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.

Africa

Posted on June 2, 2010 by smellincoffee

Africa: a Biography of the Continent© 1997  John Reader816 pages And we are scatterlings of Africa, both you and I  We’re on the road to Phelemanga, beneath a copper sky; And we are scatterlings of Africa, on a journey to … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday (1-6)

Posted on June 1, 2010 by smellincoffee

Teaser Tuesdays will be a bit different for a couple of months: I have responsibilities on Tuesdays that prevent me from coming near a computer until the early evening. Thus the link to ShouldBeReading will be to the blog itself, and not … Continue reading →

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The Reunion

Posted on May 31, 2010 by smellincoffee

Animorphs #30: The Reunion© 1999 K.A. Applegate176 pages Ever have one of those nights? Where you’re exhausted, where you’d pay anything just to fall asleep? But the wheels in your head just keep spinning and spinning and spinning? Imagined conversations. … Continue reading →

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Lemony Snicket: the Unauthorized Autobiography

Posted on May 28, 2010 by smellincoffee

Lemony Snicket: the Unauthorized Autobiography© 2002 Daniel Handler213 pages (containing “an overall feeling of doom”, according to the index.) As the official representative of Lemony Snicket in all legal, literary, and social matters, I am often asked difficult questions, even when I … Continue reading →

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Revenge of the Sith

Posted on May 27, 2010 by smellincoffee

Revenge of the Sith© 2005: Screenplay, George Lucas; novelization, Matthew Stover.419 pages Blade to blade, they were identical. After thousands of hours in lightsaber sparring, they knew each other better than brothers, more intimately than lovers; they were complimentary halves … Continue reading →

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This Week at the Library (26/5)

Posted on May 26, 2010 by smellincoffee

This week at the library…. I read North Korea: Another Country, a work which intended to show how North Korea’s history shaped its current path as a militant  and isolationist state. Cumings drew from Korean culture and the state’s early … Continue reading →

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Homage to Catalonia

Posted on May 26, 2010 by smellincoffee

Homage to Catalonia© 1952 George Orwell232 pages On 17 July 1936, conservative and reactionary forces inside Spain opted to seize power by force, rather than allow the Popular Front government — an increasingly liberal, democratic, and progressive entity that undermined … Continue reading →

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Lord Hornblower

Posted on May 25, 2010 by smellincoffee

Lord Hornblower© 1946 C.S. Forester318 pages       The year is 1814, and Sir Horatio Hornblower, commodore in his Britannic Majesty’s Royal Navy, has been sent to the coast of France on a secret mission. The crew of the gunship Flame … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday (25/5)

Posted on May 25, 2010 by smellincoffee

It’s Teesday Tuese! Or…something. From ShouldBeReading. The sermon was still going on, and  Hornblower feared that when it was finished there would be some more singing, more of those high-pitched noises from the surpliced choir boys which would distress him painfully again, … Continue reading →

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The Life of Birds

Posted on May 23, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Life of Birds © 1998 Sir David Attenborough 320 pages As I drove home from the library last week, I watched a beautiful white bird soar above the highway for several minutes. As it passed close by overhead, I … Continue reading →

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