Two books to help you keep it REAL

Going through life with a plan for everything is safe, but uninspiring. Maybe it's better to take things as they come and—get this—make mistakes once in a while. That's what Patricia Ryan Madson recommends in Improv Wisdom (Bell Tower, 2005). Using the skills she honed as a teacher in improvisational theater, Madson shows how when you're open to whatever comes your way exciting things can happen.

In How Rembrandt Reveals Your Beautiful, Imperfect Self (Harmony Books, 2005) author Roger Housden finds life lessons for the 21st century in the work of the 17th-century painter. Before Botox, before Prozac, human beings—grumpy, cheerful, young, old—faced the natural course of life with startling honesty. Using Rembrandt's life and art, especially his self-portraits, as a framework, this book reminds us of the timeless beauty of the unvarnished human experience.

—Leslie Gilbert Elman

May/June 2005