The Creativity Workshop

Using the Tools of Creative Writing, Memoir, Art, Photography, Storytelling and Mindfulness


Reading List

Reading List

A Blue Fire

James Hillman

HarperCollins

Summary: A vitally important introduction to the theories of one of the most original thinkers in psychology today, A Blue Fire gathers selected passages from many of Hillman’s seminal essays on archetypal psychology.

ISBN: 9780060921019

Virginia Woolf

A Room of One’s Own

Virginia Woolf

Penguin

Summary: In a lengthy essay, the narrator explores how the different educational experiences privilege men over women. Spending a day in the British Museum Library perusing the scholarship on women, she concludes that most of it -if not all- had been written by men in anger and hostility. The study of history was of no help. So she constructs in her own imagination what she imagines was the plight of women; to this effort she explains the impediments Judith Shakespeare -Shakespeare’s sister- would have encountered. She then analyzes the achievements of the major women novelists of the nineteenth century, reflecting on the importance of tradition to an aspiring writer. Following up with living writers, she takes a close look at a novel by one of the narrator’s contemporaries. Using a curious metaphor: “a spot the size of a shilling at the back of the head,” she urges women to be original, and to write about what others don’t see and miss; and that the writing must be smooth and clear: “Not a wheel must grate, not a light glimmer.” In one word: writing that is incandescent. The problem as Woof sees it is that to accomplish that fine writing a woman must first achieve intellectual freedom as granted by having a room of one’s own and five hundred a year in income. This edition has been re-paraphrased to lighten the density of the heavy paragraphs one finds in the original version. In addition, the work has been subdivided into chapters with appropriate headings. In other words, this is a version for the contemporary reader in the early 21st Century.

ISBN: 9780140185607

Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

Doubleday

Summary: One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey — into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer. In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail — well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand — and, if possible, answer — the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining. From the Hardcover edition.

ISBN: 9780385660044

Art & Physics

Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light

Leonard Shlain

HarperCollins

Summary: Art interprets the visible world. Physics charts its unseen workings. The two realms seem completely opposed. But consider that both strive to reveal truths for which there are no words––with physicists using the language of mathematics and artists using visual images. In Art & Physics, Leonard Shlain tracks their breakthroughs side by side throughout history to reveal an astonishing correlation of visions. From the classical Greek sculptors to Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns, and from Aristotle to Einstein, artists have foreshadowed the discoveries of scientists, such as when Monet and Cezanne intuited the coming upheaval in physics that Einstein would initiate. In this lively and colorful narrative, Leonard Shlain explores how artistic breakthroughs could have prefigured the visionary insights of physicists on so many occasions throughout history. Provicative and original, Art & Physics is a seamless integration of the romance of art and the drama of science––and an exhilarating history of ideas.

ISBN: 9780061227974

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Malcolm Gladwell

Little, Brown

Summary:
In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of “blink”: the election of Warren Harding; “New Coke”; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren’t those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of “thin-slicing”-filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

ISBN: 9780316005043

Break Every Rule

Break Every Rule: Essays on Language, Longing, & Moments of Desire

Carole Maso

Counterpoint

Summary: 
In this groundbreaking work of ecstatic criticism, Carole Maso shows why she has risen, over the past fifteen years, as one of the brightest stars in the literary firmament. Ever refusing to be marginalized or categorized by genre, Maso is an incisive, compassionate writer who deems herself daughter of William Carlos Williams, a pioneer in combining poetry and fiction with criticism, journalism, and the visual arts. She is daughter, too, of Allen Ginsberg, who also came from Paterson, New Jersey. Known for her audacity, whether exploring language and memory or the development of the artistic soul, Maso here gives us a form-challenging collection, intelligent, and persuasive.

ISBN: 9781582430638

Brunelleschi's Dome

Brunelleschi’s Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral in Florence

Ross King

Random House

Summary: 
Even in an age of soaring skyscrapers and cavernous sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence still retains a rare power to astonish. Yet the elegance of the building belies the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. For over a century after work on the cathedral began in 1296, the proposed dome was regarded as all but impossible to build because of its enormous size. The greatest architectural puzzle of its age, when finally completed in 1436 the dome was hailed as one of the great wonders of the world. It has gone down in history as a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. This book tells the extraordinary story of how the cupola was raised and of the dome’s architect, the brilliant and volatile Filippo Brunelleschi. Denounced as a madman at the start of his labours, he was celebrated at their end as a great genius. His life was one of ambition, ingenuity, rivalry and intrigue – a human drama set against the plagues, wars, political feuds and intellectual ferments of Renaissance Florence, the glorious era for which the dome remains the most compelling symbol.Brunelleschi’s Dome was voted Non-Fiction Book of the Year by American Independent Booksellers.

ISBN: 9781407018027

Coaching Che Guevara

Coaching Che Guevara

Alejandro Fogel

Random Books

Summary: 
Illustrated Edition, Black and White – 48 images. This genre-bending book invites you to take an unconventional trip with expeditionary artist Alejandro Fogel as author and tour guide. Coaching Che Guevara is both memoir and mystery. The story leaps back and forth through time, traveling from a hike through the Andes to the philosophy of the Kabbalah and into the quandary of quantum physics. Along the way, you will meet Eva Perón, Mussolini, Che Guevara, Borges, Kafka, Proust, and a host of Alejandro Fogel’s relatives. Join Fogel in cafes, torn down buildings, and abandoned train stations as he works his way through the fakes that look real and the real things that look fake. Coaching Che Guevara leads you through a hall of mirrors where the magically real and the ultra-rational collide. It is a story without boundaries that traverses an underworld of perception, where Fogel insistently collects the uncollectible–mountains, roads, landscapes and houses that are no longer there and ghosts that are. Alejandro Fogel was born in Buenos Aires. He has been excavating existence, both temporal and ephemeral for over 40 years. His work has taken the form of writing, paintings, installations, prints, videos, photographs and travel performances. As in life, much of his pieces are stored in sealed boxes waiting to be deteriorated by time and obsolete technologies. As the stories he tells are consumed by the passage of time, often losing relevance and disappearing, his material analog art works are also fading and becoming only memories. Some of his pieces quickly become blank as they are made with consumer products designed to rapidly self-destruct. Others fade slowly, darkened to obscurity. They all follow the same ultimate destination. His surviving works are disappearing in museums and private collections worldwide. Fogel currently lives in New York City with writer Shelley Berc.

