Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Selections from “How Dante Can Save Your Life”

Posted on August 13, 2020 by smellincoffee

Review of Book Great art speaks with wisdom and authority to what is eternal in the human condition. The presence of God radiated from the Chartres cathedral so powerfully that it even pierced the dark wood into which I had … Continue reading →

Posted in quotations, Religion and Philosophy | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

How Dante Can Save Your Life

Posted on August 13, 2020 by smellincoffee

How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem © 2015 Rod Dreher 322 pages Selected Quotations How Dante Can Save Your Life is one man’s account of how that Renaissance poet’s epic  tale of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

The Left, The Right, and The State

Posted on August 11, 2020 by smellincoffee

The Left, The Right, and the State © 2009 Lew Rockwell 556 pages “Society is held together not by a state but by the cooperative daily actions of its members.” Who’s up for six hundred pages of essays on politics … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved But Didn’t Review

Posted on August 10, 2020 by smellincoffee

This week’s TTT …books we read, loved, but didn’t review. The Death and Life of Great American Cities,   Jane Jacobs. This book  completely revolutionized my worldview before I made halfway through. One day I’ll make some meager attempt at reviewing … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | 17 Comments

The Architecture of Happiness

Posted on August 5, 2020 by smellincoffee

The Architecture of Happiness © 2006 Alain de Botton 280 pages I never thought much about the meaning of architecture until attending a lecture by James Howard Kunstler, given at my university in autumn 2008, entitled “Peak Oil and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

The End of October

Posted on August 1, 2020 by smellincoffee

The End of October © 2020 Lawrence Wright 482 pages COVID-19 gotcha down? Cheer up! It could be worse. A lot worse. Like…the US president dying on live television, bleeding from the eyes worse.   The End of October was published … Continue reading →

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

Darth Plagueis

Posted on July 31, 2020 by smellincoffee

Darth Plagueis © 2012 James Luceno 498 pages Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the wise? ….it’s not a story the Jedi would tell you.   Beginning decades before The Phantom Menace, and culminating in its end,  Darth … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged | 2 Comments

In the Garden of Beasts

Posted on July 30, 2020 by smellincoffee

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin © 2011 Erik Larson 432 pages In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt needed a man for a post no one wanted to fill: US Ambassador to Germany.  … Continue reading →

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

Re-read: The Ethical Assassin

Posted on July 29, 2020 by smellincoffee

The Ethical Assassin © 2006 David Liss 336 pages A few weeks ago for TTT,  I mentioned David Liss as an author who made me smile, and happened to think  about the first novel I read by him, The Ethical … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Splendid and the Vile

Posted on July 27, 2020 by smellincoffee

The Splendid and the Vile: A Sage of Churchill, Family, and Defiance during the Blitz © 2020 Erik Larson 464 pages “Nothing could have been more beautiful and the searchlights interlaced at certain points on the horizon, the star-like flashes … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments