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Tag Archives: Roald Dahl
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
For Film Comment: Reviews of The Night Digger (1971) and Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)
I had so much fun watching, researching, and writing up these two (somewhat) little-known films, The Night Digger (1971), starring Patricia Neal (adaptation by her husband Roald Dahl: her second role post-stroke), and Alice, Sweet Alice, a bonkers religious-horror movie … Continue reading
The Books: “As I Am: An Autobiography” (Patricia Neal)
Daily Book Excerpt: Entertainment Biography/Memoir: As I Am: An Autobiography, by Patricia Neal This is one of those rare books where my response to it was, “Dear God, it’s me, Sheila. Could you please give Patricia Neal a break? Hasn’t … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books
Tagged entertainment biography, Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Paul Newman, Roald Dahl
9 Comments
“the essence of [Roald] Dahl is his willingness to let children triumph over adults”
A fantastic in-depth article about Roald Dahl in The New Yorker. You won’t want to miss this one, if you’re a fan of his books. What IS it about Dahl’s work that is so enduring? And why is it so … Continue reading
The Books: “The Magic Finger” (Roald Dahl)
Next book in my Daily Book Excerpt: We’re still in the picture book section. The following book was one of my favorites as a kid. My sister Jean gave it to me as a gift a couple Christmases ago, and … Continue reading