All non-fiction, all the time
Not a single word of fiction in all of May. And I'm okay with that.The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life, Twyla Tharp (audio)Most of the titles I've read on creativity have been by writers and visual artists, so I was keen to hear the perspective of a performance artist. Good news: good creative habits are common across all the arts! There are some interesting perspectives here, as well as a bunch of useful exercises. The three-star rating comes down to the narrator, who way over-dramatised unfortunately.The Creative Life: True Tales of Inspiration, Julia Cameron (audio)This book was not at all what I expected. Cameron is the author of The Artist's Way, that seminal text about creativity and the creative process, and I guess I expected something similar here. Instead, The Creative Life is a series of vignettes about Cameron's life as an artist and a teacher. Once I got past my expectations and settled into the narrative, I enjoyed it.Hello, New York: An Illustrated Love Letter to the Five Boroughs, Julia RothmanPart memoir, part travel guide, this is a stunning look at the five boroughs of New York, told in gorgeous illustrations and lovely personal narratives by one of my illustrator-heroes. If you've ever wanted to explore NY's little-known treasures and off-the-beaten-path highlights, this book is for you.Meanwhile in San Francisco: The City in its Own Words, Wendy MacNaughtonMacNaughton is probably one of my favourite illustrators and San Francisco is easily one of my favourite cities, so this book was a total treat.Daybook: The Journal of an Artist, Anne Truitt (audio)Such a lovely book! One of Truitt's main struggles is the struggle between the competing roles in her life: her role as mother and her role as artist. She is positively lyrical when talking about that tension and how she navigates it on a daily basis. I listened to the audio version of this, which was delightfully narrated by Truitt herself, but I've decided I need to get myself a print copy because this is a book I'll read again for sure. Do the Work, Steven PressfieldA quick little read that was the perfect followup to Pressfield's The War of Art. Do the Work is a manifesto about the challenges of resistance and all the forms it takes. That self-doubt you have about your yourself and your abilities? That's resistance! That thing that prevents you from starting whatever it is you really want to start (a piece of art, a company, weight loss, whatever)? Also resistance! That thing that seizes you right at the end of a project and prevents you from completing it? You guessed it, resistance! Resistance sucks and this book is all about how you can get through/over/past it to just do the work you want and need to do. I enjoyed it.Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, Mason CurreyI dipped into this book over the course of the month and thoroughly enjoyed it every time. All sorts of habits, rituals, routines, and practices that I couldn't help but think must have been super fun to research. Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work, Edwidge Danticat (audio)I wasn't familiar with Danticat's work prior to reading this series of essays but now I'm super stoked to dig into her fiction. This is a really wonderful collection of stories, most about Haiti or Danticat's Haitian relatives, told with a lot of compassion.