12 Best Creative Ability Books
Creative Ability is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Creative Ability audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 12 Creative Ability audiobooks below.
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Be, Awake, Create
- By: Rebekah Younger
- Narrator: Marge Sudheimer
- Length: 4 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: December 29, 2020
- Language: English
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4.07(41 ratings)
4.07(41 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDIn our demanding, fast-paced culture, it’s increasingly important to find ways to decompress and recuperate from the busyness and stress of life. More and more, mindfulness and creativity are being recognized as antidotes to the speed andIn our demanding, fast-paced culture, it’s increasingly important to find ways to decompress and recuperate from the busyness and stress of life. More and more, mindfulness and creativity are being recognized as antidotes to the speed and overstimulation of modern society. This beautiful book combines the two, offering both creative and meditative practices to provide a guided journey into contemplative art for healing, relaxation, deeper connection, and greater well-being. Rather than focusing on any one medium or art form, this unique guide offers basic meditation instructions and a variety of creative prompts and activities–from collage and coloring to meditative mark making and sketching to photography and perceptual exercises–making it perfect for anyone who wants to deepen and cultivate their mindfulness and creativity. With these artistic and introspective practices, you’ll put meditation into action, and learn to view yourself and your own creative process without judgment or aggression. Using Be, Awake, Create, you’ll see beyond habitual patterns, discover the richness of your world, and recognize the ordinary magic of your own creativity, with greater freshness of expression and spontaneity. By cultivating awareness and allowing yourself to play in the open space of artistic creation, you’ll come to discover all of the positive impacts mindfulness and creativity can have on every area of your life.
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Wonderworks
- By: Angus Fletcher
- Narrator: Jacques Roy
- Length: 15 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.05(454 ratings)
4.05(454 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USDThis “fascinating” (Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times bestselling author of Outliers) examination of literary inventions through the ages, from ancient Mesopotamia to Elena Ferrante, shows how writers have created technicalThis “fascinating” (Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times bestselling author of Outliers) examination of literary inventions through the ages, from ancient Mesopotamia to Elena Ferrante, shows how writers have created technical breakthroughs–rivaling scientific inventions–and engineering enhancements to the human heart and mind.
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Literature is a technology like any other. And the writers we revere–from Homer, Shakespeare, Austen, and others–each made a unique technical breakthrough that can be viewed as both a narrative and neuroscientific advancement. Literature’s great invention was to address problems we could not solve: not how to start a fire or build a boat, but how to live and love; how to maintain courage in the face of death; how to account for the fact that we exist at all.
Wonderworks reviews the blueprints for twenty-five of the most significant developments in the history of literature. These inventions can be scientifically shown to alleviate grief, trauma, loneliness, anxiety, numbness, depression, pessimism, and ennui, while sparking creativity, courage, love, empathy, hope, joy, and positive change. They can be found throughout literature–from ancient Chinese lyrics to Shakespeare’s plays, poetry to nursery rhymes and fairy tales, and crime novels to slave narratives.
A “refreshing and remarkable” (Jay Parini, author of Borges and Me: An Encounter) exploration of the new literary field of story science, Wonderworks teaches you everything you wish you learned in your English class, and “contains many instances of critical insight….What’s most interesting about this compendium is its understanding of imaginative representation as a technology” (The New York Times). -
The Runaway Species
- By: David Eagleman
- Narrator: Mauro Hantman
- Length: 6 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: October 24, 2017
- Language: English
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3.8(1248 ratings)
3.8(1248 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDOur ability to remake our world is unique among all living things. But where does our creativity come from, how does it work, and how can we harness it to improve our lives, schools, businesses, and institutions? The Runaway Species is a deep-diveOur ability to remake our world is unique among all living things. But where does our creativity come from, how does it work, and how can we harness it to improve our lives, schools, businesses, and institutions? The Runaway Species is a deep-dive into the creative mind, a celebration of the human spirit, and a vision of how we can improve our future by understanding and embracing our ability to innovate. Composer Anthony Brandt and neurologist David Eagleman seek to discover what lies at the heart of humanity’s ability-and drive-to create. Examining hundreds of examples of human creativity, Brandt and Eagleman draw out what creative acts have in common and view them through the lens of cutting-edge neuroscience, uncovering the essential elements of this critical human ability and encouraging a more creative future for all of us.
