New Year, New Books

Happy New Year to all of our friends! We’re so excited to jump into 2024 with you all!

I absolutely love the holidays, and New Year in particular - it’s a chance to make some changes for the better and look ahead to the coming year with hope and excitement! And if you’re anything like me, you also have to completely decompress after all the festivities. One of my favorite ways to do that is by settling down with a cup of delicious warm beverage of choice and a great book. 

I pride myself of being a pretty avid reader, devouring anything I can get my mitts on, but every now and then a book comes along that not only gets me super excited to read it, but also to maybe learn something about who I am as an artist in the process. Which leads me to my first recommendation for 2024: Making It So: A Memoir by Sir Patrick Stewart. 

Let me start off by saying I’m a huge fan of his - I grew up watching X-Men with my dad and Professor X was my immediate favorite (he can read people’s minds?!?!). As I got older, I consumed more of his work and I started to realize there was something very special about the way he portrayed all of his characters. As fantastical as they could be, from Professor X to Jean-Luc Picard, they always seemed so human. After finishing his memoir, I now know why (spoilers: it’s Shakespeare).

If you’re a total bibliophile like me, I strongly recommend getting both a physical copy as well as listening to the audiobook. The audiobook, obviously, because why wouldn’t you want Shakespeare Grandpa to tell you the story of his life and career with his own voice? And a physical copy because there are some moments that are so profound, you have to make a note of them to revisit later when you need some casual wisdom. 

Shakespeare isn’t the sole focus of his memoir, but the Bard certainly plays a large role (pun absolutely intended) in his life and career. From his humble beginnings as a child growing up in Yorkshire doing community theatre (am-drams, as he calls them), to his time on Star Trek: Next Generation, he always returned to Shakespeare’s words and characters as a means of inspiration and guidance. 

But one of the things that has stuck with me the most, especially as someone who’s worked in the performing arts, is that his career wasn’t an overnight success story. He had to really work at it, sometimes for not that much payoff, until he reached the goals he set for himself. And that was something surprisingly  comforting - if it’s rough for Sir Patrick Stewart, it’s ok if it’s rough right now for you too. Because through it all, he didn’t let his ego get in the way and he always tried to choose joy in his career.  

I know this will be a book I revisit many times, and if you choose to read it I hope you enjoy it! We can absolutely take a page from Patrick Stewart’s book and find fascination in the mundane this new year - May it be a great one and remember to choose joy.