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.

The Green Metropolis

Posted on June 30, 2012 by smellincoffee

The Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability© 2009 David Owen357 pages Green is probably not the word that comes to mind at the mention of Manhattan, but to David Owen, few … Continue reading →

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Founding Brothers

Posted on June 30, 2012 by smellincoffee

Founding Brothers:  the Revolutionary Generation © 2000 288 pages Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless under our bark, we knew not how, we rode through the storm … Continue reading →

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The Great Stagnation

Posted on June 29, 2012 by smellincoffee

The Great Stagnation: How America Ate all the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better © 2011 Tyler Cowen 110 pages In The Great Stagnation, Tyler Cowen takes a long view of human economic history,  … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday (26 June)

Posted on June 26, 2012 by smellincoffee

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly event where we share excerpts from our current reads. Play along at Should Be Reading! How, then, did they do it? Why is it that Alfred North Whitehead was probably right to observe that there … Continue reading →

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The Great Good Place

Posted on June 24, 2012 by smellincoffee

The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and the Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community© 1989 Ray Oldenburg336 pages In Our Oriental Heritage, Will Durant wrote that man is not willingly a political animal, … Continue reading →

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Something from the Oven

Posted on June 24, 2012 by smellincoffee

Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America 306 pages © 2004 Laura Shaprio      The latter half of the 20th century saw the United States convulsed with social change. Millions of women and blacks who found their … Continue reading →

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This Week at the Library (24 June)

Posted on June 24, 2012 by smellincoffee

To some, the summertime may be a period of activity. In the deep south, however, being out and about from June to August will send you to the hospital. Summer is a time for sitting on the porch sipping lemonade … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Books I’ll Be Reading this Summer

Posted on June 19, 2012 by smellincoffee

As the mercury begins to persistently hit the high nineties, the Broke and the Bookish inquire: what are your summer reading plans? 1. For starters, I intend to keep reading Bernard Cornwell’s Starbuck Chronicles,  his military-adventure novels set in the … Continue reading →

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Hot, Flat, and Crowded

Posted on June 16, 2012 by smellincoffee

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why America Needs a Green Evolution: And How it Can Renew America© 2006 Thomas Friedman438 pages    The world is changing. Regardless of the consoling reassurances of corporations, industries, and the silk-tongued politicians who lobby on their … Continue reading →

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Rebel

Posted on June 12, 2012 by smellincoffee

Rebel© 1993 Bernard Cornwell402 pages Nathaniel Starbuck shouldn’t be in South, but this son of a preacher man is positively hopeless when it comes to the ladies. Love tore him from the seminary, and it led him into Virginia just … Continue reading →

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