Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Before Plan 9

Posted on February 9, 2017 by smellincoffee

Before Plan 9: Plans 1-8 From Outer Space© 2012 various authors354 pages TV Producer:”About the title…it’s highly inflammatory. What if we changed it to ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’?” Ed Wood: …that’s ridiculous.  (From Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp) Greetings, … Continue reading →

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The Future of the Mind

Posted on February 5, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Future of the Mind: the Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind© 2014 Michio Kaku400 pages In The Future of the Mind, physicist Michio Kaku talks with psychologists and neurologists like V.S. Ramachandran (Phantoms in the Brain, … Continue reading →

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The City on the Edge of Forever: the Original Teleplay

Posted on February 5, 2017 by smellincoffee

The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay© 1996 Harlan Ellision, with numerous afterwords276 pages In the classic Star Trek episode, “The City on the Edge of Forever”, Captain Kirk must chase a mentally disturbed man into Earth’s … Continue reading →

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We Forgot Our New Years Pie

Posted on February 4, 2017 by smellincoffee

Every year I typically post an enormous year-in-review with a pie graph. This year I decided to try out a mere top ten list instead of the usual monograph, but I still need my graph fix. So here’s a graphic. … Continue reading →

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Trade, ancient and modern: from China to the Sharing Economy

Posted on February 4, 2017 by smellincoffee

Two micro-reviews for you…one on The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, the other on Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing. The Silk Road consists of several chapters in central-Asian history, with generous photographs … Continue reading →

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A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science

Posted on January 31, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Canon: A whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science© 2007 Natalie Angier293 pages Science is amazing! Why is so much of the writing about it so lame?   Natalie Angier’s The Canon first reviews the principles of scientific thinking … Continue reading →

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Looking ahead & some also-reads

Posted on January 31, 2017 by smellincoffee

I intentionally launched this year off with some fun reading, so we’re off to a good start and there’s more on the way.  Yesterday Amazon held a flash sale for science books, and I picked up a few relatively recent … Continue reading →

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The Twilight of the Presidency

Posted on January 29, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Twlight of the Presidency: An Examination of Power and Isolation in the White House© 1970, 1987200 pages In Twilight of the Presidency, George Reedy uses his personal experience as a Johnson aide, along with the study of other administrations … Continue reading →

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The Forever War

Posted on January 29, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Forever War© 1974 Joe Haldeman236 pages “I called to the waiter, ‘Bring me one of those Antares things’ Sitting here in a bar with an asexual cyborg who is probably the only other normal person on the whole damn … Continue reading →

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Laughter is Better than Communism

Posted on January 26, 2017 by smellincoffee

Laughter is Better than Communism: Politics, Wit, and Cartoons180 pages© 2014 Andrew Heaton  A couple of years ago I stumbled upon Andrew Heaton’s “EconPop”, a series of videos in which he used popular films to illustrate economic concepts in a … Continue reading →

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