Winter, a time of hibernation and spending plenty of time inside. It’s also a perfect time for cozying up to the fire for some relaxing reading. Here’s a Winter reading list to spark creativity in 2021/2022.
Winter can be tough. Luckily there are many ways to beat the winter blues, like reading a good book. This winter reading list for 2021/2022 is filled with books that support creative living, from biographies of famous creative minds to new science and methods for supporting mental health and well-being. If you’re looking for something to read that supports your creative life, this reading list is for you.
Garbo by Robert Gottlieb is a well-researched biography of the private and mysterious life of Greta Garbo, a Swedish-American actress best known for her melancholic, somber persona in such great films as Queen Christina (1933), Grand Hotel (1932), Ninotchka (1939), and 24 other classic films.
In Garbo, the acclaimed critic and editor Robert Gottlieb offers a vivid and thorough retelling of her life, beginning in the slums of Stockholm and proceeding through her years of struggling to elude the attention of the world―her desperate, futile striving to be “left alone.” He examines her passive withdrawal from the movies and the endless attempts to draw her back. And he sketches the life she led as a very wealthy woman in New York―“a hermit about town”―and the life she led in Europe among the Rothschilds and men like Onassis and Churchill.
There’s much to learn from the creative life of Greta Garbo.
Vivian Maier Developed by Ann Marks, is a beautiful biography about the late photographer Vivian Maier, a nanny and American street photographer whose work was only discovered and recognized after her death.
Ann marks does a wonderful job sharing her research, including over 140,000 photographs, to uncover the life and story of an artist whose secret creative passion made her a posthumous phenomenon. She reveals the story of a woman who fled from a family with a hidden history of illegitimacy, bigamy, parental rejection, substance abuse, violence, and mental illness to live life on her own terms. Left with a limited ability to disclose feelings and form relationships, she expressed herself through photography, creating a secret portfolio of pictures teeming with emotion, authenticity, and humanity. With limitless resilience, she knocked down every obstacle in her way, determined to improve her lot in life and that of others by tirelessly advocating for the rights of workers, women, African Americans, and Native Americans. No one knew that behind the detached veneer was a profoundly intelligent, empathetic, and inspired woman—a woman so creatively gifted that her body of work would become one of the greatest photographic discoveries of the century.
Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection by Julia Cameron is sure to be another great addition to Julia Cameron’s collection of books to help creative live healthier and more creative lifestyles.
This book includes a 6-week program in which Julia Cameron traces her own creative journey and reveals how prayer helped her during a time of personal crisis. In this book, readers will learn to pray and other helpful tools to support the creative during challenging times. Cameron shares a mindful collection of prayer practices that takes us beyond traditional religious rituals, welcoming readers regardless of their beliefs and backgrounds. As you journey through each week of the program, you’ll explore prayers of petition, gratitude, creativity, and more.
She believes this powerful practice will greatly aid aspiring artists.
Lorraine Hansberry: The Life Behind A Raisin in the Sun by Charles J. Shields is a moving biography of the creative life of Lorraine Hansberry, a playwright and writer most known for her play A Raisin in the Sun, the most widely anthologized, read, and performed play of the American stage.
Charles J. Shields’s authoritative biography of one of the twentieth century’s most admired playwrights examines the parts of Lorraine Hansberry’s life that have escaped public knowledge: the influence of her upper-class background, her fight for peace and nuclear disarmament, the reason why she embraced Communism during the Cold War, and her dependence on her white husband―her best friend, critic, and promoter. Many of the identity issues about class, sexuality, and race that she struggled with are relevant and urgent today.
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention–and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari is about the challenges of focusing and how our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times, bestselling author of Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why focusing is getting harder—and how to get our attention back.
In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions—even abandoning his phone for three months—but nothing seemed to work. So Hari went on an epic journey across the world to interview the leading experts on human attention—and he discovered that everything we think we know about this crisis is wrong.
Crucially, Hari learned how we can reclaim our focus—as individuals and as a society—if we are determined to fight for it. Stolen Focus will transform the debate about attention and finally show us how to get it back.
Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross reveals the hidden power of our inner voice and shows how to harness it to combat anxiety, improve physical and mental health, and deepen our relationships with others.
From a national bestseller and award-winning psychologist, Ethan Kross explores the silent conversations we have with ourselves. Interweaving groundbreaking behavioral and brain research from his own lab with real-world case studies—from a pitcher who forgets how to pitch to a Harvard undergrad negotiating her double life as a spy—Kross explains how these conversations shape our lives, work, and relationships. He warns that giving in to negative and disorienting self-talk—what he calls “chatter”—can tank our health, sink our moods, strain our social connections, and cause us to fold under pressure.
Brilliantly argued, expertly researched, and filled with compelling stories, Chatter gives us the power to change the most important conversation we have each day: the one we have with ourselves.
The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward by Daniel H. Pink is a new book about the transforming power of our most misunderstood yet potentially most valuable emotion: regret.
One of the most anticipated books of 2022 on Goodreads, by New York Times bestselling author of Dare to Lead, Drive, When, and A Whole New Mind, and more comes a new book drawing on research in social psychology, neuroscience, and biology to debunk the myth of the “no regrets” philosophy of life. Dan Pink uses the largest sampling of American attitudes about regret ever conducted as well as his own World Regret Survey—which has collected regrets from more than 15,000 people in 105 countries—he lays out the four core regrets that each of us has. These deep regrets offer compelling insights into how we live and how we can find a better path forward.
Everybody has regrets, Daniel H. Pink explains in The Power of Regret. They’re a universal and healthy part of being human. And understanding how regret works can help us make smarter decisions, perform better at work and school, and bring greater meaning to our lives. Pink has packed this book with true stories of people’s regrets as well as practical takeaways for reimagining regret as a positive force. The Power of Regret shows how we can live richer, more creative lives.
My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety is a memoir into the creative life of Georgia Pritchett, the Emmy-winning writer who’s worked on Succession and Veep.
When Georgia Pritchett found herself lost for words—a bit of a predicament for a comedy writer—she turned to a therapist, who suggested she try writing down some of the things that worried her. But instead of a grocery list of concerns, Georgia wrote this book.
Georgia’s story from childhood to adulthood is a story of creative living and the challenges of daily anxiety. From the challenges of breaking into an industry dominated by male writers to the exquisite terror (and incomparable joy) of raising children, she shares her thoughts on overcoming anxious thoughts and working in the creative industry.
Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect by Victoria Kastner is a new biography about the creative life of Julia Morgan, the first woman admitted to study architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts and the first licensed to practice architecture in California.
Featuring over 150 archival images and full-color photographs, this biography introduces Julia Morgan as both a pioneering architect and a captivating individual. She was a titan in her field, designing such landmarks as the Hearst Castle, YWCA projects, Mills College, and more.
This compelling biography draws on interviews, letters, and Morgan’s diaries, including never-before-seen reflections on faith, art, and her life experiences. Morgan’s friendship with Hearst, her passion for California’s landscape, her struggles with familial dementia, and her devotion to architecture reveal her to have been a singularly brilliant and determined artist.
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.
