Category Archives: General

The Sober Diaries

Posted on April 1, 2026 by smellincoffee

In the afterwords of The Authenticity of Project, author Clare Pooley noted that it was her attempt to capture in fiction something she’s done in fact: change her life through honesty. She’d done it by blogging her journey to sobriety, … Continue reading →

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March 2026 in Review + WWW Wednesday

Posted on April 1, 2026 by smellincoffee

After a vigorous opening for the year, my reading fell back rather dramatically this month before starting to recover with some short biographies and novels at the close. (The novels were Britfic, too, a nice segue into Read of England.) … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday

Posted on March 31, 2026 by smellincoffee

Without getting ahead of my story, let’s just say that nearly every planet and moon that ever existed in the solar system was consumed by something bigger than itself, and that makes all the difference in the world. Most planets … Continue reading →

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Moviewatch: March 2026

Posted on March 30, 2026 by smellincoffee

Given that I have class tomorrow night, it’s good odds my movie-watching for March is completed! My film viewing, like my book-reading, was extremely slow for the first part of the month and then exploded in the second half. A … Continue reading →

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Paradise Lost

Posted on March 28, 2026 by smellincoffee

Like Dante’s Divine Comedy, Milton’s Paradise Lost is a key bit of Christian literature which has shaped people’s understanding of Bible stories in an indirect way; that is, Milton and Dante’s interpretation of Biblical events and places has become our … Continue reading →

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Sam Grant

Posted on March 27, 2026 by smellincoffee

Ulysses Grant opens with Josiah Bunting III’s rueful observation that Grant is almost always thought of “General Grant”, never president — despite being the only man between Lincoln and Wilson to serve two consecutive terms. Bunting attributes this to both … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday, and Reading More Genre Fiction

Posted on March 25, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s prompt from Long and Short reviews is: what genre do you want to read more of in 2026? My science fiction and historical fiction reading last year were both fairly dismal, so….both. WHAT have you finished reading recently? Treacherous … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Books on my Alleged Spring TBR

Posted on March 24, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is books on our spring TBR. As is my custom, I’m going to look back at my previous quarterly TBR to see how I did. I batted .500, which is great by my standards: I read five of … Continue reading →

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Iran & Israel: A Lovers to Enemies Story

Posted on March 23, 2026 by smellincoffee

Trita Parsi’s Treacherous Alliance is a history of relations between the United States, Israel, and Iran from 1947 on. It principally argues that Iran and Israel’s relationship has become poisoned not because of Iranian ideology — specifically, that of the … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday + Audiobooks We Have Loved

Posted on March 18, 2026 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? Robert Parker’s Blind Spot. Meh. WHAT are you reading now? I’m listening to the full cast audio of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and reading Eleanor Oiliphant is Completely Fine along … Continue reading →

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