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.

Mailman: Neither Sleet nor Snow nor Bootlegging Mountain Folk…

Posted on August 11, 2026 by smellincoffee

March 2020 was a bad time for most people, but for Steve Grant it was worse. He’d just been laid off from his lucrative marketing job. A man who once lectured at the nearby university and dominated corporate boardrooms was … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Top Ten Books I Read on this Day the last Decade

Posted on August 10, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is books we were reading on this day for the last ten years. My approach to this will be to look at the review posted on or after August 11th for the last decade. Actually, I may have … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 20 Comments

After Christendom

Posted on August 8, 2026 by smellincoffee

I no longer remember when I first encountered Michael Warren Davis, but his critique of modernity and his countercultural vision of Christianity appealed to me in much the same way that The Plain Reader and Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Conservatives did … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Republic or Empire? The True Flag

Posted on August 7, 2026 by smellincoffee

I’ve been wanting to read this title for years now after having found Stephen Kinzer’s various books on DC’s overseas adventures, while at the same time stumbling upon Mark Twain’s anti-war writings collected in Weapons of Satire. Coming of age … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Stephen Fry’s Troy

Posted on August 6, 2026 by smellincoffee

While I enjoyed Stephen Fry’s Mythos tolerably well a few years ago, it didn’t fire up my engines so much that I went after the next ones immediately; recently a Greek wind has hit my imagination, though, and after listening … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, General | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

WWW Wednesday + Series we Didn’t Finish

Posted on August 5, 2026 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? After Christendom, Michael Warren Davis WHAT  are you reading now? Listening to Troy, prepared and read by Stephen Fry. WHAT  are you reading next?   Probably The True Flag by Stephen Kinzer, focusing on Theodore Roosevelt … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 22 Comments

Today is August 4, 2026, in the City of Allendale, California

Posted on August 4, 2026 by smellincoffee

I can’t believe I almost missed this. Ray Bradbury’s story, “And There Will Come Soft Rains”, was the creepiest bit of short fiction I ever read in middle or high school. Images of it have haunted me since. The best … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 5 Comments

The Age of Eisenhower

Posted on August 4, 2026 by smellincoffee

Apologies if you are on the list and received a blank email earlier: WordPress ate my words. Fortunately I always draft off-platform. Many presidents have a defining moment – a call to arms in a speech, a decisive action,  a … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Top Ten Covers I’ve Eyeballed Recently

Posted on August 3, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is a “Book Cover Related Freebie”. I was going to do “My Favorite Covers for 2026 (So Far)”, but honesty my reading has not been great-cover heavy. So, I’m going to …paste an image of my Amazon browsing … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 20 Comments

Stephen Fry’s Odyssey

Posted on August 1, 2026 by smellincoffee

A couple of years ago I read Stephen Fry’s Mythos, his attempt to bring together some of the primordial Greek mythological characters into one narrative; he followed it with Heroes, Troy, and finally Odyssey. The recent release of an Odyssey … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, General, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments