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.

Bringing the dead to life

Just a cool thing I saw earlier today. The modern stills have some AI-induced movement, so viewers can see Henry VIII’s jowls tremor as he eyes yet another woman he can marry after beheading or killing her predecessor.

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Churchill’s Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers: WW2’s Most Daring D-Day Mission and the Hunt to Take Down Hitler’s War Criminals© 2021 Damien Lewis400 pages A few months back, I read D-Day Girls, a history of SOE operatives who prepared the way for Operation … Continue reading

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Sharpe’s Devil

Sharpe’s Devil: Chile, 1820© 1992 Bernard Cornwell280 pages Twelve years ago, Cyberkitten introduced me to Richard Sharpe, and for the next two years I happily followed him through India, Iberia, and France. These days I am forced to look for … Continue reading

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Lionheart

Lionheart© 2020 Ben Kane400 pages A noble son of Ireland is transported to England as a hostage to secure his father’s loyalty, and the adventure of a lifetime begins. Abused and ill-treated by the petty lords who are given custody … Continue reading

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins

Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins: A Trip through the World of Animal Intoxication© 2021 One R. Pagan320 pages Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins promises readers amusing stories of animal intoxication, but delivers instead a serious but enjoyable look at animal … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

March 2022 in review

March started strong and abruptly crashed, as I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump the last week — dragging through two e-books, making steady progress on Cancer Ward, and distracting myself by working in the garden or enjoying … Continue reading

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Irreversible Damage

Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters© 2020 Abigail Shrier276 pages To the degree that gender dysphoria existed prior to 2015, it was almost wholly the domain of young boys.  In the last ten years, however, claims of dysphoria … Continue reading

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Top Ten Books on my Spring TBR

I missed last’s week TT theme on spring tbrs, so instead of following the prompt for today (titles with adjectives), I’m going to be sharing some upcoming books!  Cancer Ward, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. An entry for my Classics Club Strikes Back … Continue reading

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Worth Reading: “The Turn”

Liel Leibovitz writes on no longer being able to go with the flow, and more importantly — on realizing the American left is no longer recognizable as a voice for the people. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-turn-liel-leibovitz Quotes: “You might be living through The … Continue reading

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Righteous in their time

We live in a time when it has become politically correct to destroy statues of such historic figures as Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Columbus, Andrew Jackson, and others. A lesson about such statue-tory destruction can be learned by comparing the … Continue reading

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