Category Archives: Reviews

The Circle

Posted on September 9, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Circle 2013 Dave Eggers 507 pages Sharing is Caring. Privacy is Theft. Secrets are Lies. Imagine an internet transformed by a company  so innovative and ambitious that it had swallowed Facebook, Google, etc. whole.  It began with TruYou, a … Continue reading →

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The Republic of Imagination

Posted on September 7, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Republic of Imagination: America in Three BooksOther edition subtitle: A Case for Fiction© 2014 Azar Nafisi352 pages When Azar Nafisi taught literature in Iran, she dreamed of America. Not the United States, the government of which had been making … Continue reading →

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A Devil’s Chaplain

Posted on September 6, 2017 by smellincoffee

A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love© 2003 Richard Dawkins263 pages Charles Darwin mused that a devil’s chaplain might write quite a book on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low, and horridly cruel works of nature.  A Devil’s … Continue reading →

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The Wonder That Was India

Posted on September 1, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Wonder That Was India© 1959 Arthur Llewellyn Basham586 pages For the past few weeks I’ve been enjoying The Wonder That Was India, a Will Durant-like survey of Indian history and culture prior to the Mughal invasion.  Its opening section … Continue reading →

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Tyrannosaur Canyon

Posted on August 29, 2017 by smellincoffee

Tyrannosaur Canyon© 2006 Douglas Preston416 pages What do a ‘misplaced’ lunar sample and a fossil hunter shot dead in the high mesas of New Mexico have in common?  Their shared secret is one that would answer one of humanity’s oldest … Continue reading →

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Dragon’s Teeth

Posted on August 27, 2017 by smellincoffee

Dragon’s Teeth © 2017 Michael Crichton288 pages Scientific discovery isn’t always a gentlemanly affair.  Dragon’s Teeth, published by the estate of Michael Crichton in his name, inserts a fictional character into the real-life feud of two paleontologists who went to such … Continue reading →

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Gates of Rome

Posted on August 26, 2017 by smellincoffee

I rarely give up on a book, but for this one I could never muster more than marginal enthusiasm. I’ve been watching Rome on Amazon Prime, and  contemplating Caesar’s The Conquest of Gaul, so a novel about the formation of young … Continue reading →

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A human is a messy receipe

Posted on August 24, 2017 by smellincoffee

“There is an important distinction between a blueprint and a recipe. A blueprint is a detailed, point-for-point specification of some end product like a house or a car. One diagnostic feature of a blueprint is that it is reversible. Give … Continue reading →

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Romans Without Laurels

Posted on August 23, 2017 by smellincoffee

Romans Without Laurels© 1962  Indro Montanelli352 pages In Romans Without Laurels, Indro Montanelli delivers an affectionate history of the Roman Republic and the empire which followed. Although a work in translation, it succeeds wonderfully as narrative history, reminding and entertaining … Continue reading →

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State of Fear

Posted on August 22, 2017 by smellincoffee

State of Fear© 2004 Michael Chrichton672 pages I stumbled upon State of Fear via Rousseau, oddly enough. Wikiquote’s page on Rousseau included an excerpt from a Michael Crichton article rebuking Rousseau’s “noble savage” myth. The article in question scrutinized political … Continue reading →

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