Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Losing the Peace

Posted on December 18, 2010 by smellincoffee

Losing the Peace© 2009 William Leisner365 pages Somewhere, up ahead, were people in trouble, in need of help. Picard allowed himself a small, private smile. And the Enterprise is on its way. Losing the Peace is the first TNG novel … Continue reading →

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A Whiff of Death

Posted on December 15, 2010 by smellincoffee

A Whiff of Deathfrom A Whiff of Death & Murder at the ABA© 1958 Isaac AsimovPp. 3- 146 “Death sits in the chemistry laboratory and a million people sit with him and don’t mind. They forget he’s there.”  Louis Brade … Continue reading →

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This Week at the Library ( 8 Dec -15 December)

Posted on December 15, 2010 by smellincoffee

This past week has been an excellent one. I started off by reading two similar Trek books; Martin and Mangel’s’ Kobayashi Maru, which continues in the Enterprise relaunch and leads directly into the Romulan War, and Julia Ecklar’s The Kobayashi … Continue reading →

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The Mind’s Eye

Posted on December 15, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Mind’s Eye© 2010 Oliver Sacks263 pages Few things are more pertinent to the study of the human experience than the exploration of our minds, our brains — just what are they capable of, and how thoroughly do they create … Continue reading →

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Lords of the North

Posted on December 14, 2010 by smellincoffee

Lords of the North© 2007 Bernard Cornwell317 pages “Where the tides of fortune take us, no man can know.” “They’re tricky, those tides…” (Sisko and Gowron, “By Inferno’s Light“. Deep Space Nine.) Only months ago, Uthred Ragnarson followed Alfred, the defeated … Continue reading →

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The Kobayashi Maru

Posted on December 11, 2010 by smellincoffee

Star Trek #47: The Kobayashi Maru© 1989 Julia Ecklar254 pages Captain James Kirk and most of his senior officers are adrift in space aboard the shuttlecraft Halley after having struck a gravitic mine. With no engines and minimal power, they’ve … Continue reading →

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Coal: A Human History

Posted on December 11, 2010 by smellincoffee

Coal: A Human History© 2003 Barbara Freese308 pages I never expected to be so fascinated by coal. This book’s cover and title compelled my interest from the first moment I spotted it on my library bookshelves, and the text itself … Continue reading →

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The Grand Design

Posted on December 10, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Grand Design© 2010 Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow198 pages Though modern physics is considerably harder to understand than say, anthropology, I continue to be fascinated by it — for physics, it seems to me, is the most fundamental science. … Continue reading →

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Kobayashi Maru

Posted on December 9, 2010 by smellincoffee

Star Trek Enterprise: Kobayashi Maru© 2008 Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels482 pages “This is the Kobayashi Maru, nineteen periods out of Altair VI. We have struck a gravitic mine and have lost all power…” The Kobayashi Maru has a … Continue reading →

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This Week at the Library (1 Dec. – 8 December)

Posted on December 8, 2010 by smellincoffee

This past week I continued in Bernard Cornwell’s excellent Saxon Chronicles with The Pale Horseman, started the Typhon Pact series and declared myself ~Caught Up~ in trek lit with Zero Sum Game by David Mack, and finished The Earth Shall Weep, … Continue reading →

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