First posted on blog and facebook: December 21, 2019
Announced via email: Monday, December 30, 2019
Discussion on Facebook group: Wednesday, January 22, 2020 2pm EST

First, a bit on the Thriving Artist Book Club:

We will have a live discussion of the book three weeks after the book to be discussed is first announced via email.


All of the books featured by the Thriving Artist Book Club are ones that you can download as audiobooks for free using your local library card and the Libby or Overdrive apps. (The Libby app is prettier – the Overdrive app crashes my phone less…so I go with Overdrive.)

This format is recommended to help you a) save money and b) make progress while doing other things (like going for a walk, sitting in traffic, cleaning up your work space, or doing a repetitive visual hands-on task). You’re welcomed to get your hands on the physical version if that’s better for you.

That said… let’s get to our recommendation!

The book recommendation for this month is Know Your Value by Mika Brzezinski. This announcement is being made on December 21st, 2019. Feel free to leave comments on the Facebook page or on Instagram with #knowyourvalue and #thrivingartist before or after the live discussion. (Screenshots of the audiobook cover and timestamp are highly encouraged when posting on Instagram…and super easy to do!)

Some questions to consider while reading:

  1. Do you currently know your value? Are others recognizing it?
  2. What are some of the ways you see women undervaluing their work in your industry?
  3. Have you ever had an experience that shows you actually did not know your value, and had others point it out to you?
  4. What concrete steps can you take to make sure you know, and receive, your value?

Why this book?

Artist making this month’s recommendation: Heather Caunt-Nulton
Do you want to make the next featured book recommendation?

I’m recommending this book because, while I listen to absolute tons of audiobooks, this one really struck me as having a message that ALL artists, and especially all women, must understand in order to thrive. I had already decided I loved the book and it was one that I would recommend to friends when they asked what I have been reading / listening to lately. (Shout out to my top book recommendation trading friends – Kassi, Ali, and SarahKate.)

But then something so remarkably relevant to the book happened in my life that I was absolutely floored. I actually thought I did know my value. I teach other henna artists to know theirs on a regular basis at conferences. I didn’t need a book to teach me about this stuff. I just figured it was good to get more perspectives on the issue – to help improve my teaching, really.

But it was not just the same old same old. It was transformative and important. And, during the week I was reading (well, listening to) this book, thing played out in my life just as Mika describes in this book. It was almost surreal.

I am recommending this book because it will almost certainly change your life for the better, whether you apply it to your own business, your interactions with bosses and coworkers, or your personal life.





How to Recommend a Book for the Thriving Artist Book List:

Submit the following:

  1. The Title and Author of Your Book Choice (reminder: must be available as an audiobook on Overdrive or Libby.)
  2. Four thought-and-discussion-provoking questions
  3. The URL for your website (or social media account, etc) so we can provide a (do-follow!) link back to you.
  4. An explanation of why you’re recommending this book.
  5. Copy-paste this into your email so we know you know what’s up and you read these instructions: “I’d love to add this book to the Thriving Artist book list. Please post this recommendation to your blog, and I hope it gets featured to be book of the month!”

We will choose one book each month to be featured, and will add all recommendations to our general list by creating a blog post about it, including a do-follow link back to the URL you include in your email.