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Author Archives: smellincoffee
Shots from Alabama hill country
My return from New Mexico has left me feeling slightly guilty that there’s so much of Alabama I haven’t seen. To start setting things to right, yesterday I traveled several hours north to Winston County, where can be found … Continue reading
Immoderate Literati
This is a screencap I took back in May, something I spotted while reading reviews of Wilbur Smith’s River Gods. At least no one is ambivalent about it!
Week of Enchantment: Santa Fe, the City Beautiful
I headed for Santa Fe in the early dawn, driving even as the sun rose. I’d been assured that the capital’s traffic was nothing like Albuquerque’s, and found this to be the case. It didn’t want for cars, but the … Continue reading
Jasmine and Stars
Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran© 2007 Fatemeh Keshavarz180 pgs Fatemeh Keshavarz’s Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran rebukes Azar Nefisi and other writers for contributing to a ‘new Orientalism’ that looks at Iran … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged Classics and Literary, literature, Middle East, Persia-Iran
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Week of Enchantment: The Garden of Eden is Missing its Critters
From here I moved to the attached Gardens, one of the most beautiful, romantic, and sometimes weirdest spots in New Mexico. Beauty first: Moorish gardens open the area, ending in a tree-lined walkway that is utterly peaceful This goes around … Continue reading
Week of Enchantment: Tourists, Sharks, and Gardens, oh my!
Emerging from the natural history hours later, and returning to old town, I discovered that everyone else had woken up and joined me. Cars poured in and filled the once-empty plaza, but with them came pleasant music and even pleasanter … Continue reading
Short rounds: explosives and Martians
Tonight I finally gave up on Hayduke Lives!, the sequel to Edward Abbey’s Monkey Wrench Gang. The plot only arrives four-fifths of the way into the book, having been preceded by lots of stream-of-consciousness rambling, pointless arguments, and enough breast … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, science fiction
Tagged American Southwest, C.S.Lewis, Christian literature, CS Lewis, Edward Abbey, fantasy, science fiction
2 Comments
Reads to Reels: Brave Cowboy/Lonely are the Brave
Lonely are the Brave dramatizes Edward Abbey’s Brave Cowboy, and I daresay improves upon it. As with Abbey’s original, the plot features a cowhand who still lives and breathes in the Old West, thrown into conflict against the forces of … Continue reading
The Brave Cowboy
The Brave Cowboy: An Old Tale in a New Time© 1956 Edward Abbey277 pages “Where’re your papers?” “My what?” “Your I.D. — draft card, social security, driver’s license.” “Don’t have none. Don’t need none. I already know who I am.” … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged American Southwest, American West, Edward Abbey, Man vs State, New Mexico
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West of the Revolution
West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776© 2015 Claudio Saunt288 pages In 1776, the bid of thirteen colonies for independence wasn’t the only interesting goings-on in North America. From Alaska to Cuba, colonial and native powers were fighting, … Continue reading
Posted in history, Reviews
Tagged American Southwest, American West, Colonial America, history, Native America, Russia, Spain, trade
2 Comments
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