Spark: How Creativity Works

Spark: How Creativity Works Review

How did Richard Ford's cat influence his work as a novelist? HOW is Chuck Close's portraiture driven by his inability to remember faces? What pivotal moment helped Rosanne Cash understand the healing power of the stage?

Creativity is an elusive subject. We enjoy its fruits—movies, novels, paintings, songs—but rarely are we privy to what happens in the creative process. In Spark, Julie Burstein traces the roots of some of the twenty-first century's most influential and creative thinkers, including Joyce Carol Oates, Yo-Yo Ma, David Milch, Isabel Allende, and Joshua Redman. Burstein pulls back the curtain to reveal the sources of these artists' inspiration and the processes that bring their work into being.

"These artists may not change lead into gold," Burstein writes, "but they lift materials from their familiar contexts, combining, reshaping, transforming them into works of art that change the way we see the world." Spark is an invaluable resource for the aspiring writer and artist, but the need for creativity extends well beyond the world of paintbrushes and typewriters. Creativity is integral to business, parenting, education, science, and, perhaps most poignantly, our personal relationships. Rarely do books on creativity illuminate and inspire; this marvelous volume will help you find a spark of your own.

Sparks of Divinity: The Teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar from 1959 to 1975

Sparks of Divinity: The Teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar from 1959 to 1975 Review

Sparks of Divinity is a collection of the teachings of yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar first published in a French-English bilingual edition in 1976. The material for this book was gathered and compiled by Noëlle Perez-Christiaens from class notes and correspondence during the formative years of Iyengar's international career. The entries cover the period from the late 1950s, when Iyengar was invited by Yehudi Menuin to teach in Gstaad, Switzerland, to the year following the death of Iyengar's wife and the opening of the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India.

When Noëlle first studied with Iyengar in Pune in 1959, he was still teaching his pupils one-on-one at his home. During her stay in India, Noëlle was regarded virtually as one of the household, and this intimacy continued in their subsequent letters, where Iyengar wrote to her more as a colleague and friend than as a teacher. We are fortunate to include Noëlle's Indian Journal for 1959 and her Early Life of B.K.S. Iyengar, translated into English especially for this edition, for the intimate glimpses they give of Iyengar's personal life and family.

Sparks of Divinity is also a testament to the deep bond between teacher and student. In an Afterword about Noëlle, we learn how an early suggestion from Iyengar moved her in a completely new direction, and how she attributes her discoveries about Aplomb (natural balance) to Iyengar's ongoing inspiration.

Into the Heart and Mind of God

Into the Heart and Mind of God Review

It is a wonderful thing to be called a friend! It was God who said of David that he was "a man after my heart" (Acts 13:22), and we have read three times in the Bible that Abraham was called 'the friend of God'. Indeed, God Himself said of him: "Abraham, my friend" which means that he had entered into the heart of God. We must be one with God in His suffering and in His joy. The deepest fellowship that can be had with Him is found in fellowship with His sufferings. When Abraham was obedient to the Lord's command: "Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest", he certainly did reach the point of absolute fellowship with God, who Himself gave His only begotten Son. Abraham had been called upon to make many offerings in his life; many sacrifices had to be made from the day that he left his own country, but there was no sacrifice like this one, which touched him at the point where it cost him more than anything else. This was more than all the other sacrifices, and so, at last, he stepped right into the heart of God. And he was blessed beyond measure...

The Guardian

The Guardian Review

Julie Barenson's young husband left her two unexpected gifts before he died - a Great Dane puppy named Singer and the promise that he would always be watching over her. Now four years have passed. Still living in the small town of Swansboro, North Carolina, twenty-nine-year-old Julie is emotionally ready to make a commitment to someone again. But who? Should it be Richard Franklin, the handsome, sophisticated engineer who treats her like a queen? Or Mike Harris, the down-to-earth nice guy who was her husband's best friend? Choosing one of them should bring her more happiness than she's had in years. Instead, Julie is soon fighting for her life in a nightmare spawned by a chilling deception and jealousy so poisonous that it has become a murderous desire...