Fall Reading List to Spark Creativity (2021)
The weather is getting colder, nature’s colors are changing, and people are slowing down from the busy summer months. Making it a great time to pick up a new book. Here’s the 2021 fall reading list to spark creativity.
As creativity continues to grow as an important skill that needs to be cultivated and supported, more and more books about creativity are coming out. From the experiences of famous creative minds to new science and techniques to boost creativity, it’s an exciting time to live a creative life.
Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive by Jonathan Fields takes you deep into the world of the Sparketypes, revealing an entirely new depth of insights about what makes you come alive in work life, along with what empties you out and trips you up, so you can avoid those life-drains. You’ll discover tons of case studies, stories, and real-world applications, creating a comprehensive guide to help you discover what you are meant to do and how to get started.
From Stanford University’s world-renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, curated by the executive director, Sarah Stein Greenberg, comes a book designed to spark creativity with the help of a long list of practical exercises. Creative Acts for Curious People is filled with ways to build creative skills with resilience, care, and confidence.
Creative Acts for Curious People is designed to be a definitive resource for people who aim to draw on their curiosity and creativity in the face of uncertainty. This book will help you develop the behaviors and deepen the mindsets that can turn your curiosity into ideas and your ideas into action.
Courage Is Calling is the newest book by best-selling stoic author Ryan Holiday. Now, in the first book of an exciting new series on the cardinal virtues of ancient philosophy, Holiday explores the most foundational virtue of all: Courage. In Courage Is Calling, Ryan Holiday breaks down the elements of fear, an expression of cowardice, the elements of courage, an expression of bravery, and lastly, the elements of heroism, an expression of valor. Through engaging stories about historic and contemporary leaders, including Charles De Gaulle, Florence Nightingale, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Holiday shows you how to conquer fear and practice courage in your daily life.
Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters by Steven Pinker explores the importance of Rationality. Rationality matters. It leads to better choices in our lives and the public sphere and is the ultimate driver of social justice and moral progress. Brimming with Pinker’s customary insight and humor, Rationality will enlighten, inspire, and empower. Pinker explores the tools of rationality including, logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation, and optimal ways to update beliefs and commit to choices individually and with others. These tools are not a standard part of our education and have never been presented clearly and entertainingly in a single book–until now.
Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography is an unprecedented behind-the-scenes view into the life of Anthony Bourdain from the people who knew him best. Laurie Woolever, Bourdain’s longtime assistant, and confidante interviewed nearly a hundred of the people who shared Tony’s orbit – from members of his kitchen crews to his writing, publishing, and television partners, to his daughter and his closest friends – to piece together a remarkably full, vivid, and nuanced vision of Tony’s life and work. Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography is a testament to the life of a remarkable creative man in the words of the people who shared his world.
Balanchine’s Apprentice: From Hollywood to New York and Back is the long-awaited memoir by dancer and choreographer John Clifford. It offers a highly personal look inside the day-to-day operations of the New York City Ballet and its creative mastermind, George Balanchine.
In this book, Clifford provides firsthand insight into Balanchine’s relationships with his dancers, including Suzanne Farrell. Examining his own attachment to his charismatic teacher, Clifford explores questions of creative influence and integrity. His memoir is a portrait of a young dancer who learned and worked at lightning speed, who pursued the calls of art and genius on both coasts of America and around the world.
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by musician David Grohl is the first book from the talented creative. Created from a series of interviews, Grohl sheds a little light on what it’s like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams he had as young musician. From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old to his time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with his daughters…the list goes on.
Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen is a completely new look at guitar legend Eddie Van Halen with this groundbreaking oral history, composed of more than fifty hours of interviews with Eddie himself as well as his family, friends, and colleagues.
In Eruption, music journalists Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill share a candid, compulsively readable, and definitive oral history of the most influential rock guitarist since Jimi Hendrix. Based on more than 50+ hours of unreleased interviews they recorded with Eddie Van Halen over the years, the heart of Eruption is drawn from intimate and wide-ranging talks, as well as conversations with family, friends, and colleagues.
The book also takes an unflinching look at Edward’s early struggles as a young Dutch immigrant unable to speak the English language, which resulted in lifelong issues with social anxiety, substance abuse, and his brilliance as an inventor who changed the face of guitar manufacturing. As entertaining as it is revealing, Eruption is the closest readers will ever get to hearing Eddie’s side of the story when it comes to his extraordinary life.
Woman Made: Great Women Designers is a comprehensive, fully illustrated book on women designers from the early twentieth century to the present day. Featuring more than 200 designers from more than 50 countries, including icons and trailblazers past and present such as Ray Eames, Eileen Gray, Florence Knoll, Ilse Crawford, Faye Toogood, Nathalie du Pasquier, it records and illuminates the fascinating and overlooked history of women preeminent in the field.
With each designer represented by a key product and short text, this A-Z survey shines a vital spotlight on the most extraordinary objects made by women designers. It also offers a compelling primer on the best in the field of design and demonstrating that design is not – and never has been – a man’s world.
Being You: A New Science of Consciousness is the latest book by the neuroscientist, Anil Seth. In Being You, Seth sets out to understand the biological basis of conscious experience. What does it mean to “be you”—that is, to have a specific, conscious experience of the world around you and yourself within it? There may be no more elusive or fascinating question. Historically, humanity has considered the nature of consciousness to be a primarily spiritual or philosophical inquiry, but scientific research is now mapping out compelling biological theories and explanations for consciousness and selfhood.
Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide from the curious travel minds of Atlas Obscura comes a guide perfect for creative travel. Covering all seven continents, Gastro Obscura serves up a loaded plate of incredible ingredients, food adventures, and edible wonders. Ready for a beer made from the fog in Chile? Sardinia’s “Threads of God” pasta? Egypt’s 2000-year-old egg ovens? But far more than a menu of curious minds delicacies and unexpected dishes, Gastro Obscura reveals food’s central place in our lives as well as our bellies, touching on history–trace the network of ancient Roman fish sauce factories. Dig in and feed your sense of wonder.
Baseline Shift captures the untold stories of diverse women across backgrounds whose work has shaped, shifted, and formed graphic design as we know it today. From an interdisciplinary book designer and calligrapher starting out in Harlem’s Renaissance, to the invisible drafters of Monotype’s drawing office, the women represented here include auteurs, advocates for social justice, and creators ahead of their time. The fifteen essays in this illustrated collection come from contributors with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. Baseline Shift is essential reading for students and practitioners of graphic design, as well as anyone with an interest in women’s history.
The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family is a compilation of stories from award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard and audience-favorite actor Clint Howard about their unusual family upbringing navigating and surviving life as sibling child actors. Based on the question, what was it like to grow up on TV? The two brothers examine their Hollywood childhoods in detail for the first time. THE BOYS is a dual narrative that lifts the lid on the Howard brothers’ closely-held lives. It’s the journey of a tight four-person family unit that held fast in an unforgiving business and of two brothers who survived “child-actor syndrome” to become fulfilled adults.
Zach is an international writer, photographer, filmmaker, martial artist, and creator of Creative Enso, the Zen art of creative living. His goal is to empower and inspire creatives to live healthier, happier, and more creative lifestyles.
