Category Archives: Politics and Civic Interest

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 →

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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 →

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Of Babylonians, demons, and bankers

Posted on August 16, 2022 by smellincoffee

Continuing in the Big Book Catchup… Paul Kriwaczek’s Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization covers Mesopotamian history from the establishment of Eridu to the rise of the  first Persian empire.  This is a survey of thousands of years of … Continue reading →

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Slanted

Posted on February 25, 2022 by smellincoffee

Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism© 2020 Sharyl Attkisson316 pages I stopped watching television news in 2009, a decision made for me by the overnight obsolescence of my TV set when the industry … Continue reading →

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Of cyclists, colonial Catholics, and crappy endings

Posted on February 21, 2022 by smellincoffee

Last weekend I stayed at the Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, there to be evaluated for admission to their kidney transplant list. Much of my downtime was spent (how else) reading. How Cycling Can Save the World is a straightforward argument … Continue reading →

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A Hole in the Wind

Posted on February 17, 2022 by smellincoffee

A Hole in the Wind: A Climate Scientist’s Bicycle Journey Across the United States© 2017 David Goodrich304 pages A Hole in the Wind features a retired climate scientist touring from Delaware to to Oregon, speaking with people along the way … Continue reading →

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Brave New Home

Posted on February 3, 2022 by smellincoffee

Brave New Home: Our Future in Smarter, Simpler, Happier Housing© 2020 Diane Lind272 pages Prior to the 20th century, Americans enjoyed the same rich diversity of housing options as anyone else: detached houses of varying sizes, granny flats, boarding houses, … Continue reading →

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Living in the Long Emergency

Posted on February 2, 2022 by smellincoffee

Living in the Long Emergency: Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing the Way Forward © 2020 Jim Kunstler288 pages In 2005, James Howard Kunstler penned The Long Emergency, building on his earlier … Continue reading →

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The Secret Life of Groceries

Posted on January 31, 2022 by smellincoffee

The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket © 2020 Benjamin Lorr336 pages The Secret Life of Groceries opens at a fish counter and invites the reader to consider how much labor, creativity, money, pain, and … Continue reading →

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The Betrayal of the American Right

Posted on January 27, 2022 by smellincoffee

The Betrayal of the American Right© 2007 Murry Rothbard231 pages When I began exploring politics and forging my own ideas, I steered leftward out of hatred for the war on terror and Bush’s burgeoning police state. I soon discovered, however, … Continue reading →

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