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.

Backroads Alabama: Looking for Creeks, trains, and a dog named Fred

Posted on January 31, 2021 by smellincoffee

For the last several weekends I’ve been visiting various places throughout Alabama, ranging north and south, many with a connection to Alabama’s role in the Creek war. On the agenda were Fort Mims, Claiborne, and St. Stephens. I often read … Continue reading →

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Plague, Inc: The Cure

Posted on January 29, 2021 by smellincoffee

Back in August I made mention of a game I’d been playing during all my free quarantine-time, Plague, Inc. It’s a pandemic simulator in which the player’s goal is to actively destroy humanity with a disease; I’d heard of it … Continue reading →

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Alabama: Making of an American State

Posted on January 28, 2021 by smellincoffee

Alabama: the Making of an American State© 2016 Edwin C. Bridges264 pages In December of 2019,  the streets of Montgomery were thronged with people as the citizens of Alabama celebrated its 200th anniversary. The three years prior had been full  … Continue reading →

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The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop

Posted on January 26, 2021 by smellincoffee

The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop© 2020 Fannie Flagg304 pages One of my favorite movies growing up was Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe: why on Earth this movie became a favorite in my very sheltered household, I cannot … Continue reading →

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Where I Come From

Posted on January 22, 2021 by smellincoffee

Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South© 2020 Rick Bragg256 pages What a joy Rick Bragg is to read! A native son of Alabama, Rick Bragg is a journalist-turned-folklorist in the tradition of Kathryn Tucker Windham, who here … Continue reading →

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Why Rick Bragg Writes

Posted on January 22, 2021 by smellincoffee

Quoted from Where I Come From, by Rick Bragg: “I write about home so I can be certain someone will. It is not much more complicated than that.”  “Home is not a thing of position, or standing. My home is … Continue reading →

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Sunshine Blogging: Survey via Classics Considered

Posted on January 21, 2021 by smellincoffee

Marian over at Classics Considered just posted a survey, and I figured — why not? If you go back and read one book for the first time again, which would it be? Probably the first Wodehouse novel I read, just … Continue reading →

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A Time for Mercy

Posted on January 20, 2021 by smellincoffee

A Time for Mercy© 2020 John Grisham480 pages A woman lies beaten and unconscious in the kitchen; her children quiver in fear in a back room while the man they’re terrorized by lies in a drunken stupor in his bedroom. … Continue reading →

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Kenobi

Posted on January 17, 2021 by smellincoffee

Star Wars: Kenobi © 2014 John Jackson Miller464 pages The Republic is fallen, and the Jedi are no more. The few survivors of Emepror Palpatine’s purge have fled, scattered across the galaxy with their own individual missions. For Obi-Wan Kenobi,  … Continue reading →

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A Walk Around the Block

Posted on January 15, 2021 by smellincoffee

A Walk Around the Block: Stoplight Secrets, Mischievous Squirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day (And Know Nothing About)© 2020 Spike Carlsen336 pages One of my favorite books to think back on is Scott Huler’s On the … Continue reading →

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