Mr. Burke's Reading List

Some Christmas reading by numerous authors (see below). (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.) LAST ENTRY OF THE YEAR! As the year winds down, I remember reading a holiday story or two last year, and I thought doing so this year might put me in the mood. Plus, I discover that a former student of mine has a second book of poetry published, and it is a holiday collection. So I scoped out some free kindle books before trolling Project Gutenberg for stories or novellas to finish out the year. It was an interesting experience. A note to myself for next year: when searching for "free kindle Christmas ebooks" make sure to include "-romance", because the first few pages of results will be Hallmark Channel wannabes, even if they include elves or vampires or Lord knows what else. Okay, without further ado: B...

ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, December 1971 Twelfth Issue! I made it through One Year! The December Analog in my Deep Dive brings .... 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 issue: The Editorial: "Those Impossible Quasars", by John. W. Campbell. In a purely scientific essay, Campbell starts with the differences between optical telescopes and radio telescopes and radio astronomy interferometry. This leads into the discussion of quasars. They seem impossible because they are billions of light years away, putting out massive amounts of energy and moving at speeds of 10c. However, if the red shift calculations were incorrect, it could turn out that they are o...

Prince Ewald the Brave , Dylan Madeley (2021) (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 book was purchased as part of an Author's Secret Santa book exchange. I selected "Fantasy" and labeled my own book as such, even though mine contains both fantasy and science-fiction stories. A third author purchased my book, and this author purchased someone else's. First off, I was a little confused that the top of my Kindle screen lists this book at part of "The Gift-Knight Trilogy" while Good Reads lists Madeley's earlier books as that trilogy. This is a standalone book. A sequel could be written to it, but there's no underlying plot line that would make a trilogy out of it, other than the characters within it. There is a cartoonish illustration on the cover, leading me to believe that this might be a light-h...

Jake and the Gingerbread Wars , by E. J. Foley (2013) The Gryphon Chronicles #3.5 (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.) Another Christmas book that I thought should get its own entry. It's a standalone book in a series, but you don't need to know anything about it. For once, the chapter at the end of the book is a reprint of the first book to interest new readers into investigating the rest of the series instead of a chapter from the next book. The story is set in Victorian England. Jake Everton grew up in an orphange and stealing on the streets. It turned out that he was part of a magical family and the lost heir of Griffon (the first book is called "The Lost Heir"). The only magic he does in the book is telekinesis, although he does use a borrowed wand at one point. Jake has cousins Archie and Isabelle, and Isa...

Claus for Concern , by Paula Lester (2020) An Aurora Aspen Magical Holiday Mystery (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.) Another Christmas book that I thought should get its own entry. And this one appears to be the first in a series, which was nice. (Other books were Chirstmas books in the middle of their series.) It was written well-enough and the main character was good, but the mystery was not. When a character dies, the waiter who served a drink is arrested. There is literally no evidence other than he handed the sheriff a poisoned drink. But Aurora Aspen is determined to find the real killer to help her ex-boyfriend. The town hasn't seen a murder in years, and you would htink that they would want to get this one right. Even if the police were inexperienced (mentioned at the end of the book), you would think that they woul...

The Ghost of Christmas Past, by Angie Fox (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.) A year ago, around Christmas , I downloaded A Very Beechwood Christmas by Danielle Garrett . Oddly, it wasn't because I wanted to get into the holiday mood, but because I was looking for books with gnomes in them. But it fit the spirit of the season. So this year, I decided to try that again, and I downloaded a handful of short novels and stories with the criteria free kindle Christmas -romance . Sadly, that exclusion was necessary. The first several pages looked like things from the Hallmark channel, even though some had vampires, elves or ghosts in them. Not the kind of mood that I was looking for. Anyway, I will be posting another thread containing a list of the shorter Christmas books and stories that I stumbled across and read. Howeve...

My Hero Academia Volumes 15 Through 21 , by Kōhei Horikoshi (2017-2019) (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.) The Yakuza line plays out (and some of the visuals get very complicated to look at) and Eri is saved, and her power saves Deku. After this, it's time for the school festival which is a chance for the non-hero courses to be recognized. Class 1-A decides to put on a dance for the students, allowing Jiro to shine. Bakugo is a mad drummer. (He's a mad everything, I guess.) This also introduces the Gentle Criminal arc, which is thankfully brief. He just wasn't that good a villain on TV and his sidekick was annoying. I thought she was a child at first, but she's just a very short woman. Next Endeavor steps up as the Number One hero, and he needs to show the world who he is. He immediately gets ...

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin (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 was a book group selection. The club organizer had revealed that the vote for December book was split 2-2-2, which made me question my decision numerous times before voting. One more vote was cast after mine (I don't know if he know the standings at the moment) and it also went to "Storied Life". It's short and it reads very quickly. I breezed through it in a few days of subway rides, hall duty and and before bed reading. Apparently, there is a movie in production with Christina Hendricks and Lucy Hale. The chapters are introduced with capsule book or story reviews written by A.J. Fikry to his daughter Maya and are usually about what makes a story good or what makes a writer good. I got a chuckle out of the first one...