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.

No King, No Country

Posted on April 8, 2024 by smellincoffee

Will Inness fought for Parliament and Cromwell, but now he’s a wanted man. His crime was speaking up for his men, who were owed back pay, and pleading that they be given some land in the country for which they … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Sons of the Waves

Posted on April 5, 2024 by smellincoffee

Heave your ship to, boys, deep soundings to take! Sons of the Waves is a celebration not of the gilded brass, not of a handsome oak-forest-falling ships, but of the ordinary — and able — British seaman in the Age … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

If Books Threw a Party

Posted on April 4, 2024 by smellincoffee
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The Club

Posted on April 4, 2024 by smellincoffee

I have an interest in men’s clubs dating back to reading Around the World in 80 Days and The Time Traveler as a kid, and I have no idea why. Boys like clubs and clubhouses as a rule, I think, … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Aged Veterans of the virtual TBR

Posted on April 3, 2024 by smellincoffee

Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is “Books that have been on our TBR the Longest”. I dealt with my physical TBR last year, so I’m going to take a look at my Kindle library, sort by “Oldest”, and … Continue reading →

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Elizabeth’s London

Posted on April 3, 2024 by smellincoffee

Let us travel to a city which, in great part, no longer exists: Tudor London, much of which has been erased by time, fire, and ‘progress’, which holds burying swimming pools under concrete as a capital idea. I first read … Continue reading →

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Tudor teasing

Posted on April 2, 2024 by smellincoffee

To us, many of the flowers in an Elizabethan garden would look more like wild flowers than our carefully hybridised varieties, since modern varieties have been bred to maximise flower size and length of season, often at the expense of … Continue reading →

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Life Below Stairs

Posted on April 1, 2024 by smellincoffee

If, like me, you became interested in the goings-on of English servants via Downton Abbey, Alison Maloney opens with a word of caution. Many servants didn’t work in small armies at places like Highclere Castle. Instead, they were thoroughly leavened … Continue reading →

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Moviewatch: March

Posted on April 1, 2024 by smellincoffee

There was a….bit of a theme to this month’s movie watching, at least for the ones I watched solo. See if you can guess what it is. I bet you can! The Scout, 1994. Albert Brooks plays a scout who, … Continue reading →

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March 2024 in Review

Posted on March 31, 2024 by smellincoffee

Well, the year is one-fourth spent already. Criminy! March was fairly…all over the place. Didn’t do well with Lenten reading at all, but Opening Day was a solid performance, I think, and I even got a head start on Read … Continue reading →

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