ISBN: 9780997538809

Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility

Ellen J. Langer

Random House Publishing Group

Summary: 
If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically? For more than thirty years, award-winning social psychologist Ellen Langer has studied this provocative question, and now, in Counterclockwise, she presents the answer: Opening our minds to what’s possible, instead of presuming impossibility, can lead to better health–at any age. Drawing on landmark work in the field and her own body of colorful and highly original experiments–including the first detailed discussion of her “counterclockwise” study, in which elderly men lived for a week as though it was 1959 and showed dramatic improvements in their hearing, memory, dexterity, appetite, and general well-being–Langer shows that the magic of rejuvenation and ongoing good health lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to social and cultural cues. Examining the hidden decisions and vocabulary that shape the medical world (“chronic” versus “acute,” “cure” versus “remission”), the powerful physical effects of placebos, and the intricate but often defeatist ways we define our physical health, Langer challenges the idea that the limits we assume and impose on ourselves are real. With only subtle shifts in our thinking, in our language, and in our expectations, she tells us, we can begin to change the ingrained behaviors that sap health, optimism, and vitality from our lives. Improved vision, younger appearance, weight loss, and increased longevity are just four of the results that Langer has demonstrated.Immensely readable and riveting, Counterclockwise offers a transformative and bold new paradigm: the psychology of possibility. A hopeful and groundbreaking book by an author who has changed how people all over the world think and feel, Counterclockwise is sure to join Mindfulness as a standard source on new-century science and healing.

ISBN: 9780345514806

Daily Rituals

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work

Mason Currey

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Summary: 
Franz Kafka, frustrated with his living quarters and day job, wrote in a letter to Felice Bauer in 1912, “time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.”   Kafka is one of 161 inspired—and inspiring—minds, among them, novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians, who describe how they subtly maneuver the many (self-inflicted) obstacles and (self-imposed) daily rituals to get done the work they love to do, whether by waking early or staying up late; whether by self-medicating with doughnuts or bathing, drinking vast quantities of coffee, or taking long daily walks. Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up in the kitchen, the top of the refrigerator as his desk, dreamily fondling his “male configurations”. . . Jean-Paul Sartre chewed on Corydrane tablets (a mix of amphetamine and aspirin), ingesting ten times the recommended dose each day . Descartes liked to linger in bed, his mind wandering in sleep through woods, gardens, and enchanted palaces where he experienced “every pleasure imaginable.” Here are: Anthony Trollope, who demanded of himself that each morning he write three thousand words (250 words every fifteen minutes for three hours) before going off to his job at the postal service, which he kept for thirty-three years during the writing of more than two dozen books . . . Karl Marx . . . Woody Allen . . . Agatha Christie . . . George Balanchine, who did most of his work while ironing . . . Leo Tolstoy . . . Charles Dickens . . . Pablo Picasso . . . George Gershwin, who, said his brother Ira, worked for twelve hours a day from late morning to midnight, composing at the piano in pajamas, bathrobe, and slippers . . . Here also are the daily rituals of Charles Darwin, Andy Warhol, John Updike, Twyla Tharp, Benjamin Franklin, William Faulkner, Jane Austen, Anne Rice, and Igor Stravinsky (he was never able to compose unless he was sure no one could hear him and, when blocked, stood on his head to “clear the brain”).

ISBN: 9780307962379

Descartes' Error

Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain

Antonio Damasio

Penguin

Summary:      
Since Descartes famously proclaimed, “I think, therefore I am,” science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person’s true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes’ Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—”one of the world’s leading neurologists” (The New York Times)—challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior.

ISBN: 9781101640135

Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less

Tiffany Dufu

Flatiron Books

Summary:      
A bold and inspiring memoir and manifesto from a renowned voice in the women’s leadership movement who shows women how to cultivate the single skill they really need in order to thrive: the ability to let go.Once the poster girl for doing it all, after she had her first child, Tiffany Dufu struggled to accomplish everything she thought she needed to in order to succeed. Like so many driven and talented women who have been brought up to believe that to have it all, they must do it all, Dufu began to feel that achieving her career and personal goals was an impossibility. Eventually, she discovered the solution: letting go. In Drop the Ball, Dufu recounts how she learned to reevaluate expectations, shrink her to-do list, and meaningfully engage the assistance of others—freeing the space she needed to flourish at work and to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships at home. Even though women are half the workforce, they still represent only eighteen per cent of the highest level leaders. The reasons are obvious: just as women reach middle management they are also starting families. Mounting responsibilities at work and home leave them with no bandwidth to do what will most lead to their success. Offering new perspective on why the women’s leadership movement has stalled, and packed with actionable advice, Tiffany Dufu’s Drop the Ball urges women to embrace imperfection, to expect less of themselves and more from others—only then can they focus on what they truly care about, devote the necessary energy to achieving their real goals, and create the type of rich, rewarding life we all desire.

ISBN: 9781250071750

Einstein, Picasso

Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty That Causes Havoc

Arthur J. Miller

Basic Books

Summary:      
The most important scientist of the twentieth century and the most important artist had their periods of greatest creativity almost simultaneously and in remarkably similar circumstances. This fascinating parallel biography of Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso as young men examines their greatest creations-Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Miller shows how these breakthroughs arose not only from within their respective fields but from larger currents in the intellectual culture of the times. Ultimately, Miller shows how Einstein and Picasso, in a deep and important sense, were both working on the same problem.

ISBN: 9780786723133

From Where You Dream

From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction

Robert Olen Butler

Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Summary:      
The Pulitzer Prize–winning author “shares his insights into—and passion for—the creation and experience of fiction with total openness” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).   Robert Olen Butler, author of Perfume River, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, and A Small Hotel, teaches graduate fiction at Florida State University—his version of literary boot camp. In From Where You Dream, Butler reimagines the process of writing as emotional rather than intellectual, and tells writers how to achieve the dreamspace necessary for composing honest, inspired fiction. Proposing that fiction is the exploration of the human condition with yearning as its compass, Butler reinterprets the traditional tools of the craft using the dynamics of desire. Offering a direct view into the mind and craft of a literary master, From Where You Dream is an invaluable tool for the novice and experienced writer alike.   “Incisive and provocative, Butler’s tutorials are a must for anyone even thinking about writing fiction, and readers, too, will benefit from his passionate exhortations.” —Booklist

ISBN: 9781555846190

How to be an Explorer of the World

How to be an Explorer of the World

Keri Smith

Penguin Books

Summary:      
From the author of Wreck this Journal, Keri Smith’s How to be an Explorer of the World is an invitation to rediscover the world around you.Artists and scientists analyze the world around them in surprisingly similar ways, by observing, collecting, documenting, analyzing, and comparing. In this captivating guided journal, readers are encouraged to explore their world as both artists and scientists.The mission Smith proposes? “To document and observe the world around you. As if you’ve never seen it before. Take notes. Collect things you find on your travels. Document findings. Notice patterns. Copy. Trace. Focus on one thing at a time. Record what you are drawn to.”With a series of interactive prompts and a beautifully hand-illustrated two-colour package, readers will enjoy exploring and discovering the world through this gorgeous book.

