Tag Archives: essays

People Habitat

Posted on January 10, 2023 by smellincoffee

People Habitat: 25 Ways to Think About Greener, Healthier Cities© 2014 F. Kaid Benfield304 pages The built environment can have an enormous effect on human happiness, facilitating  it or obstructing it; think of the frustration of  taking care of errands … Continue reading →

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Of Babylonians, demons, and bankers

Posted on August 16, 2022 by smellincoffee

Continuing in the Big Book Catchup… Paul Kriwaczek’s Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization covers Mesopotamian history from the establishment of Eridu to the rise of the  first Persian empire.  This is a survey of thousands of years of … Continue reading →

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Recalled to life

Posted on August 8, 2022 by smellincoffee

Er. hi. Been a while. Today marks my partial return to work, as I’ve been readjusting to life the last few weeks. I’ve been reading steadily, but have not been home (lots of housesitting), and typing reviews on my laptop … Continue reading →

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American Contempt for Liberty

Posted on September 23, 2021 by smellincoffee

American Contempt for Liberty© 2015 Walter Williams432 pages American Contempt for Liberty caught my eye immediately, for its title alone, for I’ve had a growing suspicion that the failure of the American republic lies not only in the ever-expanding state, … Continue reading →

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Anti-Politics

Posted on September 19, 2021 by smellincoffee

Anti-Politics: A Collection of Agorist Essays© 2021 ed. Sal Mayweather165 pages If you’re still waiting for your masters for permission to live after nearly two years of “two weeks to flatten the curve”, don’t bother reading further. This isn’t your … Continue reading →

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Present Concerns and even more Lewis quotes

Posted on December 17, 2020 by smellincoffee

Although Present Concerns’ title makes it sound as though it consists of essays by Lewis written about 1940s issues,   the contents still speak to our present day.  One of the passages, quoted to me from a friend, leapt out … Continue reading →

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Selections from “A Grief Observed”

Posted on November 21, 2020 by smellincoffee

A Grief Observed was not written as a book, but was published as such from four reflective notebooks that Lewis kept while reeling from the death of his wife, Joy. The collection is raw, intimate, and personal; we find Lewis … Continue reading →

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Resist Much, Obey Little

Posted on September 14, 2020 by smellincoffee

Resist Much, Obey Little: Remembering Ed Abbey© 1996 James Hepworth & Gregory McNamee254 pages To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little,Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,Once fully enslaved, no … Continue reading →

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The Left, The Right, and The State

Posted on August 11, 2020 by smellincoffee

The Left, The Right, and the State © 2009 Lew Rockwell 556 pages “Society is held together not by a state but by the cooperative daily actions of its members.” Who’s up for six hundred pages of essays on politics … Continue reading →

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The Federalist Papers

Posted on September 24, 2019 by smellincoffee

  “It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing … Continue reading →

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