Tag Archives: Middle East

In Distant Lands

Posted on October 14, 2025 by smellincoffee

When the Crusades are mentioned today, it is almost always in the context of weary self-flagellation by Westerners searching for some ersatz virtue in denouncing their own history. Forgotten are the Muslim assaults on the Eastern Empire, the conquest of … Continue reading →

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al Khamissi’s Taxi

Posted on May 7, 2024 by smellincoffee

Step into a Cairo taxi, circa mid-2000s, and listen to the rumblings of revolution. I can’t remember how this book appeared on my radar — only that it happened recently, and that I bought a used copy almost immediately — … Continue reading →

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In Search of Zarathustra

Posted on January 6, 2024 by smellincoffee

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, in which Christians celebrate the arrival of the Magi to Bethlehem. It is fitting, then, on this day about wise men of the east following stars, to take a look at at a … 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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Enough Already

Posted on November 10, 2021 by smellincoffee

Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism© 2021 Scott Horton330 pages The war on terror has consumed American resources and human lives for well over twenty years now,  breaking numerous countries, deforming the United States at multiple levels, and perpetuating … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews, World Affairs | Tagged , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

The Afghan Campaign

Posted on November 20, 2020 by smellincoffee

The Afghan Campaign: A Novel© 2006 Steven Pressfield 368 pages Afghanistan, 330 B.C. Alexander the Great, having toppled the Persian Empire and won eternal glory for himself and his men, now looks with hungry eyes to India. The way to … Continue reading →

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COVID Reviews #3: Romans, Dogs, and Saudis

Posted on October 2, 2020 by smellincoffee

I don’t know if anyone misses my usual chatty, sometimes florid reviews, but they’re impossible to do on a phone. More mini-reviews it is! Continuing my onslaught of the TBR pile, I finished Lives of Famous Romans, by Olivia Coolridge. … Continue reading →

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COVID Reviews #2: Afghans and Turks and Austrians, oh my!

Posted on September 30, 2020 by smellincoffee

Khaled Hosseini’s third book is also his most unusual. His previous two books followed friendships which which were forged, broken, and tested over the years as Afghanistan reeled from one chaotic event to another. And the Mountains Echoed is more … Continue reading →

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A Thousand Splendid Suns

Posted on September 16, 2020 by smellincoffee

A Thousand Splendid Suns© 2007 Khaled Hosseini372 pages “There is only one, only one skill a woman like you and me needs in life, and they don’t teach it in school . . . Only one skill. And it’s this: … Continue reading →

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Losing an Enemy

Posted on January 8, 2020 by smellincoffee

Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy 472 pages © 2017 Trita Parsi Losing an Enemy is now a profoundly depressing book,  being an extensive history of an agreement that could have started erasing fifty years of … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments