The Book Report by Rebecca Traver - Our Online Bookshop Curator
Dear Reader, I know how precious your time is and I am beyond grateful that you are choosing to grant a measure of it to The Book Report. Without further ado…
I’m so pleased to announce August’s Author of the Month - the wonderful world-renowned intuitive counselor, psychic medium, author, and artist Colette Baron-Reid whose over 30 years of practice and exploration easily grant her a place at the table of the best of the best contemporary spiritual teachers and guides. Her work stands the test of time and has much to teach about self-reliance, personal mastery, the love-infused magic of the unseen realms and how we may best access it, and so much more.
Next comes a mix of New + Newly Discovered books chosen to support + inspire + inform you; some wonderful books for Young + Young at Heart readers, and a couple of ‘Just Because + Just for Fun’ offerings.
“Faith in the guidance of Spirit gives you the courage to take risks, because you’re assured that whatever happens, a Higher Power is on your side and you will survive.”
~Colette Baron-Reid
Author of the Month – Colette Baron-Reid
My connection to the world and work of Colette Baron-Reid began with The Enchanted Map Oracle Deck for Love, Purpose, Healing, Magic, and Happiness and it’s been a trusted ally ever since. While the deck comes with its own guidebook, I suggest adding her book The Map: Finding the Magic and Meaning in the Story of Your Life for added insight and support.
Her most recent offering is The Oracle Card Journal: A Daily Practice for Igniting Your Insight, Intuition, and Magic which uses daily oracle card readings from any deck (or decks) in a 40-day process toward profound personal growth. In the end, you will find your relationship with the Universe strengthened, achieve greater access to the hidden realms, and deepen your own self-knowledge.
If you’re feeling a bit lost on your path, may I suggest Uncharted: The Journey Through Uncertainty to Infinite Possibility where we learn how to create our own map of the soul, guided on an inward journey through the five interconnected realms of Mind, Light, Energy, and Form.
In Messages from Spirit: The Extraordinary Power of Oracles, Omens, and Signs we learn how we’re made of – and surrounded by – an all-knowing divine field of intelligence waiting to guide and give us help whenever we ask for it. We just need to learn how to enter the conversation and understand the dialogue and this book serves to get us started.
I’m guessing that, like me, you are drawn to the mystery, beauty, and magic of the stone and crystal realms. If so, please consider adding Crystal Spirits Oracle Deck and Guidebook for Crystal Healing Messages, Divination, Clarity, and Spiritual Guidance to your tool kit. With these realms as our allies, we can learn to connect with divine guidance and align with the consciousness of the Universe so that we can take charge of our own destiny while working with crystals to realize our life’s highest purpose.
And finally, I want to share her amazing tarot deck, The Good Tarot: A 78-Card Modern Tarot Deck and Guidebook. When Colette first began doing professional oracle and tarot card readings almost 30 years ago, she used the traditional tarot as a source of intuitive guidance. Now she has taken the classical form and given it a modern twist, with suits and card meanings that are focused on transformation and personal growth. I love using this deck!
For more from Colette Baron-Reid, click here.
“We are all storytellers, and if we listen deeply and share honestly, we will find that wonderful feeling of community and wisdom in the archetypal themes we all share as we evolve collectively – themes such as freedom, playfulness, mastery, and learning.”
~Colette Baron-Reid
New + Newly Discovered
The Art of Solitude is celebrated Buddhist writer Stephen Batchelor’s story of how, upon turning sixty, he took a sabbatical from his teaching and turned his attention to solitude - a practice integral to the meditative traditions he had long studied and taught. He aimed to venture more deeply into solitude, discovering its full extent and depth. In a hyperconnected world that is at the same time plagued by social isolation, this book shows how to enjoy the sacred solitude that is as the heart of every human life.
LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven from religious studies professor Christopher M. Bache is a documentation of his insights from 73 LSD sessions conducted over the course of 20 years. Pushing the boundaries of theory and practice, the author shows how psychedelic experience can take you beyond self-transformation into collective transformation, beyond the present into the future, revealing spirit and matter in perfect balance.
The Women of Myth Oracle Deck: Guidance and Insight from the Divine and Diverse Feminine by Maria Sofia Marmanides is a beauty of a deck – allowing you to consult the wisdom of 50 mythic women, each with their own tales of triumph, tragedy, history, heartbreak, and often, everything all at once and in between.
The Kitchen Witch: Your Complete Guide to Creating a Magical Kitchen with Natural Ingredients, Sacred Rituals, and Spellwork by Skye Alexander reminds us that the kitchen is an essential part of your magical practice. From preparing food to enjoying a meal, it’s important to honor the process of making a dish, to appreciate each individual ingredient, and to make magic from the recipes you already know and love. Learn how to transform your favorite dishes into magical spells, use different ingredients to maximum advantage, and enhance your kitchen wizardry.
The Empowerment Solution: Six Keys to Unlocking Your Full Potential with the Subconscious Mind from physician and researcher Friedman Schaub is a strong ally for learning how to break free from self-sabotaging survival patterns and transform your life with compassionate awareness.
The Light Room by Kate Zambreno is a moving account of caretaking in a time of uncertainty and loss. Moving through the seasons, returning often to parks and green spaces, the author captures the isolation and exhaustion of being home with a baby and small child, but also the small and transcendent moments of beauty and joy. This book brings forward a vision of how to live in ways that move away from disenchantment, and toward light and possibility.
For more New + Newly Discovered titles, click here!
“The biggest obstacle to any kind of change is the voice that tells you it’s impossible.”
~Geneen Roth
Books for Young Readers + The People Who Love Them
Freewater from Amina Luqman-Dawson is a lyrical, accessible historical middle-grade novel about two enslaved children’s escape from a plantation and the many ways in which they find freedom. It has been honored with a Newberry Award and a Coretta Scott King Author Award and would fit right in on your most cherished bookshelf.
The Kingdom Over the Sea by Zohra Nabi is another middle-grade novel which tells the tale of a young girl named Yara who, after learning that her mother has died, finds a letter her mother has left behind with a strange set of instructions. Yara must travel away from the home she has always known to a place that doesn’t exist on any ordinary map – a world of sorcerers, alchemists, and simmering magic.
From the Tops of the Trees from Kao Kalia Yang with illustrations by Rachel Wada is the story of four year old Kalia – a little girl trying to figure out her place in the world when the only world she has ever known is within the fences of a refugee camp. One day her father leads her to the tallest tree in the camp and, secure in her father’s arms, Kalia sees the spread of a world beyond.
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller is an uplifting middle grade novel bringing Korean folklore to life as a young girl embarks on a quest to unlock the power of stories that will help her to heal her sick grandmother.
For more books for young readers click here.
Para libros para lectores jóvenes en Español haga clic aquí.
Just Because + Just for Fun
Cats on Catnip by photographer and self-confessed crazy cat man Andrew Marttila is a laugh out loud collection of dozens of photos of funny and adorable cats as they play with, roll in, and chow down their favorite snack of choice – catnip, of course!
What could better complement Cats on Catnip than A Grow-Your-Own Catnip Kit? Included is everything a cat lover needs to grow their own catnip at home; a 2 ½ inch ceramic pot, a package of catnip seeds, peat pellet that expands in water, a 32-page guidebook, and three 3” x 2 ½” magnets of funny cats eating catnip.
“What greater gift than the love of a cat.”
~Charles Dickens
For more gift ideas to inspire, delight & amuse click here.
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