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In Pursuit of Elegance
- By: Matthew E. May
- Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 5 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2009
- Language: English
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3.78(457 ratings)
3.78(457 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0013.95 USDWhat made The Sopranos finale one of the most talked about events in television history? Why is Sudoku so addictive and the iPhone so darned irresistible? What do Jackson Pollock and Lance Armstrong have in common with theoretical physicists andWhat made The Sopranos finale one of the most talked about events in television history? Why is Sudoku so addictive and the iPhone so darned irresistible? What do Jackson Pollock and Lance Armstrong have in common with theoretical physicists and Buddhist monks? The answer is elegance.
Matthew May explores why certain events, products, and people capture our imaginations and our loyalty. Defining elegance as the elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power, he pinpoints the four key elements that characterize it—seduction, subtraction, symmetry, and sustainability—illustrating why what’s “not there” often matters more than what is. He also sheds light on the need for elegance in design, engineering, physics, art, urban planning, sports, and work.
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The Science of Sleep and Stress
- By: Jessica Payne
- Narrator: Jessica Payne
- Length: 54 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: July 27, 2021
- Language: English
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3.75(8 ratings)
3.75(8 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDOne Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds ofOne Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds of religion, government, literature, and social justice. The research of Notre Dame Professor Jessica Payne shows that the non-waking hours are incredibly valuable for your day-to-day life, especially for helping to commit information to memory and for problem-solving. If you ever thought sleep was just downtime between one task and the next, think again. The fact is, your brain pulls an all-nighter when you hit the hay. Many regions of the brain–especially those involved in learning, processing information, and emotion–are actually more active during sleep than when you’re awake. These regions are working together while you sleep, helping you process and sort information you’ve taken in during the course of the day. Professor Payne’s research has focused on what types of information are submitted to memory and has been instrumental in better understanding how the brain stores the information. Sound interesting? It is. And useful too, as Professor Payne will outline all sorts of practical information on how to control your sleep habits to ensure maximum productivity. This audio lecture includes a supplemental PDF.
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The Trip to Echo Spring
- By: Olivia Laing
- Narrator: Kate Reading
- Length: 10 hours 34 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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3.72(2115 ratings)
3.72(2115 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDOLIVIA LAING’S WIDELY ACCLAIMED ACCOUNT OF WHY SOME OF THE BEST LITERATURE HAS BEEN CREATED BY WRITERS IN THE GRIP OF ALCOHOLISM In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing examines the link between creativity and alcohol through the work andOLIVIA LAING’S WIDELY ACCLAIMED ACCOUNT OF WHY SOME OF THE BEST LITERATURE HAS BEEN CREATED BY WRITERS IN THE GRIP OF ALCOHOLISM
In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing examines the link between creativity and alcohol through the work and lives of six of America’s finest writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver.
All six of these men were alcoholics, and the subject of drinking surfaces in some of their finest work, from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to A Moveable Feast. Often, they did their drinking together: Hemingway and Fitzgerald ricocheting through the cafes of Paris in the 1920s; Carver and Cheever speeding to the liquor store in Iowa in the icy winter of 1973.
Olivia Laing grew up in an alcoholic family herself. One spring, wanting to make sense of this ferocious, entangling disease, she took a journey across America that plunged her into the heart of these overlapping lives. As she travels from Cheever’s New York to Williams’ New Orleans, and from Hemingway’s Key West to Carver’s Port Angeles, she pieces together a topographical map of alcoholism, from the horrors of addiction to the miraculous possibilities of recovery. Beautiful, captivating, and original, The Trip to Echo Spring strips away the myth of the alcoholic writer to reveal the terrible price creativity can exert.
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Magic Is Dead
- By: Ian Frisch
- Narrator: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 10 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: February 26, 2019
- Language: English
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3.7(510 ratings)
3.7(510 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDIn the vein of Neil Strauss’ The Game and Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein comes the fascinating story of one man’s colorful, mysterious, and personal journey into the world of magic, and his unlikely invitation into anIn the vein of Neil Strauss’ The Game and Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein comes the fascinating story of one man’s colorful, mysterious, and personal journey into the world of magic, and his unlikely invitation into an underground secret society of revolutionary magicians from around the world.
Magic Is Dead is Ian Frisch’s head-first dive into a hidden world full of extraordinary characters and highly guarded secrets. It is a story of imagination, deception, and art that spotlights today’s most brilliant young magicians–a mysterious club known as the52, who are revolutionizing an ancient artform under the mantra Magic Is Dead.
