Category Archives: General

WWW Wednesday

Posted on March 4, 2026 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? The Confessions, St. Augustine. WHAT are you reading now? 2/3rds through Augustine: A Very Short Introduction, by Henry Chadwick. Also starting a re-read of The KunstlerCast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler about the Tragic … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Tuesday Freebie: Books that Sing

Posted on March 3, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s topic is a TTT genre freebie.   I was going to do something like “My Favorite Historical Fiction Books of the Last Five Years”. Instead, I am going to do…..ten songs to pair with ten books.   “The problem in … Continue reading →

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February 2026 in Review

Posted on February 28, 2026 by smellincoffee

February was an odd month for reading, opening with another Box binge (this time reading through his other series, featuring a sheriff’s deputy turned private investigator) before drifting back a little into history. It was not a strong month for … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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