The Book Report by Rebecca Traver - Our Online Bookshop Curator

Hello young lovers wherever you are, whatever your age, and whatever form your love takes! Whether or not Valentine’s Day feels special to you, there’s no doubt in my mind that love does. Let’s choose more of that together, shall we? Everyone gets their heart broken sooner or later. The wisest among us know that this is not a reason for despair (at least for long). This is how we grow - by choosing love over and over and over again.

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With that in mind, let’s explore some resources to help us have healthier, better, and more loving relationships - including with ourselves.

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I first heard about Elizabeth Earnshaw’s book I Want This to Work: An Inclusive Guide to Navigating the Most Difficult Relationship Issues We Face in the Modern Age from a podcast interview & was immediately taken by how clear, practical, and knowledgeable her perspectives are on the subject of relationships. And that title - wow - more or less sums it up, doesn’t it? Culturally tuned in, LGBTQIA+ friendly, and written for both married and unmarried couples, this book brings us an accessible guide to relationship healing and creating enduring intimacy.

I am a big fan of Alain de Botton’s School of Life books and here are two which focus specifically on relationships and emotional literacy:

What They Forgot to Teach You at School: Essential Emotional Lessons Needed to Thrive examines important life issues such as who to start a relationship with, how to trust people, how to understand one’s own psyche, how to move on from sorrow or betrayal, and how to cope with anxiety and shame. This collection of insights and lines of inquiry is offered in the hope of helping us to make sense of the dance between lives and hearts.

The Couple's Workbook: Homework to Help Love Last is rich with therapeutic exercises to help couples nurture those essential qualities every healthy relationship needs; patience, forgiveness, and humor. I invite you to come to this book with an open mind and heart. I’m confident that you will be inspired and educated in the process.

I have learned a lot about relationships over the years from Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt; co-authors and a married couple in ‘real life’. Receiving Love: Transform Your Relationship by Letting Yourself Be Loved is one of my favorites. It helps us to work with some of the stickiest stuff two people can conjure together, including learning how to tell our partners what we really want or need, what satisfaction means and doesn’t mean for us, and how we can learn how to better receive gifts, kind gestures, or compliments from our partners.

Alchemy of the Heart by Michael Brown, author of The Presence Process, shows us how, when the heart is allowed to work its magic, we discover that we can transmute our pain into peace, our grief into joy, and our anger into serenity. Brown describes the healing and integrative benefits of accepting the unacceptable instead of pushing it away, and in the process discover that on the other side of psychological and emotional pain is personal growth - and that our pain is simply our healing wanting to break through.

Hearticulations by Jeff Brown is a collection of short pieces devoted to the subject of loving connection - in all its many forms, including friendship, romantic partnerships, family bonds, and soul-friendships. Where we struggle in relationship, we can also heal in relationship. This is one of those books to keep handy at the bedside for times when we need a gentle reminder of the enduring power of love.

It’s time to get excited! Julia Cameron has a new book out!

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Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection is the just released work by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, the classic teachings of the power of our inner artist to transform our lives. In this new 6-week program we are gifted with her insights gained along her path of self-discovery through creativity. Here, Cameron shares a mindful collection of prayer practices intended to help us connect with and open to our creative soul nature. In addition to her previous tools for growth (Morning Pages, Artist Dates, and Artist Walks), she introduces a fourth tool, Writing Out of Guidance. This is a book to cherish, friends.

“The purpose of a healing space is to inspire you to open to the unexpected wisdom, creativity, and beauty in your immediate experience, through the eyes and heart of the alchemist that you are.”

~Matt Licata, A Healing Space

Here are a few terrific inspirational decks and a book about the tarot that have come to my attention recently and feel eminently share-worthy:

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How to Be a Wildflower Deck is the latest offering from Katie Daisy, author of How to Be a Wildflower: A Field Guide and The Wildflower's Workbook: A Journal for Self-Discovery in Nature. The first thing to love about her deck is how beautifully illustrated it is and the next thing is, well, everything else! Included are 78 cards to support you in your quest for insight and guidance with a special focus on the extraordinary in the ordinary and creative mindfulness.

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Renowned spiritual teacher and coach Cheryl Richardson’s Self-Care Wisdom Cards is a lovely way to inspire you, renew you, and help you reclaim your life from whatever’s draining your precious energy. This deck puts the power to care for yourself - and thereby others - literally in your hands. 

Ethereal Visions Illuminated Tarot Deck by Matt Hughes draws inspiration from elegance of the Art Nouveau movement and has two additional cards to supplement the traditional Major Arcana, for a total of 80 cards. Each card is hand drawn and colored and is illuminated with gold foil stamping. With a 48-page booklet. This deck is a beauty.

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Jessica Dore’s Tarot for Change: Using the Cards for Self-Care, Acceptance, and Growth is a deep dive into working with the tarot to better understand ourselves and live in alignment with what’s precious. Included is guidance on how to choose a deck, interpret images, and build a relationship with the cards, while also demonstrating how the mythic imagery of tarot supports modern therapeutic concepts like mindfulness, acceptance, and compassion. 

Sometimes it takes darkness
and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

~David Whyte

Please visit our online Bookshop to see our full selection of lists and titles. 

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May you be inspired, supported, and delighted by what you find here

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