Best Selling Books by Leanne Shapton

A collection of autobiographical sketches that explore the worlds of competitive and recreational swimming. From her training for the Olympic trials as a teenager, to meditative swims in pools and oceans as an adult, Shapton contemplates the sport that has shaped her life.

A SINGULAR EXPLORATION OF MODERN LOVE AND ALL ITS DEMONS, IN WORDS AND DRAWINGS In this brilliant gem of a book, artist/writer Leanne Shapton weaves together a voyeuristic tale of love and life through epigrammatic vignettes and sleek line drawings. Entire relationships are encapsulated in a few, stingingly perfect lines: "Colleen was Walter''s ex-girlfriend from med school. She loved to dance with men at weddings." Pricking our insecurities, Shapton introduces us to Kim, whose ex "kept a drawerful of love letters in a kitchen drawer . . . She would stare at it while she cooked." And Ben''s ex, "a physiotherapist for the U.S. men''s and women''s Olympic swim teams. She wore small white shorts year-round." Fascinated by her own jealousy, Shapton interviewed acquaintances about their anxieties and peccadilloes, and the result is a book of surpassing originality: one of those unusual books that comes along to delight us all, like An Exaltation of Larks or Love, Loss, and What I Wore or Griffin and Sabine. Was She Pretty? can also share the shelf with the work of the legendary William Steig, whose early, psychologically revealing work inspired Shapton. An unflinching observer of human behavior, she invites us to peer into the hearts and minds of her characters—while reminding us that we shouldn''t be surprised if we see ourselves staring right back.

"Reading [Guestbook] feels akin to walking through an art exhibit, each piece linked in ways that are ineffable but clear. . . yearning, like a ghost, lingers long after the stories are done." --NPR One of our most imaginative writers and artists explores the visitations that haunt us in the midst of life, and reinvents the very way we narrate experience. A tennis prodigy collapses after his wins, crediting them to an invisible, not entirely benevolent presence. A series of ghosts appear at their former bedsides, some distraught, some fascinated, to witness their unfamiliar occupants. A woman returns from a visit to Alcatraz with an uncomfortable feeling. The spirit of a prisoner has attached himself to you, a friend tells her. He sensed the sympathy you had for those men. In more than two dozen stories and vignettes, accompanied by an evocative curiosity cabinet of artifacts and images, Guestbook beckons us through the glimmering, unsettling evidence that marks our paths in life.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Women in Clothes is a book unlike any other. It is essentially a conversation among hundreds of women of all nationalities—famous, anonymous, religious, secular, married, single, young, old—on the subject of clothing, and how the garments we put on every day define and shape our lives. It began with a survey. The editors composed a list of more than fifty questions designed to prompt women to think more deeply about their personal style. Writers, activists, and artists including Cindy Sherman, Kim Gordon, Kalpona Akter, Sarah Nicole Prickett, Tavi Gevinson, Miranda July, Roxane Gay, Lena Dunham, and Molly Ringwald answered these questions with photographs, interviews, personal testimonies, and illustrations. Even our most basic clothing choices can give us confidence, show the connection between our appearance and our habits of mind, express our values and our politics, bond us with our friends, or function as armor or disguise. They are the tools we use to reinvent ourselves and to transform how others see us. Women in Clothes embraces the complexity of women’s style decisions, revealing the sometimes funny, sometimes strange, always thoughtful impulses that influence our daily ritual of getting dressed.

A love story told in the form of an auction catalog. Auction catalogs can tell you a lot about a person -- their passions and vanities, peccadilloes and aesthetics; their flush years and lean. Think of the collections of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Truman Capote, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. In Leanne Shapton''s marvelously inventive and invented auction catalog, the 325 lots up for auction are what remain from the relationship between Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris (who aren''t real people, but might as well be). Through photographs of the couple''s personal effects -- the usual auction items (jewelry, fine art, and rare furniture) and the seemingly worthless (pajamas, Post-it notes, worn paperbacks) -- the story of a failed love affair vividly (and cleverly) emerges. From first meeting to final separation, the progress and rituals of intimacy are revealed through the couple''s accumulated relics and memorabilia. And a love story, in all its tenderness and struggle, emerges from the evidence that has been left behind, laid out for us to appraise and appreciate. In an earlier work, Was She Pretty?, Shapton, a talented artist and illustrator, subtly explored the seemingly simple yet powerfully complicated nature of sexual jealousy. In Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris—a very different yet equally original book—she invites us to contemplate what is truly valuable, and to consider the art we make of our private lives.

The inner thoughts, struggles and insights of three young, innovative graphic designers-Jason Fulford, Peter Buchanan-Smith and Leanne Shapton-are explored here. Using the word "spine" as its theme, the book examines the worlds of publishing and self-publishing from the perspective of the graphic designer. Leanne Shapton, an illustrator, graphic designer and publisher, was art director for the Arts and Life section of the National Post.

