Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

Locked In (and Unlocked)

Posted on March 12, 2019 by smellincoffee

Lock In and Unlocked, a bonus novella pub. 2014 John Sclazi 336 pages Read by Wil Wheaton It looks, from the outside, like a simple case. There’s a body with a knife in it, recently planted. There’s a man in … Continue reading →

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

A Forest in the Clouds

Posted on March 11, 2019 by smellincoffee

A Forest in the Clouds © 2018 John Fowler336 pages John Fowler’s A Forest in the Clouds is his account of studying gorillas alongside famous naturalist Dian Fossey.   Although I picked it up for the gorillas (as one would), the … Continue reading →

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

Alone Together

Posted on March 7, 2019 by smellincoffee

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other © 2011 Sherry Turkle 384 pages Alone Together has been on my to-read list since it was released, though it’s taken me years to actually read it.  … Continue reading →

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Johnny Reb’ s War

Posted on March 3, 2019 by smellincoffee

Johnny Reb’s War: Battlefield and Homefrontpub. 2001 David Williams102 pages Johnny Reb’s War is a curious collection of two historical articles by David Williams, the contents of which were later encompassed by his impressively depressing People’s History of the American … Continue reading →

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Of Caesar, Aeneas, and Selma

Posted on March 2, 2019 by smellincoffee

This past week I’ve been dogsitting in the country, and if you’ve never enjoyed a rural sunset with a glass of wine and Chloe Feoranzo playing in the background, it’s an experience I can recommend. While I was away, February … Continue reading →

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The Gatekeepers

Posted on February 27, 2019 by smellincoffee

The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidencypub. 2017, Chris Whipple384 pages True confession: I never paid that much attention to the chief of staff position within the White  House until I started watching The West … Continue reading →

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

Yesterday: Memories of Selma

Posted on February 22, 2019 by smellincoffee

Yesterday: Memories of Selma and her People© 1940 C.C. Grayson 155 pages   (For want of a book cover, I’m including a photograph of Selma’s main street in the early 20th century, after 1891 but before 1926.) In the 1940s, … Continue reading →

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

Rebel Without a Green Card

Posted on February 22, 2019 by smellincoffee

Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card288 pages© 2018 Ssara Saedi Sara Saedi and her older sister Samira were both born in Iran, but following the revolution their parents fled to America by way of Italy.  Although Sara had virtually no … Continue reading →

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Overthrow

Posted on February 21, 2019 by smellincoffee

Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Changepub 2006 Stephen Kinzer384 pages The prolonged debacle in the middle east is not, sadly, an exception in modern American foreign policy.  Since the late 19th century,  the powers that be in DC have repeatedly … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged | 9 Comments

Why We Hate and How to Heal

Posted on February 15, 2019 by smellincoffee

Them: Why We Hate and How to Heal  © 2018 Ben Sasse 272 pages The tenor of civil ‘discourse’ in America today is disheartening and distressful, in part for at least over a decade there has been little discourse at all, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews, Society and Culture | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments