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storytelling

  1. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human Jonathan Gottschall “Human minds yield helplessly to the suction of story. No matter how hard we concentrate, no matter how deep we dig in our heels, we just can’t resist the gravity of alternate worlds.” Educator and science writer Jonathan Gottschall traces the roots, both evolutionary and sociocultural, of the transfixing grip storytelling has on our hearts and minds, individually and collectively. What emerges is a kind of “unified theory of storytelling,” revealing not only our gift for manufacturing truthiness in the narratives we tell ourselves and others, but also the remarkable capacity of stories — the right kinds of them — to change our shared experience for the better.

    The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human

    Jonathan Gottschall

    “Human minds yield helplessly to the suction of story. No matter how hard we concentrate, no matter how deep we dig in our heels, we just can’t resist the gravity of alternate worlds.”

    Educator and science writer Jonathan Gottschall traces the roots, both evolutionary and sociocultural, of the transfixing grip storytelling has on our hearts and minds, individually and collectively. What emerges is a kind of “unified theory of storytelling,” revealing not only our gift for manufacturing truthiness in the narratives we tell ourselves and others, but also the remarkable capacity of stories — the right kinds of them — to change our shared experience for the better.
  2. Children’s Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling Martin Salisbury From cave paintings to Maurice Sendak to the iPad, the fascinating evolution of the picturebook as a storytelling medium and a cultural agent.

    Children’s Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling

    Martin Salisbury

    From cave paintings to Maurice Sendak to the iPad, the fascinating evolution of the picturebook as a storytelling medium and a cultural agent.
  3. Tres Riches Heures De Mrs Mole Ronald Searle On New Year’s Eve 1969, Monica Searle was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer. Experimental at the time, chemotherapy — the course of action Monica’s doctor recommended — was a leap of faith. After each treatment, her husband Ronald made Monica a Mrs. Mole drawing “to cheer every dreaded chemotherapy session and evoke the blissful future ahead.”

    Tres Riches Heures De Mrs Mole

    Ronald Searle

    On New Year’s Eve 1969, Monica Searle was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer. Experimental at the time, chemotherapy — the course of action Monica’s doctor recommended — was a leap of faith. After each treatment, her husband Ronald made Monica a Mrs. Mole drawing “to cheer every dreaded chemotherapy session and evoke the blissful future ahead.”
  4. Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots William Wallace Cook A 1928 manual by dime novelist William Wallace Cook cataloging every possible narrative through a method that bordered on madness. Cook’s final plot count? 1,462.

    Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots

    William Wallace Cook

    A 1928 manual by dime novelist William Wallace Cook cataloging every possible narrative through a method that bordered on madness. Cook’s final plot count? 1,462.
  5. The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories Frank Rose A field guide to the visionaries—and the fans—who are reinventing the art of storytelling.

    The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories

    Frank Rose

    A field guide to the visionaries—and the fans—who are reinventing the art of storytelling.
  6. Advice to Writers: A Compendium of Quotes, Anecdotes, and Writerly Wisdom from a Dazzling Array of Literary Lights Jon Winokur “Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson From Mark Twain to Kurt Vonnegut to Stephen King, advice on writing from modernity’s greatest writers.

    Advice to Writers: A Compendium of Quotes, Anecdotes, and Writerly Wisdom from a Dazzling Array of Literary Lights

    Jon Winokur

    “Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

    From Mark Twain to Kurt Vonnegut to Stephen King, advice on writing from modernity’s greatest writers.