At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
By: Fenton Johnson
3.82
Format: 256 pages, Hardcover
A profound meditation on accepting, and celebrating, one’s solitude. Whether seeking more time for …
Want to Read $ 11.99"To choose to be alone is to bait the trap, to create a space the demons cannot resist entering. And that's the good news; the demons that enter can be named, written about, and tamed through the miracle of the healing word, the miracle of art, the miracle of silence."-Fenton Johnson, At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
"To choose to be alone is to bait the trap, to create a space the demons cannot resist entering. And that's the good news; the demons that enter can be named, written about, and tamed through the miracle of the healing word, the miracle of art, the miracle of silence."-Fenton Johnson, At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
"To choose to be alone is to bait the trap, to create a space the demons cannot resist entering. And that's the good news; the demons that enter can be named, written about, and tamed through the miracle of the healing word, the miracle of art, the miracle of silence."-Fenton Johnson, At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
"The artist or writer does not impose harmony on reality but—with sufficient reverence and diligence and selflessness and solitude—uncovers the harmony that is always there but that we conceal from ourselves out of a preferencia for material comfort and fear of the consequences a full and unreserved embrace of harmony requires. This faith in the underlying harmony roots itself in a love of and appreciation for nature, because nature, no matter how extreme the human abuse heaped on her, embodies a quiet, continual knitting and healing of life, ever dependent on death to make herself anew. 'Art is a harmony parallel to nature,' Cézanne wrote—not identical with but parallel to nature. Art of any kind, undertaken with atención and focus and as part of a commitment to discipline, is an effort at reenactment of the original creative gesture—the precipitation of the universe at the moment of its creation. That, I believe, is why we sing, paint, dance, sculpt, write; that is why cualquier one of us sets out to create something from nothing, and why the creative impulse is essentially religious or, if you prefer, spiritual. We seek to recreate the original creative gesture, whatever or whoever set it in motion—the bringing into being of what is. We seek the center of beauty."-Fenton Johnson, At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
If you liked the biography plot in At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life by Fenton Johnson , here is a list of 6 books like this:
1. An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace
By: Alice Waters , Tamar Adler
3.18
Format: 183 pages, Hardcover
Reviving the inspiring message of M. F. K. Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf-- written in 1942 during war… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Alice Waters's An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
- nonfiction
- memoir
2. The Kid Stays in the Picture
By: Robert Evans
3.95
Format: 302 pages, Paperback
From his marriage to Ali McGraw, his cocaine bust, the accusations of murder, the friendships with … read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Robert Evans's The Kid Stays in the Picture book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
- nonfiction
- biography
- memoir
- audiobook
3. The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
By: Twyla Tharp
2.50
Format: None pages, Paperback
Creativity is not a gift from the gods, says Twyla Tharp, bestowed by some divine and mystical spar… read more
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- art
- nonfiction
- psychology
- writing
4. The Line Becomes A River
By: Francisco Cantú
3.87
Format: 160 pages, Hardcover
Every day, a ceaseless flow of men, women and children push their way north, in scorched summer hea… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Francisco Cantú's The Line Becomes A River book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
- nonfiction
- biography
- memoir
- audiobook
5. The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong
By: David Orr
3.99
Format: None pages, Hardcover
A cultural "biography" of Robert Frost's beloved poem, arguably the most popular piece of literatur… read more
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- nonfiction
- biography
- essays
6. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art
By: Stephen Nachmanovitch
4.27
Format: 217 pages,
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Stephen Nachmanovitch's Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
7. The Architecture of Happiness
By: Alain de Botton
3.57
Format: None pages,
One of the great but often unmentioned causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our en… read more
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8. Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are
By: Danny Gregory
3.85
Format: 128 pages, Paperback
Packed with the signature can-do attitude that makes beloved artist Danny Gregory a creativity guru… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Danny Gregory's Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
9. The Birchbark House (Birchbark House, #1)
By: Louise Erdrich
4.04
Format: 244 pages, Paperback
Nineteenth-century American pioneer life was introduced to thousands of young readers by Laura Inga… read more
Want to Read $ 9.49Similar categories in Louise Erdrich's The Birchbark House (Birchbark House, #1) book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
- audiobook
"The strong old woman was walking away, and in her step there was the sadness of parting with an old but dangerously foolish friend."-Louise Erdrich, The Birchbark House (Birchbark House, #1)
"Although she lived in town, Old Tallow was so isolated by the force and strangeness of her personality that she could have been surrounded by a huge dark forest. She had never had any children, and e…"-Louise Erdrich, The Birchbark House (Birchbark House, #1)
10. Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words
By: Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
3.40
Format: None pages, Paperback
Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge is a poet and teacher who conducts workshops privately, as well as in th… read more
