Author Archives: smellincoffee

About smellincoffee

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

Paradiso

Posted on June 6, 2023 by smellincoffee

Paradiso© trans. 2007 Anthony Esolen, original 14th century by Dante Alighieri544 pages including notes & appendices I’ve gotta hand it to Dante, at least the character Dante. I though I’d fallen hard for a woman, but against him there is … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday

Posted on June 6, 2023 by smellincoffee

Botanists tell us that the blossom is an evolution of the leaf–but they cannot say just why that particular bud should take from the same air and sunshine a fairer substance, a deeper color, a more permanent existence, and become … Continue reading →

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Faces Along the Bar

Posted on June 5, 2023 by smellincoffee

Faces along the Bar: Lore and Order in the Workingman’s Saloon, 1870-1920© 1998 Madelon Powers331 pages Men’s thinking on this issue seems to have involved an interesting mixture of solicitude and defiance. On the one hand, decent women should be … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews, Society and Culture | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Sparring Partners

Posted on June 4, 2023 by smellincoffee

John Grisham is the author of scores of novels of varying quality and two collections of short stories, if memory serves. Sparring Partners is a ‘novelty’, in that it collects three novellas, ranging in time from the 1980s to the … Continue reading →

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Vein Pursuits

Posted on June 3, 2023 by smellincoffee

Vein Pursuits© 2023 Rhett C. Bruno & Jaime Castle322 pages | Audible version read by Roger Clark, 11 hours & change Cold as Hell introduced readers to James Crowley, an undead gunman who was killed trying to protect an innocent … Continue reading →

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America’s untouchables and baseball

Posted on June 2, 2023 by smellincoffee

Shortly after the financial implosion of the late 2000s and the beginning of the ‘great recession’, physicist & banker Chris Arnade began long walks around New York City to contemplate the ramifications of his and his ‘industry’s’ reckless speculation and … Continue reading →

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I have questions, Goodreads….

Posted on June 1, 2023 by smellincoffee
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May 2023 in Review

Posted on June 1, 2023 by smellincoffee

Another month gone, and — well, I’m a little proud of this one, primarily because I FINISHED THE SCIENCE SURVEY! My previous record has been August (2022), so hurrah. The year’s science reading isn’t over, of course, but now I … Continue reading →

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Adventures with the Enemies of Science

Posted on May 30, 2023 by smellincoffee

The Heretics / The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science© 2014 Will Storr368 pages Outside ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. Will Storr will meet you there, because at this point he’s not sure that there’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Teaser Tuesday because it is in fact Tuesday and not Monday

Posted on May 30, 2023 by smellincoffee

I love three-day weekends, but boy do they throw the ol’ internal kenning of time and space off. Today’s top ten Tuesday prompt was ‘things that make me NOT want to read a book’, and I can’t think of much. … Continue reading →

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