Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Top TenWays My Blogging Style has Changed

Posted on May 13, 2025 by smellincoffee

Today’s TTT is ways our blogging or review style has changed over the years. I’ve been book-blogging for nearly twenty years — 18 next week — so I’m sure there’s been a lot of changes. I’m not sure, though, that … Continue reading →

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Baseball Between the Lines

Posted on May 12, 2025 by smellincoffee

Baseball Between the Lines is a direct sequel to Don Honig’s Baseball When the Grass was Real, being an oral history of baseball in the 1940s and 1950s,  recounting interviews with ballplayers of the era.  This was an time of … Continue reading →

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Dead Man’s Wake

Posted on May 9, 2025 by smellincoffee

Game Warden Mike Bowditch is not on duty. He is at a party. His engagement party. He is not on duty. He is not on duty. Yes,  there’s someone jet-skiing at night and that’s illegal and every bone in his … Continue reading →

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Baseball when the Grass was Real

Posted on May 8, 2025 by smellincoffee

One of my favorite reads from last year was  more of a listen: The Glory of their Times, featuring audio of old-time ballplayers telling stories from the early days of baseball.   Baseball When the Grass was Real is a … Continue reading →

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Ty Cobb

Posted on May 7, 2025 by smellincoffee

I’ve known the name Ty Cobb since I was a kid: baseball is an anomaly in that it’s the only sport I’ve ever cared enough to read about,  both as a boy and now in my dotage. I encountered Cobb … Continue reading →

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Battle Mountain

Posted on May 6, 2025 by smellincoffee

WARNING: This review contains a prominent spoiler for Three Inch Teeth and Shadows Reel. Proceed with caution, pilgrim.  Joe Pickett and Nate Romanowski are both wounded men,  having come close to losing all that was dearest to them at the … Continue reading →

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Three Inch Teeth

Posted on May 5, 2025 by smellincoffee

Joe Pickett’s future son-in-law just got eaten by a bear. Granted,  like most men Joe was a little wary about idea of son-in-laws in general, but Sheridan was fond of the boy and he’d rather no one get eaten by … Continue reading →

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Storm Watch

Posted on May 3, 2025 by smellincoffee

While out and about doing Game Warden-type things,  Joe Pickett notices something odd. There’s a movable building of some sort hidden  away on a ranch property, and a man who appears to be stuck with his head in the window.  … Continue reading →

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The Highwayman read a western! Plus, game wardening in Maine

Posted on May 2, 2025 by smellincoffee

I’m going to short-round a bunch of Paul Doiron books and just comment on them in general, since the quality is fairly consistent from book to book. But first, on Willie Nelson’s birthday, I searched his name in Audible just … Continue reading →

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Shadows Reel

Posted on May 2, 2025 by smellincoffee

Game Warden Joe Pickett has been told about a dead moose on someone’s property, and has gone to investigate to see if it’s natural causes or someone winging a moose out of season and then living the poor creature to … Continue reading →

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