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11. The Art Spirit: Notes, Articles, Fragments of Letters and Talks to Students, Bearing on the Concept and Technique of Picture Making, the Study of Art
By: Robert Henri , None , None
1.75
Format: 134 pages,
In this book are the essential beliefs and theories of a great teacher and American artist, Robert … read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Robert Henri's The Art Spirit: Notes, Articles, Fragments of Letters and Talks to Students, Bearing on the Concept and Technique of Picture Making, the Study of Art book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
12. The Poetics of Space
By: Gaston Bachelard , Maria Jolas , Étienne Gilson , John R. Stilgoe
3.46
Format: None pages, Paperback
Since its first publication in English in 1964, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Sp… read more
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13. Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death
By: Laura Cumming
4.19
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
New York Times bestselling author Laura Cumming “combines first-rate art history with deeply felt m… read more
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- art
- biography
- memoir
- nonfiction
- audiobook
"It is such a long journey out, this one, from where we came; this life, our life, the journey between the first and last shores."-Laura Cumming, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death
"We see pictures in time and place. We cannot see them otherwise. They are fragments of our lives, moments of existence that may be as unremarkable as rain or as startling as a clap of thunder. Whatev…"-Laura Cumming, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death
"I cannot get enough of Dutch art. You can turn to this other world -- and it is a picture world as no other, a whole society visualised through time and place, seasons and generations, moment by mome…"-Laura Cumming, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death
"Fabritius is thirty-two, and I was the same age when I first wrote about his self-portrait. He and I remain the same age whenever we meet. He is dead, I am still alive, so the existential maths [sic]…"-Laura Cumming, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death
14. Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide
By: John Cleese
3.88
Format: 112 pages, Hardcover
____________________________ We can all be more creative. John Cleese shows us how. Creativity is … read more
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- art
- psychology
- nonfiction
- writing
- essays
- audiobook
"Getting discouraged is a total waste of your time."-John Cleese, Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide
" But once it's been agreed when that real-world decision has to happen, why make it before the deadline arrives? Why Well, it would be foolish, because if you can wait longer, two incredibly importan…"-John Cleese, Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide
15. The Backyard Bird Chronicles
By: Amy Tan
4.14
Format: 320 pages, Flexibound
A gorgeous, witty account of birding, nature, and the beauty around us that hides in plain sight. … read more
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- art
- memoir
- nonfiction
- essays
- audiobook
"If there is anything I have learned these past six years, it is this: Each bird is surprising and thrilling in its own way. But the most special is the bird that pauses when it is eating, looks and a…"-Amy Tan, The Backyard Bird Chronicles
"The (Anna's Hummingbird) males are deadbeat dads that contribute nothing to making the nest, or to feeding either the female or the nestlings. They are off to find other females they can impress with…"-Amy Tan, The Backyard Bird Chronicles
"During daylight hours, they (Anna's Hummingbirds) feed every 15 minutes, be it tiny insects or nectar from flowers or feeders. If they don't consume food often enough, they can die during the day. If…"-Amy Tan, The Backyard Bird Chronicles
"I asked Bernd Heinrich if he knew why feeder birds, like finches, discard so many seeds. It turns out he and other scientiests did research on this back in the 1990s - of course, he did -measuring di…"-Amy Tan, The Backyard Bird Chronicles
16. The Tradition
By: Jericho Brown
4.24
Format: 77 pages, Paperback
Jericho Brown’s daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at … read more
Want to Read $ 9.49Similar categories in Jericho Brown's The Tradition book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
- audiobook
"The opposite of rape is understanding."-Jericho Brown, The Tradition
"Nobody in this nation feels safe, and I'm still a reason why."-Jericho Brown, The Tradition
"There is the happiness you have And the happiness you deserve."-Jericho Brown, The Tradition
"We few left who listen to the radio leave Ourselves available to surprise."-Jericho Brown, The Tradition
17. The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket
By: Benjamin Lorr
3.95
Format: 328 pages, Hardcover
This book is an investigation into the human lives at the heart of the American grocery store. What… read more
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- nonfiction
- audiobook
18. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
By: Jenny Odell
3.68
Format: 232 pages, Hardcover
When the technologies we use every day collapse our experiences into 24/7 availability, platforms f… read more
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- art
- psychology
- philosophy
- nonfiction
- essays
- audiobook
19. The Coast Road
By: Alan Murrin
3.99
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
A poignant and heartbreaking debut novel set in the 1990s in a claustrophobic coast town. With divo… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Alan Murrin's The Coast Road book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
- audiobook
20. Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age
By: Katherine May
3.62
Format: 212 pages, Hardcover
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Wintering, an invitation to rediscover the feelings o… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Katherine May's Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
- memoir
- psychology
- philosophy
- nonfiction
- essays
- audiobook
"Sometimes we are visited by destruction. Other times, it seems, the world flexes its claws and lets us feel its hot breath, just to remind us how small we are, how helpless."-Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age
