Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Afternoons with Harper Lee

Posted on October 31, 2022 by smellincoffee

Afternoons with Harper Lee© 2022 Wayne Flynt256 pages Recently I had the pleasure of listening to historian Dr. Wayne Flynt speak at my local library,  drawing from his new book, Afternoons with Harper Lee.   As with Mockingbird Songs, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Spinning Atoms in the Desert

Posted on October 27, 2022 by smellincoffee

Bombast: Spinning Atoms in the Desert© 2010 Michon Mackedon236 pages Which is more breathtaking, the power of the atom bomb or the hubris of governments that use it? Michon Mackedon’s Bombast will leave readers wondering. It reviews the approach of … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

America Walks into a Bar

Posted on October 25, 2022 by smellincoffee

America Walks into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops© 2014 Christine Sismondo336 pages Welcome, friend. Pull up a stool.    You’ve come in at the tail end of a story, but it’s one … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Armstrong

Posted on October 21, 2022 by smellincoffee

Custer of the West: Armstrong© 2018 H.W. Crocker III264 pages History records that General George A. Custer was killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn, ending an illustrious and often dramatic career. History is wrong, for  we discover in Armstrong … Continue reading →

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Life and Death in the Third Reich

Posted on October 20, 2022 by smellincoffee

Life and Death in the Third Reich© 2009 Peter Fritzsche384 pages A few years ago I read Peter Fritzsche’s An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler, which examined how the Nazi conquest of most of Europe permeated into its culture in … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Unstitched

Posted on October 13, 2022 by smellincoffee

Unstitched: My Journey to Understand Opioid Addiction and How People and Communities Can Heal © 2021 Brett Ann Stanciu224 pages Brett Stanciu had a problem. Someone kept breaking into her small library, pilfering money, and smoking cigarettes.  She knew who … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , | 8 Comments

On Love

Posted on September 29, 2022 by smellincoffee

On Love / The Course of Love / Essays on Love© 2006 Alain de Botton240 pages “The philosopher in the bedroom is as ludicrous a figure as the philosopher in the nightclub,” Alain de  Botton offers in On Love,  a … Continue reading →

Posted in quotations, Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Act of Oblivion

Posted on September 26, 2022 by smellincoffee

Act of Oblivion(c) 2022 Robert Harris477 pages The puritan despot Cromwell is dead and the English king restored, but the balance books of history are not yet straight. There remain in England still breathing the men who presumed to put … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Dark Matter

Posted on September 20, 2022 by smellincoffee

Dark Matter© 2016 Blake Crouch352 pages Jason Desseys is a first-rate physicist, one who could have earned his place in the history books alongside Feynman,  Planck, and Hawking.  He chose instead to focus on an unexpected role as a father, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Recursion

Posted on September 19, 2022 by smellincoffee

Recursion© 2019 Blake Crouch324 pages Imagine a sudden headache, a nosebleed, and the instantaneous arrival of a lifetime’s worth of memories that are yours — and yet, not. Imagine remembering being married to someone for decades, having children with them, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , | 3 Comments