Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Inside the Chaotic Rise of YouTube

Posted on September 25, 2023 by smellincoffee

Do you remember the first YouTube video you watched? Mine was a fifteen-second clip of a guy doing a skateboarding trick, embedded in a blog post. The men who initially coded YouTube used Flash, which allowed videos to be played … Continue reading →

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Flags of our Fathers

Posted on September 22, 2023 by smellincoffee

More Marines were killed in the first four days of the Battle of Iwo Jima than perished in Guadacanal over the course of five months, and the battle accounts for over a third of Marine casualties sustained in the entire … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Autobiography of Cap’n Kate

Posted on September 21, 2023 by smellincoffee

I haven’t read any of the Autobiography books that Star Trek has been putting out in recent years, but when I spotted that Kate Mulgrew did the Audible version of this, I had to give it a try. I consistently … Continue reading →

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Living Memory

Posted on September 18, 2023 by smellincoffee

When Starfleet begins analyzing a series of disruptive and potentially dangerous flares in space, Commander Pavel Chekov realizes there’s a pattern: these flares mostly in places visited by the Enterprise on its five-year mission, albiet in reverse order — and … Continue reading →

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The High Country

Posted on September 15, 2023 by smellincoffee

All Chris Pike wanted to do was take a gander at a strange planet from Enterprise’s new shuttle, Eratosthenes. But then the laws of physics went AWOL, and he’s woken up to find himself living in…eh, the Old West? Well, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

The Jewish Annotated New Testament

Posted on September 14, 2023 by smellincoffee

(Yes, this book is why I’ve been so quiet the last two weeks.) The relationship between Christianity and Judaism has fascinated me ever since I bolted from the Pentecostalism in which I was raised, and began rebuilding my worldview from … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, General, Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

The Lives They Saved

Posted on September 6, 2023 by smellincoffee

“Look for the helpers”, Mr Rogers advised children who were frightened by disaster. L. Douglas Keeney here offers a spyglass to readers. Instead of fixating on the flaming towers, the clouds of smoke filled with dust, jet engine fumes, and … Continue reading →

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Friday the Rabbi Slept Late

Posted on September 1, 2023 by smellincoffee

The small Massachusetts village of Barnard’s Crossing is shaken when the body of a young woman is found lying behind a garden wall, and no one more than Rabbi David Small — because the woman’s purse was in his car, … Continue reading →

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My Name is Asher Lev

Posted on August 31, 2023 by smellincoffee

How to describe My Name is Asher Lev? The book opens with Asher himself describing himself as an apostate, a traitor, a mocker — and yet the reader will find no cruel intentions here, only a young man struggling with … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Killing, fictional and otherwise

Posted on August 29, 2023 by smellincoffee

Lately I’ve gotten into the bad habit of getting almost to the end of the book, and then saying — “Okay, not enough of that to take to work, I’ll start a new one and then finish the other one … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments