A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives by Lisa Congdon

I've already recommended this book to a TON of people, so you might as well just go out and get ahold of a copy now.

This book is chock full of short biographies, brief essays, interviews, quotes, and illustrated portraits. The women featured have all done amazing things, and none of them "made it" until they were well into adulthood (No child prodigy here! Some of them didn't even get started until they were 70+ years old). You'll know a bit about some of them, but you won't have heard of every woman featured (I spent a lot of time Googling while I was reading), and there's something in every story to fascinate.

And the takeaway is this: we regularly live to be 90+ in modern society, so what are you going to do with the 30+ years after "retirement"? Why are you waiting to start doing the things you really desire?

Love May Fail by Matthew Quick

In a mid-life crisis meltdown mode (after not quite shooting her philandering husband), Portia Kane returns to her childhood home to figure out her next step - little knowing it will lead her on an epic journey of discovery and disappointment.

Author Matthew Quick has become famous for his fair, honest depiction of human frailties and mental disorder, and this novel is well within that wheelhouse. Every character in the book has his or her issues, but they're not presented as a problem to be solved, just a thing to be experienced.

Portia's quest to "save" her beloved high school English teacher leads her down nostalgia's path in many ways, and the book is full of 1980s-vintage metal and hard rock lyrics, puns, and references. It's also full of strange coincidences, chance meetings, and what may be divine inspiration.

My only quibble is that I found the character Danielle Bass flat. She's a means to move the story along, but I don't feel that we really get her perspective or struggles in any real way like we do every other character in the novel.

Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer by Heather Lende

After interviewing innumerable families in their times of great grief and discovering wonderful and unexpected things about the people in her town, author Heather Lende offers a hopeful, encouraging text about living the rest of our lives looking forward and looking up.

This book is a quick read - either consumed in one sitting or in morsels an essay at a time - full of sparkling stories of remarkable people. The author lives in a harsh Alaskan town full of fisherman, and she's found that you don't have to look too far to find a notable story about everyone you meet. From the fisherman whose tragic death inspired safety measures that may save others to the "homeless" lady who left to serve Christ in England and the daughter transporting her mother one final time across the ferry - these are the kind of people you see and meet in your town, too. It's just that Lende's made a habit to look for the connections and the stories in us all.

It's a habit of positivity, and she believes you can do it too.

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

You'll never look at Toulouse-Lautrec's art the same way again ... comedy genius Christopher Moore has orchestrated a perfect blend of history and fiction in this tale of the Parisian art scene during the late 1800s.

It all boils down to the color blue: it's the most expensive and rare of materials used in the art world (that's why it was reserved for the Virgin Mary). But apparently someone is targeting artists, and the weapon may be in the paint.

Painter/baker Lucien Lessard (fictional) and his friend, artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (real) play detective in an attempt to reveal the art-world conspiracy .. between cognacs and making the bread, of course. All the big players of the day make character appearances here: Renoir, Seurat, Manet, Monet, Pisarro, Van Gogh.

It's a funny book, but also thoughfully designed to consider the questions of an artist's inspiration, mental illness, debauchery, and creativity.

A note on formats: the first edition of this book was printed with navy blue text and includes full-color pictures of many of the paintings mentioned in the book. The print book also includes a postscript by the author explaining truth vs. fantasy and where he got his inspiration. You'll miss those things if you listen to the audiobook - but the narration by Euan Morton is phenomenal and brings lots of emphasis and nuance to things I may have missed in the reading.

(Yes - I both listened to and read this book. I'm a geek, I know.)

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Looking for inspiration? The advice and approval that will push you forward in writing, art, quilting, music, etc? The subhead on this book is "10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative" and while it's oriented toward the arts, I think many of Kleon's creative ideas can carry over into more mundane aspects of life, work, and leadership, too.

Kleon says the book began life as a series of ideas and doodles on index cards, and it's a small, loosely designed book with to-the-point examples so you can easily pick it up, grab some inspiration, and set it down again. It's full of sentiments you probably know (don't dwell on negative criticism, seek out positive inspiration) but it's refreshing to hear them again. Ever notice how some things ring especially true and loud JUST when you need to hear it?

I read this book in about 15 minutes, and found tons of cool things to read aloud to Kristine because I couldn't keep it to myself. I'm going to add a copy of this book to my studio bookshelf; it's a great set of ideas, and presented well.