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 Unsettling of America, audio edition

Posted on January 23, 2025 by smellincoffee

It was twelve years ago that I met a man named Jayber Crow, and met too, his author — Wendell Berry. Berry is one of my very favorite living authors, and would probably still make the list of favorite authors … Continue reading →

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Strong Towns: the Book

Posted on January 22, 2025 by smellincoffee

Years ago I heard an engineer being interviewed on a podcast about urbanism, castigating his fellow planners and engineers for supporting an approach to urbanism that was dishonest and financially ruinous. This engineer, Chuck Marohn, had recently started a blog … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday, TT, Tech Problems, and Fake News

Posted on January 22, 2025 by smellincoffee

I woke up Wednesday morning and my brand-new superduper gaming rig with nine colorful fans and a hum like a small airplane was unresponsive. No idea why, as it was working fine the night before — and into Wednesday, since … Continue reading →

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Trump: The Art of the Comeback

Posted on January 20, 2025 by smellincoffee

This business history / memoir is not something I’d ordinarily read, given that when my reading brushes business it’s usually in connection with something like food, energy, or IT. Howeverrrrrrr, since Trump went out of office and now he’s going … Continue reading →

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If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now

Posted on January 15, 2025 by smellincoffee

It was just another day at the office when Chris Ingraham wrote a piece about the prettiest and ugliest places to live in the United States and declared Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, as the worst. He received lots of angry … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday + Favorite Things to Do in Winter

Posted on January 15, 2025 by smellincoffee

Today’s topic from Long and Short Reviews is “Favorite Thing to do in Winter”. In Alabama, we don’t get snow (not usually, northern Alabama just got a few inches last week), so I’m not skiing or sledding or anything. It’s … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Tuesday: Recent TBR’s

Posted on January 14, 2025 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is books recently added to our TBR list. I’ve got a few reviews lined up, but foist: here’s a tease! The Buddhist point of view takes the function of work to be at least threefold: to give a … Continue reading →

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Prompt: most memorable road trip

Posted on January 13, 2025 by smellincoffee

Oh, this is an easy one. New Mexico, 2016. Not only was it my first time on an airplane, and my first time out of the South, but it was my first time taking a vacation somewhere as an adult: … Continue reading →

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Before we Forget Kindness

Posted on January 11, 2025 by smellincoffee

One of the more charming reads from last year was Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a short novel that falls into a mysterious genre called ‘magical realism’, as I’ve since learned. The setting and premise were simple yet inexplicable: in … Continue reading →

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Primate Made

Posted on January 10, 2025 by smellincoffee

Longtime readers to this blog know that the mismatch between human biology and the world we have made for ourselves is a pet topic of mine,  given its implications for human flourishing.  Primate Made focuses on modernity’s effects on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments