Book cover of The Lost Carving: A Journey to the Heart of Making

Book description

“A beautiful, intricate meditation on creativity and discovery, on fire and rebirth.” —Elizabeth Gilbert

Awestruck at the sight of a Grinling Gibbons carving in a London church, David Esterly chose to dedicate his life to woodcarving—its physical rhythms, intricate beauty, and intellectual demands. Forty years later, he is the foremost…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Lost Carving as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a book that I’ve returned to again and again over the years. Each time I seem to discover an aspect of the story that transforms it into something new. That’s a thrilling sensation, almost as if I’ve found a magical volume that hides an entire library of novels, philosophy, and history in just two hundred and eighty pages. 

On the surface, it ought to be a very simple piece of biography: a record of David Eastly’s work to recreate a decorative woodcarving that was consumed by a fire at Hampton Court Palace. Though that alone is gripping enough.…

If you love The Lost Carving...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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