Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Miss Benson’s Beetle

Posted on August 26, 2024 by smellincoffee

Margery Benson has had it. A heartbreak ruined her great passion in life, studying beetles, and for the last decade she’s wasted away teaching a subject she’s not interested in to children who are even less interested in it. After … Continue reading →

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Time to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Posted on August 24, 2024 by smellincoffee

Nearly eighty years ago, a single B-29 bomber flew over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and dropped a single bomb, baptizing humanity into a dark new era once the blinding white glow had ended. In the fifties and sixties, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, World Affairs | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Sunlight at Midnight: St Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia

Posted on August 22, 2024 by smellincoffee

I must confess to not knowing much at all about Russian cities: say Moscow, and I think of the Kremlin and the subway art; say St. Petersburg, and I have some hazy idea that it was built in the model … Continue reading →

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California Diaries finale: bittersweet goodbye

Posted on August 20, 2024 by smellincoffee

Round One | Round Two And….here we are, at the end of one of my absolute favorite series. The third round is a bit like Return of the Jedi, in that we have really strong books plus some stuff that, … Continue reading →

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Historic Pensacola

Posted on August 19, 2024 by smellincoffee

I don’t know that I’d ever given much thought to Pensacola before immersing myself in Florida’s colonial history prepping for my St. Augustine weekend a few years back, but reading those made me aware of how chaotic and interesting Florida’s … Continue reading →

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California Diaries, round two: double the drama, double the ….fun?

Posted on August 15, 2024 by smellincoffee

California Diaries consists of diaries from five characters in three rounds: round one’s review is here. We open round two with Sunny, who is…still not doing well. Her last diary ended with her trying to run away from home with … Continue reading →

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Fun times at Wayside school

Posted on August 15, 2024 by smellincoffee

Wayside School Wayside School was, I believe, my introduction to absurdist writing, and Sachar was a master at it in the realm of kiddie-fic. Imagine a school built sideways: instead of being 30 classrooms in a single-story campus, it’s a … Continue reading →

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Marvin Redpost

Posted on August 14, 2024 by smellincoffee

I was going to do a big Sachar post, but realized it would get…erm, unwieldly. Going to seperate Marvin and the Wayside kids up! Marvin Redpost When straining the ol’ cranium for books I was reading in the nineties, an … Continue reading →

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The Higher Frontier

Posted on August 13, 2024 by smellincoffee

Sorry, this isn’t Blast from the Past related, but Lower Decks is still two weeks away from airing and Strange New Worlds won’t return until 2025. Had to scratch my Trek itch. Got some Louis Sachar coming! On Andor, the … Continue reading →

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California Diaries, round one

Posted on August 11, 2024 by smellincoffee

Warning: big post. Comments, videos, quotes. Years ago when the world was new and dinosaurs walked upon the face of the Earth, I saw a novel with an interesting cover and took a look. It proved to be a fictional … Continue reading →

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