The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “joan didion”

Mary Oliver on What Attention Really Means and Her Moving Elegy for Her Soul Mate
Mary Oliver on What Attention Really Means and Her Moving Elegy for Her Soul Mate

“Attention without feeling … is only a report.”

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How We Become Who We Are: Meghan Daum on Nostalgia, Aging, and Why We Romanticize Our Imperfect Younger Selves
How We Become Who We Are: Meghan Daum on Nostalgia, Aging, and Why We Romanticize Our Imperfect Younger Selves

“Life is mostly an exercise in being something other than what we used to be while remaining fundamentally—and sometimes maddeningly—who we are.”

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On “Beauty”: Marilynne Robinson on Writing, What Storytelling Can Learn from Science, and the Splendors of Uncertainty
On “Beauty”: Marilynne Robinson on Writing, What Storytelling Can Learn from Science, and the Splendors of Uncertainty

“We are part of a mystery, a splendid mystery within which we must attempt to orient ourselves if we are to have a sense of our own nature.”

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Lynda Barry’s Illustrated Field Guide to Keeping a Visual Diary and Cultivating a Capacity for Creative Observation
Lynda Barry’s Illustrated Field Guide to Keeping a Visual Diary and Cultivating a Capacity for Creative Observation

How to master the infinitely rewarding art of “being present and seeing what’s there.”

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The Best Children’s Books of 2014
The Best Children’s Books of 2014

Intelligent and imaginative tales of love, loneliness, loyalty, loss, friendship, and everything in between.

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Self-Refinement Through the Wisdom of the Ages: New Year’s Resolutions from Some of Humanity’s Greatest Minds
Self-Refinement Through the Wisdom of the Ages: New Year’s Resolutions from Some of Humanity’s Greatest Minds

Enduring ideas for personal refinement from Seneca, Thoreau, Virginia Woolf, Carl Sagan, Alan Watts, Emerson, Bruce Lee, Maya Angelou, and more.

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The Best Art, Design, and Photography Books of 2014
The Best Art, Design, and Photography Books of 2014

The world’s oldest living things, how to overcome creative block, meals from beloved books, the unusual stories behind people’s tattoos, and more.

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The Psychology of Flow: What Game Design Reveals about the Deliberate Tensions of Great Writing
The Psychology of Flow: What Game Design Reveals about the Deliberate Tensions of Great Writing

“The books that give us the most pleasure, the deepest pleasure, combine uncertainty and satisfaction, tension and release.”

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Anne Lamott on Grief, Grace, and Gratitude
Anne Lamott on Grief, Grace, and Gratitude

On the grace of redefining ourselves and redefining okayness when life throws us its merciless curveballs.

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The Flat Rabbit: A Minimalist Scandinavian Children’s Book about Making Sense of Death and the Mysteries of Life
The Flat Rabbit: A Minimalist Scandinavian Children’s Book about Making Sense of Death and the Mysteries of Life

A gentle and assuring reminder that we don’t have all the answers.

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