Off the Bookshelf

While waiting for Tana French's second Dublin Murder Squad book to become available at the library, I read Death on Demand by Carolyn Hart. 

Annie Laurance is the owner of Death on Demand, the mystery bookshop located on the fictional Broward's Rock Island off the coast of South Carolina. Annie runs the bookshop left to her by her Uncle Melrose and she hosts a group of the island's mystery writers that meets on Sunday nights at the shop. One of the writers has been making pronouncements about how he is going to be divulging secrets about each of the other members of the group. Before the big reveal, though, he ends up dead. The rest of the book finds Annie and her friend/old flame Max trying to prove that it wasn't Annie who killed the guy with a poisoned dart. Nice shot, though, whoever did it.

The best part of the book is that it is one long reading list for mysteries both classic and contemporary. That is really the fun part of the tale. I highlighted all sorts of new titles and authors to add to my own list of ones to explore.

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Even though during my recovery from knee surgery I wasn't reading, that didn't stop me from buying two books while I lounged about. Well, why would it?

The first was The Art of Expressive Collage by Crystal Neubauer. I like that the artist uses found materials in her collages - vintage papers, junk mail, packaging materials, sewing patterns, sheet music, and fabric. She has a simple style using neutral colors. Her examples and explanations of techniques and processes are clearly explained. These are not the collages of slick magazine images but contain a multitude of layers, textures, and abstract shapes. Very inspiring. And calming.

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My other purchase was A Book That Takes Its Time by the editors of Flow magazine. I have written about the delights of Flow magazine before (here) and this book is filled with journals, postcards, stickers, decorative papers, and lists (we love lists!) to play with. There are articles on taking time to reflect, create, slow down, and even a poem and a recipe or two. 

It is a creative workshop between hardcovers. Slowly. Slowly.

B is for Birthday, Browsings, and Big Magic

In honor of my Birthday this coming Sunday, I thought I would tell you of two books I finished recently with titles beginning with the letter B.

One book I looked forward to falling into but ended up being a tad disappointed. The other one I was leery of and yet I ended up being pleasantly surprised. 

Just goes to show, you can never tell with books!

Let me start by declaring that I adore Michael Dirda. I have read and enjoyed many of his books about books - Bound to Please, Book by Book, and Classics for Pleasure - and his entertaining book reviews for The Washington Post.

So I was excited when Joan over at Planet Joan alerted me to the publication of Browsings, a collection of a year's worth of Mr. Dirda's online essays for The American Scholar. I quickly put the book on reserve at the library but it was quite a while before my name made it to the top of the list. After I had read several of the offerings - there are 52 in all - I realized I was not relishing my time with the book. I was expecting all the essays to be only about books but there are other musings about politics, an unpleasant experience at a national park, and accounts about the different literary clubs he belongs to that I didn't find particularly engaging.

Yes, there are stories about his book buying and hoarding and buying more books. I could identify with those, but most of the books he writes of - bought and read - are of genres that don't appeal to me: Gothic horror, fantasy, and science fiction. I enjoyed his forays into used book shops and charity books sales but the books he bought with such glee were ones I had never heard of. Very few of them sounded like any that I would like to read.

I think I will go back and revisit Mr. Dirda's other books where he writes just about books.

A neighbor and a few of her friends started a Creative Book Club and she asked me to the first meeting. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear is the book they started with. Of course I had heard of Elizabeth Gilbert, although I had not read her Eat, Pray, Love. It was a phenomenal success as a book and a movie. For some reason I was a little hesitant to read this one thinking it would be fluff.

Actually it is full of encouragement and inspiration. What I especially like is the fact that there is No Whining. She writes that yes, being a writer or painter, poet or sculptor is difficult and there are many fears to be acknowledged and overcome, but so what? If you are committed to your art and its practice (as she is), then just get on with it. I found her writing and her advice based on her own experiences to be refreshing.

Who wouldn't want this:

A creative life is an amplified life. It is a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life. It is a fine art in and of itself. It is a life driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.

And this:

You might spend your whole life following your curiosity and have absolutely nothing to show for it at the end - except one thing. You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you passed your entire existence in devotion to the noble human virtue of inquisitiveness. And that should be more than enough for anyone to say that they lived a rich and splendid life.

The women who showed up for the first gathering are already successful in many areas and incorporate creativity into their lives in various ways. One is an interior designer, another is a retired art teacher, one is putting together a book based on her years of business travel and journal keeping, another just completed her first novel.

And me? Well, I just enjoy being around creative people. I look for inspiration for my writing and my art in many places. If you are searching for Big Magic in your life, this is your book.

So there you have the B Books. I am off now to celebrate my Birthday. I hope there will be cake.

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

"Write the Book You Want to Read" is the title of the third chapter in Austin Kleon's book Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative.

Fortunately, Mr. Kleon took his own advice and wrote this chatty little book that contains some wisdom that we have heard before but is presented in an entertaining way combining text and graphics and photos and quotes.

How could I not love a book that the author writes "began its life on index cards". One card; one thought.

But by stealing the author doesn't mean plagiarizing. He doesn't mean inserting a paragraph by Jane Austen into your own work. Or passing off a Picasso image as your own. Stealing may be the harsher word. Perhaps borrowing and building gives a better picture.

Mr. Kleon writes:

All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.

We learn to write by copying down the alphabet. Musicians learn to play by practicing scales. Painters learn to paint by reproducing masterpieces. 

So, who do you copy? 

You copy your heroes -- the people you love, the people you're inspired by, the people you want to be.

The reason you copy your heroes and their style, he writes, is to get a glimpse into their minds...to internalize the way they look at the world. Steal from many. Eventually you will become your own painter or writer or designer or choreographer. You will become an artist with your own style and your own voice.  

A tricky bit of alchemy.

We of the Internet Age know that, as he titles chapter seven, "Geography is No Longer Our Master". I look at work from artists in Utah, Maine, and Norway. I read blogs by writers in England, America, and Canada. Perhaps the Internet is not as intimate as the artist salons held by Gertrude Stein in 1920's Paris, but it is close.

Mr. Kleon is also a big fan of using your hands. Analog rules! Step away from the screen. Engage your senses. Keep a notebook. Chart your daily progress on a wall calendar.

The book is barely 150 pages long with big print and lots of drawings so it didn't take long to breeze through it. But that doesn't mean its content is lightweight. It isn't. There is plenty to chew on. Or steal, if you will.