Category Archives: General

The Crossroads

Posted on February 26, 2026 by smellincoffee

Joe Pickett’s body lies in a bullet-ridden Game Warden pickup truck, with no indication of where he was going or who he expected to find. As he’s airlifted to a hospital and specialists go to work on him, his three … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

WWW Wednesday

Posted on February 25, 2026 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, full cast audio edition. WHAT are you reading now? CJ BOX’S THE CROSSROADS! IT CAME OUT YESTERDAY! MORE JOE PICKETT! I would have read it through yesterday … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Top Ten Quotes about Books

Posted on February 24, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is quotations about…books. But first, a tease! Back in Washington, Lincoln came down with what doctors diagnosed as “varioloid,” a mild form of smallpox. So now he and Tad both were sick—though Tad at least was improving. Where … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

A Lenten WWW Wednesday

Posted on February 18, 2026 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? The Dark Sacred Night, Michael Connolly. A Bosch/Ballard novel in which his grumpy retired cop and his increasingly-annoyed-at-the-system novice cop join forces to drink black coffee, listen to jazz, and grouse about the system … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Teaser Tuesday, Feb 17

Posted on February 17, 2026 by smellincoffee

From Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America, by Walter J. Bornman: It has long been popular to paint James K. Polk as a dark horse, but the record does not square with that tradition. If he was … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Paradise Valley

Posted on February 16, 2026 by smellincoffee

And so ends my chaotic run at the Cody Hoyt/Cassie Dewell series — right in the middle, when the serial killer known as The Lizard King is finally rendered extinct like his tyrannranous namesake. Here, Cassie is still a lead … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Worth Reading: A Guide to Surviving the Great Forgetting

Posted on February 13, 2026 by smellincoffee

My substack subscriptions have an obvious cluster concerning humanity and the machine — or more specifically, how modern technology, particularly devices and the omnipresent digital world, warp or distort humanity. I was fortunate to encounter The Shallows and Neil Postman’s … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The Highway

Posted on February 13, 2026 by smellincoffee

I am evidently reading the Cassie Dewell series in the most chaotic way possible, because I’m three books in and have only just finished #1. The Highway introduces Cassie Dewell, a sheriff’s inspector working in Montana who has been manipulated … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Favorite Song Lyrics & WWW Wednesday

Posted on February 11, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s prompt from Long and Short reviews is “Favorite Song Lyrics“, which is ridiculous. If you know me, you know I’m always listening to music and singing, even in the library, which has gotten me in trouble before. (‘Whistle while … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Top Ten Heard it in a Love Songs

Posted on February 10, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s teaser comes from When the Earth Had Two Moons: The lunar calendar is a living thing: when you try to write it down, it resists. Today’s TTT is a love freebie, so I’m going to go with….ten love songs! … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 13 Comments