Category Archives: General

Ten Strange Ways to Die In Colonial Alabama

Posted on October 31, 2025 by smellincoffee

I’d intended to post this list earlier in the week for the Top Ten Tuesday freebie, but couldn’t remember the name of the book I was using, Alabama Mortality Schedule (1850, Seventh Census of the United States). I stumbled on … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday

Posted on October 29, 2025 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? Against the Machine, Paul Kingsnorth. Quotations to be posted today. WHAT are you reading now? The Last Jeffersonian, a biography of Grover Cleveland I picked up a week or so ago at a local … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Tuesday + Halloween Freebie

Posted on October 28, 2025 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is a Halloween freebie, and while that should make things easier, it doesn’t. I’m not much for Halloween: my family didn’t celebrate it as a kid, and while I’ve enjoyed quite a few costume parties in. So, I’m … Continue reading →

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The Impossible Nazi

Posted on October 25, 2025 by smellincoffee

Yes, yes, I know. I said I wouldn’t read more in this series until I’d hit some nonfiction first — but the last book ended with the Dome of the Rock being blown up! How could I resist? The Impossible … Continue reading →

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Scary things & WWW Wednesday

Posted on October 22, 2025 by smellincoffee

Today’s Long and Short review is….”Things that Scare Me”. Swarm insects that sting/bite, obviously. Falling off bridges into deep water. The increasing dystopia of the 21st century, as technology further destroys our ability to be human and AI begins destroying … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday

Posted on October 21, 2025 by smellincoffee

In my lifetime, in my part of the world, the notion and meaning of ‘home’ has steadily crumbled under this external pressure until it is little more than a word. In a Machine anticulture, the home is a dormitory, probably … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday

Posted on October 15, 2025 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? In Distant Lands, Lars Brownworth WHAT are you reading now? I just started The Normans: From Raiders to Kings by Lars Brownsworth. WHAT are you reading next? Perhaps The Devil in the White City, … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday

Posted on October 14, 2025 by smellincoffee

“The belief in the inevitability of the past — that whatever happened had to happen — is the great enemy of learning from history.” Lars Brownworth, IN DISTANT LANDS

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WWW Wednesday + Book Series We’ll Never Read

Posted on October 8, 2025 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? The Iron Dream, a satire of pulp fiction that uses the premise that Adolf Hitler left Germany in 1919 and later became a prominent sword-and-sorcery writer during the golden age of pulp fiction. It’s….all … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Satisfying Series + Teaser

Posted on October 6, 2025 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is “satisfying book series”. But first, a tease… When scolded for not emulating her father’s ostentatious frugality, she only laughed. ‘While he may forget that he is Caesar, I never forget that I am [Augustus] Caesar’s daughter.’ Caesar … Continue reading →

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