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Maira Kalman

    Maira Kalman's work serves as a vibrant, narrative journal of her life and its many absurdities, created over three decades without formal training. Her distinctive style bridges children's books, illustrations for prominent magazines, and unique collaborative projects, always offering a playful yet insightful visual language. Kalman's art invites readers to explore the world through an unconventional lens, finding wonder and wit in the everyday. Her approach is a testament to the power of personal observation and artistic curiosity.

    The Elements of Style
    (Un)Fashion
    And the Pursuit of Happiness
    Ooh-la-la (Max in Love)
    The Principles of Uncertainty
    Women Holding Things
    • Still Life with Remorse

      • 144 pages
      • 6 hours of reading

      Exploring themes of remorse, joy, ancestry, and memory, this work combines poignant text and evocative illustrations from a celebrated artist and author. It serves as a reflective journey, inviting readers to contemplate their own experiences and connections through a blend of art and narrative. The creator's previous bestsellers underscore their unique ability to intertwine visual and literary elements, enhancing the emotional depth of this meditation.

      Still Life with Remorse2024
      4.2
    • Women Holding Things

      • 176 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      "Women Holding Things includes the bright, bold images featured in the booklet as well as an additional sixty-seven new paintings highlighted by thoughtful and intimate anecdotes, recollections, and ruminations. Most are portraits of women, both ordinary and famous, including Virginia Woolf, Sally Hemings, Hortense Cezanne, Gertrude Stein, as well as Kalman's family members and other real-life people. These women hold a range of objects, from the mundane--balloons, a cup, a whisk, a chicken, a hat--to the abstract--dreams and disappointments, sorrow and regret, joy and love. Women Holding Things explores the significance of the objects we carry--in our hands, hearts, and minds--and speaks to, and for, all of us. Maira Kalman's unique work is a celebration of life, of the act and the art of living, offering an original way of examining and understanding all that is important in our world--and ultimately within ourselves." -- Publisher description

      Women Holding Things2022
      4.6
    • Hurry Up And Wait

      • 64 pages
      • 3 hours of reading

      This is the second volume in a new series of collaborations between artist Maira Kalman, writer Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket), and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. This time a whimsical collection of images captures people in motion--or not. In snapshots by some of the world's most celebrated photographers, some people stride forth, dash across streets, race on bicycles, and jump over puddles, while others form snaking lines, daydream on park benches, and linger on sidewalks with friends.

      Hurry Up And Wait2015
    • My Favorite Things

      • 160 pages
      • 6 hours of reading

      Photographs of dancers. And of Dandies. And dogs.Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch.Naps. Breaths. Trees.Ingo Maurer's lamp.Buttons. Lists.These are some of my favorite thigns.

      My Favorite Things2014
      4.2
    • Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag

      • 48 pages
      • 2 hours of reading

      Maira Kalman's exuberant illustrations and humorous commentary bring design history to life in this inspired ABC book that celebrates thirty-one objects from the Cooper Hewitt.

      Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag2014
      4.0
    • Why We Broke Up

      • 354 pages
      • 13 hours of reading

      Sixteen-year-old Min Green writes a letter to Ed Slaterton in which she breaks up with him, documenting their relationship and how items in the accompanying box, from bottle caps to a cookbook, foretell the end.

      Why We Broke Up2012
      3.5
    • And the Pursuit of Happiness

      • 471 pages
      • 17 hours of reading

      Energized and inspired by the 2008 elections, celebrated illustrator Maira Kalman traveled to Washington, D.C., launching a year-long investigation of American democracy and its workings. The result is an artist’s idiosyncratic vision of history and contemporary politics. Whether returning to America’s historical roots at the Lincoln archive and Jefferson’s Monticello, or taking the pulse of the present day at a town hall meeting in Vermont, an Army base in Kentucky, and the inner chambers of the Supreme Court, Kalman finds evidence of democracy at work all around us. Her route is always one of fascinating indirection, but one that captures and shares in hundreds of beautiful, colorful reasons why we are proud to be Americans.

      And the Pursuit of Happiness2010
      4.3
    • “Sublime . . . Kalman’s elegantly witty and at times melancholy narrative runs arm in arm with her unmistakable paintings on a serendipitous romp through the history of the world.” —Vanity Fair “Wildly original . . . there’s nothing else even remotely like it . . . This hilarious, wise, and deeply moving volume [is] the ultimate picture book for grown-ups.” —O Magazine Maira Kalman paints her highly personal worldview in this inimitable combination of image and text An irresistible invitation to experience life through a beloved artist's psyche, The Principles of Uncertainty is a compilation of Maira Kalman's New York Times columns. Part personal narrative, part documentary, part travelogue, part chapbook, and all Kalman, these brilliant, whimsical paintings, ideas, and images - which initially appear random - ultimately form an intricately interconnected worldview, an idiosyncratic inner monologue.

      The Principles of Uncertainty2009
      4.4
    • The Elements of Style

      • 176 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      "So friendly, so classic, so delightful . . . Kalman has taken 'the little book' and made it even more elegant and uplifting." —Los Angeles Times The only style manual to ever appear on a bestseller list now refreshed by one of our most beloved illustrators Every English writer knows Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. The book’s mantra, make every word tell, is still on point. This much-loved classic, now in its fourth edition, will forever be the go-to guide when in need of a hint to make a turn of phrase clearer or a reminder on how to enliven prose with the active voice. The only style manual to ever appear on bestseller lists has explained to millions of readers the basic principals of plain English, and Maira Kalman’s fifty-seven exquisite illustrations give the revered work a jolt of new energy, making the learning experience more colorful and clear.

      The Elements of Style2005
      4.3
    • The Future Dictionary of America

      • 400 pages
      • 14 hours of reading

      Imagine what a dictionary might look like about thirty years hence, when all of the world's problems are solved and our current dictionaries are a distant memory. Dave Eggers, Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss have lined up an incredible array of writers to bring you that futuristic dictionary and a vision of the world as it might be. Think of it as a dictionary of language for describing what the future could look like a dictionary that is both useful and romantic, hopeful and necessary, pragmatic and idealistic, and frequently funny. This is science fiction but with a difference.

      The Future Dictionary of America2004
      3.5
    • (Un)Fashion

      • 224 pages
      • 8 hours of reading

      A delightfully unconventional view of contemporary fashion, as seen in the creative ways that people around the globe adorn their bodies.

      (Un)Fashion2000
      4.3
    • Ooh-la-la (Max in Love)

      • 32 pages
      • 2 hours of reading

      As he experiences Paris, the city of love, Max the millionaire poet dog knows he is missing something

      Ooh-la-la (Max in Love)1991
      4.4
    • Alexander loves listening to his sister Lulu's inventive bedtime stories--about the blue and green mountains where fish fly, the three cross-eyed dogs that eat in fancy restaurants, and Aunt Ida's most unusual party

      Hey Willy, see the pyramids1990
      4.2
    • Sayonara, Mrs. Kackleman

      • 32 pages
      • 2 hours of reading

      With a text perfectly attuned to the way children speak, and wild illustrations capturing the excitement of new sights, activities, and bustle, here is a trip no child will want to miss. Full color.

      Sayonara, Mrs. Kackleman1989
      3.7