When the going gets tough, we need more art — and books, and books about art.

Funny Weather: Art In An Emergency is a essay collection by art critic & culture writer Olivia Laing. Art is a source of clarity, resistance, and repair, she says, then offers sweeping examples for our salvation. She offers profiles of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Georgia O'Keeffe, explores Maggie Nelson, Sally Rooney, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, and explores loneliness, technology, women, alcohol, sex and more.

In evocative language that sweeps across decades, Funny Weather shines a light on the lives of artists in insightful nuggets like this:

“Elegance shares a border with crankiness, independence with selfishness, and O’Keeffe was by no means a saint.”

And this:

“Here’s another kind of art I like: the anonymous, the cobbled together, the hand-me-down, the postscript; collaborations between strangers that marry jubilantly, that don’t quite fit.”

Art doesn't just happen to us, she says.

“It's work. What art does is provide material with which to think: new registers; new spaces. After that, friend, it's up to you.”

Go here to read a great INTERVIEW with Olivia Laing.

Bookish is an occasional feature to share books that hold my attention and my heart.