En Bocetos de natación, Leanne Shapton, con una prosa elegante, meditativa y de ligera belleza, explora una vida que transcurre siempre alrededor del agua. La natación atraviesa su vida y su obra. De adolescente se entrenó para ser nadadora olímpica y representar a Canadá en competiciones de alto nivel. Como adulta, el nado recreativo en piscinas de hotel o en el mar durante unas vacaciones son parte de su cotidianeidad. De la disciplina de un entrenamiento de élite a la introspección de una artista bajo el agua, Shapton compone un libro que es en sí mismo una obra de arte.

A beautifully illustrated board book, Toys Talking will surprise and delight the very youngest readers In this deceptively simple board book, Leanne Shapton explores the inner life of children''s toys. Designed to appeal to the very youngest readers, penguins, panda bears, stuffed dogs and cuddly cats reflect on jokes, consider the weather, and long for tomorrow to come.

Wat gebeurt er als je ruim zeshonderd vrouwen een enquête laat beantwoorden over kleding? Het antwoord is Vrouwen & kleren; een volstrekt uniek boek, in essentie een gesprek met honderden vrouwen van alle nationaliteiten - beroemd en anoniem, gelovig en ongelovig, getrouwd en single, jong en oud - over kleding en de manier waarop die je leven definieert en vormgeeft. Het begon allemaal met een enquête, opgesteld door Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits en Leanne Shapton. Vijftig vragen die vrouwen moeten aanmoedigen dieper over hun persoonlijke stijl na te denken. De vragen gingen naar meer dan zeshonderd vrouwen toe, onder wie schrijfsters, activistes, actrices en beeldend kunstenaressen als Cindy Sherman, Kim Gordon, Kalpona Akter, Sarah Nicole Prickett, Tavi Gevinson, Miranda July, Sasha Grey, Lena Dunham en Molly Ringwald. En zij antwoordden met foto''s, interviews, persoonlijke getuigenissen en illustraties. In deze Nederlandse editie zijn bijdragen toegevoegd van onder anderen Neelie Kroes, Isabelle Beernaert, Daphne Deckers, Gerdi Verbeet, Grietje Braaksma, Igone de Jongh en Evi Hanssen. Het resultaat is een prachtig, rijk geïllustreerd en afwisselend boek geworden, een intiem kijkje achter de schermen van de vrouwelijke stijl. Vrouwen & kleren laat zien dat zelfs de meest elementaire kledingkeuze zelfvertrouwen kan geven, het verband tussen uiterlijk en innerlijk laat zien, uiting geeft aan waarden en politieke overtuigingen, de band met de omgeving versterkt en als harnas of vermomming dient. Kleren zijn de instrumenten die we gebruiken om onszelf opnieuw uit te vinden en de blik van anderen te beïnvloeden. Vrouwen & kleren laat de complexiteit van kledingkeuzes zien en openbaart de soms grappige, soms vreemde, maar altijd veelzeggende impulsen achter het dagelijkse aankleedritueel. Een briljante, unieke verkenning van de vragen die we onszelf elke dag bij het aankleden stellen, met antwoorden van meer dan zeshonderd vrouwen.

A new edition of the artist’s bold reinterpretation of a century-old book With a foreword by Sheila Heti, Leanne Shapton’s cult art book inspired by a government textbook is back in print with a gorgeous new cover. While shopping in the used-book store the Monkey''s Paw in Toronto, Leanne Shapton happened upon a 1956 edition of the stalwart reference book The Native Trees of Canada, originally published in 1917 by the Canadian Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. Most people might simply view the book as a dry cataloging of a banal subject; Shapton, however, saw beauty in the technical details and was inspired to create her own interpretation of The Native Trees of Canada. Shapton distills each image into its simplest form, using vivid colors in lush ink and house paint. She takes the otherwise complex objects of trees, pinecones, and seeds and strips them down into bold, almost abstract shapes and colors: the water birch is represented as two pulsating red bulbs contrasted against a gray backdrop; the eastern white pine is represented by a close-up of its cone against a radiant summer sky. The author of Guest Book; Toys Talking; Sunday Night Movies; Swimming Studies; Was She Pretty? and Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry, Shapton puts forth yet another entirely new facet of her creative artistry.

Ethereal illustrations expand on a New York Times series by an acclaimed author and artist Sunday Night Movies features Leanne Shapton''s watercolors of resonant moments in black-and-white cinema. Selecting a brief fragment of each chosen film, she creates an indelible image that is both a hand-painted movie still and a personal response to a fleeting celluloid moment. Together, the seventy-eight paintings create a valentine to the world of cinema. Shapton''s journey through film history becomes a wistful celebration of the subtle moments in stories, which can often slip by unnoticed. What could be a simple title, still life, or portrait of an actor becomes both illusive and allusive through the medium of these personal paintings. Shapton''s bestselling Petit Livre book The Native Trees of Canada took a decades-old government catalogue and reimagined it, employing bold colors and stark shapes to represent familiar trees in their majestic glory. The book was a sleeper hit and went through multiple printings. With Sunday Night Movies she brings her love of film to light, and the effect is restrained and fanciful, familiar and all new.

Written by the author of Important Artifacts and Personal Property, this book creates an authorly and artistic response to travel, work and being a passenger. It is part of a series of twelve books tied to the twelve lines of the London Underground, as Tfl celebrates 150 years of the Tube with Penguin.

Drawings by Leanne Shapton