ISBN: 9780241953884

How to Write

How to Write

Gertrude Stein

Dover Publications

Summary:      
First published in 1931, this book contains Gertrude Stein’s thoughts about the craft of writing. It is written in her usual experimental style, yet it is not difficult to understand, and even traditionalists will find that it has many things to say to them. Her experimental style includes such elements as disconnectedness, a love of refrain and rhyme, a search for rhythm and balance, a dislike of punctuation (especially the comma), a dismissal of the conventional significance of words, and a repetition of words and phrases. Her approach to writing is impossible to summarize, but many critics see a strain of American humor in her work, borne out immediately by some of the chapter titles: “Saving the Sentence,” “Arthur a Grammar,” “Regular Regularly in Narrative,” and “Finally George a Vocabulary.” Readers who have not encountered Gertrude Stein or who have had difficulty with her other work will find this book useful as an entry into her writing. It is also in itself a unique, exhilarating experience.

ISBN: 9780486231440

How We Got to Now

How We Got to Now

Steven Johnson

Penguin

Summary:      
From the New York Times–bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Farsighted, a new look at the power and legacy of great ideas.In this illustrated history, Steven Johnson explores the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life (refrigeration, clocks, and eyeglass lenses, to name a few) from their creation by hobbyists, amateurs, and entrepreneurs to their unintended historical consequences. Filled with surprising stories of accidental genius and brilliant mistakes—from the French publisher who invented the phonograph before Edison but forgot to include playback, to the Hollywood movie star who helped invent the technology behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth—How We Got to Now investigates the secret history behind the everyday objects of contemporary life.   In his trademark style, Johnson examines unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated fields: how the invention of air-conditioning enabled the largest migration of human beings in the history of the species—to cities such as Dubai or Phoenix, which would otherwise be virtually uninhabitable; how pendulum clocks helped trigger the industrial revolution; and how clean water made it possible to manufacture computer chips. Accompanied by a major six-part television series on PBS, How We Got to Now is the story of collaborative networks building the modern world, written in the provocative, informative, and engaging style that has earned Johnson fans around the globe.

ISBN: 9780698154506

Ideas

Ideas

Peter Watson

Orion

Summary:      
A highly ambitious and lucid history of ideas from the very earliest times to the present day.In this hugely ambitious and exciting book Peter Watson tells the history of ideas from prehistory to the present day, leading to a new way of telling the history of the world. The book begins over a million years ago with a discussion of how the earliest ideas might have originated. Looking at animal behaviour that appears to require some thought: tool-making, territoriality, counting, language (or at least sounds), pairbonding. Peter Watson moves on to the apeman and the development of simple ideas such as cooking, the earliest language, the emergence of family life. All the obvious areas are tackled: the Ancient Greeks, Christian theology, the ideas of Jesus, astrological thought, the soul, the self, beliefs about the heavens, the ideas of Islam, the Crusades, humanism, the Renaissance, Gutenberg and the book, the scientific revolution, the age of discovery, Shakespeare, the idea of Revolution, the Romantic imagination, Darwin, imperialism, modernism, Freud right up to the present day and the internet.

ISBN: 9781780226729

Imagination First

Imagination First

Eric Liu, Scott Noppe-Brandon, Lincoln Center Institute

John Wiley & Sons

Summary:      
When imagination becomes habit, it can transform your work and your life The best corporations know that innovative thinking is the only competitive advantage that cannot be outsourced. The best schools are those that create cultures of imagination. Now in paperback, Imagination First introduces a wide-variety of individuals who make a habit of imaginative thinking and creative action, offering a set of universal practices that anyone can use to transform their life at work, home, and play. These 28.5 practices will enable anyone to become more imaginative and to teach others to do so as well?from corporate executive to educator to platoon sergeant. Bonus content includes Winning “practices” submitted by the public Guidelines for educators who want to cultivate creativity in their classrooms Expanded resource section The book is filled with illustrative stories of creative leaders, teachers, artists, and scientists that clearly illustrate the original practices and new material that shows how to bring imagination to life.

ISBN: 9781118013687

It's Never Too Late to Begin Again

It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again: Discovering Creativity and Meaning at Midlife and Beyond

Julia Cameron

Penguin

Summary:      
“The book you hold in your hands is the distillate of a quarter century’s teaching. It is my attempt to answer, ‘What next?’ for students who are embarking on their ‘second act.’” —Julia Cameron   Julia Cameron has inspired millions with her bestseller on creativity, The Artist’s Way. In It’s Never Too Late To Begin Again, she turns her eye to a segment of the population that, ironically, while they have more time to be creative, are often reluctant or intimidated by the creative process. Cameron shows readers that retirement can, in fact, be the most rich, fulfilling, and creative time of their lives. When someone retires, the newfound freedom can be quite exciting, but also daunting. The life that someone had has changed, and the life to come is yet to be defined. In this book, Cameron shows readers how cultivating their creative selves can help them navigate this new terrain. She tells the inspiring stories of retirees who discovered new artistic pursuits and passions that more than filled their days—they nurtured their souls.  This twelve-week course aimed at defining—and creating—the life you want to have as you redefine and re-create yourself, this book includes simple tools that will guide and inspire you to make the most of this time in your life: –  Memoir writing offers an opportunity to reflect on and honor past experience. This book guides you through the daunting task of writing an entire memoir, breaking it down into manageable pieces.  –  Morning Pages—private, stream-of-consciousness writing done daily—allow you to express wishes, fears, delights, resentments, and joys, which in turn, provide focus and clarity for the day at hand. –  Artist Dates encourage fun and spontaneity. –  Solo Walks quell anxiety and clear the mind.This fun, gentle, step-by-step process will help you explore your creative dreams, wishes, and desires…and help you quickly find that it’s never too late to begin again.

ISBN: 9781101983546

Leonardo's Legacy

Leonardo’s Legacy

Stefan Klein

ReadHowYouWant.com

Summary:      
Revered today as, perhaps, the greatest of Renaissance painters, Leonardo da Vinci was a scientist at heart. The artist who created the Mona Lisa also designed functioning robots and digital computers, constructed flying machines and built the first heart valve. His intuitive and ingenious approach – a new mode of thinking – linked highly diverse areas of inquiry in startling new ways and ushered in a new era. In Leonardo’s Legacy, award-winning science journalist Stefan Klein deciphers the forgotten legacy of this universal genius and persuasively demonstrates that today we have much to learn from Leonardo’s way of thinking. Klein sheds light on the mystery behind Leonardo’s paintings, takes us through the many facets of his fascination with water, and explains the true significance of his dream of flying. It is a unique glimpse into the complex and brilliant mind of this inventor, scientist, and pioneer of a new world view, with profound consequences for our times.

