Painting Cats: Curious, Mindful & Free-Spirited Watercolors

Painting Cats: Curious, Mindful & Free-Spirited Watercolors

by Terry Runyan

Blurb:

In this follow-up to her hit Painting Happiness, Instagram sensation Terry Runyan shows you how to play with watercolor to create quirky cat portraits--and let go of stress.

Perfect for cat lovers and watercolor artists of all skill levels, from absolute beginner to more experienced, Painting Cats teaches you how to go from blob of paint to a beautiful portrait of your fluffy friends. Drawing on art therapy techniques that emphasize fun and freedom in creativity over technical perfection, Runyan guides you step by step through the process of adding details to loosely painted shapes to create your own unique and distinct cats.

My Reaction:

Love it!  Even if you're more of a dog person, the cats are adorable and the book itself is fun and inspiring.  If you enjoyed Terry Runyan's previous watercolor book, Painting Happiness, you'll probably like this one, too.  I found Painting Happiness very helpful.  It opened me up to more possibilities and helped me learn to ignore my harsh inner critic.  (The author certainly lives up to her self-description as a "creative encourager"!)  I'm thrilled to have another book of watercolor happiness to flip through when I'm in need of inspiration.  

Keeping a Creative Sketchbook

Keeping a Creative Sketchbook: Build Your Artistic Practice for a Joyfully Inspired Life

by Emma Block

Blurb:

Keeping a sketchbook is a wonderfully rewarding pursuit for artists and hobbyists alike. Your sketchbook is a safe place to explore, experiment, try new things, record your progress, and sometimes mess up, and working in a sketchbook, particularly on location, is an innately mindful practice. You become completely focused on the things you are sketching or painting and completely immersed in the atmosphere of the place.

In  Keeping a Creative Sketchbook , Emma Block shares her own sketchbook practice and offers inspiring artist interviews and numerous techniques and practices for beginning or transforming your own. Packed with ideas and prompts to get started, this book helps overcome overwhelm and open a world of joyful creativity. With your sketchbook by your side, you can slow down, be present, notice the little things, enjoy the process, let go of perfectionism, and embrace the blank page, discovering rich new depths to your creativity and finding your artist mindset for inner peace.

My Reaction:

"On-location" art creation isn't really something I do much of, at the moment, but I still found the book interesting and inspiring, with plenty of useful information for anyone considering keeping a sketchbook and uncertain of where to start.  Much of this info is perfectly relevant beyond the sketchbook, too.  If you don't like working in a bound sketchbook, you can just as easily do the same type of work on loose sheets or a pad or block of paper, then put them together in a binder, scrapbook, keepsake box, etc. 

I particularly enjoyed the interviews sprinkled throughout the book, with other artists sharing how they use their own sketchbooks, tips, etc. and photos of their work. There are a variety of different styles to spark new ideas. 

How to Attract the Wombat

How to Attract the Wombat

by Will Cuppy

Blurb:

A survey of the animal kingdom in which the nocturnal and tunneling wombat is awarded the greatest praise.

Will Cuppy was something like the Larry David of the mid-20th century. From his perch as a staff writer at The New Yorker , Cuppy observed the world and found a great deal that annoyed him. This collection of essays on animals includes “Birds Who Can’t Even Fly,” “Optional Insects,” “Octopuses and Those Things”, and “How to Swat a Fly,” which codifies the essentials in ten hilarious principles. And three essays on wombats. Perfect reading for the perplexed, befuddled, and perpetually irritated.

My Reaction:

I found these humorous essays better than Cuppy's book about historical figures (The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody)—but less enjoyable than How to Be a Hermit.  Good for light reading, especially if you want something that can mostly be consumed in short bites.  

If you're the type who reads P.G. Wodehouse, I'd give this author a try.  

Deception Point

Deception Point

by Dan Brown

Blurb:

When a new NASA satellite spots evidence of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory… a victory that has profound implications for U.S. space policy and the impending presidential election.

With the Oval Office in the balance, the President dispatches White House Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton to the Milne Ice Shelf to verify the authenticity of the find. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic academic Michael Tolland, Rachel uncovers the unthinkable—evidence of scientific trickery—a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy.

But before Rachel can contact the President, she and Michael are attacked by a deadly task force…a private team of assassins controlled by a mysterious powerbroker who will stop at nothing to hide the truth. Fleeing for their lives in an environment as desolate as it is lethal, they possess only one hope, to find out who is behind this masterful ploy. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all…

My Reaction:
Read with Donald for the 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back podcast/book club.  

It's silly and formulaic, crammed with inaccurate information, much longer than it needs to be, and set at an often agonizingly slow pace, but I still found it more enjoyable to read than some of the other things we've read along with 372 Pages.  

(We've also read Digital Fortress, by the same author—and along with the same podcast—and were amused by some parallels between the two.)

The Babysitter Lives

The Babysitter Lives

by Stephen Graham Jones

Blurb:

When high school senior Charlotte agrees to babysit the Wilbanks twins, she plans to put the six-year-olds to bed early and spend a quiet night studying: the SATs are tomorrow, and checking the Native American/Alaskan Native box on all the forms won’t help if she chokes on test day. But tomorrow is also Halloween, and the twins are eager to show off their costumes.

Charlotte’s last babysitting gig almost ended in tragedy when her young charge sleepwalked unnoticed into the middle of the street, only to be found unharmed by Charlotte’s mother. Charlotte vows to be extra careful this time. But the house is filled with mysterious noises and secrets that only the twins understand, echoes of horrors that Charlotte gradually realizes took place in the house eleven years ago. Soon Charlotte has to admit that every babysitter’s worst nightmare has come true: they’re not alone in the house.

My Reaction:

I tried to keep an open mind, but this turned out to be another DNF.  The thought of picking it up to read was making me unhappy, and life is just too short to persist with books that you hate reading!  I read a few reviews to confirm that it wasn't just me, and after learning a couple of the things that came after I stopped, I'm glad I quit when I did.  This was not for me.  

I read the first part of the acknowledgements, and this phrase leapt out at me:  "I never have much idea where my stories are going..."  Yeah. I have to say, that doesn't come as a surprise, after this reading experience.