Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of literature

Posted on July 7, 2021 by smellincoffee

My reading in the last week celebrated or at least observed the memory of, the American Revolution, though the books I picked this year proved to be a mildly disappointing lot. First up was The Return of George Washington, an … Continue reading →

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

Return of the Primitive

Posted on June 30, 2021 by smellincoffee

Return of the Primitive© 1971 Ayn Rand, The New Left© 1999 Ayn Rand and Peter Schwartz290 pages   The Return of the Primitive  collects Ayn Rand’s  written responses to the eruption of the student movement in the late sixties,  particularly … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Nomadland

Posted on June 24, 2021 by smellincoffee

Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century© 2017 Jessica Bruder273 pages America has always been a nation on the move, but some people take that more literally than others.  Nomadland takes us into the aftermath of the great recession, as … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Society and Culture | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

A clump o’ reviews, because I’m house/dog/pool-sitting sans PC

Posted on June 20, 2021 by smellincoffee

I am in town for Father’s Day and thus taking a moment to scribble on my computer, having spent the past few days happily bobbing in a pool. Taking care of friends’ houses in their absence is such a chore, … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics and Literary, Reviews | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Never a Dull Moment

Posted on June 15, 2021 by smellincoffee

Never a Dull Moment: A Libertarian Looks at the Sixties© 2016 Murray Rothbard, ed. Justin Raimondo 168 pages I first encountered Murray Rothbard in 2013, when reading Radicals for Capitalism, a history of market libertarianism. As I was someone who … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews, World Affairs | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Steal this Book

Posted on June 8, 2021 by smellincoffee

pub. 1971 Abbie Hoffman308 pages At some point in the early 2000s, I stumbled onto a digital copy of Steal this Book and was appropriately scandalized. Because of the unique religious subculture in which I was raised, most of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Society and Culture | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Project Hail Mary | #agora

Posted on June 7, 2021 by smellincoffee

Ryland Grace just woke up strapped to a medical bed with two dead roommates. That’s not the least of his problem, though: he’s in space, and he doesn’t know why. Eventually, he’ll figure that out; his memory will return. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Do you Vonu?

Posted on June 4, 2021 by smellincoffee

Vonu: A Strategy for Self-Liberation© 2018 Shane Radliff127 pages In 1968, a frustrated man named Tom Marshall ventured into the woods along with his wife to conduct a living experiment. Was it possible, he wondered, to create a life for … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Three cheers for anarchy — three reads, anyway

Posted on June 1, 2021 by smellincoffee

While everyone else was honoring dead soldiers by buying things, shooting off fireworks (dear neighbors: why?), and grilling out, I was in bed all weekend with a case of food poisoning. Naturally, I wound up reading books about anarchism and … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reflection, Religion and Philosophy, science fiction | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Forward

Posted on May 27, 2021 by smellincoffee

While poking around on Amazon for new releases by Weir, Scalzi, and Doctorow, I encountered the Forward collection, a series of short stories by various authors (most new to me) on near-future SF. They are very short stories, the two … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 5 Comments