it is this ability, along with his father's revelation that he was Ultraman, that leads Shinjiro to battle the new aliens invading the Earth as the new Ultraman. The story is set up a...