ISBN: 9781458759139

Letters to a Young Poet

Letters to a Young Poet

Rainer Maria Rilke

New World Library

Summary:      
These have been called the most famous and beloved letters of the past century. Rainer Maria Rilke himself said that much of his creative expression went into his correspondence, and here he touches upon a wide range of subjects that will interest writers, artists,and thinkers. This luminous translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s classic offers brilliant inspiration to all people who seek to know and express their inner truth. Letters to a Young Poet is a classic that should be required reading for anyone who dreams of expressing themselves creatively.

ISBN: 9781577313267

Mama's Last Hug Animal and Human Emotions

Mama’s Last Hug: Animal and Human Emotions

Frans de Waal

W. W. Norton & Company

Summary:      
New York Times Bestseller Primatologist Frans de Waal explores the fascinating world of animal and human emotions. Frans de Waal has spent four decades at the forefront of animal research. Following up on the best-selling Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, which investigated animal intelligence, Mama’s Last Hug delivers a fascinating exploration of the rich emotional lives of animals. Mama’s Last Hug begins with the death of Mama, a chimpanzee matriarch who formed a deep bond with biologist Jan van Hooff. When Mama was dying, van Hooff took the unusual step of visiting her in her night cage for a last hug. Their goodbyes were filmed and went viral. Millions of people were deeply moved by the way Mama embraced the professor, welcoming him with a big smile while reassuring him by patting his neck, in a gesture often considered typically human but that is in fact common to all primates. This story and others like it form the core of de Waal’s argument, showing that humans are not the only species with the capacity for love, hate, fear, shame, guilt, joy, disgust, and empathy. De Waal discusses facial expressions, the emotions behind human politics, the illusion of free will, animal sentience, and, of course, Mama’s life and death. The message is one of continuity between us and other species, such as the radical proposal that emotions are like organs: we don’t have a single organ that other animals don’t have, and the same is true for our emotions. Mama’s Last Hug opens our hearts and minds to the many ways in which humans and other animals are connected, transforming how we view the living world around us.

ISBN: 9780393635072

Manifestoes of Surrealism

Manifestoes of Surrealism

André Breton

University of Michigan Press

Summary:      
Andre Breton discusses the meaning, aims, and political position of the Surrealist movement.

ISBN: 9780472061822

Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Memories, Dreams, Reflections

C. G. Jung

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Summary:      
An eye-opening biography of one of the most influential psychiatrists of the modern age, drawing from his lectures, conversations, and own writings. In the spring of 1957, when he was eighty-one years old, Carl Gustav Jung undertook the telling of his life story. Memories, Dreams, Reflections is that book, composed of conversations with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffé, as well as chapters written in his own hand, and other materials. Jung continued to work on the final stages of the manuscript until shortly before his death on June 6, 1961, making this a uniquely comprehensive reflection on a remarkable life. Fully corrected, this edition also includes Jung’s VII Sermones ad Mortuos.

ISBN: 9780307772718

Moby Dick

Moby Dick

Herman Melville

Norton

Summary:      
A literary classic that wasn’t recognized for its merits until decades after its publication, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick tells the tale of a whaling ship and its crew, who are carried progressively further out to sea by the fiery Captain Ahab. Obsessed with killing the massive whale, which had previously bitten off Ahab’s leg, the seasoned seafarer steers his ship to confront the creature, while the rest of the shipmates, including the young narrator, Ishmael, and the harpoon expert, Queequeg, must contend with their increasingly dire journey. The book invariably lands on any short list of the greatest American novels.

No Logo

No Logo

Naomi Klein

Picador

Summary:      
NO LOGO was an international bestseller and “a movement bible” (The New York Times). Naomi Klein’s second book, The Shock Doctrine, was hailed as a “master narrative of our time,” and has over a million copies in print worldwide.In the last decade, No Logo has become an international phenomenon and a cultural manifesto for the critics of unfettered capitalism worldwide. As America faces a second economic depression, Klein’s analysis of our corporate and branded world is as timely and powerful as ever.Equal parts cultural analysis, political manifesto, mall-rat memoir, and journalistic exposé, No Logo is the first book to put the new resistance into pop-historical and clear economic perspective. Naomi Klein tells a story of rebellion and self-determination in the face of our new branded world.

ISBN: 9781429956499

On Becoming an Artist

On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity

Ellen J. Langer

Random House Publishing Group

Summary:      
“All it takes to become an artist is to start doing art.”–from On Becoming an ArtistOn Becoming an Artist is loaded with good news. Backed by her landmark scientific work on mindfulness and artistic nature, bestselling author and Harvard psychologist Ellen J. Langer shows us that creativity is not a rare gift that only some special few are born with, but rather an integral part of everyone’s makeup. All of us can express our creative impulses– authentically and uniquely–and, in the process, enrich our lives.Why then do so many of us merely dream of someday painting, someday writing, someday making music? Why do we think the same old thoughts, harbor the same old prejudices, stay stuck in the same old mud? Who taught us to think “inside the box”? No one is more qualified to answer these questions than Dr. Langer, who has explored their every facet for years. She describes dozens of fascinating experiments–her own and those of her colleagues–that are designed to study mindfulness and its relation to human creativity, and she shares the profound implications of the results–for our well-being, health, and happiness.Langer reveals myriad insights, among them: We think we should already know what only firsthand experience can teach us. . . . In learning the ways that all roses are alike, we risk becoming blind to their differences. . . . If we are mindfully creative, the circumstances of the moment will tell us what to do. . . . Those of us who are less evaluatively inclined experience less guilt, less regret, less blame, and tend to like ourselves more. . . . Uncertainty gives us the freedom to discover meaning. . . . Finally, what we think we’re sure of may not even exist.With the skill of a gifted logician, Langer demonstrates exactly how we undervalue ourselves and undermine our creativity. By example, she persuades us to have faith in our creative works, not because someone else approves of them but because they’re a true expression of ourselves. Her high-spirited, challenging book sparkles with wit and intelligence and inspires in us an infectious enthusiasm for our creations, our world, and ourselves. It can be of lifelong value to everyone who reads it.

