Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

A Country Called Amreeka

Posted on July 18, 2016 by smellincoffee

A Country Called Amreeka: U.S. History Retold through Arab-American LivesAlternate subtitle: Arab Roots, American Stories© 2009 Alia Malek320 pages I discovered  A Country Called Amreeka while looking for the film Amreeka, the story of a Palestinian woman who emigrates to … Continue reading →

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Inferno

Posted on July 17, 2016 by smellincoffee

Inferno created 14th century Dante Alighieri translated © 2002 Anthony Esolen 528 pages If Dante’s Inferno is to be believed, Hell is mostly populated by Italians.  The first piece in the Divine Comedy, Inferno takes the reader down into the … Continue reading →

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Crescent and Star

Posted on July 16, 2016 by smellincoffee

Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds© 2001 Stephen Kinzer288 pages Turkey is an anomaly. For centuries, it was the dreaded foe of Christendom, twice pushing at the very gates of Vienna. After the Great War, when the victorious west … Continue reading →

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TBR: And Then There was One

Posted on July 12, 2016 by smellincoffee

Dear readers,  we approach the end for the To be Read Takedown Challenge! Richard Francis’ Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-Made World proved disappointing, not because of the quality of content but the focus thereof.  Although Domesticated sells itself as a … Continue reading →

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Literary Converts

Posted on July 12, 2016 by smellincoffee

Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief © 2000 Joseph Pearce 452 pages              Literary Converts is a historical survey of the ‘second spring’ of Anglo-Catholic literature and all that followed, covering most … Continue reading →

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Requiem

Posted on July 11, 2016 by smellincoffee

ST TNG #32: Requiem© 1994 Michael Jan Friedman,  Kevin Ryan277 pages dun-dun DA DA DA DA DA DA dun-dun DA da! One hundred years ago, James Kirk of the USS Enterprise arrived at Cestus III to find a Federation colony … Continue reading →

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10% Human

Posted on July 11, 2016 by smellincoffee

10% Human: How Your Body’s Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness© 2015 Alanna Collen336 pages Walt Whitman wasn’t thinking of bacteria when he mused — “I am large, I contain multitudes” — but Alanna Collen could have gotten … Continue reading →

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Posted on July 8, 2016 by smellincoffee

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?© 1968 Phillip K. Dick210 pages In a world ruined by nuclear war, most animals are extinct and most humans who can have fled for the cold, distant colonies of Mars.  Technical civilization has survived, … Continue reading →

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Enterprise: the First Adventure

Posted on July 8, 2016 by smellincoffee

Enterprise: the First Adventure© 1986 Vonda McIntyre386 pages Jim Kirk thought he was going places. Not even thirty, he’s been named captain and given the Enterprise, famously captained by Chris Pike. But instead of launching out on an extended five … Continue reading →

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The Red Badge of Courage

Posted on July 7, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Red Badge of Courage© 1895 Stephen Crane170 pgs Stephen Crane practically introduced Civil War historical fiction, writing this tale set during a war that was ended six years before his birth. The Red Badge of Courage is the account … Continue reading →

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