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.

Best of the Science Survey, 2017 – 2022

Posted on May 11, 2023 by smellincoffee

I recently realized that I’m in my sixth year of doing the Science Survey, and am marking the ocassion by thinking about the ten best reads of that period. For the uninitiated, the Science Survey is an attempt to structure … Continue reading →

Posted in General, science | Tagged | 3 Comments

Breaking Bad & Bama Baseball

Posted on May 11, 2023 by smellincoffee

If you’re an obsessive fan of Breaking Bad — and is any fan of Breaking Bad not an obsessive one? — this little book is a quick treat, consisting of summaries with commentary of each respective season, along with character … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The War as the South Saw It

Posted on May 10, 2023 by smellincoffee

The Confederate Reader: The War as the South Saw It© 1999 Richard B. Harwell416 pages Mention ‘The War’ in the South without any context, and most anyone will understand which one  you’re referring to – the only War that has … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Our Man In Charleston

Posted on May 9, 2023 by smellincoffee

Our Man in Charleston© 2016 Christopher Dickey416 pages Our Man in Charleston is a fascinating history of British diplomacy in the South, 1850s-1865, about a British consul working to defend Her Majesty’s interests in the erstwhile colonies, focusing specifically on … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday & Teaser

Posted on May 9, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Artsy Reader Girl, is “Top Ten Books You Recommend the Most”. But first, a Tuesday Tease! In his informal report to the President, Tom Ochiltree, aide to General Sibley, called accurately the losses … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 11 Comments

Brittannorum

Posted on May 8, 2023 by smellincoffee

A ferventi aestuosa Libya Volat Aquila LegionumSupra Terra BrittannorumVolat Aquila LegionumRoma, Roma, O RomaLegio! Aeterna! Aeterna! Victrix! Winter is coming, both for Britain and for the Druids. Rome, drawn to Britain because of its tribes’ support of their Gallic brothers … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Missing that divine spark; plus, having Bing analyze me

Posted on May 5, 2023 by smellincoffee

Recently an article at Crisis magazine included an excerpt from the author’s attempt to get an AI to read all of his published articles and reproduce an essay in his style. He was pleased, and I was surprised, but not … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Of Cicero and base-ball

Posted on May 5, 2023 by smellincoffee

This week I’ve been finishing up a couple of audiobooks. The first is How to Grow Old, a short one by Cicero written during the early part of his retirement from Rome, before the odious Mark Anthony sent men to … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, history, Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ten Books Bing and Bard Randomly Chose from my TBR

Posted on May 2, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is “ten books I randomly grabbed from my shelf”, but I wanted to see if the chatGPT version of Bing could choose ten random items from a list, so I gave it my 70+ strong TBR list. Then … Continue reading →

Posted in General, quotations | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

April 2023 in Review

Posted on May 1, 2023 by smellincoffee

Well, welcome to May! I think Read of England was a tolerable success, though there were a lot of books I’d planned to read that I didn’t*, and since I did some book-buying to synch RoE with my other challenges … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | 2 Comments