Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Posted on April 26, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes256 pages© 1894 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Has it been five years since I read a Holmes collection? I remember picking up Memoirs shortly after reading The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, not nothing that Memoirs was published well … Continue reading →

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Funny in Farsi

Posted on April 24, 2016 by smellincoffee

Funny in Farsi: Growing up Iranian in America© 2003 Firoozeh “Julie” Dumas240 pages Imagine a time when most Americans had never heard of Iran, when a little girl from a village thereof might as well be from Podunk, Eurasia.   … Continue reading →

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The Quest for Shakespeare

Posted on April 23, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Quest for Shakespeare: the Bard of Avon and the Church of Rome© 2008 Joseph Pearce275 pages Although April 23rd is, historically, the feast of England’s patron saint George,   it is also the anniversary of William Shakespeare’s  death.  2016 … Continue reading →

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The Promise

Posted on April 22, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Promise © 1969 Chaim Potok 336 pages Growing up is never easy, but for Orthodox boys in the mid-20th century, it’s especially hard. The Jewish people are in turmoil after the horrors of the Holocaust, some pinning their hopes … Continue reading →

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Waterloo

Posted on April 20, 2016 by smellincoffee

Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles© 2015 Bernard Cornwell352 pages Bang upon the big drum, crash upon the cymbals We’ll sing as we go marching along boys, along And although on this campaign There’s no whiskey … Continue reading →

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Dawn of Battle

Posted on April 19, 2016 by smellincoffee

Four hundred years before, near a village called Azincourt, an English army had waited to do battle with the French, and on that October night it had rained and rained and the sky had echoed with thunder. It had been … Continue reading →

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Murder on the Orient Express

Posted on April 16, 2016 by smellincoffee

Murder on the Orient Express© 1934 Agatha Christie256 pages “Why does everyone on this train tell lies?!” A dark and snowy night; the Orient Express, rolling from Istanbul to Paris, slows to a stop in the wilderness, trapped by the … Continue reading →

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When the Eagle Hunts

Posted on April 15, 2016 by smellincoffee

When the Eagle Hunts© 2002 Simon Scarrow274 pages The Emperor Claudius is determined to make good the conquest of Britain, but his supply fleet sleeps with the fishes. The only Romans to survive a wintry crossing of the (English) channel … Continue reading →

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The English Resistance

Posted on April 15, 2016 by smellincoffee

The English Resistance: the Underground War Against the Romans© 2006 Peter Rex I was scandalized to learn, in seventh grade, that once ages ago, England was conquered. Already I had acquired the mythic conception of England as an indomitable island … Continue reading →

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Master and Commander

Posted on April 15, 2016 by smellincoffee

Master and Commander© 1969 Patrick O’Brian411 pages This morning, in a quiet courtyard, I finished Master and Commander, the first book in Patrick O’Brian’s Napoleonic naval stories.  These have been recommended to me ever since I finished Horatio Hornblower, though … Continue reading →

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