Book Covers Review

Library therapy | Design & extract of library books I have read cover to cover |

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"Ya need some girlfriends, hon,

'cause they're furever. Without a vow. A

clutch of women's the most tender:

most tough place on Earth".

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The Choice, Even in Hell Hope can Flower

Extract:

“The truth is, we will have unpleasant experiences in our lives, we will make mistakes, we won’t always get what we want. This is part of being human. The problem—and the foundation of our persistent suffering—is the belief that discomfort, mistakes, disappointment signal something about our worth. The belief that the unpleasant things in our lives are all we deserve.”

“Self-acceptance was the hardest part of healing for me, something I will struggle with. Perfectionism emerged in my childhood as a behavior to satisfy my need for approval, and it became an even more embedded coping mechanism for dealing with my survivor’s guilt. Perfectionism is the belief that something is broken—you. So you dress up your brokenness with degrees, achievements, accolades, pieces of paper, none of which can fix what you think you are fixing. In trying to combat my Jew self-esteem, i was actually reinforcing my sense of unworthiness. In learning to offer my patients total love and acceptance, I fortunately learned the importance of offering the same to myself.”

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Extract:

“The perceived limitation is in the medium, but the actual limitation is in the artist. Everyone begins with the same material; it’s what we do with the material that matters. It’s what we can do with the material that distinguishes the mundane from the unique. We are limited because we haven’t embraced them. The canvas is the context for all creativity. What makes you a chef is what you do with those five flavors; what makes you a musician is what you do with those twelve notes; what makes you a painter is what you do with those three colors; what makes you an architect is what you do with those three shapes; what makes you an artist is what you do with the material you have been given with which to create.”

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When England entered its recent lockdown, I didn’t think it was possible to continue this tumblr account ever again. Or the essence of finding a documenting avenue that is different to my work or family routine. Visiting the local library soothed me greatly, if library therapy was a thing. I suppose I could say the same about bookshops because it’s about being surrounded by physical books, except they don’t carry the same book scent that libraries do. Over the past year, I took to journaling and documenting the walks near my house. This picture was taken a couple weekends ago when we had magical snow, albeit for a few hours. We don’t tend to have snow in these parts but this was the highlight I wanted to share. I don’t know what I’ll do with this tumblr account seeing that going to the library is no longer possible in this new normal. I still want to uphold my appreciation of public libraries and don’t want to end this account. I will pause on posting reviews involving library books but will see where creativity leads me in terms of what I will be posting next. If you’ve read this far, thank you for sharing my journey here. Would love to hear your thoughts too.

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Pig Wrestling

Extract:

“Personal traits are never purely good or bad... It’s not as cut and dried as that... Any virtue that is under - or overdone can become a vice. Being ambitious, for example, is often looked upon favourably in corporate circles. However, when it’s overdone, it can be interpreted as greed, or unmitigated drive for power.

By viewing problems as the result of overdone strengths, creating change becomes less about fixing deficits, and more about redirecting energy.

Again you have to recognise the power of your language... Once we label the behaviour as being negative, it’s very difficult to see it’s positive potential.”

“Every person’s map of the world is as unique as their thumbprint. There are no two people alike. No two people who understand the same sentence the same way. So in dealing with people, try not to fit them to your concept of what they should be”. - Milton Erickson.

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The Drawing Ideas Book

Extract:

Making drawing a daily habit is by far the best way to evolve and improve your drawing skills. Buy a sketchbook and motivate yourself to fill at least one page every day. Not only will this fast-track your drawing ability and help you to develop your own unique style, but recording your surroundings and daily thoughts will give you a vast source of material to look back on and extract further inspiration from. 

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Drawing is a form of communication - a language made up of mark-making. All drawings have the capability to evoke emotion. 

To project meaning and emotion into your work, try to tap into your own experiences. Only you can draw the way that you draw, with your own particular and incomparable influences, method and creative decision-making.

As well as calling upon emotions, your drawing can show the mood you are in at the time of making it. Emphasize or exaggerate certain qualities, colours and forms to help invoke your intended meaning. Take risks and be expressive in the handling of your material. Aim to be descriptive and suggestive with marks and colour without necessarily making detailed and exact drawings.

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Reportage drawing visually narrates people’s interactions and behaviours around a particular event or situation. The goal of reportage is not solely creative - it is drawn journalism, serving as a record of issues and subjects made on site. 

The topic of reportage is often political, but it doesn’t have to be. You can capture interactions in any setting where something worth recording is happening. Matthew Booker, who drew the picture here, says ‘I am generally inspired to work by a tension or an energy in an environment and a desire to communicate it.’

If you challenge yourself to draw in a fast-paced way, in an atmosphere that is tumultuous and exciting, drawing in public, with any intention, will become second nature. Go and draw what happens. You want to be looking at your subjects and their setting for the majority of the time, so that you don’t miss anything. Try not to worry about the aesthetics of your drawing, don’t stop to change anything unless it’s essential to your purpose and what you’re trying to communicate. You’re there to seize the moment and capture the facts of the events.

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Making Great Illustrations

Extract:

When asked if there are any secrets to becoming a successful illustrator I often point students to the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. From his research he concluded that most people, across a wide variety of fields, become successful after 10,000 hours’ effort. That rings true to me. Hard work and tenacity are, I believe, the two key elements to a successful career as an illustrator.

Longevity in the somewhat fickle, sometimes trend-oriented world of illustration can also be a challenge. The question is always how to remain true to your own vision. Flexibility is key, especially in these times of exponential change. Most important of all is to remain a student, constantly examining human nature. To observe requires discipline, to draw requires training, to be a participatory artist requires above all an open-mindedness and curiosity. The results will always speak for themselves.

(Anita Kunz)

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A Life Less Throwaway

Extract:

Happiness is more than just the presences of pleasure. It is controlled by the story we tell ourselves about our life, and the good news is that we can change our story.

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Feeling close to people means sharing our vulnerabilities to help create understanding. One study found that even strangers who asked and answered increasingly personal questions and engaged in eye contact could very quickly feel a deep sense of connection and even love for each other.

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Disrupted

Extract:

But this book is about more than HubSpot. This is a story about what it’s like to try to reinvent yourself and start a new career in your fifties, particularly in an industry that is by and large hostile to older workers. It’s a story about how work itself has changed, and how some companies that claim to be “making the world a better place” are in fact doing the opposite. 

Myths and myth making are rampant in Silicon Valley. I wrote this book because I wanted to provide a more realistic look at life inside a “unicorn” start-up and to puncture the popular mythology about heroic entrepreneurs. HubSpot’s leaders were not heroes, but rather a pack of sales and marketing charlatans who spun a good story about magical transformational technology and got rich by selling shares in a company that still has never turned a profit. 

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Facebook’s entire business model is based on mining personal data in order to deliver targeted advertising. The same goes for Google and countless other online companies. We have no idea who has access to what.

We also have no choice but to go along. None of us is going to opt out of using the Internet. Nor can we expect that the companies will do any better when it comes too oversight. They’re funded by venture capitalists who seek only the biggest and quickest return on their investment. That means hiring kids, cutting corners, breaking rules. It does not mean investing loads of money in order to build safeguards and protect users. There’s an adage in Silicon Valley that people who use online services are not the customers. We’re the product. As far as companies in Silicon Valley are concerned, we exist solely to be packaged up and sold to advertisers. We should not expect these companies to look out for us.

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How To Be A Writer

Extract:

His (Malcolm Gladwell’s) theory is that all great artists have practised their art for a minimum of 10,000 hours. The public perception of genius is that gifted people are different from you and me, and, while he accepts that talent is unevenly distributed across the population, he points out that, without exception, those who excel are those who work the hardest.

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Write every day.

Set yourself a low target – one friend of mine aims at five minutes. Every day. She usually exceeds it. 

Take the pressure off. Write in odd places, at odd times. Don’t enslave yourself to routine.

Carry a notebook with you at all times, and try to catch lines of conversation, scenes, ideas, as you go about your daily business. This is the equivalent of an artist’s sketchbook.

Follow the example of Kate Long, author of The Bad Mother’s Handbook, and keep a notebook by your bed. If an idea strikes you at 3 a.m., write it down. You don’t even have to switch the light on.

Read voraciously, and don’t stick to just one genre.

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This is Marketing

Extract:

Marketing is the generous act of helping others become who they seek to become. It involves creating honest stories— stories that resonate and spread. Marketers offer solutions, opportunities for humans to solve their problems and move forward. And when our ideas spread, we change the culture. We build something that people would miss if it were gone, something that gives them meaning, connection, and possibility. The other kind of marketing— the hype, scams, and pressure— thrives on selfishness. I know that it doesn’t work in the long run, and that you can do better than that. We all can.

...

Generosity in terms of free work, constant discounts, and plenty of uncompensated overtime isn’t really generous. Because you can’t sustain it. Because soon you’ll be breaking the promises you made. On the other hand, showing generosity with your bravery, your empathy, and your respect is generous indeed. What your customers want from you is for you to care enough to change them. To create tension that leads to forward motion. To exert emotional labor that will open them up to what’s possible. And if you need to charge a lot to pull that off, it’s still a bargain.

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Birds Art Life Death: The Art of Noticing the Small and Significant

Extract:

Still, a part of me wishes he had taken time to look around, that he had not conducted his life as a race to the finish. I regret he took many of life’s circumstances, including the positive ones, and shot them through with skepticism and dread in an attempt to inoculate himself against disappointment. I worry there might be a cost to living a defended life and moving through the world as an unstoppable self. The cost of joy.

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DO/Open/ How a simple email newsletter can transform your business (and it can).

Extract:

Big companies have big teams. But they waste a lot of time, they have a lot of red tape, meetings that lead to another meeting but not to something happening fast. A small team can punch above its weight by not only being focused, but by focusing on the thing that will deliver the biggest results.

M+M Method

The first ‘M’ stands for Maintenance. These are the things you have to do to maintain your current position. And that takes most of your day. If you do that well, and it’s vital that you do, you can hope to grow by at least 10 per cent. The second ‘M’ is Momentum. The things that push you forward. The hardest thing about Momentum is finding the time to do it. You have to divide your day up so you make time for ‘Momentum’. Momentum is the thing that will take you up to the next level. And beyond.  

The culture you have to build in your company is to make everyone understand the importance of their day. And, how it has to be divided up to allow time for things that will help you grow like crazy.

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Gone

Extract:

Practice isn’t simply about the hours you put in. It’s about concentration. The great violinist Jascha Heifetz once said in an interview that if any professional violinist needs to practise more than a couple of hours a day, then they shouldn’t be one. That became a sort of mantra. Physical practice is mostly about muscle memory. Your fingers and muscles need to be able to provide a reliable vehicle for the music. So you practise, but long after you stop playing. It’s still reverberating at the back of your head. You’re always aware of those patterns forming. But the big thing to take away from practising is learning not to waste time.

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What is a child prodigy? Here’s another stab at it. It’s a means to another’s end. Oh, they wish you well, wish the very best for you, but there is a price to pay, and the price is you.

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The Craft of the Lead Pencil

Extract:

To make a drawing is to record an idea: an idea of a particular breed that can only be expressed through making marks on a piece of paper. This process alone can arrest, transmute, and give it permanence. For drawing should be an attempt to hold back from the brink of oblivion some meeting line or rhythm, some mood, some shape or structure suddenly perceived, imaginary or visual.

The secret is to draw with intelligence - to be sure of what you want; for if you are undecided, so will your drawing be. 

The aim is to be expressive. In making a record of something which gave you pleasure, it is natural that you should wish your enjoyment to be communicated through your drawing. That your drawing should be the embodiment of the idea, the experience.

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Why We Can’t Wait

Extract:

“In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the law of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal”. It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s antireligious laws.”

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The Decision Book

Extract:

“Feedback is one of the most difficult and sensitive processes in groups. It is easy to hurt people with criticism, but false compliments are also unhelpful. Compliments often make us too complacent, while criticism damages our self-esteem and can lead us to make unwise choices. 

The one-dimensional question ‘What did you find good, what did you find bad?’ is therefore not necessarily helpful. In terms of what can be learned from feedback, it is better to ask yourself ‘What can I do with this criticism?’ In other words, see what can stay as it is, and what needs to change (but may have been good up till now). 

It is not only about establishing what was not succeeded, it is also about deciding whether and how to react. “

The Feedback Model

Advice: I thought it was good but it still needs to change!

Compliment: I thought it was good and it can stay as it is in future!

Criticism: I thought it was bad and it has to change!

Suggestion: I thought it was bad, but I can live with it!