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.

March 2022 in review

Posted on April 1, 2022 by smellincoffee

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

Posted on March 25, 2022 by smellincoffee

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

Posted on March 22, 2022 by smellincoffee

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”

Posted on March 20, 2022 by smellincoffee

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

Posted on March 16, 2022 by smellincoffee

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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Gone with the Wind

Posted on March 15, 2022 by smellincoffee

Gone with the Wind© 1936 Margaret Mitchell1037 pages It’s been nearly twenty years since I visited the joined worlds of antebellum Tara and postwar Atlanta, tied together through the life of a ruined plantation belle turned business magnate, Scarlett O’Hara. … Continue reading →

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Man against the mob

Posted on March 14, 2022 by smellincoffee

“The problem with going along [with the mob] is that it demoralizes you. It makes you a smaller person, inside. You’ll know you shouldn’t have done that, you’ll think badly of yourself for having done it, you’ll feel cowardly, and … Continue reading →

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Caesar’s Last Breath

Posted on March 11, 2022 by smellincoffee

Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us© 2017 Sam Kean384 pages In The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean offered a history of early chemistry, as we began to understand the elements that create our world, and the … Continue reading →

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Ms. Adventure

Posted on March 8, 2022 by smellincoffee

Ms. Adventure: My Wild Explorations in Science, Lava, and Life© 2021 Jess Phoenix272 pages Some scientists work in nice, safe labs, with bright lights and sanitized equipment, and their greatest fear is that grant funding will fall through next year. … Continue reading →

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The Devil’s Company

Posted on March 7, 2022 by smellincoffee

The Devil’s Company© 2007 David Liss371 pages Benjamin Weaver is in trouble. An ex-boxer who now works as a private detective of sorts in 18th century London, he’s made a name for himself as a man who can get things … Continue reading →

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