ISBN: 9780307416292

On Creativity

On Creativity

David Bohm, Leroy Little Bear

Psychology Press

Summary:      
Creativity is fundamental to human experience. In On Creativity, David Bohm, the world-renowned scientist, investigates the phenomenon from all sides: not only the creativity of invention and of imagination but also that of perception and of discovery. The creative impulse is instinctive to everyone, but its revolutionary potential is rarely realised. For, he argues, its success depends upon the individual’s ability to jolt the workaday mind into a dynamic state that enables true creativity and originality to become possible. By awakening this creative state of mind each person can then discover the creative harmony that lies not only within their own psyche but also behind everything that they experience.

ISBN: 9780415336406

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

HarperCollins

Summary:      
One of the 20th century’s enduring works, “One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world, and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize- winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendi a family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the noble, ridiculous, beautiful, and tawdry story of the Buendi a family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America. Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility — the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth — these universal themes dominate the novel. Whether he is describing an affair of passion or the voracity of capitalism and the corruption of government, Gabriel Garci a Ma rquez always writes with the simplicity, ease, and purity that are the mark of a master. Alternately reverential and comical, “One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an accounting of the history of the human race.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

ISBN: 9780060740450

Out of Our Minds

Out of Our Minds: The Power of Being Creative

Ken Robinson

John Wiley & Sons

Summary:      
Creativity is critical. Out of Our Minds explores creativity: its value in business, its ubiquity in children, its perceived absence in many adults and the phenomenon through which it disappears — and offers a groundbreaking approach for getting it back. Author Sir Ken Robinson is an internationally recognised authority on creativity, and his TED talk on the subject is the most watched video in TED’s history. In this book, Sir Ken argues that organisations everywhere are struggling to fix a problem that originates in schools and universities. Organisations everywhere are competing in a world that changes in the blink of an eye – they need people who are flexible enough to adapt, and creative enough to find novel solutions to problems old and new. Out of Our Minds describes how schools, businesses and communities can work together to bring creativity out of the closet and realise its inherent value at every stage of life. This new third edition has been updated to reflect changing technologies and demographics, with updated case studies and coverage of recent changes to education. While education and training are the keys to the future, the key can also be turned the other way; locking people away from their own creativity. Only by actively fostering creativity can businesses unlock those doors and achieve their true potential. This book will help you to: Understand the importance of actively promoting creativity and innovation. Discover why creativity stagnates somewhere between childhood and adulthood. Learn how to re-awaken dormant creativity to help your business achieve more. Explore ways in which we can work together to keep creativity alive for everyone. Modern business absolutely demands creativity of thought and action. We’re all creative as children — so where does it go? When do we lose it? Out of Our Minds has the answers, and clear solutions for getting it back.

ISBN: 9780857087416

Quiet

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Susan Cain

Crown/Archetype

Summary:      
The book that started the Quiet RevolutionAt least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts& Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society. In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content.

ISBN: 9780307452207

Sapiens

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

Harper Collins

Summary:      
New York Times BestsellerA Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.

ISBN: 9780062316103

Silence

Silence

John Cage

Wesleyan University Press

Summary:      
John Cage is the outstanding composer of avant-garde music today. The Saturday Review said of him: “Cage possesses one of the rarest qualities of the true creator- that of an original mind- and whether that originality pleases, irritates, amuses or outrages is irrelevant.” “He refuses to sermonize or pontificate. What John Cage offers is more refreshing, more spirited, much more fun-a kind of carefree skinny-dipping in the infinite. It’s what’s happening now.” –The American Record Guide“There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. Sounds occur whether intended or not; the psychological turning in direction of those not intended seems at first to be a giving up of everything that belongs to humanity. But one must see that humanity and nature, not separate, are in this world together, that nothing was lost when everything was given away.”

ISBN: 9780819570642

Sparks of Genius

Sparks of Genius: The 13 Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People

Robert Root-Bernstein, Michèle Root-Bernstein

HMH

Summary:      
Discover the cognitive tools that lead to creative thinking and problem-solving with this “well-written and easy-to-follow” guide (Library Journal).   Explore the “thinking tools” of extraordinary people, from Albert Einstein and Jane Goodall to Mozart and Virginia Woolf, and learn how you can practice the same imaginative skills to become your creative best. With engaging narratives and examples, Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein investigate cognitive tools such as observing, recognizing patterns, modeling, playing, and more.  Sparks of Genius is “a clever, detailed and demanding fitness program for the creative mind” and a groundbreaking guidebook for anyone interested in imaginative thinking, lifelong learning, and transdisciplinary education (Kirkus Reviews).   “How different the painter at the easel and the physicist in the laboratory! Yet the Root-Bernsteins recognize the deep-down similarity of all creative thinking, whether in art or science. They demonstrate this similarity by comparing the accounts that various pioneers and inventors have left of their own creative processes: for Picasso just as for Einstein, for Klee just as for Feynman, the creative impulse always begins in vision, in emotion, in intuition. . . . With a lavishly illustrated chapter devoted to each tool, readers quickly realize just how far the imagination can stretch.” —Booklist   “A powerful book . . . Sparks of Genius presents radically different ways of approaching problems.” —American Scientist.

ISBN: 9780547525891

The Act of Creation

The Act of Creation

Arthur Koestler

Last Century Media

Summary:      
The Act of Creation begins where this view ceases to be true. Koestler affirms that all creatures have the capacity for creative activity, frequently suppressed by the automatic routines of thought and behavior that dominate their lives. The study of psychology has offered little in the way of an explanation of the creative process, and Koestler suggests that we are at our most creative when rational thought is suspended – for example in dreams and trance-like states. Then the mind is capable of receiving inspiration and insight. Taking humor as his starting point, Koestler examines what he terms ‘bisociative’ thinking – the creative leap made by the mind that gives rise to new and startling perceptions and glimpses of reality. From here he assesses the workings of the mind of the scientific or artistic genius. The general reader as well as the reader with a deeper knowledge of the topics covered will find this richly documented study of creativity both illuminating and compelling.

ISBN: 9781939438980

The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

C.G. Jung

Routledge

Summary:      
The concept of ‘Archteypes’ and the hypothesis of ‘A Collective Unconscious’ are two of Jung’s better known and most exciting ideas. In this volume – taken from the Collected Works and appearing in paperback for the first time – Jung describes and elaborates the two concepts. Three essays establish the theoretical basis which are then followed by essays on specific archetypes. The relation of these to the process of individuation is examined in the last section. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious is one of Jung’s central works. There are many illustrations in full colour.

