The Book Report by Rebecca Traver - Our Online Bookshop Curator‍

“When I say unshakable inner peace, it’s not about living as a Zen-like Buddha all the time, every single moment of the day.
It’s about being aware that you can connect to the light that is available to you at any moment of the day…a benevolent force of loving energy.”

‍~Shannon Kaiser

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Support + Inspiration for Modern Humans with Timeless Souls

Return to You: 11 Spiritual Lessons for Unshakable Inner Peace by spiritual teacher and author Shannon Kaiser is a step-by-step process for learning how to better tap into your innate wisdom and step into your true power. Her Oracle Card Deck is a beautiful accompaniment in support of connecting with the divine energies all around us. 

Wired for Love: A Neuroscientist's Journey Through Romance, Loss, and the Essence of Human Connection by Stephanie Cacioppo is more than a science story - it is a love story. Here, the author shares her personal experiences as well as cutting edge research data about how finding and growing with a partner literally reshapes our brains in positive ways.

The wonderful graphic designer and master chart maker Michelle Riall brings us Maybe This Will Help: How to Feel Better When Things Stay the Same - a visual pep talk on feeling better about not feeling better. Through creative charts and intimate peeks into the author’s life, it explores the big things that can feel unmanageable and the everyday humor that keeps us moving forward.

I also recommend her earlier work Am I Overthinking This? and its delightful companion journal as they deliver a playful take on the everyday, ordinary dilemmas of life that can loom so very large at times.

The Wisdom Wheel: A Mythic Journey Through the Four Directions by medical anthropologist, teacher, and shamanic practitioner Alberto Villoldo is a fresh approach to the traditional teachings about the medicine wheel - its archetypes and its four wisdom challenges.

If you’re finding yourself pushing your way through endings, beginnings, and places of uncertainty, then Pause, Rest, Be: Stillness Practices for Courage in Time of Change by Octavia F. Raheem is a book for you. Here, we are shown how to slow down and connect more deeply to our transitions, empowering ourselves to move through shifts with more grace, presence, and courage.

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Mother’s Day: A Celebration of Beauty + Gratitude

The Healing Garden is a lushly photographed guide to growing and using healing plants, including recipes, from Juliet Blankenspoor, the founder of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine.

While I have included Brené Brown’s latest book Atlas of the Heart in a previous Book Report, I feel it deserves to be included here. It’s a beautiful book with messages of love and connection throughout.

How to Be a Moonflower by Katie Daisy is an exquisite celebration of the magic and mystery of the world at night. From night-blooming flowers to cozy campfires, from moon baths to meteor showers, Katie Daisy’s illustrations capture the beauty that comes to life in the darkness.

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Empathic + Intuitive Arts

Sensitive is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World by Anita Moorjani is a guide for empaths, or those who feel more sensitive to their surroundings than most, on how to live a healthier, more balanced life. Many of you will be familiar with Anita’s earlier work, the global phenomenon Dying to Be Me, which has just been reissued with a new afterword.

The Science of Channeling: Why You Should Trust Your Intuition and Embrace the Force That Connects Us All by Helané Wahbeh with a foreword by Eben Alexander is a brilliant and informative inquiry into the latest science behind channeling and offers powerful tools to help the reader hone their abilities. 

Intuitive Witchcraft: How to Use Intuition to Elevate Your Craft by Astrea Taylor features practical exercises, examples, and rituals around embracing the wisdom of your inner voice and how to unlock your intuitive magical potential. 

The Space in Between: An Empath's Field Guide by Signe Myers Hovem captures the essence of what it means to live and thrive as an empath. The author outlines what she calls the five different landscapes and fields of consciousness: the Field of Reflection, the Field of Definition, the Field of Sensing, the Field of Awareness and Experience, and the Field of Mystery.

The Art of Psychic Reiki: Developing Your Intuitive and Empathic Abilities for Energy Healing by master Reiki teacher Lisa Campion is a valuable resource for both the newcomer and the experienced healer, offering wisdom and insight around cultivating and trusting your natural intuition, developing your empathic and psychic abilities, working with your spirit guides, and grounding and protecting yourself as a practitioner of this sacred healing art.

Prism Oracle: Tap into Your Intuition with the Magic of Color by Nicole Pivitotto is a unique oracle deck; exploring the links between color and emotion with 45 cards, each a different hue. With a comprehensive guidebook offering direction on how to interpret the cards as a message from your higher self.

I’m crazy about this deck…The Intuitive Night Goddess Tarot from Linzi Silverman. This is all about connecting with goddess magic without and within. With illustrations of nighttime scenes full of lush nature images, animals, magic, and beauty, with goddesses standing proudly, fiercely, and wildly among them.

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The Healing Journey of Creative Self-Expression

In Writing Down the Bones Deck: 60 Cards to Free the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg we are gifted with the opportunity to be inspired in our daily writing practices. Each card contains a writing topic on one side and a short lesson on the reverse - all delivered in Natalie’s trademark honest, heartfelt style.

Deep Creativity: Seven Ways to Spark Your Creative Spirit by Deborah Anne Quibell, Jennifer Leigh Selig, and Dennis Patrick Slattery with a foreword by Thomas Moore is an intimate exploration of how these authors approach and practice creativity and collaboration across three generations. Included are practical and accessible meditations and exercises to help us engage in and strengthen our creative spirits.

Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time by the gifted violinist and insightful author Natalie Hodges asks some of the most interesting questions I’ve come across in a long while; How does time shape consciousness and consciousness, time? Do we live in time, or does time live in us? And how does music, with its patterns of rhythm and harmony inform our experience of time? She manages to explore these matters while weaving in her own experiences with performance anxiety, the pressures of ambition, and difficult family dynamics.

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Inspiration for the Young and Young at Heart

Happy 100^th Birthday to The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams!! This cherished classic tale of the power of enduring love has a gorgeous new look with illustrations from Caldecott Medal winner Erin Stead. 

Backyard Fairies by Phoebe Wahl is a delightful peek into the hidden world of fairies, sprites, and other magical creatures. So fun!

And lastly, for the middle grade reader may I suggest Healer & Witch by Nancy Werlin? This is a beautifully crafted story of love, the magical properties of the natural world, and how a young woman comes into her own as a gifted healer.

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“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”

~J.M. Barrie

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.