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.

Selected Quotes From “What They Forgot to Teach You In School”

Posted on October 12, 2022 by smellincoffee

Shortly after reading On Love, I found another de Botton title in my library’s e-book collection, What they Forgot to Teach You In School. Unsurprisingly, I soon had four pages of quotes from the book. Below are just a few. … Continue reading →

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Nixon’s pyramid, the future, and intelligent octopus arms

Posted on October 12, 2022 by smellincoffee

At some point in the last year a book tipped me off to Tom Vanderbilt’s Survival City, in which the author tours ruins and remains of DC’s vast Cold War infrastructure while providing a history of the way popular fears … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday: Unstitched

Posted on October 10, 2022 by smellincoffee

This week’s Teaser Tuesday is from Brett Ann Stanciu’s Unstitched: My Journey to Understand Opioid Addiction and How People and Communities Can Heal. I haven’t posted a review for it yet, but it was powerful. “Would you say you now … Continue reading →

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A thought of Thanksgiving

Posted on October 4, 2022 by smellincoffee

A year ago I was hospitalized with what could have been a life-ending illness. When I was told that I had chronic kidney disease and would need to be on dialysis for the forseeable future, I thought my life was … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Tuesday & Teaser Tuesday

Posted on October 3, 2022 by smellincoffee

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is “Favorite Bookstores”, or “Bookstores You’d Like to Visit”. As a child of rural post big-box America, I’ve only ever known places like Bookland, Books-A-Million, etc, and until recently could only visit ‘real’ bookstores while … Continue reading →

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September 2022 in Review

Posted on October 1, 2022 by smellincoffee

Well, this was….not a month for being productive on my reading goals, but at least I had fun. I revisited some favorite history books from my teen years and stumbled on two authors who were fascinating and a delight to … Continue reading →

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On Love

Posted on September 29, 2022 by smellincoffee

On Love / The Course of Love / Essays on Love© 2006 Alain de Botton240 pages “The philosopher in the bedroom is as ludicrous a figure as the philosopher in the nightclub,” Alain de  Botton offers in On Love,  a … Continue reading →

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Act of Oblivion

Posted on September 26, 2022 by smellincoffee

Act of Oblivion(c) 2022 Robert Harris477 pages The puritan despot Cromwell is dead and the English king restored, but the balance books of history are not yet straight. There remain in England still breathing the men who presumed to put … Continue reading →

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Dark Matter

Posted on September 20, 2022 by smellincoffee

Dark Matter© 2016 Blake Crouch352 pages Jason Desseys is a first-rate physicist, one who could have earned his place in the history books alongside Feynman,  Planck, and Hawking.  He chose instead to focus on an unexpected role as a father, … Continue reading →

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The rat race

Posted on September 19, 2022 by smellincoffee
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