Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- “There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.” — Charlotte Brontë
- “Good acting is thinking in front of the camera. I just do that and apply a sense of humor to it. You have to trust the audience to get it.” — Charles Grodin
- “I do love Alice in Wonderland though. That’s something I think I could do very well.” — Edie Sedgwick
- “The only cause I espouse is man’s right to find his own centre, stand firm, speak out, then be kind.” — Michael Davitt, “Dissenter”
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- “I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
Recent Comments
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Scott Abraham on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Scott Abraham on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on March 2026 Snapshots
- sheila on “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- Jessie on March 2026 Snapshots
- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Maddy on “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- sheila on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Joseph Pedulla on Susan Hayward Sleeps Raw
- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- P Nickel on “The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing.” — Jean Toomer
-
Tag Archives: Mary Gaitskill
2025 Books Read
I ended last year with a flurry of Oscar Wilde’s short stories, declaring I’d read all the plays in 2025. I mean, there were only five, sadly, due to the homophobic violence of his own society. I know these plays … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Anton Chekhov, Austria, books read, Charles Lamb, children's books, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Czeslaw Milosz, David Lynch, Dubravka Ugrešić, England, essays, fiction, France, Frankenstein, Germany, Guillermo del Toro, Hungary, Ireland, Jane Austen, Janet Malcolm, John Keats, Lord Byron, Mark Danielewski, Mary Gaitskill, Mary Shelley, Matthew Arnold, Memoirs, nonfiction, Oscar Wilde, poetry, Poland, politics, Rebecca West, Roald Dahl, Robert Kaplan, Robert Louis Stevenson, Russia, sci-fi, Scotland, scripts, Spain, The Beatles, Twin Peaks, William Shakespeare, Yugoslavia
12 Comments
2017 Books Read
I got into a good rhythm with reading this year. I did a lot of re-reading, going back to books I haven’t read in 20 years or whatever. It was fun, like a reunion with an old friend. Much of … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 1984, A.S. Byatt, Bette Davis, books read, Camille Paglia, Christopher Hitchens, Edgar Allan Poe, England, France, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Herman Melville, Hitler, Ireland, Jack London, Janet Malcolm, Jean Renoir, Jeanette Winterson, Joan Crawford, Joan Didion, John Milton, Kim Stanley, Mark Danielewski, Mary Astor, Mary Gaitskill, Olivia Laing, Poland, politics, Robert Altman, Robert Conquest, Robert Kaplan, Russia, S.E. Hinton, Shirley Jackson, Tana French, Tennessee Williams, The Great Terror, war
4 Comments
Stuff I’ve Been Reading
My schedule is a BEAR right now but I still have managed to go on a really pleasing reading tear this year, in the little spare time that I have. Since I moved apartments in February, my commute into Manhattan … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Jean Renoir, Mary Gaitskill, Olivia Laing, stuff I've been reading, war, WWII
8 Comments
2007 Books Read
(in the order in which I finished them, understanding that very often I read many books at the same time). I count re-read books, by the way. I’ll include links to any posts or book excerpts I might have done … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A Tale of Two Cities, A.S. Byatt, Anne Fadiman, Billy Budd, Bleak House, books read, By the Lake, David McCullough, Dean Stockwell, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dubliners, Elinor Lipman, George Washington, Graham Greene, Gulliver's Travels, Harry Potter, John Adams, John McGahern, Mary Gaitskill, Master & Commander, Michael Chabon, Never Let Me Go, Orson Welles, Philip K. Dick, Robert Kaplan, Scoop, Self-Help, Veronica
15 Comments
The Books: “Veronica” (Mary Gaitskill)
Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction: Veronica – – by Mary Gaitskill. Veronica is Gaitskill’s latest book, a novel. As is probably clear by now, Mary Gaitskill is one of my favorite writers today. I was kinda disappointed in Veronica – … Continue reading
The Books: “Because They Wanted to” – ‘The Wrong Stuff’ (Mary Gaitskill)
Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction Because They Wanted to: Stories – – by Mary Gaitskill. This excerpt is from the last four-part story in the book (I could read a novel about this character – she’s so well-drawn and touching … Continue reading
The Books: “Because They Wanted to” – ‘Comfort’ (Mary Gaitskill)
Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction Because They Wanted to: Stories – – by Mary Gaitskill. This excerpt is from the story ‘Comfort’. A typically bitchy ironic title from Gaitskill – because the characters in the story are comfortless. There is … Continue reading
The Books: “Because They Wanted to” – ‘Blanket’ (Mary Gaitskill)
Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction Because They Wanted to: Stories – – by Mary Gaitskill. This excerpt is from the story ‘Blanket’. Only Mary Gaitskill could write a story with a happy ending and have it FEEL like a sad … Continue reading