Always and again, books come to the rescue. In these trying days, reading is comfort, companion, distraction, and escape.

Here are a few of my recent favorites:

NONFICTION

The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing by Adam Moss

The ephemera of making — journal entries, napkin doodles, snapshots, sketches — is combined with conversations that get to the heart of art in this beautiful book featuring a series of interviews with artists of all kinds.

From famous to not-so-known, this hefty, beautiful book is a treasure (and a great gift for your creative friends). My favorite sections shine light on writers (of course): Marie Howe, Louise Glück, George Saunders, Suzan-Lori Parks, to name a few.

If you like this, try:

You Are An Artist: Assignments to Spark Creation by Sarah Urist Green

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp

My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education by Jennie Capó Crucet

In this slim book of personal essays, Jennine Capó Crucet, the daughter of Cuban refugees, shares the ways in which she finds herself a stranger in the country where she was born. Examining the political and personal challenges of identity, Crucet writes with candor, humor, and power.

I want to give this book to everyone I know.

If you like this, try:

Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennie Capó Crucet

The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Wade

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar

The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance by W. Timothy Gallwey

I don't even play tennis — and I loved this book.

Okay, I do play pickleball, and that’s why I picked up this self-help classic. I quickly realized that the mental game is the real game in just about any pursuit.

Written in the 1970s, this treasure holds up across the years because it is clear, direct, and practical.

If you like this, try:

Inner Skiing by Timothy Gallwey

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Everybody Needs A Rock by Byrd Baylor with illustrations by Peter Parnall

Like a good rock, this 1974 children’s book is whimsical in its simplicity. Byrd Baylor’s straightforward prose, combined with striking earth-tone sketches, creates a charming meditation on nature and attention.

Byrd Baylor was called “the voice of the desert and its people.” She lived to age 97, off-the-grid in Arizona, and spent years protecting nature and wildlife, and assisting migrants as they crossed the Mexico border. Read more, here.

FICTION

FICTION

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

I don’t know how I missed this odd little gem when it debuted in 2010. But I’m so glad I found it, by chance at the library, proving again the value of our public institutions.

Writer Aimee Bender writes with tenderness and nuance for — not just flavor — but feelings. She gets in there, deep and perceptive, with a twist of quirk.

If you like this book, try:

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl

The Adults by Alison Espach

Asking for Love by Roxana Robinson

My mission continues: to read everything written by Roxana Robinson! This book of short stories is packed with tender, evocative, and intimate slices of life. Robinson masterfully explores the inner worlds of ordinary people.