Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Saturday Shorts — This Long Vigil

Posted on June 14, 2025 by smellincoffee

Amid the deep, cold black of space, the generation ship Hermes cruises her way toward finding a new home for humanity at Tau Ceti. Or, at least the thousand souls who are aboard her. Unusually, though, these are not the … Continue reading →

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SHELLI: MurderMind

Posted on June 13, 2025 by smellincoffee

One of my favorite reads of 2024 was SHELLI, a SF mystery featuring a pair of detectives — one human, one synthetic — who investigated crimes relating to sythentic lifeforms, i.e. androids. Jake and Shelli are back in MurderMind, but … Continue reading →

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1984 (Dramatization)

Posted on June 12, 2025 by smellincoffee

Earlier in the year I re-read 1984, along with Cyberkitten, and when I spotted this full-cast adaptation of the classic dystopia on Audible. I knew I had to try it, if only to hear Tom Hardy’s Big Brother. The adaptation … Continue reading →

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Black Badge: Ace in the Hole

Posted on June 10, 2025 by smellincoffee

For untold years, the thought-dead gunslinger James Crowley has roamed the wild west doing the bidding of the White Throne – hunting wretched nephilim that prey on humans and subvert creation, like vampires. This was his reward for dying in … Continue reading →

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Strange New Worlds: Asylum

Posted on June 6, 2025 by smellincoffee

It’s been nearly two years since the season-two cliffhanger of Strange New Worlds, so thank goodness for Trek literature to keep us junkies out of withdrawal until July’s airing of season there. Asylum is a novel told across two periods … Continue reading →

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The Presidents and the Pastime

Posted on June 4, 2025 by smellincoffee

On October 30th, 2001,   President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch of Game 3 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. It was a powerful moment, a symbolic step forward in recovering from the trauma of … Continue reading →

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Alice, the White Rabbit, and Nixon: Short rounds, audio edition

Posted on June 2, 2025 by smellincoffee

That is not a “Go Ask Alice” reference, though I suppose it could. I’m kicking this week off with an audiobook short round. First up is The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, read by Scarlett Johansson . I reviewed the … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Original Sin

Posted on May 26, 2025 by smellincoffee

It was fairly obvious to critics of the Biden administration that the president was in cognitive decline and increasingly unfit to hold office, despite the barrage of Sharp as a Tack! statements emanating from DC’s faithful handmaidens, the corporate press. … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Coming to Palestine

Posted on May 24, 2025 by smellincoffee

Given the current horrors going on in Gaza, and that Israel/Palestine is largely a blind spot for me, I figured this was worth a look, especially given that I haven’t read anything on the subject since Peace not Apartheid (2007!) … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews, World Affairs | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Memories from the Microphone

Posted on May 19, 2025 by smellincoffee

Memories from the Microphone is a history of baseball broadcasting that begins with primitive radio and follows broadcasting into the maturation of radio and television networks. In this, it’s also a partial history of how radio and television developed as … Continue reading →

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