Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

A Splendid Exchange

Posted on May 6, 2014 by smellincoffee

A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World© 2009 David Bernstein496 pages            History oft moves with the caravans and trade fleets, and its journeys along the routes  of the past and present are given a storied account … Continue reading →

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More Work for Mother

Posted on May 5, 2014 by smellincoffee

More Work for Mother: the Ironies of American Housework © 1985 Ruth Cowan            288 pages        Throughout the 20thcentury,  households were transformed by a new abundance of labor-saving devices, from washing machines to toaster ovens, and processed … Continue reading →

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Conscience

Posted on April 30, 2014 by smellincoffee

Conscience: Two Pacifists, Two Soldiers, One Family© 2012 Louisa Thomas336 pages How does a pious young Presbyterian minister become a six-time candidate for the Socialist party? Such is the story of Conscience,  the story of Norman Thomas and his younger … Continue reading →

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Why We Buy

Posted on April 28, 2014 by smellincoffee

Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping© 1997, 2008 Paco UnderhillSimon and Schuster320 pages No book on marketing, Why We Buy is an introduction to the novel field of retail anthropology. Young Paco Underhill was once an urban studies student assigned … Continue reading →

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The Age of Revolution

Posted on April 25, 2014 by smellincoffee

History of the English-Speaking Peoples: The Age of Revolution© 1955 Sir Winston Churchill332 pages The third volume in Winston Churchill’s “History of the English Speaking Peoples” begins with the most dramatic assumption of power in modern English history.  In the … Continue reading →

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Waterloo

Posted on April 20, 2014 by smellincoffee

Waterloo© 1990 Bernard Cornwell378 pages Although Napoleon Bonaparte came from Corsican royalty, his upbringing evidently lacked manners, else he would know it is most uncouth to interrupt a ball with a massive invasion. After years of brutal fighting in Portugal … Continue reading →

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The Yellowhammer War

Posted on April 18, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Yellowhammer War: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama© 2013 ed. Kenneth NoeUniversity of Alabama press320 pages First home of the Confederacy’s government, and site of some of its final battles, Alabama’s involvement in the Civil War was intense … Continue reading →

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Reads to Reels: Starship Troopers

Posted on April 17, 2014 by smellincoffee

C’mon, you apes ! You wanna live forever?             Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers combined intelligent speculation about the future of space warfare and controversial if thoughtful political philosophy; Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers does not. The dramatization … Continue reading →

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Fire on the Waters

Posted on April 15, 2014 by smellincoffee

Fire on the Waters© David Poyer 2003448 pages When Eli Eaker volunteered his services to the USS Owanee, his chief intention was to get away from his domineering father and an arranged marriage to his beautiful but sisterly cousin Araminta. … Continue reading →

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This week at the library: war, commerce, and cities

Posted on April 14, 2014 by smellincoffee

Last week was taken up with Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity and  The Yellowhamer War: Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama. Considering that my leisure reading was Fire on the Waters, a naval novel set amid the … Continue reading →

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