"At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores 'what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self.' When Patchett chose an early galley of actor and producer Tom Hanks' short story collection to read one night before bed, she had no idea that this single choice would be life changing. It would introduce her to a remarkable...

When his friend Circle asks him to do her portrait after praising him as a sculptor and genius, Square struggles to carve her likeness from a stone block.

The legendary comedian, actor, and writer of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and A Fish Called Wanda fame shares his key ideas about creativity: that it’s a learnable, improvable skill.
“Many people have written about creativity, but although they were very, very clever, they weren't actually creative. I like to think I'm writing about it from the inside.”—John Cleese
 
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Adam Savage -- star of Discovery Channel's MythBusters and one of the most beloved figures in science and tech -- shares his golden rules of creativity, from finding inspiration to following through and successfully making your idea a reality. "[This book] is a chronicle of my life as a maker. It's an exploration of making and of my own productive obsessions, but it's also a permission slip of sorts from me to you. Permission to grab hold of the things...

Why do we make things by hand? And why do we make them beautiful? Led by the question of why working with our hands remains vital and valuable in the modern world, author and maker Melanie Falick went on a transformative, inspiring journey. Traveling across continents, she met quilters and potters, weavers and painters, metalsmiths, printmakers, woodworkers, and more, and uncovered truths that have been speaking to us for millennia yet feel urgently...

Yo-Yo Ma and Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando collaborate in an interdisciplinary artistic exploration which ultimately transcends cultural boundaries and proves that Bach can inspire an art form far removed from Western tradition. Yo-Yo Ma and ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean collaborate in an interdisciplinary artistic exploration resulting in a "cosmic" ice dance of Bach's sixth suite. Tom McCamus portrays J.S. Bach in a monolog preceding...

"'In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.' So begins Upstream, a collection of essays in which poet Mary Oliver reflects on her willingness, as a young child and as an adult, to lose herself within the beauty and mysteries of both the natural world and the world of literature....

In 1998, university professor Kembrew McLeod trademarked the phrase “freedom of expression” - a startling comment on the way that intellectual property law restricts creativity and expression of ideas. This provocative and amusing documentary explores the battles being waged in courts, classrooms, museums, film studios, and the Internet over control of our cultural commons. Based on McLeod's award-winning book of the same title, Freedom of Expression...

Yo-Yo Ma and choreographer Mark Morris collaborate in an interdisciplinary artistic exploration of dance inspired by Bach's third suite for solo cello. Inspired by the moods and emotions of Bach's fourth suite, Sarabande is a dramatic film written and directed by feature film director Atom Egoyan. The film weaves together numerous stories in a series of coincidences intimating themes of generosity and exchange.

Have you always wanted to write a book, but don't know where to start? Or maybe you're really great at writing the first few chapters . . . but you never quite make it to the end? Or do you finally have a finished manuscript, but you're not sure what to do next? Fear not -- if you have writing-related questions, this book has answers! Whether you're writing for fun or to build a career, bestselling author Ally Carter is ready to help you make your...