Art, Music, Writing & Creativity

The marvels of Islamic patternsthe most recognizable visual expression of Islamic art and architectureare not just a beautiful accident. The ancient practitioners of this craft used traditional methods of measurement to create dazzling geometric compositions, often based on the repetition of a single pattern.

When theNew York Timescalled Ursula K. Le Guin, Americas greatest living science fiction writer, they just might have undersold her legacy. Its hard to look at her vast body of worknovels and stories across multiple genres, poems, translations, essays, speeches, and criticismand see anything but one of our greatest writers, period.

You know that person: the one with that certain something. And you've probably dismissed that something as unattainable, simply innate. But it's a myth that some are born with it and others aren't. Everybody can have that presence—and the peaceful self-acceptance that powers it.

More than any other composer, Beethoven left to posterity a vast body of material that documents the early stages of almost everything he wrote. From this trove of sketchbooks, Lewis Lockwood draws us into the composers mind, unveiling a creative process of astonishing scope and originality.

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness, says Zen Master Thch Nh?t H?nh. If you are attentive, you will see it. In Joy, author and teacher Cher Kaufmann offers readers several ways to become open to joy. Here are uplifting, hand-drawn mantras for readers to color.

We may love books, but do we know what lies behind them? In The Book, Keith Houston reveals that the paper, ink, thread, glue, and board from which a book is made tell as rich a story as the words on its pagesof civilizations, empires, human ingenuity, and madness.

This gorgeously detailed coloring book is filled with whimsical and relaxing art that inspires, soothes the mind, and unlocks the mental health benefits of coloring.