Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

This week at the library; Huck Finn and the British crown

Posted on July 14, 2014 by smellincoffee

            Try as  I might,  none of the French-related books I investigated this week struck my interest, so for the first time since starting the tradition,  my Bastille Day reading is a nonstarter. C’est la vie. … Continue reading →

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Daily Life in Early America

Posted on July 13, 2014 by smellincoffee

Daily Life in Early America193 pages© 1988 David Freeman Hawke             Daily Life in Early America examines up-close the new world European colonists were discovering and recreating for themselves.  A social history, focused on daily life, the author begins first … Continue reading →

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Last Orders

Posted on July 12, 2014 by smellincoffee

The War that Came Early: Last Orders©  Harry Turtledove416 pages This cover has nothing to do with the plot.  Good things come to those who wait. Such is the lesson of Last Orders, the sixth book in an alternate-history series … Continue reading →

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An Edible History of Humanity

Posted on July 11, 2014 by smellincoffee

An Edible History of Humanity© 2010 Tom Standage288 pages Tom Standage offers a course in human history set at the dinner table, beginning with agriculture and moving swiftly to the green revolution.  His A History of the World in Six … Continue reading →

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Jefferson

Posted on July 9, 2014 by smellincoffee

Jefferson: A Novel© 1998 William Brant448 pages In  the late 1780s,  William Short put pen to paper to create a biography of his boss and mentor, Thomas Jefferson. Then serving as ambassador to France, Jefferson was already a seasoned American … Continue reading →

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Posted on July 8, 2014 by smellincoffee

Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly© 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe          500 pages Written as an indignant response to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, Uncle Tom’s Cabin shook the American landscape in the mid-19th century as few other novels … Continue reading →

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This week at the library: …we’ll find out together

Posted on July 7, 2014 by smellincoffee

Dear readers: It turned out, despite their normally up-to-the-minute-correct website, that my university library was not open today, which means for the first time a long while, I have no idea what I’m going to read next. My local library doesn’t carry … Continue reading →

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George Washington’s Secret Six

Posted on July 5, 2014 by smellincoffee

George Washington’s Secret Six© 2013 Brian Kilmead257 pages Wars are not won by soldiers alone. In the shadows are those silently gathering information, sometimes at great risks to themselves,  to give the nation’s leaders an edge over the foe — … Continue reading →

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Common Sense

Posted on July 4, 2014 by smellincoffee

Common Sense© 1776 Tom Paine After the battles of Lexington and Concord that scotched any idea of peaceful reconciliation between Britain and its former colonies, but before the Declaration of Independence that stared the colonies on their march toward united … Continue reading →

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The American Tory

Posted on July 2, 2014 by smellincoffee

The American Tory© 1972 ed. Morten Borden, Penn Borden 141 pages American colonists yearning for independence from Britain called themselves Patriots, not in opposition against the not-yet-arrived royal army, but to set their cause against that of the Loyalists. Not … Continue reading →

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