Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

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 →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

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 →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

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 →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , | 4 Comments

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 →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Poetry Night at the Ballpark

Posted on February 3, 2018 by smellincoffee

Poetry Night at the Ballpark and Other Scenes from an Alternative America © 2015 Bill Kauffman 442 pages  “Lift up your hearts, friends – America ain’t dead yet.”  For thirty years, Bill Kauffman has been blowing raspberries at or haranguing … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Chairman

Posted on January 30, 2018 by smellincoffee

Sinatra: The Chairman© 2015 James Kaplan994 pages Sinatra: “May I? — it’s your stage, figured I’d ask..”Dean Martin: “Hey, it’s your world! I’m just livin’ in it.” (The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands) In 2010, James Kaplan wrote an … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

1906

Posted on January 28, 2018 by smellincoffee

1906© 2004 James Dalessandro368 pages Turn of the century San Francisco was a notoriously corrupt city, filled with vice from the brothels of the Barbary Coast to the opium dens and sex slaves of Chinatown. 1906 is a political thriller  that … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , | 3 Comments