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.

Hatchet

Posted on December 17, 2014 by smellincoffee

Hatchet© 1987 Gary Paulsen195 pages Hitching a ride on a small plane to meet his father in Alaska,  young Brian is left alone thousands of miles in air when his pilot succumbs to a heart attack.  The thirteen-year old is no … Continue reading →

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Sailing from Byzantium

Posted on December 17, 2014 by smellincoffee

Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World© 2005 Colin Wells368 pages                   Isaac Asimov referred to Byzantium as a forgotten empire, lost and dismissed to the western mind as a decayed remnant of a once-great … Continue reading →

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The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

Posted on December 12, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc © 1896 Mark Twain 455 pages         In 1428,  a young French teenager arrived at the court of Robert Baudricourt and announced that she and he were to be allies in … Continue reading →

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The Strange Career of Jim Crow

Posted on December 12, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Strange Career of Jim Crow© 1955, 1965 C. Van Woodward245 pages             Fifty years ago, racial and civil unrest swept the United States as organized resistance to the morally outrageous and legally dodgy practice of … Continue reading →

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This week: Christmasish

Posted on December 9, 2014 by smellincoffee

It’s been a quiet week for me, most of my time being spent in bed — stomach viruses are no fun at all! I’ve been too weak and bedridden to do any real reading, though I did finish two short … Continue reading →

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The Wild Birds

Posted on December 9, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Wild Birds© 1989 Wendell Berry160 pages             Within the membership of Port William, a close knit farming village, lays another  more intimate still. It is the membership of a neighborhood of families who, working adjoining lands, make it their … Continue reading →

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Where the Red Fern Grows

Posted on December 5, 2014 by smellincoffee

Where the Red Fern Grows© 1961 Wilson Rawls245 pages “I suppose there’s a time in practically every young boy’s life when he’s affected by that wonderful disease of puppy love. I don’t mean the kind a boy has for the … Continue reading →

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Race with the Devil

Posted on December 3, 2014 by smellincoffee

Race with the Devil: My Journey from Racial Hatred to Rational Love© 2013 Joseph Pearce264 pages How does a neo-Nazi become a Catholic literary critic?  An act of God?   Joseph Pearce would surely make the claim, his life having … Continue reading →

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This week: saints of war

Posted on December 2, 2014 by smellincoffee

Dear readers: What a week passed these last few days! In the United States, we celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, and therein followed three days of bedlam as people acted like chimpanzees descending on a pile of fruit for Black Friday … Continue reading →

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Twilight’s End

Posted on November 28, 2014 by smellincoffee

Star Trek: Twilight’s End© 1996 Jerry Oltion279 pages Somewhere in space lies a planet that’s not spinning, and that just shouldn’t be so.  Tidally locked, it poses a great inconvenience to the colonists who occupy the permanent perimeter between frozen … Continue reading →

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