Daily Rituals: Women at Work

By: Mason Currey

Narrated by: January LaVoy, Michael Crouch

More of Mason Currey's irresistible Daily Rituals, this time exploring the daily obstacles and rituals of women who are artists--painters, composers, sculptors, scientists, filmmakers, and performers. We see how these brilliant minds get to work, the choices they have to make: rebuffing convention, stealing (or secreting away) time from the pull of husbands, wives, children, obligations, in order to create their creations.

From those who are the masters of their craft (Eudora Welty, Lynn Fontanne, Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie Curie) to those who were recognized in a burst of acclaim (Lorraine Hansberry, Zadie Smith) . . . from Clara Schumann and Shirley Jackson, carving out small amounts of time from family life, to Isadora Duncan and Agnes Martin, rejecting the demands of domesticity, Currey shows us the large and small (and abiding) choices these women made--and continue to make--for their art: Isak Dinesen, "I promised the Devil my soul, and in return he promised me that everything I was going to experience would be turned into tales," Dinesen subsisting on oysters and Champagne but also amphetamines, which gave her the overdrive she required . . . And the rituals (daily and otherwise) that guide these artists: Isabel Allende starting a new book only on January 8th . . . Hilary Mantel taking a shower to combat writers' block ("I am the cleanest person I know") . . . Tallulah Bankhead coping with her three phobias (hating to go to bed, hating to get up, and hating to be alone), which, could she "mute them," would make her life "as slick as a sonnet, but as dull as ditch water" . . . Lillian Hellman chain-smoking three packs of cigarettes and drinking twenty cups of coffee a day--and, after milking the cow and cleaning the barn, writing out of "elation, depression, hope" ("That is the exact order. Hope sets in toward nightfall. That's when you tell yourself that you're going to be better the next time, so help you God.") . . . Diane Arbus, doing what "gnaws at" her . . . Colette, locked in her writing room by her first husband, Henry Gauthier-Villars (nom de plume: Willy) and not being "let out" until completing her daily quota (she wrote five pages a day and threw away the fifth). Colette later said, "A prison is one of the best workshops" . . . Jessye Norman disdaining routines or rituals of any kind, seeing them as "a crutch" . . . and Octavia Butler writing every day no matter what ("screw inspiration").
Germaine de Staël . . . Elizabeth Barrett Browning . . . George Eliot . . . Edith Wharton . . . Virginia Woolf . . . Edna Ferber . . . Doris Lessing . . . Pina Bausch . . . Frida Kahlo . . . Marguerite Duras . . . Helen Frankenthaler . . . Patti Smith, and 131 more--on their daily routines, superstitions, fears, eating (and drinking) habits, and other finely (and not so finely) calibrated rituals that help summon up willpower and self-discipline, keeping themselves afloat with optimism and fight, as they create (and avoid creating) their creations.

Critic reviews

"This outstanding compendium of women artists at work is an admirably succinct portrait of some distinctly uncommon lives. It is also consistently entertaining and full of insights."

--Meryle Secrest

Another great book on the routines of creatives!

I was stoked to see another book by Mason Currey pop up on Audible this last week, especially since I’ve listened to his first installment of Daily Rituals a few times—for inspiration AND reassurance that not all creatives are geniuses day by day. This one didn’t disappoint at all, and offered much more of the insights seen in book 1. Will be listening again and I hope he puts out another in a few years!

First book was way better.

Great read and very knowledgeable, but if I had known the preface as to why this book was written I probably wouldn’t have bought it… something about male guilt being the only reason why this was created leaves a bad taste in my mouth. First book was way better.

Wonderful inspiration!

As a creative person myself with a corporate day job, I found this book to be incredibly inspiring as I’m trying to formulate daily rituals that work for me. It’s validating because you’re bound to find at least one person, if not many, whose preferences and working habits you can relate to — while learning more about those who you don’t. I’m definitely feeling the need to work on my most effective routine for myself, which is what I hoped for when purchasing the book.

Delicious little mind snacks

I enjoyed the first book in this series and loved Mason’s mea culpa (that he reads himself) on this one. I own this book in hardcover too (it’s gorgeous). I listen to the audio version just before bed and it comforts me to hear of other women artists who, like me, struggle to balance work, life and their various passions.

I’ve learned a lot from listening to this book. But most of all, it has been a giant permission slip to just find my own way because it’s clear that there IS no magic formula or optimal routine. There’s only you - your relationship to your muse and the rest of your responsibilities.

Highly recommend!

Not at all what I expected.

The format and the tiny stories were presented in such an odd manner. The readers voice was not at all pleasant.

A menagerie of inspiration

This is a really nice set of vignettes about many female makers, creators, and artists processes, or lack thereof, and what builds inspiration for their work. It is nice that the book avoids the idea that there is any special formula and instead brings inspiration through the diversity of approaches taken. I tended to resonate with those who were tortured writers and others who were prone to immersion techniques. From time to time, it felt mundane or without the details to understand the artist and their style of work. Still, I appreciated the books purpose and the editor's acknowledgement that the experiences of women are a critical part of understanding artistry.