Category Archives: General

WWW: Favorite Nonfiction?

Posted on March 29, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s blogging challenge from Long & Short Reviews is ‘Favorite Nonfiction Book’, which is…er, problematic. I read over a hundred nonfiction books a year, and have done since I started keeping a book log in mid-2007. which means I’ve read … Continue reading →

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Tuesday Tease: The stuff of empire

Posted on March 28, 2023 by smellincoffee

From Waters of the World, by Sarah Dry, on glaciology, geology metereology, and climatology…so far. Only with the leveraging power of certain technologies was British rule in India even thinkable. Much has been made of the importance of railways, telegraphs, … Continue reading →

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Wednesday blogging: famous book you’ve not read?

Posted on March 22, 2023 by smellincoffee

Long and Short Reviews’ blogging challenge this week is ‘A famous book you haven’t read, and why’. Immediately before college and a little during (before assignments took priority), I sought out books that had changed the world for good or … Continue reading →

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Exciting news

Posted on March 21, 2023 by smellincoffee

Eleven years ago tomorrow I accepted an offer of employment at the library, and have served as its local history librarian and computer lab manager since, growing in both technical and personal skills along the way, and taking no small … Continue reading →

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Wednesday Blogging Challenge: Favorite historic personage to read about?

Posted on March 15, 2023 by smellincoffee

….favorite historic personage to read about, eh? That’s a tough one. There are a few people I’ve read several biographies about, including Joan of Arc and John Adams. I’ve found Joan fascinating since watching a CBS drama based on her … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Tuesday: Spring Reads

Posted on March 14, 2023 by smellincoffee

First up, a little Tuesday teasin’, from Sarah Ruden’s Paul Among the People. This interesting little read compares Paul’s understanding of humanity to that of the first-century Roman world. Juvenal displays [women] as cheerfully, irredeemably evil. I am a woman, … Continue reading →

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Stuff is not-life

Posted on March 13, 2023 by smellincoffee

I adopted anti-consumerism shortly after I began working, largely out of self-defense because I began to appreciate that paying money for a thing meant trading hours of my life for a thing. Was a $100 set of Star Trek dvds … Continue reading →

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Thinking about women authors

Posted on March 10, 2023 by smellincoffee

A few years back, out of a matter of curiosity, I  went through my data on books-read since May 2007 and determined that nearly 80% of my reading came from male authors. This is not something that bothers me, since … Continue reading →

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I SAY, Jeeves. Rather alarming, what?

Posted on March 7, 2023 by smellincoffee

Since it’s early March, I’m doing my April/Read of England planning, including a draft of the “Reading of England, 20__!” post I publish on the first. I’d written up a very brief intro paragraph in the style of Bertie Wooster, … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday: Heroes and villains

Posted on March 7, 2023 by smellincoffee

Today’s tease comes from The Romance of Religion by Dwight Longenecker. Reviews/comments for it, The Reactionary Mind, and Blood of Honour to come this week.. The truly romantic warrior sees the evil in the world and wants to fight it, … Continue reading →

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