Author Archives: smellincoffee

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About smellincoffee

Citizen, librarian, reader with a boundless wonder for the world and a curiosity about all the beings inside it.

The Gospel of Mark: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on July 17, 2026 by smellincoffee

The Gospel of Mark: A Beginner’s Guide  to the Good News is an informal introduction to the first of the synoptic Gospels.   It’s markedly different from the other Gospels in its spareness and pace. Mark moves,  and everything is … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

Posted on July 16, 2026 by smellincoffee

Two years ago I checked out Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and began an on-again, off-again fling with Japanese literature. The story concerned young Takako, who had been just been dumped by her boyfriend when he announced he was getting … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Rupture

Posted on July 15, 2026 by smellincoffee

One minute, Nymeria was just a college sophomore; the next, she was bewildered, panicked, and part of a world she had no idea existed — one which is now on the precipice of war and destruction. Great lines of light … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

WWW Wednesday & “Would You Go Sky-Diving?”

Posted on July 15, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s prompt from Long and Short reviews is, “Would you go sky-diving?”. Ever since kindergarten when the janitor made our merry-go-round go super-super fast and I got flung onto the grass throwing up, I have been very sensitive to motion … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

The War against Truckers

Posted on July 14, 2026 by smellincoffee

A few months ago, video surfaced of a ‘truck driver’ deciding to execute a U-turn in the middle of a busy highway. If you are familiar with the physics of truck-trailers, you’d know immediately how insane and irresponsible a move … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday: Chansons et Livres Français

Posted on July 14, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is books from new-to-us authors we’d like to read, but given that today is Bastille Day, I’m going to salute la belle France instead! There was a period (2012 – 2013) in which I was besotted with France, … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments

The Little House

Posted on July 11, 2026 by smellincoffee

The Little House is a strange, lovely, sad little novel.  Our narrator, for the most part, is an aging and retired housemaid named Taki.  “Housemaid” is not quite the right word for her, as she operated in a time when … Continue reading →

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The Promise and the Dream

Posted on July 9, 2026 by smellincoffee

The Promise and the Dream is inherently interesting in being a joint biography of two men who were very active public figures in the 1960s – at first as near-antagonists, then as allies in spirit, and then brother-martyrs in death.  … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

WWW Wednesday and Places we Miss

Posted on July 8, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is “places we wish were still around”. I know a lot of my Millennial people will say “Blockbuster!”. And I get it: Blockbuster was a Friday night ritual for me, too: the diet … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 8 Comments

Warren G. Harding

Posted on July 7, 2026 by smellincoffee

What do I know about Warren Gamaliel Harding? Mm….he’s the “return to normalcy” president, he pardoned Eugene Debs whom Wilson had put in jail for daring to criticize him, there was a huge scandal in his administration, and he died … Continue reading →

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