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.

Selections from 40 interviews across 15 years on liberty & empire

Posted on August 20, 2020 by smellincoffee

  Review of book “We’ve had lots of Coast Guard members in the Persian Gulf, because they’re over there protecting terminals and things. If we’re thinking about the responsibility of the federal government protecting us, why wouldn’t we have the … Continue reading →

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Wisdom Wednesday: To Live Deliberately

Posted on August 19, 2020 by smellincoffee

    “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, … Continue reading →

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Shiloh 1862

Posted on August 18, 2020 by smellincoffee

Shiloh 1862 © 2012 Winston Groom 448 pages Although I’ve been aware of the small Winston Groom collection of Civil War books in my home library for years, I’ve never thought to read them because I invariably associate Groom with … Continue reading →

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Reading on the Road: Shiloh’s Bloody Hill

Posted on August 17, 2020 by smellincoffee

“The world was suddenly out of kilter, as though the beauty of the bright Tennessee sunrise was merely a prelude to death, and that nature, with all her morning splendor, was mocking mankind’s folly.” – Winston Groom, Shiloh 1862. During … Continue reading →

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American Illiad | Reluctant Voices

Posted on August 17, 2020 by smellincoffee

As part of my attempts to scale Mount TBR,  I read two smaller works on the Civil War this week. They may be later joined by This Republic of Suffering,  a survey of the war’s unprecedented death toll and its … Continue reading →

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Selections from “How Dante Can Save Your Life”

Posted on August 13, 2020 by smellincoffee

Review of Book Great art speaks with wisdom and authority to what is eternal in the human condition. The presence of God radiated from the Chartres cathedral so powerfully that it even pierced the dark wood into which I had … Continue reading →

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How Dante Can Save Your Life

Posted on August 13, 2020 by smellincoffee

How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem © 2015 Rod Dreher 322 pages Selected Quotations How Dante Can Save Your Life is one man’s account of how that Renaissance poet’s epic  tale of a … Continue reading →

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Wisdom Wednesday: Merlin’s Advice

Posted on August 12, 2020 by smellincoffee

Well, it was bound to happen. I forgot to schedule a Wisdom Wednesday.  I blame  the library’s very odd Monday,  in which we were sent running from the building a half-hour into our workday by noxious fumes coming through the … Continue reading →

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The Left, The Right, and The State

Posted on August 11, 2020 by smellincoffee

The Left, The Right, and the State © 2009 Lew Rockwell 556 pages “Society is held together not by a state but by the cooperative daily actions of its members.” Who’s up for six hundred pages of essays on politics … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved But Didn’t Review

Posted on August 10, 2020 by smellincoffee

This week’s TTT …books we read, loved, but didn’t review. The Death and Life of Great American Cities,   Jane Jacobs. This book  completely revolutionized my worldview before I made halfway through. One day I’ll make some meager attempt at reviewing … Continue reading →

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