Categories
Archives
-

-
Recent Posts
- Review: Honey Bunch (2026)
- “I have already been accused of trying to drown a boatload of wild Irishmen on Aran!” — Robert Flaherty
- Substack: Interview with author Julia Cooke
- X Marks the Spot
- Valentine’s Day Story #2: The Spitball Valentine
- Valentine’s Day Story #1: An Eyeball and a Dozen Roses
- “I looked like a bad girl. But I wasn’t a bad girl, really. I was a very nice little girl, until I found out what life was.”– Harriet Andersson
- Happy Birthday, Burt Reynolds: “My love is unironic.”
- “Listen, I never meant to make money. I never wanted it. I’m a singer, man.” — Gene Vincent
- “Each of us have a gift, you see, given us freely by the universe. And each of us with every breath gives something back” — Kim Stanley
Recent Comments
- sheila on 2025 Books Read
- sheila on 2025 Books Read
- sheila on Valentine’s Day Story #2: The Spitball Valentine
- James on 2025 Books Read
- Kelly C Sedinger on Valentine’s Day Story #2: The Spitball Valentine
- Jim Burrows on “Milk Cow Blues Boogie”: From Estes to Elvis to Eddie
- sheila on January 2026 Viewing Diary
- sheila on January 2026 Viewing Diary
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Titus Andronicus
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Taming of the Shrew
- Maddy on January 2026 Viewing Diary
- Daniel V on January 2026 Viewing Diary
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Titus Andronicus
- Krsten Westergaard on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Taming of the Shrew
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Taming of the Shrew
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Titus Andronicus
- Gemstone on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Taming of the Shrew
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Titus Andronicus
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Taming of the Shrew
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Taming of the Shrew
-
Tag Archives: Rasputin
Recommended Books: Non-Fiction
I have been meaning to do a Part 2 to my Recommended Books: Fiction list – put together years ago. I wanted to recommend non-fiction, from history books to biographies to essays to whatever. Here is the Non-Fiction list. I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Founding Fathers, Theatre
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Afghanistan, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Alexander Hamilton, Austria, Balkan Ghosts, Balkans, baseball, Belfast, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Catherine Drinker-Bowen, Central Asia, China, Crowds and Power, Dava Sobel, David McCullough, Edmund Burke, Edvard Radzinsky, Elias Canetti, Elvis Presley, England, Federalist Papers, Founding Brothers, France, Germany, Group Theatre, Gulag Archipelago, Hitler, Hunter S. Thompson, Imperium, Ireland, Iris Chang, Isaac Newton, James Madison, Janet Malcolm, Japan, Joseph Ellis, Michael Schmidt, Miracle at Philadelphia, nonfiction, Olivia Laing, Philip Gourevitch, poetry, Primo Levi, Rasputin, Rebecca West, Red Sox, Robert Conquest, Robert Kaplan, Roman empire, Russia, Rwanda, Ryszard Kapuściński, science, Serbia, Shakespeare, Stalin, The Great Terror, The Soccer War, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Ukraine, Vincent Bugliosi, WWI, WWII, Yugoslavia
19 Comments
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
Photo Wednesday
I took this last week, the day before the plane went down into the Hudson. The Hudson was frozen, and I felt like I was in St. Petersburg, staring at the Neva, and getting ready to throw Rasputin into the … Continue reading
“Our Friend” My Ass
I finally finished The Rasputin File. (Radzinsky wrote the Stalin book that put me into such a frenzy not so long ago) All autocrats must fall – and there’s no love lost between me and the Tsar (I’m sure he’s … Continue reading
The Books: “Nicholas and Alexandra” (Robert Massie)
History Bookshelf: Next book on the shelf is Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie. The story of the final Tsar and his wife. I’ve read a couple other books about the Romanovs but none so detailed, none so well-written. … Continue reading
So. Rasputin.
Rasputin is on my mind because I am deeply engrossed at the moment in Nicholas and Alexandra – sent to me off my Wish List from MikeR – Yeah! It’s a story I am highly familiar with, because of my … Continue reading

