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.

A Plain Life

Posted on November 6, 2019 by smellincoffee

A Plain Life: Walking my Belief © 1998 Scott Savage 224 pages You have to be careful about working in a library. Sometimes books change your life.  Scott Savage and his wife were both librarians whose environmental interests put them … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The book as a squarish chunk of hot smoking conscience

Posted on November 1, 2019 by smellincoffee

In autumn of 2017, The New Criterion published an article about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “cathedrals“, his Gulag Archipelago and a series of epic ‘novels’ known as the Red Wheel series. I delayed posting this until I was finished with the trilogy, … Continue reading →

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Digital minimalism baby steps

Posted on October 31, 2019 by smellincoffee

A few readers were interested in updates on my experiment in digital minimalism,  so…here goes!   The ground rules I’ve followed have been: Email checked only 2-3 times a day, around meals, preferably not starting until after lunch. Social media … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflection | 8 Comments

Turn off, tune out, and drop in

Posted on October 30, 2019 by smellincoffee

“If we had a motto, it might be the opposite of the one I heard in the 1960s telling us to ‘turn on, tune in, and drop out’. Our slogan could urge the world to turn off (virtual reality), tune … Continue reading →

Posted in quotations | 3 Comments

Conquerors

Posted on October 25, 2019 by smellincoffee

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire © 2015 Roger Crowley 364 pages Roger Crowley’s Conquerors is a history that starts with hope and ends in horror, at least of the slasher-film kind. Suffice it to say, if you … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Gun Guys

Posted on October 22, 2019 by smellincoffee

Gun Guys: A Road Trip © 2013 Dan Baum 353 pages     Why do Americans love guns so much?  Dan Baum knew why he loved them. He was the skinny misfit who was mocked and left behind at summer … Continue reading →

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Agatha Christie and Tony Soprano

Posted on October 21, 2019 by smellincoffee

Over the weekend I finished two titles that don’t bear elaborate reviews. First up was Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party,  a murder mystery set during this spooky-fun season.  Not everyone is having fun, though, especially not little Joyce, who – – … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

American Rifle

Posted on October 18, 2019 by smellincoffee

American Rifle: A Biography © 2008 Alexander Rose 512 pages The quintessential American firearm is the rifle,   which through centuries of colonization and growth,  has served in both myth and fact.  I use myth not in the modern disparaging sense, … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Hidden Life of Trees

Posted on October 17, 2019 by smellincoffee

The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World © 2016 Peter Wohlleben 288 pages Joyce Kilmer offered that he had never seen a poem as lovely as a tree —  and I … Continue reading →

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

The Ice at the End of the World

Posted on October 16, 2019 by smellincoffee

© 2019  Jon Gertner 418 pages My reading journeys have taken me to Greenland recently, but instead of reading more about the Viking settlements there,  I wanted to read about another tribe:   the explorers and scientists who willingly endured months … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments