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Coaching the Artist Within by Eric Maisel
Summary: self-help angled for creative minds.
Opinion: Not as hippy-dippy as I feared. Breathing exercises, centering, affirming and the rest of the usual suspects popped up, but they were minor characters. Maisel’s main focus was on asking yourself questions—hard, sometimes painful questions. Which appealed to my over-thinking, pick myself apart habits. It was the good pick yourself apart though, the kind that forces you to toss away your usual bullshit and examine the deep stuff .
The drawback to this book is Maisel himself. He comes off as a slimy d-bag. Pompous, self-satisfied, He goes on and on about how he’s saved some many creative lives. Rock stars, painters, famous writers, blah blah blah, He rolls over and goes back to sleep “after some tossing and turning” upon hearing a friend of a friend attempted suicide, he makes sure to mention just how much he hangs out of with lesbians, etc. His advice is good, it’s just hard, sometimes, to accept good advice from a bad giver.
Dumb Old Casey Is A Fat Tree by Barbara Bottner.
Summary: Pudgy Casey wants to be a ballerina.
Opinion: I read part of this as a kid, didn’t finish it before it needed to go back to the library, never found out how it ended. I know now, bygawd.
Casey’s a not-very-good ballerina in a class full ofmean girls good dancers. A recital is in the works, and everyone wants to be the Princess. Casey knowing she has no shot as the Princess sets her heart on becoming the Evil Prince. She gets the part of a tree. After drama and sadness and hard work, she decides to be the best damn tree ever. The mean boy quits teasing her, the mean girls are still dicks.
Under the Haystack by P.A. Englebrecht.
Summary: Sandy’s mama runs off with a no-good man, leaving her three daughters to fend for themselves on their run-down farm.
Opinion: Dumb Old Casey made me nostalgic for books of my childhood. Under the Haystack was one of my favorites. I’m glad it stood up to an adult re-reading. It got deeper, actually. There were some nasty subtexts that I didn’t pick up on as a kid, and the writing has a intriguing (though amateurish at times) voice, almost like the author wanted to write a darker, harder story but didn’t think there would be an adult audience for this young girls’ story and so muted some elements to make it palatable for buyers of books for younger readers.
Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers 1240-1570 by Eamon Duffy
Summary: The history and use of the Book of Hours in GB from AD 1240 to 1570.
Opinion: I loved this. Besides being absolutely fascinating in its own right, it’s one of those books that makes you a wider, deeper thinker for having read it. Its subject is the Book of Hours, a personal prayer book meant for lay persons (as opposed to clergy). The angle Duffy takes is the angle I love best in history books—the human one. The earliest Books of Hours were handmade (pre-printing press), and therefore quite personal. The buyer could add or delete content as it suited their religious desires. All books contained the same basic stuff: The Little Office of the Virge, The Dirge, more, but how it was organized, and what extra stuff was included said lots about the owners.
The Books were trendy, the must-have accessory. In that aspect, they were treated like date books, to-do lists, yearbooks (omg Catherine of Aragon will U sign my Books of Hours), and autograph collections . Blank pages were used to write love notes and poetry. Mentions of the Pope, of Henry’s wives, of indulgences were supposed to be removed after Britain went Anglelican. Sometimes they were, sometimes weren’t. Sometimes they were blotted out, then un-blotted out by the next owner.
I adore details like that, hints at how people really acted in their most private times. This is the kind of book that inspires, gives me a hundred little “real” details to add to stories.
The only downsides were the author assumed readers were either Catholic or very familiar with Catholicism. I had to look up a lot of terms. (Little Office of the Virgin. What.) Also, he used terms like Protestant, Anglelican, Lutheran, etc fairly interchangeably, when they are not. at least in the context he was using them.
Exposed by Aaron Travis.
Summary: PR0N short stories from THE MAN.