ISBN: 9781317534617

The Art of Science

The Art of Science: A Natural History of Ideas

Richard Hamblyn

Pan Macmillan

Summary:      
Science is about discovery, a journey towards knowledge. With authors as diverse as Galileo and Lewis Carroll, the extracts featured in this anthology span centuries and continents; they include startling revelations that changed the way we think and tackle more prosaic questions such as why the sea is salty; they consider the natural beauty of the snowflake and the man-made wonder of the first computer. What links them all is a desire to understand, explain and enrich the world, and the ability to communicate this in original, clear and engaging prose.

ISBN: 9781447204152

The Brain That Changes Itself

The Brain That Changes Itself

Norman Doidge

Penguin

Summary:      
What is neuroplasticity? Is it possible to change your brain? Norman Doidge’s inspiring guide to the new brain science explains all of this and moreAn astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable, and proving that it is, in fact, possible to change your brain. Psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, its healing powers, and the people whose lives they’ve transformed—people whose mental limitations, brain damage or brain trauma were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.

ISBN: 9781101147115

The Cave Painters

The Cave Painters

Gregory Curtis

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Summary:      
The Cave Painters is a vivid introduction to the spectacular cave paintings of France and Spain—the individuals who rediscovered them, theories about their origins, their splendor and mystery. Gregory Curtis makes us see the astonishing sophistication and power of the paintings and tells us what is known about their creators, the Cro-Magnon people of some 40,000 years ago. He takes us through various theories—that the art was part of fertility or hunting rituals, or used for religious purposes, or was clan mythology—examining the ways interpretations have changed over time. Rich in detail, personalities, and history, The Cave Painters is above all permeated with awe for those distant humans who developed—perhaps for the first time—both the ability for abstract thought and a profound and beautiful way to express it.

ISBN: 9780307482709

The Creative Habit

The Creative Habit

Twyla Tharp

Simon and Schuster

Summary:      
One of the world’s leading creative artists, choreographers, and creator of the smash-hit Broadway show, Movin’ Out, shares her secrets for developing and honing your creative talents—at once prescriptive and inspirational, a book to stand alongside The Artist’s Way and Bird by Bird.All it takes to make creativity a part of your life is the willingness to make it a habit. It is the product of preparation and effort, and is within reach of everyone. Whether you are a painter, musician, businessperson, or simply an individual yearning to put your creativity to use, The Creative Habit provides you with thirty-two practical exercises based on the lessons Twyla Tharp has learned in her remarkable thirty-five-year career. In “Where’s Your Pencil?” Tharp reminds you to observe the world — and get it down on paper. In “Coins and Chaos,” she gives you an easy way to restore order and peace. In “Do a Verb,” she turns your mind and body into coworkers. In “Build a Bridge to the Next Day,” she shows you how to clean the clutter from your mind overnight. Tharp leads you through the painful first steps of scratching for ideas, finding the spine of your work, and getting out of ruts and into productive grooves. The wide-open realm of possibilities can be energizing, and Twyla Tharp explains how to take a deep breath and begin.

ISBN: 9781439106563

The Gift

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World

Lewis Hyde

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Summary:      
“A manifesto of sorts for anyone who makes art [and] cares for it.” —Zadie Smith“The best book I know of for talented but unacknowledged creators. . . . A masterpiece.” —Margaret Atwood“No one who is invested in any kind of art . . . can read The Gift and remain unchanged.” —David Foster WallaceBy now a modern classic, The Gift is a brilliantly orchestrated defense of the value of creativity and of its importance in a culture increasingly governed by money and overrun with commodities. This book is even more necessary today than when it first appeared. An illuminating and transformative book, and completely original in its view of the world, The Gift is cherished by artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers. It is in itself a gift to all who discover the classic wisdom found in its pages.

ISBN: 9780307567604

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Joseph Campbell

New World Library

Summary:      
Since its release in 1949,The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell’s revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In these pages, Campbell outlines the Hero’s Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world’s mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction. As part of the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, this third edition features expanded illustrations, a comprehensive bibliography, and more accessible sidebars. As relevant today as when it was first published,The Hero with a Thousand Faces continues to find new audiences in fields ranging from religion and anthropology to literature and film studies. The book has also profoundly influenced creative artists–including authors, songwriters, game designers, and filmmakers–and continues to inspire all those interested in the inherent human need to tell stories.

ISBN: 9781577315933

The Hidden Life of Trees

The Hidden Life of Trees

Peter Wohlleben

Greystone Books

Summary:      
The first book in New York Times bestselling author Peter Wohlleben’s The Mysteries of Nature Trilogy. Book two, The Inner Life of Animals, is available now, and the third book, The Secret Wisdom of Nature, is coming in Spring 2019. Are trees social beings? In this international bestseller, forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.After learning about the complex life of trees, a walk in the woods will never be the same again.Includes a Note From a Forest Scientist, by Dr.Suzanne SimardPublished in partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.

ISBN: 9781771642491

The Idea Factory

The Idea Factory

Jon Gertner

Penguin

Summary:      
The definitive history of America’s greatest incubator of innovation and the birthplace of some of the 20th century’s most influential technologiesFrom its beginnings in the 1920s until its demise in the 1980s, Bell Labs-officially, the research and development wing of AT&T-was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory for new ideas in the world. From the transistor to the laser, from digital communications to cellular telephony, it’s hard to find an aspect of modern life that hasn’t been touched by Bell Labs. In The Idea Factory, Jon Gertner traces the origins of some of the twentieth century’s most important inventions and delivers a riveting and heretofore untold chapter of American history. At its heart this is a story about the life and work of a small group of brilliant and eccentric men-Mervin Kelly, Bill Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and Bill Baker-who spent their careers at Bell Labs. Today, when the drive to invent has become a mantra, Bell Labs offers us a way to enrich our understanding of the challenges and solutions to technological innovation. Here, after all, was where the foundational ideas on the management of innovation were born.

ISBN: 9781101561089

The Invention of Solitude

The Invention of Solitude

Paul Auster

Faber & Faber

Summary:      
‘One day there is life . . . And then, suddenly, it happens there is death.’So begins Paul Auster’s moving and personal meditation on fatherhood, The Invention of Solitude. The first section, ‘Portrait of an Invisible Man’, reveals Auster’s memories and feelings after the death of his father. In ‘The Book of Memory’ the perspective shifts to Auster’s role as a father. The narrator, ‘A.’, contemplates his separation from his son, his dying grandfather and the solitary nature of writing and story-telling. With all the keen literary intelligence familiar from The New York Trilogy or Sunset Park, Paul Auster crafts an intensely intimate work from a ground-breaking combination of introspection, meditation and biography.

