Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

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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Traffic

Posted on May 30, 2012 by smellincoffee

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us)© 2008 Tom Vanderbilt402 pages  Take a brain adapted to move a bit over a hundred pounds of flesh at speeds under 20 miles per hour, and … Continue reading →

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Consuming Kids

Posted on May 29, 2012 by smellincoffee

Consuming Kids: the Hostile Takeover of Childhood© 2004 Susan Linn288 pages To some, children are the joy of our lives; a refreshing source of curiosity, energy, youth, and joy. To others, they are nothing but grist for the mill. In … Continue reading →

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A History of the World in Six Glasses

Posted on May 24, 2012 by smellincoffee

A History of the World in Six Glasses© 2006 Tom Standage311 pages A toast to human enterprise! Pick your poison — beer, wine, rum, tea, coffee, or Coca-Cola. Three are alcoholic, three are caffienated: all were the stuff of empires, … Continue reading →

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Five Years of Reading

Posted on May 24, 2012 by smellincoffee

This Week at the Library is now five years old!  On May 21st, 2007, I began writing about my weekly visits to the library as a way to keep my mind active while I waited to start university in the … Continue reading →

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The Shallows

Posted on May 23, 2012 by smellincoffee

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing To Our Brains© 2010 Nicholas Carr276 pages How many tabs do you have open right now? Neil Postman thought we were undoing ourselves with a distracting and busy fusion of information and entertainment … Continue reading →

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The Wal-Mart Effect

Posted on May 18, 2012 by smellincoffee

The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works, and How It’s Transforming the American Economy © 2006 Charles Fishman 352 pages In only a little over fifty years, Wal-Mart has grown from a small five-and-dime store in … Continue reading →

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Hollow Men

Posted on May 18, 2012 by smellincoffee

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Hollow Men © 2005 Una McCormack 368 pages               Deep Space Nine is notoriously the darkest of the six Star Trek series, repeatedly exploring corridors of the human experience that … Continue reading →

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Reefer Madness

Posted on May 16, 2012 by smellincoffee

Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market310 pages© 2003 Eric Schlosser What do pornography, marijuana, and migrant labor have in common? They’re all factors in an underground economy, a vast web of cash-heavy transactions barred … Continue reading →

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Catching Fire

Posted on May 9, 2012 by smellincoffee

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human © 2009 Richard Wrangham309 pages Cooking has created a great many fantastic dish throughout the centuries, but Richard Wrangham holds that the culinary art’s greatest triumph is us — humanity, for the advent of … Continue reading →

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