Mr. Burke's Reading List

ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, November 1971 With the holdiays, I'm falling behind at the moment. I'm in the middle of a few things and keeping up with the entries isn't easy. I'm setting this to post on November 30, no matter what state it's in. Yes, the bottom will look like last month's because there's a bit of cutting and pasting going on. Issue eleven in my Analog Deep Dive bored me a little. Part of the problem was reading at bedtime or on subways coming home. Both induce me to nod off if my interest isn't being kept. That said, there is plenty of raw material that could be mined from this issue. 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. In this iss...

Tooth and Claw, by Jo Walton (2003) (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 a Tor Books Book Club Ebook of the Month, or whatever it is called. I've downloaded many, and read few. I thought I go catch up on some of them, and this was the first one I went to. The book takes place in a world of dragons. Not a world with dragons, mind you, but of them. All the characters are dragons, from the wingless dragonets to the wing-bound servants of modest size to behemoths that are 40 to 60 feet in length and can breath fire. (Breathing fire can accelerate a dragon's demise.) Their size varies and part of what accelerates that growth is eating dragon meat. Dragons eat other dragons, but usually not until they are already dead. It is this where the story opens, in the cave of Bon Agornin, who is on his deathbed (or death pile o...

Beartown, by Fredrik Backman (2016) (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 a book group selection. Another one that got off to a slow start because it jumped around a lot. I found myself dividing time between and a novella and a whole lot of manga. I started reading it in Libby, but I switched back to kindle for the "infinite scroll" feature. The book takes place in a dying town called Beartown which is slowly disappearing into the woods as businesses close up and people move to other places, like neighboring Hed. The town has heart, though, and hockey. And this year's junior hockey team is going to the semifinals (against rival Hed) and then, if they win, to the finals. That will lead to greater things and turn this town around. I'll start with that because the book starts with a scene of someone pointing...

My Hero Academia Volumes 8 Through 14, by Kōhei Horikoshi (2016-2018) (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.) Now that I've discovered the app Libby where I can not only download digital copies from two different library systems, but I can zoom in on the panels so I can see some of the fine print, I've been going through these books at a faster clip. No more waiting for books to be available and shipped to my branch! Volume 8 starts with the end of the practical exams, with most of the students in Class 1-A and 1-B passing. It was shorter than the anime, where more time was devoted to each of the teachers and the students that they faced off against. (Similarly, the anime showed more of Tsuyu's internship than we saw in the comic.) After that, they were off to summer camp with those who failed stuck taking ...