niche

By Lars contributor Julie Richardson

Every month here at Lars we announce a book at the beginning of the month and discuss it at the end. We just started an Instagram account for the Lars Book Club. Come follow along there! 

Maybe you have a full time office job. Maybe your job is to create things. Maybe you’re at home with your kids and trying to teach them, clothe them, and basically keep them alive all day. Or maybe you’re in between. If I’ve learned one thing about having four children, it’s that my daily routine (especially mornings!) need to be planned out beforehand if I want to carve out some time for myself each day. Choices turn into habits, which hopefully become subconscious or instinctive actions, in other words, a routine. We’re all busy individuals, but I know that routines are beneficial in keeping chaos to a minimum, so I can be at my best for a good chunk of the day. (Some days that’s only in theory though. Ha!) June’s book is called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Curry. It’s a fascinating read about artists and their (sometimes quirky) routines that enable them to create. These are writers, painters, poets, musicians and more! Maybe you can get an idea or two. 😉 Enjoy and be sure to join May’s discussion of The Artist’s Mother!

Every month Lars Book Club contributor, Julie Richardson introduces a new book to us, and reviews the previous month’s book along with some discussion questions. For the month of April we read The Reason for Flowers. Take a look after the jump for her review! Feel free to leave your own comments about it!

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and as this year’s book list was put together, I thought it’d be fun to read something this month that honors mothers, but in a unique way. So in all my searching and scouring of book lists and websites, I was excited to find May’s book, The Artist’s Mother: The Greatest Painters Pay Tribute to the Women Who Rocked Their Cradles, by Overlook Press, Introduction by Judith Thurman.  Maybe you’ll know some of these artists, or maybe not. But either way, it’s an interesting look at how each of them portrayed their mothers through prints, paintings, and drawings. Enjoy this look into their lives.

And to all you mothering figures out there – you are appreciated, loved, and irreplaceable, for “the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” — William Ross Wallace