Category Archives: General

WWW Wednesday + A Book I Wish Was More Popular

Posted on August 21, 2024 by smellincoffee

Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is, “What’s a book you wish were more popular?” Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death was published in 1985, but Postman’s analysis of how modern technology, especially television, trivializes information and supplants it … Continue reading →

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California Diaries finale: bittersweet goodbye

Posted on August 20, 2024 by smellincoffee

Round One | Round Two And….here we are, at the end of one of my absolute favorite series. The third round is a bit like Return of the Jedi, in that we have really strong books plus some stuff that, … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Tuesday: Relationship Freebies

Posted on August 20, 2024 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is a freebie about relationships, so I’m going to just throw out the first platonic relationships that pop up in my head. But first, teases! (1) Battle-bros: Sharpe and Pat Harper. These two are great together. From their … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday

Posted on August 14, 2024 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? For “real” reading, I just finished Star Trek: The Higher Frontier, a TOS-MOVIE era novel. I also read three books in the Marvin Redpost series for Blast from the Past. WHAT are you reading … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Tuesday: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles!

Posted on August 13, 2024 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”, which — no pun intended — is definitely in my wheelhouse. As longtime readers here know, transportation is a frequent nonfiction visit of mine, possibly because I come from a family of truckers … Continue reading →

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Little House in the Big Woods

Posted on August 9, 2024 by smellincoffee

I have a persistent fantasy of living in a little off-grid cabin on the edge of the woods, a fantasy I suspect owes entirely to reading this as a child. It’s a memoir-in-novel form of the author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, … Continue reading →

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Blast from the Past II: The Quack Attack is Back!

Posted on August 9, 2024 by smellincoffee

Last year I closed out July with a special week of themed reading called “Blast from the Past”, in which I visited 1990s kidlit — or, in the case of the Henry & Beezus books, books I happened to read … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday

Posted on August 7, 2024 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you recently finished reading? Yesterday I finished Damned Un-English, a novel about a fellow who joined the submarine service in the early 1910s and…er, just spends the novel talking to people about the big European war that’s looming. … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Series Favorites

Posted on August 6, 2024 by smellincoffee

Today’s theme is interesting: our favorite books from ten different series. Have I read ten different series? But first, a tease! “A thousand years! The Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets will last forever, Gilbert!” “It will need a … Continue reading →

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July 2024 in Review

Posted on August 1, 2024 by smellincoffee

July is the beginning of the Great Sticky Siege that is an Alabama summer, as we all flee inside to worship the freon god and hope our AC units can hold the line until relief breaks in October. It continued … Continue reading →

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