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 Door to Door Bookstore

Posted on January 19, 2024 by smellincoffee

In the city of Munster, after the bookshop closes for the night, an aging fellow named Carl begins his rounds. Walking the city’s cobblestone paths, he visits a village within the metropolis that only he is aware of: a little community … Continue reading →

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Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Posted on January 18, 2024 by smellincoffee

There is a little underground cafe in Tokyo where, if you sit at a certain chair under the right conditions, you can find yourself in that chair in that cafe at some other time, where you can meet someone who … Continue reading →

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What You Are Looking for is in the Library

Posted on January 17, 2024 by smellincoffee

I realize it’s a bit early in the year for this, but What You are Looking For is in the Library will most likely be my favorite novel of the year. Of course, it’s not quite a novel, more of … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday Ice Storm Delay Edition

Posted on January 16, 2024 by smellincoffee

“It’s funny. No matter where you go, or how many books you read, youstill know nothing, you haven’t seen anything. And that’s life. We live ourlives trying to find our way. It’s like that Santōka Taneda poem, the one thatgoes, … Continue reading →

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Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

Posted on January 15, 2024 by smellincoffee

Takako’s boyfriend has just unceremoniously dumped her after announcing he’s engaged to his other girlfriend, the real one — the one she’d never heard about, but one whose existence now seems obvious in retrospect. Why was it they never had … Continue reading →

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A year after the Selma tornado

Posted on January 12, 2024 by smellincoffee

A year ago I paused to take a quick shot of the turbulent sky, a mix of gloom and glory, of bright morning light and dark storm clouds. I posted it to Instagram with the caption “Skies, current mood: conflicted”. The … Continue reading →

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Distracted by Alabama

Posted on January 10, 2024 by smellincoffee

Jim Brown moved to Alabama in the 1970s to teach history at Samford University, and became fascinated by Alabama, both by its wild biodiversity and its people and their folk traditions, from shape-note singing to basket-weaving and herbalism. Distracted by Alabama … Continue reading →

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The Exchange

Posted on January 9, 2024 by smellincoffee

Over twenty years ago I saw a fat paperback with an interesting cover depicting a businessman caught in strings above his head. That book, The Firm, was an absorbing thriller about a young lawyer who begins working at a boutique tax … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books to be Published this year!

Posted on January 9, 2024 by smellincoffee

 The Sher-dar madraseh is yet another sign that Islam in the Iranian world is like a woman’s plain chador worn over party finery, a cloak that covers, disguises, or incorporates much traditionally Iranian, pre-Islamic, Zoroastrian belief. This time, General Alchin Yalangtush Bahadur had let … Continue reading →

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In Search of Zarathustra

Posted on January 6, 2024 by smellincoffee

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, in which Christians celebrate the arrival of the Magi to Bethlehem. It is fitting, then, on this day about wise men of the east following stars, to take a look at at a … Continue reading →

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