"I have started to look up the meaning of place names recently. It is perhaps an interest that awakens in you ass you age, this enthusiasm for peering back through time to find lost meaning."-Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age
"Sacred places are no longer given to us, and they are rarely shared between whole communities. They are now containers for our own knowing, our own meanings. They don't translate across minds. It fal…"-Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age
"You do not need to walk in the wilderness to make contact with the wild. If you know your stories--if you understand the mythologies of your land--then you can leap from a sunlit stroll with your dog…"-Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age
21. We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys
By: Erin Kimmerle
3.88
Format: 256 pages, Hardcover
Forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle investigates of the notorious Dozier Boys School--the true st… read more
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- nonfiction
- audiobook
22. Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency
By: Olivia Laing
4.01
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
“One of the finest writers of the new non-fiction” (Harper’s Bazaar) explores the role of art in th… read more
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- art
- nonfiction
- essays
- audiobook
"Empathy is not something that happens to us when we read Dickens. It’s work. What art does is provide material with which to think: new registers, new spaces. After that, friend, it’s up to you."-Olivia Laing, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency
"The Argonauts is about these small, miraculous domestic dramas, and the acts of readjustment and care that they require, but it is also a reconsideration of what the institutions established around s…"-Olivia Laing, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency
"Fiction can do that: can make a space for reflecting, for generating novel ways of responding and reacting to lies and guns and walls alike. The mere act of cracking open a book, Smith thinks, is cre…"-Olivia Laing, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency
"These narratives are interesting in and of themselves, but Nelson isn’t just airing her feelings out. She’s bent on using these experiences as ways of prying the culture open, of investigating what i…"-Olivia Laing, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency
23. The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self (Oprah's Book Club)
By: Martha N. Beck
4.17
Format: 327 pages, Hardcover
Bestselling author, life coach, and sociologist Martha Beck explains why “ integrity ”— needed now … read more
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- philosophy
- nonfiction
- psychology
- audiobook
24. The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul
By: Connie Zweig
4.15
Format: 416 pages, Paperback
A guide to working through the inner obstacles of late life and embracing the spiritual gifts of ag… read more
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- philosophy
- nonfiction
- psychology
"We all have the opportunity to radically reinvent and reimagine the process of aging for ourselves. And I don’t mean merely doing more or doing differently. I don’t use “reinvention"-Connie Zweig, The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul
25. How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community
By: Mia Birdsong
4.26
Format: 272 pages, Paperback
An Invitation to Community and Models for Connection After almost every presentation activist a… read more
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- nonfiction
- psychology
- audiobook
26. The Art of Solitude
By: Stephen Batchelor
3.63
Format: 200 pages, Hardcover
When world renowned Buddhist writer Stephen Batchelor turned sixty, he took a sabbatical from his t… read more
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- biography
- psychology
- philosophy
- nonfiction
- essays
- audiobook
"The world is here to surprise us. My most lasting insights have occurred off the [meditation] cushion, not on it."-Stephen Batchelor, The Art of Solitude
"That is why it is not enough to remove oneself from people, not enough to go somewhere else. We have to remove ourselves from the habits of the populace that are within us. We have to isolate our own…"-Stephen Batchelor, The Art of Solitude
27. Daughter
By: Claudia Dey
3.95
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
In Claudia Dey’s Daughter, a woman long caught in her father's web strives to make a life—and art—o… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Claudia Dey's Daughter book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
- audiobook
28. Instructions for Traveling West: Poems
By: Joy Sullivan
4.45
Format: 160 pages, Paperback
A vivid and inspiring poetry collection about what’s possible when we heed our instincts and honor … read more
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- nonfiction
- memoir
- audiobook
29. Stop Fixing Yourself: Wake Up, All Is Well
By: Anthony de Mello
4.25
Format: 216 pages, Hardcover
Take a look around and see if you can find just one completely happy person, someone at peace with … read more
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- philosophy
- nonfiction
- psychology
- audiobook
30. At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
By: Fenton Johnson
3.82
Format: 256 pages, Hardcover
A profound meditation on accepting, and celebrating, one’s solitude. Whether seeking more time for … read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life book and Fenton Johnson's At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
- art
- biography
- memoir
- gay
- psychology
- philosophy
- nonfiction
- essays
- writing
- audiobook
"To choose to be alone is to bait the trap, to create a space the demons cannot resist entering. And that's the good news; the demons that enter can be named, written about, and tamed through the mira…"-Fenton Johnson, At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
"The artist or writer does not impose harmony on reality but—with sufficient reverence and diligence and selflessness and solitude—uncovers the harmony that is always there but that we conceal from ou…"-Fenton Johnson, At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
31. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
By: Yuval Noah Harari
4.11
Format: 528 pages, Hardcover
For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discove… read more
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- philosophy
- nonfiction
- audiobook
