Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Hot, Flat, and Crowded

Posted on June 16, 2012 by smellincoffee

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why America Needs a Green Evolution: And How it Can Renew America© 2006 Thomas Friedman438 pages    The world is changing. Regardless of the consoling reassurances of corporations, industries, and the silk-tongued politicians who lobby on their … Continue reading →

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Rebel

Posted on June 12, 2012 by smellincoffee

Rebel© 1993 Bernard Cornwell402 pages Nathaniel Starbuck shouldn’t be in South, but this son of a preacher man is positively hopeless when it comes to the ladies. Love tore him from the seminary, and it led him into Virginia just … Continue reading →

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Cinderella Ate My Daughter

Posted on June 10, 2012 by smellincoffee

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture© 2012 Peggy Orenstein260 pages When did every little girl become a princess to be bedecked in pink and fawned over? Such is the question posed by … Continue reading →

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Why We Get Fat

Posted on June 9, 2012 by smellincoffee

Why We Get Fat: and What To Do About It© 2011, 2012 Gary Taubes267 pages The secret of weight, we are told, is as simple as physics, as the laws of thermodynamics. If we take in more energy in eating … Continue reading →

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Cheap

Posted on June 8, 2012 by smellincoffee

Cheap: the High Cost of Discount Culture © 2009 Ellen Ruppel Shell  296 pages  A few weeks ago I read Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, which is a critical history of  the 20th-century trend in business toward cheaper … Continue reading →

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A Blaze of Glory

Posted on June 7, 2012 by smellincoffee

A Blaze of Glory© 2012 Jeff Shaara464 pages Come all you gallant soldiers, a story I will tell About the bloody battle on top of Shiloh’s hill It was an awful struggle; it’ll cause your heart to chill All from … Continue reading →

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The Witch of Hebron

Posted on June 3, 2012 by smellincoffee

The Witch of Hebron © 2010 James Howard Kunstler 334 pages The future isn’t what it used to be. When the oil wells ran dry, the global economy and every nation built on petroleum collapsed. This is the dawn of … Continue reading →

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Why We Get Sick

Posted on June 2, 2012 by smellincoffee

Why We Get Sick: the New Science of Darwinian Medicine© 1994 Randolph M. Nesse, M.D; George C. Wiliams, Ph.D.290 pages Years ago I read an exceptional book on evolution by David Sloan Wilson. I say exceptional because it advocated for … Continue reading →

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Suburban Nation

Posted on June 2, 2012 by smellincoffee

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream© 2000, 2010 Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck294 pages Compare a modern American city to its European counterparts, or even an older American city, and the … Continue reading →

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So Sexy So Soon

Posted on May 30, 2012 by smellincoffee

So Sexy So Soon:  the New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids© 2008 Diane E. Levine, Jean Kilbourne226 pages For me, the filthiest show on television is Toddlers and Tiaras. Perhaps I’m old-fashioned: I’m generally … Continue reading →

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