Category Archives: General

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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Merlin’s Tour of the Universe

Posted on October 3, 2025 by smellincoffee

This is a book I’ve been meaning to read for years, though the only thing I knew about it was that it was authored by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium and a public advocate … Continue reading →

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The Best of Oct ’24 – Oct ’25’s Teases

Posted on October 3, 2025 by smellincoffee

Three years ago, I started posting Tuesday Teasers after a long period of dormancy — so long, in fact, that the original host of it from 2009 was no longer around. After a year of consistent teases, I shared my … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday

Posted on September 30, 2025 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? The Day of Battle, a girthy history of the Anglo-American invasion of Sicily and Italy in World War 2. WHAT are you reading now? Against the Machine, Paul Kingsnorth. I’m also looking through Starry … Continue reading →

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