Ian brings us with him as he not only gets to know this fascinating world, but also becomes an integral part of it. We meet the52’s founding members–Laura London, Daniel Madison, and Chris Ramsay–and explore their personal demons, professional aspirations, and what drew them to their craft. We join them at private gatherings of the most extraordinary magicians working today, follow them to magic conventions in Las Vegas and England, and discover some of the best tricks of the trade. We also encounter David Blaine; hang out with Penn Jillette; meet Dynamo, the U.K.’s most famous magician; and go behind the scenes of a Netflix magic show. Magic Is Dead is also a chronicle of magic’s rich history and how it has changed in the internet age, as the young guns embrace social media and move away from the old-school take on the craft.
As he tells the story of the52, and his role as its most unlikely member, Ian reveals his own connection with trickery and deceit and how he first learned the elements that make magic work from his poker-playing mother. He recalls their adventures in card rooms and casinos after his father’s sudden death, and shares a touching moment that he had, as a working journalist, with his childhood idol Shaquille O’Neal.
“Magic–the romanticism of the inexplicable, the awe and admiration of the unexpected–is an underlying force in how we view the world and its myriad possibilities,” Ian writes. As his journey continues, Ian not only becomes a performer and creator of magic–even fooling the late Anthony Bourdain during a chance encounter–he also cements a new brotherhood, and begins to understand his relationship with his father, fifteen years after his death. Written with psychological acuity and a keen eye for detail, Magic Is Dead is an engrossing tale full of wonder and surprise.
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In Praise of Wasting Time
- By: Alan Lightman
- Narrator: Alan Lightman
- Length: 2 hours 38 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio / TED
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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3.69(764 ratings)
3.69(764 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.99 USDIn this timely and essential book that offers a fresh take on the qualms of modern day life, Professor Alan Lightman investigates the creativity born from allowing our minds to freely roam, without attempting to accomplish anything and without anyIn this timely and essential book that offers a fresh take on the qualms of modern day life, Professor Alan Lightman investigates the creativity born from allowing our minds to freely roam, without attempting to accomplish anything and without any assigned tasks.
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We are all worried about wasting time. Especially in the West, we have created a frenzied lifestyle in which the twenty-four hours of each day are carved up, dissected, and reduced down to ten minute units of efficiency. We take our iPhones and laptops with us on vacation. We check email at restaurants or our brokerage accounts while walking in the park. When the school day ends, our children are overloaded with “extras.” Our university curricula are so crammed our young people don’t have time to reflect on the material they are supposed to be learning. Yet in the face of our time-driven existence, a great deal of evidence suggests there is great value in “wasting time,” of letting the mind lie fallow for some periods, of letting minutes and even hours go by without scheduled activities or intended tasks.
Gustav Mahler routinely took three or four-hour walks after lunch, stopping to jot down ideas in his notebook. Carl Jung did his most creative thinking and writing when he visited his country house. In his 1949 autobiography, Albert Einstein described how his thinking involved letting his mind roam over many possibilities and making connections between concepts that were previously unconnected. With In Praise of Wasting Time, Professor Alan Lightman documents the rush and heave of the modern world, suggests the technological and cultural origins of our time-driven lives, and examines the many values of “wasting time”–for replenishing the mind, for creative thought, and for finding and solidifying the inner self. Break free from the idea that we must not waste a single second, and discover how sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing at all. -
Be Who You Want
- By: Christian Jarrett
- Narrator: Joe Jameson
- Length: 7 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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3.66(140 ratings)
3.66(140 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDFrom cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Christian Jarrett, a fascinating book exploring the science of personality and how we can change ourselves for the better.What if you could exploit the plasticity of personality to change yourself in specific ways?From cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Christian Jarrett, a fascinating book exploring the science of personality and how we can change ourselves for the better.
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What if you could exploit the plasticity of personality to change yourself in specific ways?
Would you choose to become less neurotic? More self-disciplined? Less shy?
Until now, we’ve been told that we’re stuck with the personality we were born with: The introvert will never break out of their shell, the narcissist will be forever trapped gazing into the mirror.
In Be Who You Want, Dr. Christian Jarrett takes us on a thrilling journey, as he not only explores the ways that life changes us, but shows how we can deliberately shape our personalities to influence the course of our lives.
Dr. Jarrett draws on the latest research to provide evidence-based ways to change each of the main five personality traits, including how to become more emotionally stable, extraverted, and open-minded. Dr. Jarrett features compelling stories of people who have achieved profound personality change such as a gang-leader turned youth role model, a drug addict turned ultra-runner, and a cripplingly shy teenager turned Hollywood mega-star. He also delves into the upsides of the so-called Dark Triad of personality traits–narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy–and how we might exploit their advantages without ourselves going over to the dark side.
