Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Civilian Warriors

Posted on November 28, 2016 by smellincoffee

Civilian Warriors: the Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung  Heroes of the War on Terror© 2013 Erik Prince413 pages In the 21st century, the line between public and private warfare has gotten a bit fuzzy. I realized this most … Continue reading →

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Lost Enlightenment

Posted on November 28, 2016 by smellincoffee

Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane © 2015 S. Frederick Starr618 pages Lost Enlightenment takes readers back to a time when Central Asia was the crossroads of the world, a hub of both commercial and … Continue reading →

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The Works

Posted on November 25, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Works: Anatomy of a City© 2005  Kate Ascher240 pages Cities are, for my money, mankind’s most astonishing invention. Their complexity is stupefying — system within system, handling tons of material at any given time, whether the subject is cars … Continue reading →

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Truck This For A Living

Posted on November 24, 2016 by smellincoffee

Truck This for a Living: Tales of a UK Lorry Driver© 2014  Gary Mottram226 pages After hand-manufacturing woodwind instruments for thirteen years, Gary Mottram was laid off. So naturally, he took up driving. Working through a temp agency, he delivered … Continue reading →

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The Motel in America

Posted on November 22, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Motel in America© 1996 Jefferson S. Rogers, John A Jakle, and Keith A. Sculle408 pages At some point in high school I pulled out a dictionary to find out what, exactly, was the difference between a motel and a … Continue reading →

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When It Was Worth Playing For

Posted on November 20, 2016 by smellincoffee

When it was Worth Playing For: My Experiences Writing About the TV Show, ‘Survivor’ © 2015 Mario Lanza 466 pages THIRTY-NINE DAYS, SIXTEEN PEOPLE, ONE SURVIVOR! Once upon a time, there was a show called Survivor, which promised to chuck … Continue reading →

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The Road Taken

Posted on November 16, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Road Taken: The History and Future of America’s Infrastructure336 pages© 2016 Henry Petroski What, exactly, is The Road Taken?   Its title declares it a history, which is mostly true. It does have a bounty of historic sketches on the … Continue reading →

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Ad Astra Per Aspera

Posted on November 13, 2016 by smellincoffee

A reading from Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, set to utterly perfect music. We were hunters and foragers — the frontier was everywhere. We were bounded only by the earth, and the ocean, and the sky. The open road still … Continue reading →

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I’m a Stranger Here Myself

Posted on November 12, 2016 by smellincoffee

I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away© 1999 Bill Bryson288 pages “It’s been a funny  old night, when you think of it. I mean to say, wife drowns, ship sinks, and there was … Continue reading →

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Armistice Day

Posted on November 11, 2016 by smellincoffee

The sun’s shining down on these green fields of FranceThe warm wind blows gently and the red poppies danceThe trenches have vanished long under the plowNo gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing nowBut still in this graveyard that’s still … Continue reading →

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