Category Archives: World Affairs

al Khamissi’s Taxi

Posted on May 7, 2024 by smellincoffee

Step into a Cairo taxi, circa mid-2000s, and listen to the rumblings of revolution. I can’t remember how this book appeared on my radar — only that it happened recently, and that I bought a used copy almost immediately — … Continue reading →

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Enough Already

Posted on November 10, 2021 by smellincoffee

Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism© 2021 Scott Horton330 pages The war on terror has consumed American resources and human lives for well over twenty years now,  breaking numerous countries, deforming the United States at multiple levels, and perpetuating … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Double play: Mobile & Latin America

Posted on February 15, 2021 by smellincoffee

This past week has seen a little progress on the ol’ TBR front, as I knocked out three books from the list, including The Network and those below. First up was E.O. Wilson’s Why We Are Here: Mobile and the … Continue reading →

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Our Time Has Come

Posted on January 30, 2019 by smellincoffee

Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World ©  2018 Alyssa Ayres360 pages The India of the 21st century is more than  the word’s back office;  by some measures, it has already overtaken Japan as the … Continue reading →

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The Limits of Partnership

Posted on January 18, 2019 by smellincoffee

The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the 21st Century © 2014 Angela Stent 384 pages The Limits of Partnership examines the Russo-American relationship through four presidential administrations,  reviewing what progress was made  or conflicts each American executive had with his … Continue reading →

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The Iran Wars

Posted on October 3, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals that Reshaped the Middle East © 2016 Jay Solomon 352 pages When the young people of Iran hit the streets in protest about suspicious election returns in 2009, the … Continue reading →

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The Looming Tower

Posted on September 28, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Looming Tower: Al-Queda and the Road to 9/11 © 2006 Lawrence Wright 480 pages “[…] we’re told that they were zealots, fueled by religious fervor…religious fervor. And if you live to be a thousand years old, will that make … Continue reading →

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Fool’s Errand

Posted on February 8, 2018 by smellincoffee

Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan © 2017 Scott Horton 318 pages Incredible as it sounds, it is nearly possible for a child conceived in the first week of the US invasion of Afghanistan to have come … Continue reading →

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eaarth

Posted on May 4, 2013 by smellincoffee

earth: making a life on a tough new planet© 2010 Bill McKibben253 pages Oh, we’re in trouble.  For two decades, forward-thinking politicians have made noise about climate change. “We’ve gotta do something to save the world for our grandchildren,” they say. But … Continue reading →

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