ISBN: 9780571266746

The Master and His Emissary

The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

Iain McGilchrist

Yale University Press

Summary:      
A new edition of the bestselling classic – published with a special introduction to mark its 10th anniversaryThis pioneering account sets out to understand the structure of the human brain – the place where mind meets matter. Until recently, the left hemisphere of our brain has been seen as the ‘rational’ side, the superior partner to the right. But is this distinction true?Drawing on a vast body of experimental research, Iain McGilchrist argues while our left brain makes for a wonderful servant, it is a very poor master. As he shows, it is the right side which is the more reliable and insightful. Without it, our world would be mechanistic – stripped of depth, colour and value.

ISBN: 9780300245929

The Myth of the Eternal Return

The Myth of the Eternal Return

Mircea Eliade

Princeton University Press

Summary:      
First published in English in 1954, this founding work of the history of religions secured the North American reputation of the Romanian émigré-scholar Mircea Eliade. Making reference to an astonishing number of cultures and drawing on scholarship published in no fewer than half a dozen European languages, The Myth of the Eternal Return illuminates the religious beliefs and rituals of a wide variety of archaic religious cultures. While acknowledging that a return to their practices is impossible, Eliade passionately insists on the value of understanding their views to enrich the contemporary imagination of what it is to be human. This book includes an introduction from Jonathan Z. Smith that provides essential context and encourages readers to engage in an informed way with this classic text.

ISBN: 9780691182971

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

Notebooks

Leonardo Da Vinci

Aegitas

Summary:      
A singular fatality has ruled the destiny of nearly all the most famous of Leonardo da Vinci’s works. Two of the three most important were never completed, obstacles having arisen during his life-time, which obliged him to leave them unfinished; namely the Sforza Monument and the Wall-painting of the Battle of Anghiari, while the third—the picture of the Last Supper at Milan—has suffered irremediable injury from decay and the repeated restorations to which it was recklessly subjected during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries. Nevertheless, no other picture of the Renaissance has become so wellknown and popular through copies of every description.

ISBN: 9785000640081

The Overstory A Novel

The Overstory

Richard Powers

W. W. Norton & Company

Summary:      
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize New York Times Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book and a Washington Post, Time, Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2018 “The best novel ever written about trees, and really just one of the best novels, period.” —Ann Patchett The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

ISBN: 9780393635539

The Poetics of Space

The Poetics of Space

Gaston Bachelard

Penguin

Summary:      
A beloved multidisciplinary treatise comes to Penguin ClassicsSince its initial publication in 1958, The Poetics of Space has been a muse to philosophers, architects, writers, psychologists, critics, and readers alike. The rare work of irresistibly inviting philosophy, Bachelard’s seminal work brims with quiet revelations and stirring, mysterious imagery. This lyrical journey takes as its premise the emergence of the poetic image and finds an ideal metaphor in the intimate spaces of our homes. Guiding us through a stream of meditations on poetry, art, and the blooming of consciousness itself, Bachelard examines the domestic places that shape and hold our dreams and memories. Houses and rooms; cellars and attics; drawers, chests, and wardrobes; nests and shells; nooks and corners: No space is too vast or too small to be filled by our thoughts and our reveries. In Bachelard’s enchanting spaces, “We are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.”This new edition features a foreword by Mark Z. Danielewski, whose bestselling novel House of Leaves drew inspiration from Bachelard’s writings, and an introduction by internationally renowned philosopher Richard Kearney who explains the book’s enduring importance and its role within Bachelard’s remarkable career.For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

ISBN: 9780698170438

The Shallows What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Nicholas Carr

W. W. Norton & Company

Summary:      
Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate “Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection. Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.

ISBN: 9780393079364

The Shape of Wilderness

The Shape of Wilderness

Shelley Berc

Coffee House Press

Summary:      
Twin sisters Miranda and Rose live in a deserted hotel that their dreamer father built to attract a railroad and a city which never came. As their mother chases a delusion of her own, the sisters encounter an itinerant artist and a shady trapper whose impact on their lives proves shattering. With exquisite storytelling and seamless use of magic realism, The Shape of Wilderness follows Miranda and Rose on a journey of carnal and metaphysical love; spiritual and emotional violence; art and materialism; wilderness and civilization; loss and coming-of-age. A map of the mythos of America, a cartography of the human spirit, this stunning novel explores how we shape our destinies and how they shape us.

ISBN: 9781566890366

The Singularity is Near

The Singularity is Near

Ray Kurzweil

Viking

Summary:      
The great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil is one of the best-known and controversial advocates for the role of machines in the future of humanity. In his latest, thrilling foray into the future, he envisions an event—the “singularity”—in which technological change becomes so rapid and so profound that our bodies and brains will merge with our machines. The Singularity Is Near portrays what life will be like after this event—a human-machine civilization where our experiences shift from real reality to virtual reality and where our intelligence becomes nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than unaided human intelligence. In practical terms, this means that human aging and pollution will be reversed, world hunger will be solved, and our bodies and environment transformed by nanotechnology to overcome the limitations of biology, including death. We will be able to create virtually any physical product just from information, resulting in radical wealth creation. In addition to outlining these fantastic changes, Kurzweil also considers their social and philosophical ramifications. With its radical but optimistic view of the course of human development, The Singularity Is Near is certain to be one of the most widely discussed and provocative books of 2005.

ISBN: 9780670033843

The Spell of the Sensuous

The Spell of the Sensuous

David Abram

Knopf Doubleday

Summary:      
Winner of the International Lannan Literary Award for NonfictionAnimal tracks, word magic, the speech of stones, the power of letters, and the taste of the wind all figure prominently in this intellectual tour de force that returns us to our senses and to the sensuous terrain that sustains us. This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception.For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patters) that we have only lately come to think of as “inanimate.” How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relation with the breathing earth? In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which–even at its most abstract–echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with a passion, a precision, and an intellectual daring that recall such writers as Loren Eisleley, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez.

ISBN: 9780307830555

The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell

Little, Brown

Summary:      
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.

ISBN: 9780759574731

The Writer's Way

The Writer’s Way

Sara Maitland

Arcturus Publishing

Summary:      
The Writer’s Way is a comprehensive and rewarding introduction to the art of creative writing. Its no-nonsense yet accessible tone and practical contents make it the perfect guide, whether you are a raw beginner of you have started writing and are looking for friendly guidance to help develop your talent. Distinguished author Sara Maitland has an extensive background in teaching creative writing and is the perfect companion for this journey of self discovery. She knows the potential pitfalls confronting every writer – the lack of confidence or “block” that can strike at any time, leaving you literally lost for words – and draws on her vast experience to help you tackle them. She also shares with you the unrivalled joy writing can bring – the sheer pleasure she takes in her art lending her text a happy authority. With 40 literary exercises sprinkled liberally throughout, you will never feel alone. Whether you read it in one sitting, or take your time working through the exercises as you go, this is a terrific book to get you going and keep you going, on the writer’s way.