Filled with quizzes and interactive exercises to help us better understand the various aspects of our personalities, life stories, and passions, Be Who You Want will appeal to anyone who has ever felt constrained by how they’ve been characterized and wants to pursue lasting change. -
The Great Questions of Tomorrow
- By: David Rothkopf
- Narrator: David Rothkopf
- Length: 3 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio / TED
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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3.59(155 ratings)
3.59(155 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0011.99 USDWe are on the cusp of a sweeping revolution–one that will change every facet of our lives. The changes ahead will challenge and alter fundamental concepts such as national identity, human rights, money, and markets. In this pivotal,We are on the cusp of a sweeping revolution–one that will change every facet of our lives. The changes ahead will challenge and alter fundamental concepts such as national identity, human rights, money, and markets. In this pivotal, complicated moment, what are the great questions we need to ask to navigate our way forward?
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David Rothkopf believes in the power of questions. When sweeping changes have occurred in history–the religious awakenings of the Reformation; the scientific advances of the Age of Exploration; the technological developments of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution–they have brought with them, not just new knowledge, but provoked great questions about how we must live.
With the world at the threshold of profound change, Rothkopf seeks the important questions of our time–ones that will remake the world and our understanding of it. From the foundational questions: “Why do we live within a society?” and “What is war?” to modern concerns such as “Is access to the internet a basic human right?” The Great Questions of Tomorrow confronts our approach to the future and forces us to reimagine fundamental aspects of our lives–identity, economics, technology, government, war, and peace. -
The Power of Different
- By: Gail Saltz, M.D.
- Narrator: Gail Saltz, M.D.
- Length: 8 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: March 07, 2017
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDA powerful and inspiring examination of the connection between the potential for great talent and conditions commonly thought to be “disabilities,” revealing how the source of our struggles can be the origin of our greatest strengths.A powerful and inspiring examination of the connection between the potential for great talent and conditions commonly thought to be “disabilities,” revealing how the source of our struggles can be the origin of our greatest strengths.
In The Power of Different, psychiatrist and bestselling author Gail Saltz examines the latest scientific discoveries, profiles famous geniuses who have been diagnosed with all manner of brain “problems”–including learning disabilities, ADD, anxiety, Depression, Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and Autism–and tells the stories of lay individuals to demonstrate how specific deficits in certain areas of the brain are directly associated with the potential for great talent. Saltz shows how the very conditions that cause people to experience difficulty at school, in social situations, at home, or at work, are inextricably bound to creative, disciplinary, artistic, empathetic, and cognitive abilities.
In this pioneering work, listeners will find engaging scientific research and stories from historical geniuses and everyday individuals who have not only made the most of their conditions, but who have flourished because of them. They are leaning into their brain differences to:
*Identify areas of interest and expertise
*Develop work arounds
*Create the environments that best foster their talents
*Forge rewarding interpersonal relationshipsEnlightening and inspiring, The Power of Different proves that the unique wiring of every brain can be a source of strength and productivity, and contributes to the richness of our world.
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Secrets of a Creativity Coach
- By: Eric Maisel
- Narrator: Stephen Vernon
- Length: 6 hours 41 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDAn inside look at the creativity coaching process with twenty-five real-life examples of the correspondence between one of the world’s most renowned creativity coaches and his clients Having worked with all types of artists from every cornerAn inside look at the creativity coaching process with twenty-five real-life examples of the correspondence between one of the world’s most renowned creativity coaches and his clients
Having worked with all types of artists from every corner of the world, Eric Maisel is acutely aware of the issues that creative folks face: resistance and blockage, existential sadness, decreased productivity, marketing and promotion, distracting addictions, and simple survival are just a few of the obstacles artists struggle with on their paths to success. Secrets of a Creativity Coach utilizes real, word-for-word interactions between Maisel and twenty-five of his clients to provide listeners an inside look at the creativity coaching process.
With an emphasis on openness and simplicity, Secrets of a Creativity Coach clearly demonstrates the exact challenges creative and performing artists face, how they become stuck (and how to unstick them), and, perhaps most impressively, how change can happen in a short amount of time. Secrets of a Creativity Coach is a valuable resource for artists struggling to meet their goals and creativity coaches seeking to improve the communication between themselves and their clients in a digital setting.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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