The Book Report by Rebecca Traver - Our Online Bookshop Curator
Welcome to the Book Report! As I was musing about which list to feature this month, while basking in soft morning sun scented with jasmine and orange blossom, listening to the birds sing their courtships into new life, it seemed obvious to me that only one list would do: The Healing Power of Nature: On Creating a Meaningful Partnership with the Animal, Elemental, and Plant Worlds. Please join me in a sweet exploration of what Nature has to offer and teach us.
Also included in this report is a selection of New + Newly Discovered titles; a special group of Books for Young and Young at Heart Readers; and a couple of Just Because + Just for Fun offerings.
And, please take note that Ebooks are now plentifully available in our online Bookshop.
“Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment.”
~Ellis Peters
FEATURED LIST – THE HEALING POWER OF NATURE: ON CREATING A MEANINGFUL PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ANIMAL, ELEMENTAL, AND PLANT WORLDS
Enchanted Plants: A Treasury of Botanical Folklore and Magic from Varla A. Ventura invites us on a walk through mystical, magical, and folkloric gardens to discover the plants and flowers that have capture our hearts and minds for centuries. Each chapter contains a cultivated selection of plants, arranged alphabetically by popular common name, with additional information including botanical name, folklore, ethnobotanical properties, magical and occult properties, and modern usage if applicable.
Gardening with the Goddesses: A Witch's Guide to Creating Magical Gardens by Patricia Telesco offers a treasury of knowledge about how different plants are associated with the Goddess in their own ways, how to create gardens timed around the moon and astrological signs, using crystals to enhance your power, and much more.
The Junior Plant Lover's Handbook: A Green-Thumb Guide for Kids by Molly Williams, illustrated by Michelle Carlos, is an interactive guide perfect for any burgeoning plant lover. With sections that include “How To” instructions for planting and caring for greenery, fun plant facts, troubleshooting tips, quizzes, informative and handy charts, and DIY crafts and projects.
Another sweet book for the youngsters in your life is Forest Magic for Kids: How to Find Fairies, Make a Secret Fort, and Cook Up an Elfin Picnic from Susie Spikol with illustrations by Renia Metallino. Have fun exploring 50+ magical activities for everything from finding hidden flower fairies in your own backyard and making a special wizard staff to creating a tiny woodland village and making your own forest potions.
Sacred Forest Bathing: The Healing Power of Ancient Trees & Wild Places by Ellen Dee Davidson weaves together environmental science, wilderness adventure, goddess mythology, and the sentience of old growth redwoods as you learn how to cultivate a sensitivity to the forest and open a channel to its wisdom.
“Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
For browsing through our entire list click here!
“It’s a very important step to be able to see thoughts as thoughts and not as reality.”
~John J. Prendergast
New + Newly Discovered
Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality from John J. Prendergast invites readers into a diverse and multilayered experience of what it means to be a full human being. If you’ve been on the lookout for a book that will inspire you to open to a greater sense of wholeness, this is for you.
A Book of Balance: Kogi Wisdom for a Good Life and Thriving Earth by Lucas Bucholz is a slim volume of spiritual introspection offering us the wisdom teachings of the Kogi – a remote and ancient tribe from the mountains of Columbia. In recent years, concerned by the environmental degradation they have experienced in their villages and forests, a few emissaries from the tribe emerged to bring an urgent and loving message to the “modern” world – advice on how to live in harmony with the earth.
The Enneagram of the Soul: a 40-Day Spiritual Companion for the 9 Types from Nhien Vuong provides a path to wholeness for the self, enabling the reader to be steered gently yet firmly away from the trap of solely identifying with their personality type, so they can live more fully from their divine nature.
At the time of this Book Report Lee Harris’s new book The Future Human: New Ways of Living and Being on Earth is on backorder, but lucky for us, it’s available as an Ebook. Channeled by Lee Harris and prompted by Regina Meredith’s incisive questions, Lee’s guides, the Z’s, expose the lies promulgated throughout history and explain the past and future. The Z’s remind us that everyone on Earth is being affected by the waves of higher consciousness now flooding the planet. Meant to be experienced, absorbed, and understood, the message from the Z’s is unequivocal: creating a new world is your job. The Future Human tells you why and how.
This Is Body Grief: Making Peace with the Loss That Comes with Living in a Body from disability advocate and recovery expert Jayne Mattingly lays out a groundbreaking approach to mourning and accepting one’s ever-changing body. Sharing stories from everyday people in the throes of Body Grief as well as her own journey as a newly-disabled woman, we learn that although healing isn’t a linear journey, it begins when we trust and work in tandem with our bodies.
I Am Maria: My Reflections and Poems on Heartbreak, Healing, and Finding Your Way Home by Maria Shriver is a powerful collection of Maria Shriver’s own poems that grapple eloquently with identity, grief, loss, longing, heartbreak, and healing.
Happy Relationships: 25 Buddhist Practices to Transform Your Connections with Your Partner, Family, and Friends by Kimberly Brown is a relatable and useful guide with practical applications to help us stay attuned with our dearest people.
Orient: Two Walks at the Edge of Human from David Hinton takes us on two adventures into the wild beauty and archaeological ruins of the desert Southwest, where he maps the edges of consciousness and our place in the Cosmos.
Naturally Psychic: Awaken Your Intuitive Abilities by Karen Harrison helps us discover how psychic you really are as it shows how to awaken our natural psychic abilities and experiment with psychic tools to get answers, guide decisions, and enrich our lives.
Yoga for Witches: Illustrated Edition from Sarah Robinson shares exercises, poses, and the knowledge you need to connect to your own special magic and inner power.
The Psychedelic Shaman: The Wisdom Warrior's Path to Transformation by Tom Soloway Pinkson explores how to work ethically, skillfully, and responsibly with psychedelics and plant spirits. Included are shamanic practices to develop your capacity to connect with the infinite cosmic love that is the essence of our being as well as showing how to restore the sacred in everyday life and discover your role in helping to heal and transform our world.
Everyday Tarot Magic: Spells and Meditations by Dorothy Morrison gives us our own personal helpline as we search for insights about our most pressing concerns. Included are exercises and rituals, with over 140 spells, charms, and activities to choose from. This is a guide to opening a meaningful connection with the world of Spirit, perfect for beginners and advanced readers alike.
The Old Lore of the Moon: Lunar Folklore & Folk Wisdom by Timothy Harley is a reference book for everything about lunar folklore. Contained within are different concepts about the moon that span time, religion, and nationality, covering many different interpretations of the moon’s entities and inhabitants.
Brady's Book of Fixed Stars: The Invisible Force and Influence of Constellations in the Natal Chart from Bernadette Brady melds modern astrological techniques with Egyptian and early Greek mythology to bring a deeper understanding of the horoscope and provides delineations for using fixed stars in chart interpretations.
Make Magic: The Book of Inspiration You Didn't Know You Needed from Brad Meltzer is a little book of hope for anyone who has ever wished for more. More authenticity. More empathy. More gratitude. A more fulfilling life.
When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others by Elissa Strauss asks the question: ‘What would happen if we started to appreciate dependency, and the deep meaning of one person caring for another? If we start to care about care?’ Strauss’s book weaves historical anecdotes and science with conversations with parents and caregivers to the young, old, disabled, ill, and more, revealing a rich array of insights about how care shapes us on the inside and the outside – for the better.
No New Things: A Radically Simple 30-Day Guide to Saving Money, the Planet, and Your Sanity by Ashlee Piper follows the author on her nearly two year journey during which time she challenged herself to buy nothing new. In the process she got out of debt, cut clutter, crushed her goals, and became healthier and happier than ever – all the things she’d always wanted to do but ‘never had time to’ – because she was mindlessly scrolling, shopping, spending, and stressing.
Modern Motherhood: Celebrating Quiet Moments of Love and Care is a beautifully illustrated collection of art and musings that highlight the simple joys of caregiving from artist and social media star Riley Sheehey. Simple, spare captions allow space for the reader to reflect on their own memories or anticipate experiences to come with their loved ones.
How to Menopause: Take Charge of Your Health, Reclaim Your Life, and Feel Even Better Than Before by Tamsden Fadal is packed with actionable steps and evidence-based tools from a team of 42 experts including neuroscientists, menopause-certified physicians, sex and relationship therapists, sleep doctors, a variety of lifestyle mentors, synthesizing research stories, and strategies – all aimed at supporting emotional and physical balance and well-being.
Making the Best of What's Left: When We're Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered from Judith Viorst brings great wit and depth into navigating the terrain of loss and aging. It’s a poignant dance between grief and levity that will resonate with those of us in our eighties and beyond – as well as those of us who are dealing with parents, relatives, or friends in that same demographic.
“Probably above all other things, I am interested as a writer in making a connection, interested in the parts of all of us that connect.”
~Judith Viorst
For the entire list of new discoveries, click here!
Books for Young Readers + the People Who Love Them
Whale Eyes: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen by James Robinson with illustrations by Brian Rea is a middle grade memoir told through an experimental mix of intimate anecdotes and interactive visuals. James’s story equips readers of all ages with the tools to confront their discomfort with disability and turn confused, blank stares into powerful connections.
A Chest Full of Words from Rebecca Gugger and Simon Röthlisberger, translated by Tim Mohr, is a picture book packed with a playful vocabulary about a young boy who finds new words and discovers how to use them to change the world around him.
Dear Bookstore by Emily Arrow, illustrated by Geneviève Godbout brings us the story of a little girl whose local bookstore is not only the beginning of her reading journey, it’s a world that is always there for her – one that allows her imagination to soar, provide answers to her inquiries, and spark her curiosity.
How to Talk to Your Succulent by Zoe Persico is a gorgeous graphic novel for middle-grade readers about family, friendship, and finding magic in unlikely places.
Our Lake from Angie Kang is a tender and vulnerable exploration of love and loss that follows two young brothers as they take their first trip back to their beloved lake without their father.
Festival of Colors by Kabir Sehgal and Surishtha Sehgal with illustrations by Vashti Harrison is a lush picture book all about Holi, the Indian Festival of Colors, celebrating fresh starts, friendship, forgiveness, and, of course, fun!
Dreamslinger by Graci Kim brings us the first book in a new fantasy series where dragons and phoenixes roam the skies of Seoul, South Korea; meals magically appear based on your mood; and dreams literally come to life.
“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”
~Terry Pratchett
For more books for young readers click here!
Para libros para lectores jóvenes en Español haga clic aqui!
Just Because + Just for Fun
You Don't Have to Have a Dream and Other Life Lessons by Tim Minchin with illustrations by Andrew Rae is a whimsically illustrated celebration of life, art, success, kindness, love, and thriving, drawn from three iconic graduation speeches.
Beehive Mancala by Tony Hall, illustrated by Tatiana Boyko, is a nature board game for adults and children aged 6+, bringing us a fun way to learn about the importance of bees to our ecosystem, full of fun facts on the bees and flowers portrayed in the game, plus details on the honey-making process.
“Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.”
~John Muir
Please visit our online Bookshop to see our full selection of lists and titles.
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