Category Archives: General

Be it Hereby Resolved

Posted on January 6, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Broke and the Bookish’ theme for Top Ten Tuesdays this week concerns New Years resolutions, naturally. I’m not usually one for resolutions, or even paying attention to the New Year, but it’s as good a time as any to … Continue reading →

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10 Titles that Win

Posted on January 4, 2016 by smellincoffee

I remarked recently that How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had it Coming is the best title I’ve encountered in eight years of reading and blogging.   What kind of company does it keep? Drawing from the last five years, … Continue reading →

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The Best of 2015: Year in Review

Posted on January 1, 2016 by smellincoffee

Previous yearly wrap-ups:2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 Welcome to the 9th annual year in review, in which I highlight the best of the year’s reading, hopefully without producing a column of text that rivals the Bayeux Tapestry. Big year for history, obviously. This … Continue reading →

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2015 Cumulative Reading List

Posted on December 31, 2015 by smellincoffee

Whew, what a year.  flags books involved in this year’s Read of England series.   marks books involved in my annual American Revolution series. — January — 1. Lives of the Planets: A Natural History of the Solar System,  Richard Corfield (Science) 2. The Empty Throne, Bernard Cornwell … Continue reading →

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Finis!

Posted on December 30, 2015 by smellincoffee

Last year, a friend on facebook challenged me to find and read the following, and now…’tis complete! A book with more than 500 pages (Politics on a Human Scale, Jeff Taylor) A classic romance (Emma, Jane Austen) A book that became a movie (The Copperhead, Harold … Continue reading →

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Books for Christmas

Posted on December 26, 2015 by smellincoffee

Merry Christmas, one and all!  I trust everyone had a safe and happy holiday.  Christmas was a strange event down here in the South, as temperatures pegged the 80s and we’ve had a rash of tornadoes and flooding the last … Continue reading →

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2016 Reading Challenge

Posted on December 19, 2015 by smellincoffee

A new challenge has been issued, one slightly shorter than last year’s. There are a few curveball categories (a romance set in the future..? Maybe I can count The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), but it looks like a fun … Continue reading →

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The Battle of the Atlantic

Posted on November 5, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Battle of Britain © 1977 Barrie Pitt, series editor William Goolrick 208 pages Time-Life History of WW2 Long before panzers roared through Paris and Stukas littered the fields of France with burned-out machines, the Phony War existed only in … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday

Posted on November 3, 2015 by smellincoffee

“They believed in the righteousness of their cause, the inevitability of their victory, and the immortality of their young souls. And as they wheeled around to the east and pulled out their Michelin maps of Tunisia, they believed they had … Continue reading →

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The Way

Posted on October 31, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Way: What Every Protestant Needs to Know About Orthodoxy© 2007 Clark Carlton222 pages   If Protestantism is a willful child of the Catholic church, what is it to the Orthodox?  What is the Orthodox faith for that matter, Catholicism … Continue reading →

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