Author Archives: smellincoffee

About smellincoffee

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

Ten Years of the Classics Club

Posted on August 18, 2022 by smellincoffee

The Classics Club recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary, and posed some questions to its readers. I began participating in 2015, wrapping up my first list in 2020 and starting a new one weeks later. My original plan with the Classics … Continue reading →

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Book meme remix liberated from CK

Posted on August 17, 2022 by smellincoffee

Cyberkitten recently posted a couple of book memes, and I’m borrowing questions from both. What’s the first book you remember reading? The earliest reading memory I have is a Sesame Street title involving Bert, Ernie, and some monster in the … Continue reading →

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Of Babylonians, demons, and bankers

Posted on August 16, 2022 by smellincoffee

Continuing in the Big Book Catchup… Paul Kriwaczek’s Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization covers Mesopotamian history from the establishment of Eridu to the rise of the  first Persian empire.  This is a survey of thousands of years of … Continue reading →

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Fighting for Space

Posted on August 11, 2022 by smellincoffee

Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight© 2020 Amy Shira Teitel448 pages When the age of flight arrived,   women were as eager to take to the skies as men.  Fighting for Space is a … Continue reading →

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The Kaiju Preservation Society

Posted on August 9, 2022 by smellincoffee

The Kaiju Preservation Society© 2021 John Scalzi268 pages I don’t know what a kaiju is, but John Scalzi’s name is on the cover so, I’m sold. At least, that’s…what I thought. Turns out John Scalzi isn’t always at his John … Continue reading →

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Recalled to life

Posted on August 8, 2022 by smellincoffee

Er. hi. Been a while. Today marks my partial return to work, as I’ve been readjusting to life the last few weeks. I’ve been reading steadily, but have not been home (lots of housesitting), and typing reviews on my laptop … Continue reading →

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My Brother’s Keeper: Republic

Posted on July 25, 2022 by smellincoffee

Star Trek My Brothers Keeper: Republic(C) 1999 Michael Jan Friedman267 pages The events of “Where No Man Has Gone Before” forced Jim Kirk to make the brutal decision to kill his best friend Gary Mitchell, after Mitchell had been altered … Continue reading →

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Handprints on Hubble

Posted on July 18, 2022 by smellincoffee

Handprints on Hubble(c) 2019 Kathryn D. Sullivan304 pages Handprints on Hubble is a unique astronaut memoir, in part because Dr. Sullivan is a scientist first and an astronaut second. Longing to explore, she began her academic life in oceanography before realizing … Continue reading →

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The Apollo Murders

Posted on July 15, 2022 by smellincoffee

The Apollo Murders(c) 2021 Chris Hadfield 480 pages It’s 1973, and the Apollo program is nearly at its end. One more mission is planned — but it won’t be the mission executed. Instead, the all-military crew of Apollo 18 will … Continue reading →

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The Burning Blue

Posted on July 14, 2022 by smellincoffee

The Burning Blue: The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA’s Challenger Disaster(c) 2021 Kevin Cook288 pages So fickle is the human mind that even Apollo could not keep the public terribly excited for very long after the first moon … Continue reading →

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