-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life
by Suleika Jaouad
A guide to the art of journaling—and a meditation on the central questions of life—by the bestselling author of Between Two Kingdoms, with contributions from Hanif Abdurraqib, Jon Batiste, Salman Rushdie, Gloria Steinem, George Saunders, and many more.
From the time she was young, Suleika Jaouad has kept a journal. She's used it to mark life's biggest occasions and to weather its most ferocious storms. Journaling has buoyed her through illness, heartbreak, and the deepest uncertainty. And she is not alone: for so many people, keeping a journal is an essential tool for navigating both the personal peaks and valleys and the collective challenges of modern life. More than ever, we need a space for puzzling through.
In The Book of Alchemy, Suleika explores the art of journaling and shares everything she's learned about how this life-altering practice can help us tap into that mystical trait that exists in every human: creativity. She has gathered wisdom from one hundred writers, artists, and thinkers in the form of essays and writing prompts. Their insights invite us to inhabit a more inspired life.
A companion through challenging times, The Book of Alchemy is broken into themes ranging from new beginnings to love, loss, and rebuilding. Whether you're a lifelong journaler or new to the practice, this book gives you the tools, direction, and encouragement to engage with discomfort, ask questions, peel back the layers, dream daringly, uncover your truest self—and in doing so, to learn to hold the unbearably brutal and astonishingly beautiful facts of life in the same palm.
"The prompts are varied enough to appeal to devoted diarists and newbies alike, and Jaouad poignantly interweaves her own intimate meditations on creativity, pain, and art. The result is a stellar guide that's sure to spark the imagination." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The Book of Alchemy proves on every page that a creative response can be found in every moment of life—regardless of what is happening in the world. It also demonstrates that we can be more creative together than we could ever be alone. This book is not only beautiful but exceedingly helpful. I recommend it to every dreamer, with the highest respect and joy." —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love
"Brilliant. Gentle. Encouraging. If you want to make your life richer, follow her lead. Suleika Jaouad is showing us how to find wisdom in every transition, graduation, and U-turn. The perfect mix of incandescent wisdom and kick-in-the-pants motivation to start your own creative journey." —Kate Bowler, author of Everything Happens for a Reason
This information about The Book of Alchemy was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Suleika Jaouad is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Between Two Kingdoms, which has been translated into more than twenty languages. She wrote the Emmy Award-winning New York Times column and video series "Life, Interrupted," and her essays and feature stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Vogue, among others. She is also the subject, along with husband Jon Batiste, of the Oscar-nominated documentary American Symphony—a portrait of two artists during a year of extreme highs and lows. A visual artist, her large-scale watercolors are the focus of several upcoming exhibitions. She is also the creator of the Isolation Journals, a weekly newsletter and global community that harnesses creativity as a tool to navigate life's interruptions.
If you liked The Book of Alchemy, try these:
The thing that cowardice fears most is decision
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
