The Book Report by Rebecca Traver - Our Online Bookshop Curator
Welcome to the Book Report!
This month I’m choosing to revisit a prior Book Report theme of featuring individual authors instead of whole lists because, well, because Andrea Gibson. Andrea died on July 14, 2025 at 49 of ovarian cancer and, lucky for us, has left behind a rich legacy of powerful work exploring hope, loss, love, and gender identity, creating safe and witnessed space for the unseen among us. If you are familiar with their work, then you are likely feeling some BIG FEELINGS! And, if you are not, I encourage you to give yourself the singular gift of acquainting yourself with their mighty offerings to our world.
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.
“I intend to leave this life so shattered, there’s gonna have to be a thousand separate heavens for all of my flying parts.”
~Andrea Gibson
FEATURED AUTHOR: ANDREA GIBSON
Unfortunately, How Poetry Can Change Your Heart is currently only available as an Ebook, but it deserves a place of pride at the top of this section nonetheless. Andrea co-wrote this gem with fellow spoken-word star Megan Falley as a way to roll out the welcome mat and prove that poetry is for everyone. Whether lapsed poetry lovers, aspiring poets, or total novices, readers will learn to uncover verse in unexpected places, finding their way through a poem when they don’t quite “get it” – and, in the process, discover just how transformative poetry can be.
Take Me With You explores themes of love, gender, politics, sexuality, family, and forgiveness with stunning imagery and a fierce willingness to delve into the exploration of what it means to heal and be different in this strange, unprecedented age.
In Pansy, Andrea seamlessly blends big, expansive, and often complex dynamics into a vivid word portrait that will stay with you long after the last page is turned. Pansy not only serves as a powerful call to action for the privilege-dominated world we live in, but also an enchanting celebration of wonder, longing, and the enduring power of love.
We Will Be Shelter: Poems for Survival stands as a passionate anthology of contemporary poems that unflinchingly confront issues of social injustice, urging readers to examine their role in shaping a just and equitable world.
For more of their work, click here.
“I said to the sun, ‘Tell me about the big bang.’ The sun said, ‘it hurts to become.”
~Andrea Gibson
New + Newly Discovered
I Am More Than My Body: The Body Neutral Journey by Bethan C. Meyers will help you strengthen your relationship with yourself and find balance, steering you away from shame without the pressure of having to love your body at all times. It will introduce a framework to help you practice neutral movement, recognize and arm yourself against bias, act with self-compassion, and navigate your feelings on this human journey.
The Prism: Seven Steps to Heal Your Past and Transform Your Future from Laura Day is a combination of insights about her personal family history with her intuitive program to create a life-changing method of self-discovery and renewal. Day teaches us how to resolve our vulnerabilities and replace them with potent new structures that will help us find joy, attract success, and materialize our goals.
Eckhart Tolle's Present Moment Reminder Deck won’t be released until August 19, but it is available for pre-order now and I imagine it will sell well and quickly. With that in mind, why not order it now? Within this 52-card deck you’ll find inspiration to help you connect with the serenity that arises from living in the moment.
The Magical Notary Art: Sigils, Seals, Notaries, and Signatures by Frater Barrabbas illuminate how the art of sigil magic uses the information model of magic to generate symbols, caricatures, and pictograms that have a vested power in the super-symbolic realm. This book brings together all the elements of linguistic magic into a singular tome.
Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline shines a generous and loving light on the life of Marsha, a legendary Black transgender activist who embodied both the beauty and the struggle of the early gay rights movement, Her work in the field sparked the progress we see today, and inspires us all to support the freedom of everyone, no matter what.
Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet from climate scientist Kate Marvel is a deeply felt inquiry into our rapidly changing Earth. With her singular voice, Marvel takes us on a soaring journey, one filled with mythology, physics, witchcraft, bad movies, volcanoes, Roman emperors, sequoia groves, and the many small miracles of nature we usually take for granted.
