The Book Report by Rebecca Traver - Our Online Bookshop Curator

“While working away in the logical, ground-bound pragmatism of the material world, you must also be ready to see the stars at any moment.”

~Martha Beck

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Welcome to The Book Report! I’ve decided to switch things up a bit as we prepare to ease into the new year in that, instead of Authors of the Month, I will feature Lists of the Month. I’m doing this both for myself - to keep things juicy - and for you - to introduce you to some of our online Bookshop lists that you may not have explored yet. 

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I thought we could start off the year with our amazing list of journals. For me, getting a new journal at the beginning of a new year is perfect timing. Whether we choose to have a completely blank journal or one with prompts matters less than choosing to journal at all. Won’t you join me in cultivating a practice of noticing and recording experiences, dreams, desires, and visions as we all step forward on the path of what 2024 may hold and reveal to us?

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Also 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. 

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We invite you to consider a Paradise Found online bookshop gift card for the fellow book lovers in your life. Thank you! Please click here for gift card details

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I hope you enjoy what you find here and know that, as always, I am honored by the privilege of taking up space in your inbox.

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Please visit our selection of 2024 calendars by clicking here!

And if you're feeling in need of some extra tlc, click here for support!

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“The trick is to metabolize pain as energy. Learn, when hit by loss, to ask the right question: ‘What next?’ instead of ‘Why me?’”

~Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way

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List of the Month, January 2024: Sacred Space: Journaling for Self-Discovery + Clarity

Meera Lee Patel, author of How It Feels to Find Yourself: Navigating Life's Changes with Purpose, Clarity, and Heart, offers a few special journals, each with its own vibe – have a look!   Create Your Own Calm: A Journal for Quieting Anxiety, Made Out of Stars: A Journal for Self-Realization, Start Where You Are: A Journal for Self-Exploration, and Go Your Own Way: A Journal for Building Self-Confidence. Author Cyndie Spiegel (Microjoys: Finding Hope (Especially) When Life Is Not Okay) has this to say about Meera’s work: “It reminds us that regardless of the day we’re experiencing, we are still beautifully and devastatingly hopeful and human.”

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2024 Marie Curie, Science of Radioactivity Embellished Manuscripts: 12-Month Mini Day Planner is inspired by the life and work of the Polish and naturalized French scientist known for her pioneering research on radioactivity. To further inspire you, this journal has a reproduction of a page from one of Marie’s laboratory notebooks.

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The Modern Witch Tarot Journal by Lisa Sterle is a guided journal created specially to take your tarot readings to the next level. Lavishly illustrated with new full-page color artwork, this is an inspired way to help elevate and support your tarot practice.

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Mystic Moon Journal is a lovely 160 page journal providing plenty of space for personal reflection, sketching, or jotting down favorite quotations or poems. 

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Anti Anxiety Journal brings you a way to support your emotional and mental health with 200 pages of opportunity to help cultivate a calm, focused mindset. 

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Do It for Yourself: A Motivational Journal from Kara Cutruzzula with illustrations by Tessa Forrest lends a helping hand to your new projects or plans for the future by assisting in understanding what makes you tick as the first and crucial step in making things happen. This journal is organized into 5 stages: Getting going, Building momentum, Overcoming setbacks, Following through, and Seeking closure and is designed to help focus your energy, clear up mental clutter, and set yourself up for success.

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Journal of Radical Permission: A Daily Guide for Following Your Soul's Calling by Adrienne Maree Brown and Sonya Renee Taylor will help you to claim your access to discovering and living your purpose. Based on the principles of radical self-love, emergent strategy, and pleasure activism, this journal gives you permission to love yourself deeply just as you are – right now – and then to guide your way into healing.

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Sacred Earth Journal by Toni Carmine Salerno and Leela J. Williams is crafted from premium quality, cream-colored, wood-free paper and a combination of lined and unlined pages. It also comes with 44 full-page color art reproductions throughout for additional inspiration.

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To help you make your journal extra special, take a look at these markers and pencils to help bring your visions to life: Studio Series Acrylic Paint Marker Set, Bright Idea Colored Pencils, and Stay Sharp Graphite Pencils

For More Journals, Click Here!

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New + Newly Discovered

Magic Days: Your Journey Through the Astrology, Numerology, and Tarot of Every Day of the Year from celebrated astrologer Nadine Jane is a guide to the journey of each day and birthday of the year, revealing how the current astrological season, along with the wisdom of the tarot and numerology, can help you lead a happier and more fulfilled life.

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He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters by Schuyler Bailar uses storytelling and the art of conversation to give us the essential language and context of gender, meeting everyone where they are and paving the way for acceptance, understanding, and, most importantly, connection. Myth-busting, affirming, compassionate, and fierce, He/She/They is a crucial, urgent – and life-saving – book that forever changes the conversation about gender.

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The Wound Makes the Medicine: Elemental Remediations for Transforming Heartache by Pixie Lighthorse presents a path forward into healing and self-acceptance broken down into bite-sized pieces to be processed in one’s own unique timing. This isn’t a call for immediate transformation, but a guide to embracing our wounds as teachers that reveal our strength, resilience, and capacity to heal.

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The Unfolding: An Invitation to Come Home to Yourself by Arielle Estoria is a lovely collection of poems, essays, and meditations – all tenderly revealing the places in her life where she has been broken open and mended back together in new ways. In doing so, she leads us all toward our own process of ‘unfolding’ and into the truth that, while it may be extremely uncomfortable at times, there is light and spaciousness on the other side.

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The Way of Heart and Beauty: The Tao of Daily Life by Deng Ming-Dao is a book that draws on ancient Chinese wisdom to explore critical life issues: What is our place in nature? How do we make right decisions? How do we respect the Earth? How are we to view life and death? What is the path we should live to truly achieve a good and meaningful life?  As the author frames the process, our hearts love beauty, and beauty opens our hearts. 

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Quiet Voice, Awesome Power: Connect with Spirit, Enlist Divine Help, and Live Your Most Potent Life from spirit communicator and mystic Amanda R. Edwards helps us connect with spirits and find support, confidence, and peace of mind. She reveals how spirit isn’t an inaccessible world where deceased loved ones disappear, but a significant part of us and all life around us.

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Crystal Clear Oracle: Loving Guidance from the Mineral Kingdom by artist and intuitive Nadine Gordon-Taylor is a gorgeously illustrated and beautifully written 40-card oracle deck and guidebook imbued with the ancient wisdom of crystals. 

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What's My Aura?: Learn Your Color, What It Means, and How You Can Embrace Your Unique Energy Signature by Mystic Michaela helps us to identify our aura and use that unique energy signature to unlock who we truly are. So, let’s shine up our glow and learn what our aura says about us!

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The I Ching Oracle Deck from Catherine Pilfrey is a reimagining of the ancient wisdom of the I Ching for today’s world – all in an exquisite 64-card deck illustrated in full-color - which will help you access your inner wisdom, thrive in the face of change, and make decisions with confidence.

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The Wild and Sacred Feminine Deck by Niki Dewart and Elizabeth Marglin with illustrations by Jenny Kostecki-Shaw invokes empowering, feminine wisdom through cards separated into four facets: Wild (Butterfly, Lioness), Elemental (Mountain, Smoke), Archetypal (Must, Shapeshifter), and Divine (Inanna, Oshun). Included is a full-color guidebook which offers ideas for single-card draws and unique multi-card spreads along with inspiring quotations and an open-ended exploration of each card’s light and shadow aspects.

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Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present from Adrienne Keene, illustrated by Ciara Sana, is an accessible and illuminating book profiling 50 notable American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people, from NBA star Kyrie Irving of the Standing Rock Lakota to Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. 

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Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by photographer and storyteller Matika Wilbur is a photographic and narrative celebration of contemporary Native American life and cultures, alongside an in-depth examination of the particular  issues that Native people face.

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Self-Love Affirmations & Reflections: A Ritual for Self-Worth, Self-Compassion, and Self-Care from life coach Jule Kim is a 52-card deck created to transform the way you see yourself and the world around you for daily motivation, inspiration, and reflective healing.

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Your Intuition Led You Here: Daily Rituals for Empowerment, Inner Knowing, and Magic by Alex Naranjo and Marlene Vargas is an intuitive resource for using everyday tools for magical results, featuring 32 rituals to help you tap into your intention and self-empowerment. Part memoir, part ritual guide, this is ultimately a path to accessing the healing potential of magic, understanding your power, and putting your intuition into practice.

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The Luminous Self: Sacred Yogic Practices and Rituals to Remember Who You Are by yoga nidra teacher Tracee Stanley is a guide to self-remembrance with practices, meditations, and self-inquiry questions inspired by yoga and Tantra to help you connect more deeply with your inner wisdom, remember your inherent wholeness, and live with clarity and compassion.

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For more New + Newly Discovered books click here!

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Books for Young Readers + the People Who Love Them

The Puppets of Spelhorst by the wonderful Kate DiCamillo with illustrations by Julie Morstad is the first title in the Norendy Tales trilogy, designed to be read aloud and shared, as the story soothes and strengthens us on our own journey, leading us through whatever dark forest we may find ourselves in.

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The Wishing Machine by Jonathan Hillman with illustrations by Nadia Alam is a touching and whimsical picture book about a mother and child’s last trip to their local laundromat before moving away.

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Tagging Freedom from Rhonda Roumani is a middle grade story of inspiration and hope, freedom and belonging set in Damascus, Syria and in the U.S. and offers a thoughtful look at the intersection between art and activism and a realistic portrayal of how war affects and inspires children.

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Wintergarden by Janet Fox, illustrated by Jasu Hu, shows how growing and harvesting an herb garden can be fun and satisfying – even in the dead of winter.

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Another inspiring winter story is Hiders Seekers Finders Keepers: How Animals Adapt in Winter from Jessica Kulekjian with illustrations by Salini Perera where we learn of the many ways animals face the challenges of life at the coldest time of the year.

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For more books for young readers click here!

Para libros para lectores jóvenes en Español haga clic aqui!

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Just Because + Just for Fun

Q&A a Day: A 5-Year Journal shows you what was going through your head each day – for five years of your life. Simply turn to today’s date, answer the question at the top of the page, and when you finish the journal, start over. As you return to the daily questions again over the years, you’ll notice how your answers change – or don’t!

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Ever Wonder Why?: Here Are the Answers! from Douglas B. Smith is another take on inquiry – answering such interesting questions as: Why do worms come out onto sidewalks after a rain?, Why do golfers yell ‘fore!’ before teeing off?, Why do chefs wear tall hats?, Why do donuts have holes?, and much more. 

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“Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.”

~Lyrics from We Can Work It Out by The Beatles

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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.

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May you be inspired, supported, and enriched by what you find here.