Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Over my Dead Body: American Cemeteries

Posted on October 12, 2024 by smellincoffee

“There is glory in graves; there is grandeur in gloom”. So begins a poem inscribed on an elaborate tombstone in my favorite cemetery, Selma’s own Old Live Oak. Perhaps it was growing up in a city with such a picturesque … Continue reading →

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Ghosts on the Titanic

Posted on October 11, 2024 by smellincoffee

Billionaire Jackson Riggs has a plan: raise the Titanic! Currents and bacteria are steadily eating away at it, so if the Mary Rose can be brought to surface, why not the big T? (Well, 40 feet versus 12,500 feet….) So … Continue reading →

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Precipice

Posted on October 8, 2024 by smellincoffee

Summer 1914: there’s a man dead in Sarajevo, and ominous rumors of war are drifting from eastern Europe. Across the Continent, war machines are slowly cranking up. At 10 Downing Street, though, the long-serving Prime Minister has more pressing issues: … Continue reading →

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Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries

Posted on October 7, 2024 by smellincoffee

I’ve been wanting to revisit Jon Ronson and Will Storr, whose books visiting extremists and cranks were both amusing and thought-provoking: October seemed an appropriate month to do so, given their tendency to visit the strange. This collection of pieces … Continue reading →

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A Prophet Without Honor

Posted on September 30, 2024 by smellincoffee

A Prophet Without Honor without a doubt one of the more interesting alt-history novels I have ever read, in part because it is told not through a straight narrative, but via a collection of excerpts from letters, journals, telegrams, and … Continue reading →

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The Secret Life of Albert Entwhistle

Posted on September 26, 2024 by smellincoffee

Albert Entwhistle has had the same routine for years: he goes to work, making his rounds as the village postman while carefully avoids any prolonged conversation, and then he goes home to spend the evening watching TV with his cat … Continue reading →

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And God Came In

Posted on September 25, 2024 by smellincoffee

A friend lent this to me, knowing of my love of all things C.S. Lewis. It’s a biography of Joy Davidman, a Jewish-American convert to Christianity who befriended Lewis over letters, then later moved to England and became his great … Continue reading →

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A Nation Interrupted

Posted on September 23, 2024 by smellincoffee

September 1862: Confederate scouts notice a Union courier riding at high speed. Taking their shot, they drop the rider and investigate as to what’s so important. Turns out that General Lee’s orders for a drive toward Washington via Maryland have … Continue reading →

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Deck Z

Posted on September 22, 2024 by smellincoffee

(Don’t worry, I only read two of these.) Captain Smith is preparing for his triumphant final voyage, captaining the Titanic in her first trip across the Atlantic. Unfortunately for him, those nasty Germans are going to muck things up. Smith … Continue reading →

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Titanic with Zombies

Posted on September 21, 2024 by smellincoffee

A young woman boards the Royal Mail Ship Titanic, bound for America, idly scratching her neck. She’s been bitten, but she doesn’t know what by. And there was a strange man with a syringe… As the Titanic steams ahead towards … Continue reading →

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