ISBN: 9781848585027

Thinking Hats and Coloured Turbans

Thinking Hats and Coloured Turbans: Creativity Across Cultures

Kirpal Singh

Prentice Hall

ISBN: 9780131025332

This Chair Rocks

This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism

Ashton Applewhite

Celadon Books

Summary:      
Author, activist, and TED speaker Ashton Applewhite has written a rousing manifesto calling for an end to discrimination and prejudice on the basis of age.In our youth obsessed culture, we’re bombarded by media images and messages about the despairs and declines of our later years. Beauty and pharmaceutical companies work overtime to convince people to purchase products that will retain their youthful appearance and vitality. Wrinkles are embarrassing. Gray hair should be colored and bald heads covered with implants. Older minds and bodies are too frail to keep up with the pace of the modern working world and olders should just step aside for the new generation. Ashton Applewhite once held these beliefs too until she realized where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Lively, funny, and deeply researched, This Chair Rocks traces her journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks myth after myth about late life. Explaining the roots of ageism in history and how it divides and debases, Applewhite examines how ageist stereotypes cripple the way our brains and bodies function, looks at ageism in the workplace and the bedroom, exposes the cost of the all-American myth of independence, critiques the portrayal of elders as burdens to society, describes what an all-age-friendly world would look like, and offers a rousing call to action. It’s time to create a world of age equality by making discrimination on the basis of age as unacceptable as any other kind of bias. Whether you’re older or hoping to get there, this book will shake you by the shoulders, cheer you up, make you mad, and change the way you see the rest of your life. Age pride!“Wow. This book totally rocks. It arrived on a day when I was in deep confusion and sadness about my age. Everything about it, from my invisibility to my neck. Within four or five wise, passionate pages, I had found insight, illumination, and inspiration. I never use the word empower, but this book has empowered me.”—Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author.

ISBN: 9781250297242

Trickster Makes This World

Trickster Makes This World

Lewis Hyde

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Summary:      
In Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde brings to life the playful and disruptive side of human imagination as it is embodied in trickster mythology. He first visits the old stories—Hermes in Greece, Eshu in West Africa, Krishna in India, Coyote in North America, among others—and then holds them up against the lives and work of more recent creators: Picasso, Duchamp, Ginsberg, John Cage, and Frederick Douglass. Twelve years after its first publication, Trickster Makes This World—authoritative in its scholarship, loose-limbed in its style—has taken its place among the great works of modern cultural criticism. This new edition includes an introduction by Michael Chabon.

ISBN: 9781429930833

Woman Who Changed Her Brain

Woman Who Changed Her Brain

Barbara Arrowsmith-Young

Penguin Random House

Summary:      
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young was born with severe learning disabilities that caused teahers to label her as slow, stubborn or worse. But by relying on her formidable memory and iron will, she made her way to graduate school, where she chanced upon reserach that inspired her to invent cognitive exercises to ‘fix’ her brain. She has gone on to change countless lives. The idea that self-improvement can happen in the brain has now caught fire. Recent discoveries in neuroscience have conclusively demonstrated that by engaging in certain mental tasks, we actually change the structure of our brains – this is known as neuroplasticity. The Woman Who Changed Her Brain powerfully demonstrates how the lives of children and adults struggling with learning disorders can be dramatically transformed. This remarkable book by a brilliant pioneer deepens our understanding of how the brain works. Our brains may shape us, but this book offers clear and hopefully evidence of the corollary: that we shape our brains.

ISBN: 9780224095198

Women who Run with the Wolves

Women who Run with the Wolves

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Rider

Summary:      
Chosen by Emma Watson for her feminist book club ‘Our Shared Shelf’ ‘Women Who Run With The Wolves is a gift of profound insight, wisdom and love. An oracle from one who knows’ Alice Walker In the classic Women Who Run With The Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes tells us about the ‘wild woman’, the wise and ageless presence in the female psyche that gives women their creativity, energy and power. For centuries, the ‘wild woman’ has been repressed by a male-orientated value system which trivialises women’s emotions. Using a combination of time-honoured stories and contemporary casework, Estes reveals that the ‘wild woman’ in us is innately healthy, passionate and wise. Thoughtfully written and compelling in its arguments, Women Who Run With The Wolves gives readers a new sense of direction, a self confidence and purpose in their lives.

ISBN: 9781846041099

Wonderland

Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World

Steven Johnson

Penguin

Summary:      
“A house of wonders itself. . . . Wonderland inspires grins and well-what-d’ya-knows” —The New York Times Book ReviewFrom the New York Times–bestselling author of How We Got to Now and Farsighted, a look at the world-changing innovations we made while keeping ourselves entertained. This lushly illustrated history of popular entertainment takes a long-zoom approach, contending that the pursuit of novelty and wonder is a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change. Steven Johnson argues that, throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused.    Johnson’s storytelling is just as delightful as the inventions he describes, full of surprising stops along the journey from simple concepts to complex modern systems. He introduces us to the colorful innovators of leisure: the explorers, proprietors, showmen, and artists who changed the trajectory of history with their luxurious wares, exotic meals, taverns, gambling tables, and magic shows.     In Wonderland, Johnson compellingly argues that observers of technological and social trends should be looking for clues in novel amusements. You’ll find the future wherever people are having the most fun.

ISBN: 9780399184505

Writing Down the Bones

Writing Down the Bones

Natalie Goldberg

Shambhala Publications

Summary:      
For more than twenty years Natalie Goldberg has been challenging and cheering on writers with her books and workshops. In her groundbreaking first book, she brings together Zen meditation and writing in a new way. Writing practice, as she calls it, is no different from other forms of Zen practice –“it is backed by two thousand years of studying the mind.” This new edition, which marks almost twenty years since the original book’s publication, includes a new preface in which Goldberg expresses her trademark enthusiasm for writing practice, as well as a depth of appreciation for the process that has come with time and experience. Also included is an interview with the author in which she reflects on the relationship between Zen sitting practice and writing, the importance of place, and the power of memory.

ISBN: 9781590302613

Cheryl Johnson
English Professor, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
“The instructors do not waste any class time and set a delightful tone of reflective and playful practice. The well thought-out exercises help parti...
Lee Anne Fahey
Award Winning Actress, New York, NY
“Your Workshop provides an environment that nurtures and supports the creative process in safety and joyfulness. I found power in the “doing” an...
Dr Margaret McVeigh
New Media and Screenwriting, Brisbane, Australia
”To find myself in NYC in the middle of the artistic and cultural hub that is New York with a room full of like-minded people from around the globe ...