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.

Flying over the Grand Canyon

Posted on July 21, 2018 by smellincoffee

In April I visited Arizona for the sole purpose of seeing the Grand Canyon, and took a helicopter tour that left me as awe-struck and mesmerized as I have ever been. Tonight I put together a video of some of … Continue reading →

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From Russia with Love

Posted on July 19, 2018 by smellincoffee

From Russia with Love© 1957 Ian Fleming253 pages I’ve tried three times to read any of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels, because he was an actual intelligence officer writing spy novels. Bond in the abstract is an interesting character, a posh … Continue reading →

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Anne of Avonlea

Posted on July 19, 2018 by smellincoffee

Anne of Avonlea© 1909 Lucy Maud Montgomery366 pages I recently took my niece to see a production of “Annie” at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and it put me in a mood to revisit Anne of Green Gables, another red-headed heroine … Continue reading →

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Resistance is Futile? State of the Kindle

Posted on July 18, 2018 by smellincoffee

(Image borrowed from here) A few weeks ago I walked into my usual Chinese place for lunch and the proprietor immediately inquired: Where’s your book?  She’s seen me walk in every week for the last six years and get comfortable … Continue reading →

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Just a coincidence!

Posted on July 14, 2018 by smellincoffee

“Whaat?  No, I’m totally sick. In bed. reading a new book. “ Cartoon was posted in “Into the Wardrobe”, a Lewisian/bookish facebook group.

Posted in General | 3 Comments

What I Read in 2007

Posted on July 14, 2018 by smellincoffee

Although these days I’m a fairly organized reader, with a Excel spreadsheet and everything,  when I first started yakking about books in 2007, I didn’t even list them. I just posted rambling towers of paragraphs on MySpace.  I’ve been wanting to … Continue reading →

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Freedom, Culture, and the Modern Negation of Both

Posted on July 13, 2018 by smellincoffee

From Anthony Esolen’s “Culture? What Culture”, a speech I heard on Youtube and began to transcribe until I did a google search and realized he’s already posted the full text of it.  The speech is rather long and begins by … Continue reading →

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A Crack in Creation

Posted on July 11, 2018 by smellincoffee

A Crack in Creation:  Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution© 2017 Jennifer Doudna and Sam Sternberg “No longer at the mercy of the reptile brain, we can change ourselves. Think of the possibilities.” – Carl Sagan A … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books of 2018, So Far

Posted on July 10, 2018 by smellincoffee

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Artsy Reader Girl, is the best books we’ve read in 2018. In order of my reading them… Star Trek the Fall: Ceremony of Losses, David Mack Poetry Night at the Ballpark, Bill … Continue reading →

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Of Neanderthals and dogs and extinction level events

Posted on July 8, 2018 by smellincoffee

Time for science short rounds! Last week I read The Invaders,  a much-anticipated work about how dogs gave humans a competitive edge over their neanderthal cousins. This brief book posits that human beings function like invasive species, and after establishing … Continue reading →

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