Kinship Medicine: Interdependence to Heal the Earth and Ourselves by Wendy Johnson confronts the undeniable fact that our modern way of living is incompatible with our survival. Most of us know this truth, but almost everything in our society encourages us to ignore it. Here, the author asserts that the antidotes to many of the causal factors of poor health – loneliness, industrial diets, systemic inequality, fear of death, profit-based healthcare – are relational, with each other and with the living earth. By book’s end, you will leave with a clear vision of what a new society might look like, methods to accomplish this transformation, and concrete examples of where it is being done successfully.
For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World from Sasha Sagan, the daughter of astronomer Carl Sagan and the writer and producer Ann Druyan, shares her story of how becoming a mother inspired her to explore the natural phenomena behind our most treasured occasions – from births to deaths, holidays to weddings, anniversaries, and more – growing these insights into a new set of rituals for her young daughter that honor the joy and significance of each experience without relying on a religious framework.
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community from Mia Birdsong demonstrates through research, interviews, and stories of lived experience, we can return to our inherent connectedness where we find strength, safety, and support in vulnerability and generosity, in asking for help, and in being accountable.
Bad Friend: How Women Revolutionized Modern Friendship by Tiffany Watt Smith is a smart and thought-provoking memoir, history, and cultural critique about the complexity of female friendship. I think it’s safe to say that we have all had bad friends and been bad friends – it’s impossible to be a perfect one. Here, the author reflects on her own experience and thoroughly mines the rich cultural history of women’s friendships to look for a new paradigm that might encompass the struggles along with the joy.
Meditate: Your Plain & Simple Guide to Calming the Mind and De-Stressing Your Life from Lynne Lauren offers up exactly what its title promises. This is a lovely introduction for anyone who wishes to slow down, de-stress, and discover a spaciousness within and without.
How Not to Miss the Point: The Buddha's Wisdom for a Life Well Lived by Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche goes straight to the heart to covey the Buddha’s core message: If we want this life – our own life, the lives of others, and the life of our planet – to be fulfilling and rewarding, we must accept responsibility for cultivating the best qualities of our human mind.
Until My Memory Fails Me: Mindfulness Practices for Cultivating Resilience & Self-Compassion in the Face of Cognitive Decline from Sharon Lukert offers poignant storytelling and practical wisdom with specific ways to build resilience against the emotional swings and existential fear inherent in cognitive decline. With raw vulnerability, Lukert demonstrates how to find courage, acceptance, and compassion even as your sense of self shifts underneath you. I recommend this book for both the person going through cognitive decline within themselves and for their friends and family to help support and empathize with their loved one’s situation.
You Are More Than Your Body: 30+ Evidence-Based Strategies for Living Well with Chronic Illness by Jennifer Caspari, a clinical therapist living with cerebral palsy, weaves together clinical expertise, personal stories, and practical, evidence-based tools to help readers with chronic health conditions better cope with pain, fatigue, depression, and the emotional vulnerability that comes with living in a world not designed for our bodies.
Adaptive Tai Chi: An Accessible Practice for Empowering Body and Mind by Zibin Guo is a simple and inclusive program, completely modifiable with helpful illustrations that empowers people of all physical abilities to experience the transformative qualities of this ancient art.
Tarot as Storyteller: Psychic Development, Cartomancy, and Reading the Web of Fate from Salicrow shows novices and seasoned practitioners alike how to read divination cards with more accuracy and more profound insight. The author demonstrates practices to help develop psychic ability – including empathic protection, body dowsing, utilizing sacred space, and divine timing – and how to build your own personal psychic language. With each reading, your storytelling ability will grow, as will your inner knowing for how to ask better questions.
Entering Hekate's Cauldron: Spells, Spirits, Rites, and Rituals by Cyndi Brannen is all about practicing witchcraft, specifically witchery centered on the beloved goddess Hekate, with her etheric cauldron as the source. Written in the style of a traditional Book of Shadows, the contents cover many of the common practices of modern witchcraft, ranging from personal development to more foundational spellcrafting, connecting with animal spirits, crafting rituals, and performing initiations.
Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times by Carmen Spagnola is an aptly named guide to counteracting unconscious behavior patterns, re-establishing stability, and restoring resilience during periods of personal and collective upheaval through a series of straightforward spells and 5-minute rituals.
Feral Magick: Unleash Your Inner Animal Self by Denny Sargent helps us to rewild ourselves, returning to an ancient, deeper way of being. Once you become open to this reality, the spirits of nature will welcome you, bond with you, and help you. The operating principals of intuitive animistic practices will enable you to better acknowledge and engage with all sorts of woodland spirits and remind you that you, too, are a spirit of nature.
The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex shows us how, by abstaining from all forms of romantic entanglement, author Melissa Febos began to see her life and her self-worth in a radical, new way. Blending intimate personal narrative and incisive cultural criticism, The Dry Season tells a story that’s as much about celibacy as its inverse; pleasure, desire, fulfillment. This is a memoir of a woman learning to live at the center of her own story, and a much-needed catalyst for a new conversation around sex and love.
Clam Down: A Metamorphosis by Anelise Chen brings a memoir of how, in the aftermath of her divorce, she must choose between the perils and pleasures of a closed-up life. Using a genre-defying structure and written in novelistic prose that draws from art, literature, and natural history, Chen unfolds a complex story of interspecies connectedness, in which humans learn lessons of adaptation and survival from their mollusk kin.
Poetry Is Not a Luxury: Poems for All Seasons is a collection of poetry, from love poems to elegies, from the heights of new love to the furrows of anxiety, from special occasions to a morning pick-me-up. With poems from Rita Dove, Victoria Change, Ross Gay, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ada Límon, and more.
Waking Up & Growing Up: Spiritual Cross-Training for an Evolving World by Diane Musho Hamilton and Gabriel Kaigen Wilson gives people in their 20s and 30s a contemporary approach to spiritual development that is meaningful and actionable within the complexities of modern life.
For the entire list of new discoveries, click here!
Books for Young Readers + the People Who Love Them
Tyger from SF Said with illustrations by Dave McKean is a thrilling fantasy in which two kids and a mystical tyger set out to save a divided world on the brink of destruction.
When You Go to Dragon School by Chelsea M. Campbell with illustrations by Charlene Chua is a hilarious picture book perfect for little ones getting ready for back-to-school season.
The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez from Jasminne Paulino is a novel in verse about a neurodivergent seventh grader who dreams of travelling to the stars one day.
The Day the Crayons Made Friends from Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, is another clever and hilarious tale of the lives of crayons that will keep children and grown-ups laughing.
Jazzy the Witch in Broom Doom by Jessixa Bagley brings us the story of Jazzy who lives in a town full of witches, but is not especially interested in magic. Follow along with this bright young girl as she discovers her own interests and hopes that her community will support her.
The League of Littles is a hilarious middle-grade graphic novel by Casey Lyall with illustrations by Sara Faber about an international group of young folk who defend and support the needs of youngest siblings. Another student at their elementary school has lost her big sister’s hamster, Chester, and is desperate to find him before the Band of Bigs, the protectors of oldest siblings, find out he’s missing.
“Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.”
~Mary Schmich
For more books for young readers click here!
Para libros para lectores jóvenes en Español haga clic aqui!
Just Because + Just for Fun
Just Good Manners: A Quintessential Guide to Courtesy, Charm, Grace, and Decorum from William Hanson shares the author’s definitive advice on how to behave in every situation, from a night out dining with friends to Netflix at home, as well as celebrates the deep kindness, empathy, and joy that come with good manners. As Hanson makes clear, to care for others is truly about caring for and respecting oneself.
An Ancient Witch's Guide to Modern Dating by Cecilia Edward is a charming rom-com, perfect for fans of cozy fantasy and witchy romance. If you’re in the mood for a delightful mix of humor, heart, and a sprinkle of magic, give this sweet novel a try.
“Dating is about finding out who you are and who others are. If you show up in a masquerade outfit, neither is going to happen.”
~Henry Cloud
Please visit our online Bookshop to see our full selection of lists and titles.
Thank you for supporting local, independent bookstores!
We love connecting with you in the shop and online.
May you be inspired, supported, and enriched by what you find here.
