Tag Archives: 1930s

Springtime for Northheim

Posted on November 13, 2025 by smellincoffee

“Tomorrow Belongs to Me” is one of the more disturbing songs in the musical Cabaret, not because of the song itself, but because of what the viewer knows it portends. It begins simply, with one sweet voice singing at a … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Memories from the Microphone

Posted on May 19, 2025 by smellincoffee

Memories from the Microphone is a history of baseball broadcasting that begins with primitive radio and follows broadcasting into the maturation of radio and television networks. In this, it’s also a partial history of how radio and television developed as … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Baseball when the Grass was Real

Posted on May 8, 2025 by smellincoffee

One of my favorite reads from last year was  more of a listen: The Glory of their Times, featuring audio of old-time ballplayers telling stories from the early days of baseball.   Baseball When the Grass was Real is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hello, Everybody!

Posted on November 13, 2024 by smellincoffee

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a host of technologies released that utterly transformed society, and few as dramatic as radio. Hello, Everybody! is an engaging history of the early decades of radio, filled with some dramatic, unbelievable … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Prophet Without Honor

Posted on September 30, 2024 by smellincoffee

A Prophet Without Honor without a doubt one of the more interesting alt-history novels I have ever read, in part because it is told not through a straight narrative, but via a collection of excerpts from letters, journals, telegrams, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Back to Battle

Posted on July 24, 2024 by smellincoffee

Kelly McGuire came of age in his Majesty’s Navy during the Great War, and unlike many he stuck it out through the ‘peace” — though for him it wasn’t so peaceful, between running around in China and having his heart … Continue reading →

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

The Dangerous Years

Posted on April 25, 2024 by smellincoffee

Hard to believe, but the bloody war’s over. Lieutenant Kelly McGuire distinguished himself as much as he was able, but it wasn’t much of a naval war, the Great One. But while the big war might be over, peace isn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Astounding

Posted on October 20, 2023 by smellincoffee

I don’t remember why I picked up “Foundation” back in 2008, but it would be the beginning of an obsession with Asimov that saw me reading collection after collection of his stories from the 1930s – 1960s, finding greater and … Continue reading →

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

The Worst Hard Time

Posted on August 23, 2023 by smellincoffee

I first encountered the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in the same history book, and images of houses covered by drifts of dust and those of men standing in line looking for relief or work are forever twinned in … Continue reading →

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

The Four Winds

Posted on August 22, 2023 by smellincoffee

When the clerk at my local diner coughed at me to remind me that I was standing in front of her cash register, bill and money in hand, but ignoring her to finish the chapter I’d walked up reading, I … Continue reading →

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