Category Archives: General

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 →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in General | Tagged | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in General | 7 Comments

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 →

Posted in General | 5 Comments

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 →

Posted in General | Tagged | 5 Comments

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 →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in General | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I Saw it Happen in Norway

Posted on October 31, 2015 by smellincoffee

I Saw It Happen in Norway© 1940 C.J. Hambro292 pages I Saw it Happen in Norway is a rare account of Hitler’s early expansion,  the story of a nation’s downfall told first-hand from a surviving member of its government and … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Classics Club

Posted on September 21, 2015 by smellincoffee

For the past year or so I’ve been aware of a book/blogging community known as the Classics Club, whose members have pledge to read a list of fifty or so “classics” within five years, and share their thoughts about them … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , | 10 Comments