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.

ST DS9: Vengeance

Posted on August 17, 2026 by smellincoffee

Recommended mood music: “Klingon Imperial Theme“, Jerry Goldsmith When I did a full DVD watch-through of DS9 back in the mid-late 2000s, I was confused. Where was  the episode where the Klingons took over the station, and Bashir and O’Brien … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Set Phasers to Frag!

Posted on August 17, 2026 by smellincoffee

For the last few years it has been my custom, or at least habit, to do a “Blast from the Past” week in which I visit stories from my youth, ranging from the very early stuff –Henry Huggins, Boxcar Children, … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Worth Watching: The Dystopia We Forgot

Posted on August 12, 2026 by smellincoffee

This is not merely a literary observation; Hannah Arendt identified similar factors as the prerequisites for a totalitarian society: Loneliness and Social Atomization Losing Faith in Hierarchies and Institutions The Desire to Transgress and Destroy Propaganda and the Willingness to … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 6 Comments

WWW Wednesday + Country Cooking

Posted on August 11, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is, “Food from Our Region We Love”. One potential issue with this: I’ve only been out of the Southland a few times in my life, both times to the Southwest. I’m not entirely … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Mailman: Neither Sleet nor Snow nor Bootlegging Mountain Folk…

Posted on August 11, 2026 by smellincoffee

March 2020 was a bad time for most people, but for Steve Grant it was worse. He’d just been laid off from his lucrative marketing job. A man who once lectured at the nearby university and dominated corporate boardrooms was … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Top Ten Books I Read on this Day the last Decade

Posted on August 10, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is books we were reading on this day for the last ten years. My approach to this will be to look at the review posted on or after August 11th for the last decade. Actually, I may have … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 20 Comments

After Christendom

Posted on August 8, 2026 by smellincoffee

I no longer remember when I first encountered Michael Warren Davis, but his critique of modernity and his countercultural vision of Christianity appealed to me in much the same way that The Plain Reader and Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Conservatives did … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Republic or Empire? The True Flag

Posted on August 7, 2026 by smellincoffee

I’ve been wanting to read this title for years now after having found Stephen Kinzer’s various books on DC’s overseas adventures, while at the same time stumbling upon Mark Twain’s anti-war writings collected in Weapons of Satire. Coming of age … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Stephen Fry’s Troy

Posted on August 6, 2026 by smellincoffee

While I enjoyed Stephen Fry’s Mythos tolerably well a few years ago, it didn’t fire up my engines so much that I went after the next ones immediately; recently a Greek wind has hit my imagination, though, and after listening … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, General | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

WWW Wednesday + Series we Didn’t Finish

Posted on August 5, 2026 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? After Christendom, Michael Warren Davis WHAT  are you reading now? Listening to Troy, prepared and read by Stephen Fry. WHAT  are you reading next?   Probably The True Flag by Stephen Kinzer, focusing on Theodore Roosevelt … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 22 Comments