Opinion: I like Traivis’ long works better. He excels at increasing pressure, and the kind of pressure he builds needs more than short story. Also, the stories were fairly tame by Travis standards. Few bullies, not much brutality. One of the rougher stories was a Sherlock Holmes fanfic. He and Watson give it to one of Moriety’s tricks. It’s awesome, it’s Travis.
Summary: self-help angled for creative minds.
Opinion: Not as hippy-dippy as I feared. Breathing exercises, centering, affirming and the rest of the usual suspects popped up, but they were minor characters. Maisel’s main focus was on asking yourself questions—hard, sometimes painful questions. Which appealed to my over-thinking, pick myself apart habits. It was the good pick yourself apart though, the kind that forces you to toss away your usual bullshit and examine the deep stuff .
The drawback to this book is Maisel himself. He comes off as a slimy d-bag. Pompous, self-satisfied, He goes on and on about how he’s saved some many creative lives. Rock stars, painters, famous writers, blah blah blah, He rolls over and goes back to sleep “after some tossing and turning” upon hearing a friend of a friend attempted suicide, he makes sure to mention just how much he hangs out of with lesbians, etc. His advice is good, it’s just hard, sometimes, to accept good advice from a bad giver.
Dumb Old Casey Is A Fat Tree by Barbara Bottner.
Summary: Pudgy Casey wants to be a ballerina.
Opinion: I read part of this as a kid, didn’t finish it before it needed to go back to the library, never found out how it ended. I know now, bygawd.
Casey’s a not-very-good ballerina in a class full of
Under the Haystack by P.A. Englebrecht.
Summary: Sandy’s mama runs off with a no-good man, leaving her three daughters to fend for themselves on their run-down farm.
Opinion: Dumb Old Casey made me nostalgic for books of my childhood. Under the Haystack was one of my favorites. I’m glad it stood up to an adult re-reading. It got deeper, actually. There were some nasty subtexts that I didn’t pick up on as a kid, and the writing has a intriguing (though amateurish at times) voice, almost like the author wanted to write a darker, harder story but didn’t think there would be an adult audience for this young girls’ story and so muted some elements to make it palatable for buyers of books for younger readers.
Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers 1240-1570 by Eamon Duffy
Summary: The history and use of the Book of Hours in GB from AD 1240 to 1570.
Opinion: I loved this. Besides being absolutely fascinating in its own right, it’s one of those books that makes you a wider, deeper thinker for having read it. Its subject is the Book of Hours, a personal prayer book meant for lay persons (as opposed to clergy). The angle Duffy takes is the angle I love best in history books—the human one. The earliest Books of Hours were handmade (pre-printing press), and therefore quite personal. The buyer could add or delete content as it suited their religious desires. All books contained the same basic stuff: The Little Office of the Virge, The Dirge, more, but how it was organized, and what extra stuff was included said lots about the owners.
The Books were trendy, the must-have accessory. In that aspect, they were treated like date books, to-do lists, yearbooks (omg Catherine of Aragon will U sign my Books of Hours), and autograph collections . Blank pages were used to write love notes and poetry. Mentions of the Pope, of Henry’s wives, of indulgences were supposed to be removed after Britain went Anglelican. Sometimes they were, sometimes weren’t. Sometimes they were blotted out, then un-blotted out by the next owner.
I adore details like that, hints at how people really acted in their most private times. This is the kind of book that inspires, gives me a hundred little “real” details to add to stories.
The only downsides were the author assumed readers were either Catholic or very familiar with Catholicism. I had to look up a lot of terms. (Little Office of the Virgin. What.) Also, he used terms like Protestant, Anglelican, Lutheran, etc fairly interchangeably, when they are not. at least in the context he was using them.
Exposed by Aaron Travis.
Summary: PR0N short stories from THE MAN.
Opinion: I like Traivis’ long works better. He excels at increasing pressure, and the kind of pressure he builds needs more than short story. Also, the stories were fairly tame by Travis standards. Few bullies, not much brutality. One of the rougher stories was a Sherlock Holmes fanfic. He and Watson give it to one of Moriety’s tricks. It’s awesome, it’s Travis.
