In January 2023, my dad—my best friend, greatest supporter, and hero—died of cancer. For a moment, I worried that his death might
mark the end of my creative life. How could I go on writing something as
frivolous as art historical fiction when everything suddenly seemed so
pointless?
Then, along came famed music producer Rick Rubin and this beautiful
book. It’s like a collection of meditations on creativity, and it reminded me
that making art—whether it’s a song or painting or novel—isn’t so much about
the thing itself but about the process.
I’ll never completely put this book
away. I pick it up almost every day and read a passage to keep my inspirational
fires burning. This is one of my favorites of all time.
From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.
"A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning accomplishment.” —Anne Lamott
“I set out to write a book about what to do to make a…
For
over 20 years, I’ve been a TV producer in Hollywood, and I always had this
suspicion that my industry was more toxic and abusive than others, but networks
and studios always kept me so busy that I never had the time to think about it.
But this year, I picked up Burn it Down, and my life was forever
changed. This book provides an honest and clear-eyed look at the realities of
working in Hollywood—and it made me re-think my own career choices and forced
me to change how I work and lead.
For anyone who works in Hollywood, it’s a
must-read. For anyone outside of Hollywood, if you want to know what life is
like behind the scenes, this is your way in.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER
In this spectacular, newsmaking expose that has the entertainment industry abuzz and on its heels, Vanity Fair's Maureen Ryan blows the lid on patterns of harassment and bias in Hollywood, the grassroots reforms under way, and the labor and activist revolutions that recent scandals have ignited.
It is never just One Bad Man.
Abuse and exploitation of workers is baked into the very foundations of the entertainment industry. To break the cycle and make change that sticks, it's important to stop looking at headline-making stories as individual events. Instead, one must…
I’m a historical novelist because of Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth—the way he applied thriller techniques to the historical genre lit up my heart and mind—and this book is the final installment of his Kingsbridge series, which was kicked off by Pillars.
I wept when I started it and wept when it ended. This novel embodies everything I aspire to be as a writer: a historically informative page-turner with characters I love to love and others I love to hate.
If you love Ken Follett, then this final piece of the Kingsbridge series will keep you reading long into the night and cursing Ken: “Please do something boring, Ken, so I can go to sleep already!” No luck. I slept once the book was over.
The long-awaited sequel to A Column of Fire, The Armor of Light, heralds a new dawn for Kingsbridge, England, where progress clashes with tradition, class struggles push into every part of society, and war in Europe engulfs the entire continent and beyond.
The Spinning Jenny was invented in 1770, and with that, a new era of manufacturing and industry changed lives everywhere within a generation. A world filled with unrest wrestles for control over this new world order: A mother’s husband is killed in a work accident due to negligence; a young woman fights to fund her school for impoverished…
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling is one of the most iconic masterpieces of the Renaissance. Here, in Raphael, Painter in Rome, Storey tells of its creation as never before: through the eyes of Michelangelo's fiercest rival— the young, beautiful, brilliant painter of perfection, Raphael.
Orphaned at age eleven, Raphael is determined to keep his deathbed promise to his father: become the greatest artist in history. As Raphael strives toward perfection in paint, he battles internal demons: his desperate ambition, crippling fear of imperfection, and unshakable loneliness.
Along the way, he conspires with cardinals, scrambles through the ruins of ancient Rome, and falls in love with a baker's-daughter-turned-prostitute who becomes his muse.
