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 Lunar Missile Crisis

Posted on February 4, 2024 by smellincoffee

The moon race began in earnest when Yuri Gagarin launched off the pad in April 1961. It ended really quickly when he collided with an alien spaceship and exploded, leading to a full nuclear launch by the Soviets which failed … Continue reading →

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

Movie Watch: January

Posted on February 1, 2024 by smellincoffee

Movie watching has become more of a pasttime for me in the last year or so, so I suspect posting a list at the end of the year would be….ungainly. A buddy of mine and I have been watching 2 movies … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged | 3 Comments

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops

Posted on January 31, 2024 by smellincoffee

This book is exactly what it says on the tin: a collection of odd remarks overheard in bookstores, numbering a little over a hundred pages. If you are familiar with the Overheard in New York / Overheard in the Office / etc … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , | 7 Comments

January 2024 in Review

Posted on January 31, 2024 by smellincoffee

Welcome to the first monthly wrapup of the New Year. My preference in January is to do a grab-bag of topics, a kind of teaser for the year to come. I was….slightly successful in that, since we touched on little politics, … Continue reading →

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Texas in the Med

Posted on January 30, 2024 by smellincoffee

Well, things is gettin’ interesting around these parts. All of Gaul France is divided into three parts: Nazi Germany occupies part, the tyrant Petain who knocked off the democratic president before Hitler invaded rules Vichy France; and then there’s a few colonies and ships … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Authors From 2023 I Want to Read More Of

Posted on January 30, 2024 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is authors from 2023 who were new to us. But first, a tease! CUSTOMER: Doesn’t it bother you, being surrounded by books all day? Ithink I’d be paranoid they were all going to jump off the shelves and … Continue reading →

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The Lone Star, the Tricolor, and the Swastika

Posted on January 29, 2024 by smellincoffee

Despite the fact that France is technically at war with Nazi Germany, a secret society known as the Order of the Black Pillar have dedicated themselves to destabilizing the Third Republic so that their thirst for vengeance against the Republic of Texas can … Continue reading →

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Shtetl Days

Posted on January 29, 2024 by smellincoffee

“We will do, and we will hear”. Such was the people’s reply when Moses descended from Mt. Sinai and presented the Ten Commandments to the Hebrews. There’s an inversion in that statement, alien to our modern age: imagine doing a thing before understanding … Continue reading →

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Texas at the Coronation

Posted on January 28, 2024 by smellincoffee

The year is 1937, and on the eve of His Majesty King George VI’s coronation, a naval review is to be held in the United Kingdom — and the president of The Republic of Texas shall be in attendance, the first … Continue reading →

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Short rounds: human scale and bad religion

Posted on January 27, 2024 by smellincoffee

This week I’ve been finishing two works of nonfiction: Kirkpatrick Sale’s Human Scale Revisited and Ross Douhat’s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics.  Human Scale Revisited is, as its title implies, an update to Sale’s original Human … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Politics and Civic Interest, Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments