Tag Archives: 1940s

FDR

Posted on October 23, 2026 by smellincoffee

When I began working on this project in earnest a year ago, I knew then that FDR was going to be…interesting. I’ve mentioned before that I was a World War 2 nut in high school: this translated, via the impressionability … Continue reading →

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Reagan: The Life

Posted on October 15, 2026 by smellincoffee

Unlike many of the presidents on this list,  I approach Reagan: The Life with a fair bit of familiarity.   Reagan was just a name to me until he died in 2004: my parents and I were taking our last … Continue reading →

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TRUMAN

Posted on September 15, 2026 by smellincoffee

A new reader to this blog might ask, “SC, after cheerfully dismissing president after president with 200-page biographies from the American Presidents series, why did you decide to read a twelve hundred page treatment of Harry S. Truman?”  There are … Continue reading →

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The Age of Eisenhower

Posted on August 4, 2026 by smellincoffee

Apologies if you are on the list and received a blank email earlier: WordPress ate my words. Fortunately I always draft off-platform. Many presidents have a defining moment – a call to arms in a speech, a decisive action,  a … Continue reading →

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The Little House

Posted on July 11, 2026 by smellincoffee

The Little House is a strange, lovely, sad little novel.  Our narrator, for the most part, is an aging and retired housemaid named Taki.  “Housemaid” is not quite the right word for her, as she operated in a time when … Continue reading →

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The Lettahs of JFK

Posted on June 1, 2026 by smellincoffee

Having finished listening to George H.W. Bush’s family read his personal letters and diary entries across fifty years in All the Best,  I could not very well refrain from the temptation of reading JFK’s letters.  The Letters of JFK, however, … Continue reading →

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Double Play

Posted on March 10, 2026 by smellincoffee

Burke has returned home from World War 2 with a body full of scars and a mind even more disturbed. He arrived home not to hugs and kisses, but to a letter from his wife telling him that she’d run … Continue reading →

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The Accidental Nazi

Posted on October 22, 2025 by smellincoffee

Can you imagine the Russians marching through Berlin? And the Americans and the British in the Ruhr? It would be the end of everything.” “It almost seems as though you can see the future,” she said. “Do you think you … Continue reading →

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The Day of Battle

Posted on September 29, 2025 by smellincoffee

Although I’ve been reading about World War 2 for most of my life at this point, beginning in middle school, the scope of my reading has never broached the Italian campaign. This is probably due to the huge role D-Day … Continue reading →

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Operation Underworld

Posted on August 25, 2025 by smellincoffee

In New York harbor,  one of the largest and fastest passenger ships ever built lies on its side, a victim of fire. French-built, the United States seized the Normandie after France fell to Hitler and renamed it the Lafayette, intending … Continue reading →

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