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.

Books from a time capsule of sorts

Posted on February 6, 2018 by smellincoffee

Around Christmas, the technical expertise and beneficence of a friend allowed me to recover the data from a computer of mine from 2004-2008, one that has been offline since that spring when either its power supply or motherboard gave up … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 4 Comments

The Gulag Archipelago: Volume III

Posted on February 4, 2018 by smellincoffee

Archipeleg GULag / The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary InvestigationVolume III (of III)© 1973, 1974 Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn576 pages Throughout The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has taken readers on a tour of the Soviet concentration camps,  where human … Continue reading →

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

Poetry Night at the Ballpark

Posted on February 3, 2018 by smellincoffee

Poetry Night at the Ballpark and Other Scenes from an Alternative America © 2015 Bill Kauffman 442 pages  “Lift up your hearts, friends – America ain’t dead yet.”  For thirty years, Bill Kauffman has been blowing raspberries at or haranguing … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Chairman

Posted on January 30, 2018 by smellincoffee

Sinatra: The Chairman© 2015 James Kaplan994 pages Sinatra: “May I? — it’s your stage, figured I’d ask..”Dean Martin: “Hey, it’s your world! I’m just livin’ in it.” (The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands) In 2010, James Kaplan wrote an … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

1906

Posted on January 28, 2018 by smellincoffee

1906© 2004 James Dalessandro368 pages Turn of the century San Francisco was a notoriously corrupt city, filled with vice from the brothels of the Barbary Coast to the opium dens and sex slaves of Chinatown. 1906 is a political thriller  that … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The Indian in the Cupboard (and Return)

Posted on January 26, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Indian in the Cupboard© 1980 Lynne Reid Banks I had to keep watch in the children’s department today, and there bumped into an old friend: Omri, the boy with a seemingly magical cupboard that can turn plastic figures into … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , | 8 Comments

2017’s pie

Posted on January 23, 2018 by smellincoffee

Every year I like to  load up my books-read Excel list, sort it by labels, count everything up, and then make a chart out of it.  Every year’s label sets are a little different, aside from old reliables like History … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | 8 Comments

The Truth about Nature

Posted on January 22, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Truth About Nature:  A Family’s Guide to 144 Myths about the Great Outdoors©  2014 Stacey Torno and Ken Keller212 pages Great news, kids. The tyranny of mom is over: no longer do you have to wait 45 minutes after … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Every Man a King

Posted on January 20, 2018 by smellincoffee

Every Man a King© 1989 Bill Kauffman277 pages Every Man is a King follows the self-destruction and resurrection of one John Huey Long, a rising star in DC’s intellectual establishment who disgraced himself in a heated television interview. Fired and … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Snowed in

Posted on January 18, 2018 by smellincoffee

For the second time in as many months, we’ve received a hearty dose of snow and ice. This time seems to have been much more disruptive, as roads have been shut down completely. Last month ice wasn’t too bad, but … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 24 Comments