Mr. Burke's Reading List

Whiskey , Tadio Diller (2016) A Guide to the Most Common Whiskeys, and How to Know the Difference between the Good, Bad and the Ugly, 2nd edition (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 probably came up in Book Bub, but it might've been in Reddit's FREEebooks. It's a short primer about different kinds of whiskey, whisky, Scotch and bourbon. A bit of history and a "listicle" that includes information found elsewhere in the book. It explains the difference in spellings and what must (or should) be in each variety. If it explained what "Kentucky Straight" meant, I missed it. It was a book to read between other books. Also, and this sounds really dumb, according to kindle, I've been reading for something like 180 straight days. Excpet that I've been reading even longer than that. But it appears ...

ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, February 1972 This February issue of Analog was not a favorite. I'm glad it wasn't one of the first that I read, or I would've decided that this was too much of a chore. As it was, I didn't read any other magazines this month. Last month, I overdid the magazines and didn't leave time for much else. So as much as I wanted to read a Stainless Steel Rat story by Harry Harrison in IF , I just didn't get to it. I might still read that story and skip the rest of the magazine. 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: "Popular Wisdom". Ben Bova's first editorial mentions the legacy of John W...

I tried reading Daily Science Fiction again this month. I waited until close to the end of the month to read them all. Unfortunately, the write-up last month was a bit time-consuming. Since it's a short month, and I have other things I wanted to read, I'm just listing the titles, authors, and maybe a sentence or two. These are the stories from January 31 - February 25, 2022 Summary: Fantasy - 9, Science Fiction - 9, Humor - 0, Unclassified/Experimental/Out There - 0 (I'd otherwise classify as fantasy) With 2 Supers and 2 Fairy Tale related The Future History of Your Body by Davian Aw Shadow Helper by Eric M. Witchey Space Unicorns and Magic Ovens by Liam Hogan Interesting that the story is halfway through before you know that they are on a spaceship. She Died As She Lived by Riley Tao An interesting and short take on the going-back-in-time-to-prevent something theme. Rock Hard Place by Don Redwood Not bad. The ending is hopeful … ...

Southern Spirits , Angie Fox (2015) A Southern Ghost Hunter 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.) I read Book 8.5, The Ghosts of Christmas Past, and didn't hate it. There were good characters there, but the story was tied up with Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, a la Scrooge. On the other hand, it wasn't badly written and I didn't say I wouldn't read another book in the series given the opportunity. I got that opportunity when Book 1 in the series showed up as a free listing in a Book Bub e-mailing. I'll point out here that I've downloaded a few books from them, and have read only a fraction of those. It's at the point where there could be three or four books (or even sets of books) listed for free, and I won't download any of them. Maybe because they all seem to be the same th...

Reincarnation Blues , Michael Poore (2017) (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 finished this last Friday, hours before our book club meeting. It was met with unanimous "eh". Everyone liked some parts and didn't care for others, but they didn't all line up. We found comparisons with Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and even Stephen King in different parts of the book. And then someone joined the chat late and rattled off every plot from every story by the above others that he was ripping off (or "paying homage to"). Milo has lived nearly 10,000 lives when he finds out that his soul is destined to oblivion if he doesn't achieve Perfection in one of the next few lives. He's one of the oldest souls out there. And yet, it seems like perfection isn't an easy thing to achieve, so how d...