Books like The lonely city by Olivia Laing

James Joyce’s Dubliners is a landmark collection of fifteen short stories set in late‑19th‑century Dublin, capturing ordinary lives and suppressed dreams while exploring themes of lost innocence, paralysis, and the moral fabric of Irish society.

Shirley Jackson’s classic psychological horror, *The Haunting of Hill House*, follows a lonely woman drawn into an abandoned mansion whose malevolent presence ultimately consumes her.

A curated collection of the daily habits and routines that powered some of history’s most influential artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers.

Strangers Drowning explores the lives of people who dedicate themselves to helping others, examining the ethical tensions and personal costs of extreme altruism.

Explores how creative partnerships—from Lennon and McCartney to the Curies and the Jobs—shape innovation, revealing the psychology and science behind partnership‑driven creativity.

Explores rivalries between four famous pairs of 20th‑century artists—Picasso & Matisse, Manet & Degas, Pollock & de Kooning, Freud & Bacon—highlighting how friendship and competition spurred new artistic breakthroughs.

#Loneliness offers a practical roadmap for overcoming social isolation, blending scientific insights with personal growth strategies to help readers find inner peace and redefine their lives.

"The early work of seven very different visual artists, John Everett Millais, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Michael Rothenstein, Gerard Hoffnung, Sarah Raphael and David Downes, is here presented in a series of case studies which investigate historical and contemporary attitudes to the teaching of drawing to young children. In this fascinating study, Sheila Paine, a former President of the National Society for Education in Art and Design, shares the experience of a lifetime's work in art education, to explore the mysteries of drawing fluency, its often precocious beginnings and the personal, social and cultural circumstances which help or hinder its development." "Most children enjoy drawing and use it to express a wide range of experiences and emotions. Drawing can offer an avenue of expression where words fail. So why do so many people stop drawing after the early school years? In Artists Emerging, Sheila Paine investigates how seven artists found ways to sustain and develop their drawing skill and expressive potential. The close study of these drawings reveals the sequences of their progress and their eventual achievement. The example of the successful intuitive strategies of these artists has much to offer everyone teaching drawing or wishing to learn."--Jacket.