Tag Archives: essays

Against the Machine

Posted on October 27, 2025 by smellincoffee

At some point during college, I tried to work out what an ideal human society might look like. This was back when I still strongly identified with the left,  but my dreams were not of a world state and a … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Society and Culture | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Content & Context

Posted on June 23, 2025 by smellincoffee

Content collects several of Cory Doctorow’s favorite pieces of his written on “technology, creativity, copyright, and the future”, clumping in the mid-2000s. The content is mixed in medium, but united in message: herein are essays, speeches, and interviews that cover … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Coming to Palestine

Posted on May 24, 2025 by smellincoffee

Given the current horrors going on in Gaza, and that Israel/Palestine is largely a blind spot for me, I figured this was worth a look, especially given that I haven’t read anything on the subject since Peace not Apartheid (2007!) … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews, World Affairs | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Beauteous Truth

Posted on November 5, 2024 by smellincoffee

I encountered Joseph Pearce over a decade ago via a podcast on literature: he is a man whose life was transformed through literature and the grace he experienced through it. His passion seeking the ‘good, the true, and the beautiful’ … Continue reading →

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Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist

Posted on October 28, 2024 by smellincoffee

Two years ago I read a Wendell Berry collection of essays edited not by Brother Berry himself, but by someone named Paul Kingsnorth. Being the nosy sort that I am, I inquired of Google who Kingsnorth might be, I knew … Continue reading →

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With Good Intentions? The Myth of Progress

Posted on November 25, 2023 by smellincoffee

Wait, wait, wait. Before I comment on this book, I want to say first that patience is a virtue, and so is persistence. I stumbled on Bill Kauffman nine years ago, possibly via Front Porch Republic, and was immediately taken … Continue reading →

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The Beauty of the Beastly

Posted on April 20, 2023 by smellincoffee

The Beauty of the Beastly© 1995 Natalie Angier304 pages The Beauty of the Beastly is a fun collection of science pieces by Natalie Angier, ranging from macro to microbiology, with some science interviews added at the end. The reader will … Continue reading →

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

Whistling Dixie

Posted on February 4, 2023 by smellincoffee

Sean of the South: Whistling Dixie© 2015 Sean Dietrich198 pages A few weeks back I read The South’s Okayest Writer, a collection of articles by Sean Dietrich. Whistling Dixie is very similar in content and in theme, as this also … Continue reading →

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The South’s Okayest Writer

Posted on January 30, 2023 by smellincoffee

The South’s Okayest Writer: The Adventures of a Boy Columnist© 2018 Sean Dietrich241 pages There is a Japanese art, kintsugi, of putting broken pieces of pottery back together again with gilded paint, with the result that the repaired object is … Continue reading →

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One Life at a Time, Please

Posted on January 18, 2023 by smellincoffee

One Life at a Time, Please© 1988 Ed Abbey204 pages Ed Abbey’s final few years were spent in obsessive work, as he knew he was dying and wanted to make provisions for his family.  The Fool’s Progress and One Life … Continue reading →

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