Mr. Burke's Reading List

ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, March 1973 Update the photo I had a lot of books to read in March, and I enjoyed most of them. Consequently, I didn't start Analog until March 27, so not much of it got read. The usual explaination: 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: There's part two of a serial, two novellettes, and two short stories, one of which is really flash. The kind of thing that would one day be called "Probability: Zero" in Analog. Editorial: "Law & Order" by Ben Bova. The 15th anniversary of Sputnik had passed without notice. Satellites are now orbiting the Earth. The Russians established the rule of "Freedom of Space...

Witches of New York by Ami McKay (2023) (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 one of three that was our book club was to choose from, but it didn't win the vote. After the previous month, where the ebooks were difficult to come by, I placed holds on all three books before we even voted. Since the winning book was short, and since this one seemed to be of interest, I gave it a shot. I'm glad I did. The story takes place in New York City in the 1880s when the Brooklyn Bridge was still under construction, Cleopatra's Needle was on its way to the city (to eventually stand in Central Park) and Lady Liberty's torch, and only her torch, stood in Madison Square Park. Against all this, two witches, Eleanor St. Clair and Adelaide Thom, have a shop called "Tea and Sympathy" where they offer tea and tell fo...

The Bookshop and the Barbarian by Morgan Stang (2023) (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 that was posted in FreeEBOOKS on reddit. The author asked for opinions. I'll post them here instead of on Good Reads. I was in a quandry whether to give this 2 or 3 stars out of 5. It's better than some of the dreck that I've given two stars to, just because I made it to the end, but not as good as some of the "Okay" things that I gave 3 stars to. A solid (actually, a little malleable) 2.5 here. What tipped it was that this book as a 4.1 on Amazon and a 3.9 on Good Reads. So it'll withstand a 2. I don't know if the narrator of the book wants to be Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchet (or Mark Twain?), but the narrator comes off as talking down to the readers, not lifting them up. You are not let in on th...