ralovesbooks's reviews
1431 reviews

Would I recommend? If you liked the first in the series, this one will feel comfortingly similar

I enjoyed The Widows of Malabar Hill, largely because Perveen Mistry is a nontraditional mystery protagonist, and I appreciated how the author brought to light elements of Indian culture and British colonial India that I was unaware of. This second installment is similar in a good way. I'll keep reading about Perveen, for sure.

From re-read with exercises:

“Over any extended period of time, being an artist requires more enthusiasm than discipline. Enthusiasm is not an emotional state. It is a spiritual commitment, a loving surrender to our creative process, a loving recognition of all the creativity around us.”

In January, I borrowed The Artist’s Way from the library. I first heard of it in 2014, and I figured that my 8 weeks between jobs would be a good opportunity to see what the deal was. I didn’t know that the book was separated into 12 chapters, best digested as one chapter per week. There was homework! I didn’t have time to do it justice, so I simply read through the book and began the recommended practice of morning pages.

Morning pages consist of writing 3 pages every day, and it probably took me about a month to establish the habit. It was rough when I traveled for work, and on multiple occasions, I raced back to my hotel room after a late dinner to scribble in my notebook frantically. I had a mental block over spending time on writing that was “unproductive” (my word), but over the months, I have learned a lot from recurring themes. I struggle a lot with the idea of creativity as play, as well as my insecurity about what it means to be a “real” writer. I’ve also noticed that my capacity for gratitude has increased as I reflect on the good things in my life. The notebooks I got for this purpose coincidentally fit 40 morning pages installments each, so every time I finish one, I feel a satisfying sense of completion.

This summer, a friend and I read the book together and shared our thoughts in a Google Doc, which I highly recommend. We bulleted our notes every week, like quotes that resonated and what tasks we did, and we responded in comments asynchronously. I wouldn’t recommend The Artist’s Way unequivocally because Julia Cameron is very woo-woo and not to everyone's taste, but I found the book and exercises thought-provoking and helpful. I feel like it’s one of those things where you only take what you need. I’m thankful for it as a resource, especially for the prompt to write morning pages, which are a real gift to my days.

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From initial read:

Would recommend: I already have!

I read this way too fast because I wasn't aware that it's structured as a 12-week course. I plan to get my own copy (I read a library copy) and do the tasks over 12 weeks later this year. In the meantime, I've begun morning pages and artist dates, and I feel like I'm already experiencing good effects in terms of my mindset.  I had heard about this book for YEARS, and I wish I had worked through it much, much sooner in life.

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Creativity is play, but for shadow artists, learning to allow themselves to play is hard work. (29)

Writing about attention, I see that I have written a good deal about pain. This is no coincidence. It may be different for others, but pain is what it took to teach me to pay attention. (54)

People frequently believe the creative life is grounded in fantasy. The more difficult truth is that creativity is grounded in reality, the particular, the focused, the well observed or specifically imagined. (82)


To write is to right things. Sooner or later -- always later than we like -- our pages will bring things right. A path will emerge. (171)

Thank you to Random House for my complimentary digital copy. The writing is so strong and powerful here, but the descriptions of sex acts were too graphic for me. I would definitely be interested in continuing to read this author's work in the future because the skill is clearly there.

Would recommend: Yep, Nina LaCour does it again!

Thank you to Libro.fm and Macmillan Audio for my complimentary audio copy! Out on May 31.

I love Nina LaCour, and she is an auto-read for me. Her latest is an emotional ride that follows two women who've both experienced trauma in their lives. I loved how the characters weren't neat and tidy, and there is so much to be enjoyed in the descriptions: food, drink, flowers, color. I had only read her YA books so far, so I wasn't surprised to enjoy this literary novel, and I continue to be a huge fan.

Would recommend: Maybe

Charming and entertaining - it's not my typical book choice, but I picked it up because I'm reading all things penguin/Antarctica these days. It was a predictable "cranky old person gets new lease on life" plot, but certainly enjoyable. I thoroughly appreciated the description of when Veronica first saw the Adelie penguins.