Category Archives: Reviews

Convoy

Posted on November 18, 2015 by smellincoffee

Convoy: The Greatest U-Boat Battle of the War© 1976 Martin Middlebrook384 pages In his memoirs,  Winston Churchill admitted that nothing worried him quite so much as the U-boat menace. Britain could stand alone against a continental menace, but not without … Continue reading →

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The Foxes of the Desert

Posted on November 18, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Foxes of the Desert© 1960 Paul Carell370 pages When Erwin Rommel was dispatched to Africa to rescue his nation’s ailing ally against the small-but-feisty English Eighth Army, he earned the lasting respect and dread of those commanders tasked with … Continue reading →

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War, spam, and more war

Posted on November 14, 2015 by smellincoffee

Today I finished Spam Nation, a journalistic takedown of the spam industry which is centered in Russia. The book is a strange collection of memoir and journalism on criminal relationships so entangled that I felt like I was reading about … Continue reading →

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That Was Then, This is Now

Posted on November 13, 2015 by smellincoffee

That Was Then, This is Now© 1971160 pages Mark and Byron were more than best friends; they were brothers. They grew up half-feral, raised by a struggling mom and struck by violence at an early age. Their fond childhood memories … Continue reading →

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Battles for Scandinavia

Posted on November 11, 2015 by smellincoffee

Battles for Scandinavia© 1981 John Elton203 pagesTime-Life History of WW2 In Battles for Scandinavia, John Elton takes readers into the three nations who had the distinct bad luck to lay between the warring powers of World War 2.  Norway, Sweden, … Continue reading →

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We Who Dared Say No to War

Posted on November 11, 2015 by smellincoffee

We Who Dared Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now© 2008 Murray Polner, Tom Woods368 pages The image of anti-war protesters in America is of the left, especially the student left, haranguing the government for overseas … Continue reading →

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The Lost History of Christianity

Posted on November 9, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia — And How It Died© 2008 Philip Jenkins315 pages For the first millennium of the church’s history, Europe was less … Continue reading →

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One Year After

Posted on November 9, 2015 by smellincoffee

One Year After© 2015 William Forstchen304 pages It’s been two years since an EMP blast reduced most of the United States to medieval conditions. After cars and the electrical grid failed, everything went to hell — complete with hordes of … Continue reading →

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V for Vendetta

Posted on November 4, 2015 by smellincoffee

V for Vendetta© 1988 Alan Moore and David Lloyd300 pages Remember, remember the Fifth of November.  The Britain of 1998 is a nation that has lost its spirit,. After nuclear war and crop failures, widespread disorder was quelled only by … Continue reading →

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A War, a Challenge, and a Goal

Posted on November 2, 2015 by smellincoffee

I’ve been on a World War 2 kick recently, and have now connected it with the remains of the 2015 Reading Challenge. An Army at Dawn, the first in a nonfiction trilogy about the liberation of Europe from Nazi oppression, … Continue reading →

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