Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

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

A Preface to Paradise Lost

Posted on September 15, 2022 by smellincoffee

A Preface to Paradise Lost© 1941 C.S. Lewis192 pages Although I’ve read much of C.S. Lewis, I’ve never encountered him in his chosen role as a master of English literature. I spotted some discussion about this Preface on Classical Carousel … Continue reading →

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Overlord | Victory in the Pacific

Posted on September 13, 2022 by smellincoffee

Many years ago when the world was new, the Twin Towers stood over Manhattan, and Europe was just starting to adopt the euro, I discovered a trilogy of books in my high school library about World War 2. They formed … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Confessions of a Recovering Engineer

Posted on September 12, 2022 by smellincoffee

Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town© 2021 Chuck Marohn 272 pages Chuck Marohn is a licensed engineer and urban planner who, in 2008,  began sharing his concerns that the current approach to both building and financing … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Alabama’s Amazon

Posted on September 8, 2022 by smellincoffee

Saving America’s Amazon: Our Most Biodiverse River System is Under Siege© 2020 Ben Raines200 pages The Mobile river delta is one of the most biologically diverse places on Earth, but few know and still fewer appreciate this: for thousands of … Continue reading →

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