Category Archives: Reviews

Quick note

Posted on February 23, 2018 by smellincoffee

I am deep in the country house/dog sitting for some friends, armed only with my kindle and a few books.  One of these days I’ll get a laptop, but until Monday evening I am PC less. Typing is laborious on … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | 19 Comments

9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America

Posted on February 19, 2018 by smellincoffee

9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America and 4 Who Tried to Save Her©  2016 Brion McClanahan354 pages It is my dearest hope that by the time Donald Trump leaves the West Wing, the office of the presidency will have been … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments

House of Rain

Posted on February 17, 2018 by smellincoffee

House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest © 2007 Craig Childs 482 pages Throughout the southwest United States and northern Mexico there are ruins from a people long gone, people remembered as the Anasazi. The name … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Overclocked

Posted on February 15, 2018 by smellincoffee

Overclocked: More Stories of the Future Present© 2016 Cory Doctorow388 pages I’d never heard of Cory Doctorow before  this week, but I encountered his name on a list of promising SF authors and looked him up. Amazon obliged my curiosity … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Everyday Life of the North American Indians

Posted on February 13, 2018 by smellincoffee

Everyday Life of the North American Indian© 1979 Jon White256 pages Everyday Life of the North American Indian is a dated but informative survey of the customs and lifestyles of native peoples across the continent. Most of the content is organized … Continue reading →

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The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

Posted on February 12, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Eleven Campus Stories© 1951 Max Shulman223 pages Imagine if PG Wodehouse wrote stories about a girl-crazy freshman at the University of Minnesota, circa late 1940s. That’s kind of what reader will find in The … Continue reading →

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Moundville

Posted on February 12, 2018 by smellincoffee

I have finally broken ground on this year’s study series with Everyday Life of North American Indians (© 1979), but before I start posting reviews and such I’d like to share some photos from a day trip I took with some … Continue reading →

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The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England

Posted on February 11, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century© 2008 Ian Mortimer342 pages Within minutes of being transported to the time of King Arthur,  Mark Twain’s fictional Yankee found himself arrested and facing death.  … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Fool’s Errand

Posted on February 8, 2018 by smellincoffee

Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan © 2017 Scott Horton 318 pages Incredible as it sounds, it is nearly possible for a child conceived in the first week of the US invasion of Afghanistan to have come … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews, World Affairs | Tagged , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

The Gulag Archipelago: Volume III

Posted on February 4, 2018 by smellincoffee

Archipeleg GULag / The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary InvestigationVolume III (of III)© 1973, 1974 Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn576 pages Throughout The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has taken readers on a tour of the Soviet concentration camps,  where human … Continue reading →

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