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.

Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard Mir

Posted on August 8, 2023 by smellincoffee

When Jerry Linenger first boarded the Space Station Mir for a five-month stint working with Russia’s finest, the master alarm was blaring. It was a sign of things to come. The aging space station had been continually modified and jury-rigged … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Tuesday: Barry and Joey solve a mystery

Posted on August 8, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday comes from Hope Never Dies, in which Barack Obama and Joe Biden get together to solve a mystery involving a dead Amtrak conductor. Yes, really. It’s goofy but entertaining. “One call,” I said to my faithful … Continue reading →

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Hope Never Dies

Posted on August 7, 2023 by smellincoffee

Joe Biden is roused by his faithful pooch, Champ, who hears something Nefarious going on outside. Sallying forth to investigate, Scranton Joe finds a lone (well, lone-ish — there are guards) figure standing in the woods waiting for him. It’s … Continue reading →

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Selected quotes from “41: A Portrait of my Father”

Posted on August 5, 2023 by smellincoffee

41 is a biography of George H.W. Bush by his son, George W. Bush, and is written with affection, not objectivity. Bush offers that as a disclaimer at the very beginning. This is a tribute, written by a man who … Continue reading →

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The Last Republicans

Posted on August 3, 2023 by smellincoffee

I was interested in reading this book even before my unexpected presidential reading tangent of this last month, in part because of my age: George H.W. Bush was the first president I remember, and holds that title somewhat fixedly in … Continue reading →

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The Fight of his Life

Posted on August 2, 2023 by smellincoffee

“I’ll tell ya one thing, and I’m not ashamed to say it,” to borrow from my favorite Sopranoes antagonist, Phil Leotardo, “but my estimation of Chris Whipple as an author just plummeted. ” His Gatekeepers, a history and assessment of … Continue reading →

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Wednesday blogging prompt: a job I’d be bad at

Posted on August 2, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is “A Job You’d Be Bad At“. I hate when my attention is demanded, especially by some electronic doo-dad.  Call it mindfulness for fixation, but I prefer doing one thing at a time: … Continue reading →

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A tease, a tease, a Tues-day tease…

Posted on August 1, 2023 by smellincoffee

From The Last Republicans: Afterward, the president-elect, Barbara, George W., Laura, and Barbara and Jenna boarded Air Force One to return to Washington. If Barbara Bush had any glamorous illusions about her new station as first lady in waiting, they … Continue reading →

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July 2023 in Review

Posted on July 31, 2023 by smellincoffee

While it’s conceivable that I could finish a book today (I’m halfway through The Last Republicans, and ditto for Off the Planet: Five Months on Mir), I doubt it. I spent the weekend saying goodbye to a friend: the Harmony … Continue reading →

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Amber Brown and Matilda

Posted on July 27, 2023 by smellincoffee

Most of this week’s reading has been of books I read in the 1990s, or at least were books from series I read in the 1990s. I never read Amber Brown, though, possibly because by the time they were published … Continue reading →

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