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- “Life was bitter and I was not. All around me was poverty and sordidness but I refused to see it that way. By turning it into jokes, I made it bearable.” — Max Shulman
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- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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- February 2026 Snapshots
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- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Romeo & Juliet
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Romeo & Juliet
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Tag Archives: Patricia Highsmith
2015 Books Read
Even I am impressed with how much I read this year. Along the course of the year, occasionally I’d think to myself, “Good job, Sheila, with your Self-Imposed Reading Plan!” I’ve read a lot of new novels (not really my … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alexander Hamilton, Baseball A Literary Anthology, books read, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Marlowe, Edvard Radzinsky, Elvis Presley, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Eliot, Hannah Arendt, Hunter S. Thompson, Ireland, J.D. Salinger, Jeanette Winterson, Jincy Willett, Joan Didion, John Banville, John Wayne, Joshua Ferris, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Margaret Atwood, Norman Rush, Patricia Highsmith, Paul Zindel, Rasputin, Rebecca West, Ron Chernow, Russia, science, Seamus Heaney, Shakespeare, Vietnam, W.H. Auden, William Styron
22 Comments
2013 Books Read
It’s been a hell of a year. Devastating as well as redemptive. I started it out in Memphis, and end it here in New Jersey. And now my new niece Pearl has arrived! It’s been both a busy year as … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Anne Fadiman, Annie Proulx, Arthur Koestler, Balkans, books read, Darkness at Noon, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Edvard Radzinsky, Elinor Lipman, England, friends, George Eliot, H.L. Mencken, Henry James, Herman Melville, Hungary, Ireland, J.D. Salinger, Jeanette Winterson, Joan Acocella, Joan Didion, John Banville, Joseph Heller, Joshua Ferris, Lester Bangs, Lorrie Moore, Patricia Highsmith, Philip K. Dick, Russia, Sam Cooke, Shakespeare, Stalin, Tana French, The Netherlands, The Only Game In Town, Thomas Carlyle, Victor Serge, Yugoslavia
33 Comments
2011 Books Read
Here is my annual roundup of all of the books I read this year. Not quite up to the pace I normally am (although 2009 was an all-time low), but movies and writing have become nearly full-time pursuits for me … Continue reading
The Books: The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith, by Joan Schenkar
Daily Book Excerpt: Biography Next biography on the biography shelf is The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith, by Joan Schenkar I don’t think my books should be in prison libraries. — Patricia Highsmith, … Continue reading
The Ripley Books Are So Terrifying Due to Paragraphs Like the Following
He wouldn’t have killed someone just to save Derwatt Ltd. or even Bernard, Tom supposed. Tom had killed Murchison because Murchison had realized, in the cellar, that he had impersonated Derwatt. Tom had killed Murchison to save himself. And yet, … Continue reading
Snapshots
— Clearly I’ve been busy with the Tribeca Film Festival. You can read all my reviews (so far) here. Some unevenness in the selections, which is par for the course for Tribeca – a new film festival – but all … Continue reading
Posted in Movies, Personal, Theatre
Tagged family, friends, Patricia Highsmith, snapshots
13 Comments
Robert Walker: Strangers On a Train
“Criss-cross…” whispers Robert Walker, in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers On A Train” WARNING TO THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE: Spoilers abound – in the post as well as comments. Know this before you proceed. It’s been a Robert Walker … Continue reading
Posted in Actors
Tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Patricia Highsmith, Robert Walker, Strangers On a Train
19 Comments