Tag Archives: China

The Big Necessity

Posted on January 21, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Big Necessity: the Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why it Matters © 2008, 2014 Rose George 238 pages In its initial publication, The Big Necessity may have been an eye-opening look into how many human beings still suffer … Continue reading →

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The Chinese in America

Posted on January 7, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Chinese in America: A Narrative History© 2003 Iris Chang558 pages Like most Americans, my earliest notion of the Chinese in America is an association with the Transcontinental railroad. As it happened, their story begins before that, with the California … Continue reading →

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Glimpses of World History

Posted on December 26, 2016 by smellincoffee

Glimpses of World History© 1942 Jawaharlal Nehru1192 pages In 1930,  a man who would later become the first prime minister of India was thrown in jail for a period of two years. There, removed from his family and regretful that … Continue reading →

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Lost Enlightenment

Posted on November 28, 2016 by smellincoffee

Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane © 2015 S. Frederick Starr618 pages Lost Enlightenment takes readers back to a time when Central Asia was the crossroads of the world, a hub of both commercial and … Continue reading →

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When Tigers Fight

Posted on August 31, 2016 by smellincoffee

When Tigers Fight: The Story of the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945© 1989 Dick Wilson269 pages “We Japanese cannot win here. We are trying to plow the ocean.” Before plunging into the abyss of hubris and attempting to claim the entire Pacific … Continue reading →

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When Asia was the World

Posted on June 10, 2016 by smellincoffee

When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the ‘Riches of the East© 2009 Stewart Gordon256 pages When Asia was the World revisits, through the lives of traveling monks, traders, and warriors,  the extraordinary vistas and … Continue reading →

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Trojan Horse

Posted on June 4, 2016 by smellincoffee

Trojan Horse© 2012 Mark Russinovich336 pages Something sinister is developing in the depths of the dark net. There are inexplicable power outages in Washington, and misinformation filtering through the systems of the United Nations. Jeff Aiken and his partner Daryl … Continue reading →

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Forgotten Ally

Posted on December 19, 2015 by smellincoffee

Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II© 2013 Rana Mitter467 pages Two years before a mad painter’s schemes plunged the world into war, China was fighting for its life.  It began the 20th century at a crossroads; the old imperial order … Continue reading →

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Horse

Posted on December 8, 2015 by smellincoffee

Horse: How the Horse Has Shaped Human Civilization© 2006 J. Edward Chamberlin288 pages How do I love thee, O horse? Let me count the ways.   J. Edward Chamberlin’s Horse begins with one lonely native American mare separated from her tribe … Continue reading →

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This week: yep, still at war

Posted on November 28, 2015 by smellincoffee

I don’t know how most people spend Thanksgiving, but after a day with family eating sweet potatoes and admiring chickens and a late-fall collard garden, I’ve been reading nonstop about World War 2.  I’m moving closer to the end of … Continue reading →

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