I've been a fan of Amanda Palmer, her music and her personality, for a while now. I admire how open, honest, brash, and brave she is. The Art of Asking is based on a TED talk she gave in 2013, expanded here to talk about her life as an artist and musician along with musings on why it's important to ask for help, why we often find it difficult to ask, and why sometimes asking for help doesn't get us what we asked for. (If you listen to the audiobook, you also get Amanda singing with her ukulele and some bonus songs by her and some of her friends.)
This is one of those books that smacked me upside the head and made me rethink...well, pretty much everything. It resonated with me at a subatomic level and illuminated some things that have been drifting around my head for a long time, giving me a new clarity on what I want to do in life. Like Grant Morrison's Supergods, this book combines very personal memoir with explorations of a broader philosophy. And like Supergods, this is a book I will definitely be going back to again and again for inspiration and insight.