The Book Report by Rebecca Traver - Our Online Bookshop Curator
I find these midsummer weeks to be a perfect time to cuddle up with a good novel – especially one that highlights themes of magic, myth, and enchantment. We at Paradise wish you an abundance of the great joy, delight, and connection this time of year has to offer.
“The reader became the book; and the summer night was like the conscious being of the book.”
~Wallace Stevens
We begin this report with a selection of books perfect for times when you could use a little more magic and imagination in your life. 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.
Summer Reading: Tales of Magic, Myth, and Enchantment
Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara is a joyous and wonderfully subversive tale of gods, monsters, and the human heart and soul. With unforgettably vivid characters, spellbinding prose, and delicious tension, this is a book to savor.
Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown is a multigenerational tale of the Montrose women who have always lived in their quant California bungalow. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unbroken bond between them….until a family secret comes forward to challenge all that they have come to rely on and trust.
The London Séance Society from Sarah Penner is a magical mystery set in the 1870s in Paris that blurs the lines between truth and illusion and reveals the grave risks that the characters are willing to take to avenge the ones they love.
Weyward by Emilia Hart is an enthralling novel weaving together the lives and times of three women across five centuries and how their capacities of resilience and transformative power provide an opportunity for profound healing.
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs tells the story of the Kalotay family and their collection of ancient and rare books it is their calling to keep safe. This is a suspenseful and richly atmospheric novel that draws readers into a vast world filled with mystery and magic, romance, and intrigue.
The First Bright Thing from J.R. Dawson brings to life the blended worlds of magic and circuses, offering a safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks. With the world still reeling from World War I, the ringmaster Rin and her troupe – the Circus of the Fantasticals – travel the Midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top.
Honeycomb by Joanne M. Harris with illustrations by the great Charles Vess is a book that has already made an appearance in a previous report, but I love it so much that I felt it deserved a place in this one. It’s an entrancing mosaic novel of original fairy tales, including a toymaker who wants to create the perfect wife, a princess whose heart is won by words, not actions, a tiny dog whose confidence far outweighs his size, and more.
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
~W.B. Yeats
For more magical tales click here.
New + Newly Discovered
The Curanderx Toolkit: Reclaiming Ancestral Latinx Plant Medicine and Rituals for Healing from Atava Garcia Swiecicki is a practical guide to understanding and using Mexican healing traditions in everyday life. It includes more than 25 profiles of native and adopted plants of Baja and Alta California and teaches you how to grow, know, and love them.
The Herb Book: The Stories, Science, and History of Herbs from DK Publishing is a beautiful blend of science, historical, and mythological stories – providing a useful reference on many extraordinary plants and their roles in the world.
Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by author and actor Andrew McCarthy is an intimate, funny, and candid travel memoir of walking Spain’s legendary Camino de Santiago with his son Sam. Along the way this pair traverse an unforgiving landscape, having more honest conversations in five weeks than they’d had in the preceding two decades.
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years is a collection of “50 poems for 50 years” from former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo and it is a beautiful offering indeed.
Poetry as Spellcasting: Poems, Essays, and Prompts for Manifesting Liberation and Reclaiming Power by Tamiko Beyer, Destiny Hemphill, and Lisbeth White is written with poets, spellcasters, and social justice witches in mind. In essays from a diverse group of contributing poets, organizers, and ritual artists it helps readers explore, play, and deepen their creativity and intuition as integral tools for self- and communal healing and social change.
Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau from Craig Childs bears sacred witness to the rock art of the Colorado Plateau where bighorn sheep appear behind boulders, tiny spirals are etched into stone, human figures with upraised arms shift with the desert light – each image serving as a portal to the mysteries of time.
Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists is a profound collection of illuminating essays and interviews that explore the Black community’s spiritual and scientific connection to the land, waters, and climate, curated by Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm in Petersburg, NY.
Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most from Cassie Holmes offers the point of view that our most precious resource isn’t money…it’s time. We are each allotted just twenty-four hours a day and we live in a culture that keeps us feeling “time poor”. Since we can’t add more hours to the day, how can we experience more fulfilling lives?
The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection Through Embodied Living by Hillary L. McBride, PhD is a compassionate, healthy, and holistic perspective on embodied living. Weaving together illuminating research, stories from the author’s work as a therapist, and deeply personal narratives, we are invited to reclaim the wisdom of the body and to experience the wholeness that has been there all along.
The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi from musician, singer, and songwriter Lou Reed is a comprehensive collection of his writings on Tai Chi. It includes conversations with Reed’s fellow musicians, artists, friends, and Tai Chi practitioners, including Julian Schnabel, A.M. Homes, Hal Willner, Mingyur Rinpoche, Eddie Stern, Tony Visconti, and Iggy Pop.
Tarot for Pregnancy: An Inclusive Tarot Deck for Radical Magical Birthing Folks offers expert guidance from author and full-spectrum doula Brittany Carmona-Holt (aka The Birth Witch) in its expanded 136-page booklet with gorgeous illustrations by Kimberly Rodriguez. This deck serves as a transformative tool for anyone who wishes to connect to their innate wisdom with an embracing and representative deck created with all bodies and genders in mind.
Another newly published tarot deck is The Rosebud Tarot: An Archetypal Dreamscape from Diana Rose Harper with illustrations by Amanda Lee Stilwell. Each card is a digital collage which offer a dreamscape of pathways into the tarot. Several of the cards have been interestingly renamed and the Minor Arcana have become Earth instead of Pentacles, Water instead of Cups, Fire instead of Wands, and Air instead of Swords. This is a lovely deck.
The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile offers a unique approach – a practical and comprehensive way of accessing Enneagram wisdom and exploring its connections with Christian spirituality for a deeper knowledge of ourselves, compassion for others, and love for God.
Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day by Kaitlin B. Curtice reclaims the meaning of ‘resistance’ as a basic human calling. Resistance is for everyone who longs to see their neighbors’ holistic flourishing. We each have an important role to play in the world right where we are, and our everyday acts of positive resistance hold us all together.
The Eloquence of Silence: Surprising Wisdom in Tales of Emptiness by Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, presents a compelling case for an easier, lighter way of moving through life by experiencing peace, calm, and the openness of emptiness. Through ancient and modern stories, Moore gently shows that our constant multitasking may not be getting us anywhere, and that emptiness is not a lack but an invitation that can be our greatest teacher.
Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being from professor of pathology Neil Theise is a riveting introduction to complexity theory, the science of how complex systems behave, that explains the interconnectedness of all things and that Deepak Chopra says, “will change the way you understand yourself and the universe.” Theise notes the surprising underlying connections within a universe that is itself one vast complex system – between ant colonies and the growth of forests, cancer and economic bubbles, murmurations of starlings and ordinary crowds of people walking down the street.
For more New + Newly Discovered titles, click here!
Books for Young Readers + The People Who Love Them
Manolo & the Unicorn by Jackie Azua Kramer and Jonah Kramer with illustrations by Zach Manbeck is a story about seeing and believing wholeheartedly in the extraordinary – including unicorns and oneself.
Brave Every Day from Trudy Ludwig, illustrated by Patrice Barton tells a tale about managing anxiety and finding the courage to stand up for yourself and others.
The Firefly Summer by Morgan Matson is a middle grade story about a young girl who gets to know her mom’s side of the family and hunts for hidden treasure over the course of one bright and chaotic summer.
Ten Little Rabbits from Virginia Grossman with illustrations by Sylvia Long brings together weaving, fishing, and storytelling in a celebration of Native American traditions as it teaches young children to count from one to ten.
For more books for young readers click here.
Para libros para lectores jóvenes en español haga clic aquí.
Just Because + Just for Fun
Positive Vibes Wall Collage Kit offers a terrific way to decorate your space and customize a wall design that is entirely your own. For your dorm room, bedroom, reading nook, arts corner, or more you can design a wall that expresses you own unique aesthetic. Included are 60 cards with uplifting messages illustrated in a cool retro design.
With the height of summer upon us, Beach Vibes Wall Collage Kit is an ideal way to celebrate the magic of summer days and keep it from slipping away. Perfect for any special spot in your home that could use a bit of sunshine and mellowness. With 60 cards that will have you reminiscing on this season’s summer days or planning ahead for next summer’s chill vibes.
For more gift ideas to inspire, delight & amuse click here.
Please visit our online Bookshop to see our full selection of lists and titles.
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