I’m also sharing where I learned of each book since I love that process almost as much as the books themselves. I was introduced to some life-changers last year and I’m so down for recommendations to add to my list for 2020!
Did you keep a list of what you read in 2019? I’d love to check it out!
You can email me at [email protected] to share your list or a couple of select favs – or to ask me anything about something on my 2019 list.
Here goes, in order of most recently finished.
A true story of William Kamkwamba using incredible creativity to change the world from his small town in Malawi Africa. Surprised how much I loved this. It read like a novel but you have to keep reminding yourself it’s true. Highly recommended for any of my farming, technology, and engineer-type friends.
Thanks to my inspiring friend Hunter for this one!
This book 100% changed my life. It forced me to think critically about my current situation and my childhood – and totally revamped my creativity. Juila Cameron is super trippy and the book is from the mid-’90s, so I loved the way it removed me from newer techy self-help stuff and floated above on a more universe tip.
Anyone feeling a transition, thinking about their creative output, or just wanting to have a deep look at who they are should totally read this. I can’t recommend it enough!
That said… The Artist’s Way is a process. It’s about a 15-30 minute commitment every morning and a 2-3 hour commitment per week including the short reading and activities. The book is broken into 12 chapters, 1 per week. They include a bit of homework – one of my favorite’s being a weekly artist’s date (which I wrote about here).
So glad I chose her episode on this podcast (also a great intro to the concept of The Artist’s Way)
Deep, dark, and massive. Every sentence reads like poetry. I listened to the audiobook read by Toni Morrison. After she died I started researching her stuff and wondering why I hadn’t ever read any of it!? Feel like I need to read the physical book to further understand the gravity here.
I chose this because of its awards and it had by far the most reviews of all of her books on Audible.
A trippy, classic Murakami-length novel about an artist in a small rural mountain cabin. I feel like anything else will ruin surprises here so I’ll just say I loved this book and it offered me a constant outlet from the world into a dope fantasy land. Something that is totally healthy y’all!
David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author came to the Loft Cinema in Tucson for a talk a couple of years ago. I’m a big fan as he’s on Democracy NOW! pretty regularly so I thought I’d dive into some live political stuff but he was all about hyping up reading!
Paraphrasing what he said… “We have to read novels so that we can see things in life have an arch, they don’t just happen or change overnight.” He related this to the way we interact with the news and politics – another reason I highly recommend spending the couple months it took me to get through Killing Commendatore – or other dope fiction you love.