Ignore Everybody And 39 Other Keys to Creativity
Hugh MacLeod
Macleod has done a marvelous job of distilling the basics of being successful at being creative. This is not the same this being monetarily successful at being creative. Like The Happiness Project, Ignore Everybody makes you take a good long look at your perceptions and how outside influences color your desires and definitions of happiness and success.
McLeod covers two main areas of creativity that you rarely hear about. The first is that you should find time and headspace to make your art. It should be what you want to create and it should not be something you agonize over. If you are suffering for your art, you’re doing it wrong. Creating should be a pleasure.
The other aspect that is talked about even less is that creativity is...
Sue Grafton’s Alphabet Series
Sue Grafton
The other day, my dad said “This Grafton woman has another book on the NYTimes bestseller list. She’s up to V. I wonder if they’re any good. You should read one and find out.” And I did. And they were. Very, very good. But then again, she IS on the NYTimes bestseller list and has been published from A is for Alibi right up to V is for Vendetta.
Grafton has that rare gift in that she can write a series around one character without them, or the plots, becoming stale. Her P.I. Kinsey Milhone is funny, independent, stubborn and rich with personal quirks that make her thoroughly likeable. Despite having a set group of friends and neighbors that appear in every book, Milhone’s cases, and her...
The Cheapskate Next Door and The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches
Jeff Yeager
Lesson number one rule in Yeager’s amusing and instructive books: cheapskate is a GOOD word. I couldn’t agree more. Rather than going down the usual money-saving how-to roads, namely the “how to save money by reusing old string and cardboard boxes to make shoes” and the “just stop drinking that triple frappe half-caf latte every morning and you’ll be rich in no time” books, Yeager focuses on helping you find your inner cheapskate.
He lays out the major areas of our lives where people often make poorly informed choices with little forethought. His advice runs the gamut of being below your means, considering the total cost of a purchase (including upkeep, repair, etc), ways of saving money and amount of...
Nightside Series
Simon R. Green
Green’s Nightside series is the perfect read for Neil Gaiman and Jim Butcher fans waiting for their next fix. The first title, Something from the Nightside, does tend to feel heavily derivative of of Gaiman’s Neverwhere and Butcher’s Dresden Files in places. However, there are definitely some unique quirks thrown in for texture and variety. Subsequent books, featuring the gumshoe John Taylor and his girlfriend Suzie Shooter (aka Oh God It’s Her), are increasingly imaginative and exciting. Green pulls his characters from mythology, science fiction, history and his own nightmarish imagination. His hidden London, the Nightside, is as richly imagined and varied as any Tolkein city. A creative, addictive and excellent...
Beadweaving Masters
Lark Books
Most people hearing the words “seed beads” probably think of Native American clothing and hippie bracelets. The master beadweavers in this book go far beyond the traditional decorations. From modern covered vases, kimonos, sculptures , plants, flowers and sea creatures these pieces of art are fantastically detailed and amazing. All the artists in this book are both immensely skilled technically and wildly creative. Anyone looking for a creative kickstart of some kind will find it in this collection.
Robert Doisneau – Paris
This immense collection of French photographer Robert Doisneau spans decades of his life. From the pre-WWII years of cafés, the opening of the Eiffel tower, Folies Bergére to the French Resistance during the war years and on into the 70s, these marvelous pictures show Paris in all its glory. The rich and famous are here, the artists, café-goers, can-can dancers and all the well-known Parisian regulars. But there are also the average people – shopping, working and enjoying their marvelous city. Gorgeous portraiture by a...
Read MoreLost Worlds of the Guiana Highlands
Stewart McPherson
I’m guessing most viewers of the Pixar flick Up were convinced that the surreal, twisted landscape on the top of the mountain where the balloon-house landed were figments of overheated animators’ brains. However, based on the pictures in Lost Worlds of the Guiana Highlands, it is clear that much of the artwork was straight still-life renditions of the eerie scenery at the top of these remote cloud-shrouded mountains. The tepuis, mountain islands shooting vertically thousands of feet into the air, have been objects of fascination and speculation for centuries. Until the 1800s, no one had ever managed to climb to the top of the straight and treacherous mountains. Despite their immense inaccessibility, numerous stories have...