The Book Report by Rebecca Traver - Our Online Bookshop Curator
Welcome to the Book Report! I’m so pleased to be meeting you here to share our latest featured list of amazing 2025 calendars! As we have turned the corner of our Fall Equinox, our thoughts and spirits are invited to turn inward, reflect, and begin to dream our worlds into being. For me, this time of year also serves as a reminder to bring my attention toward the collective in which we all have a part to play. What is and what will be your part, dear reader?
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.
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.
“Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress.”
~Charles Kettering
FEATURED LIST – 2025 Here We Come! Calendars to Help Keep Us Inspired + Organized
Some of our favorite calendars over the years have come from Llewellyn Publishing and this year is no exception. In fact, this year I have created a separate list of in addition to including them in the complete list. Click here for the BIG LIST of just the Llewellyn calendars.
And for some other favorites, may I suggest:
The Lost Spells 12-Month Planner Calendar captures the magic of nature and wildlife in a beautiful 12-month planner based on the critically acclaimed poetry and hand-illustrated pocketbook by creative duo Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris.
Deep Dark Forest Wall Calendar from Julya Hajnoczky invites us to explore the wonders of the woods, from ferns to fungi, all year long.
Hebrew Illuminations: A 16-Month Jewish Calendar with Candle Lighting Times from Adam Rhine brings the ancient and enduring spirit of Jewish tradition to life. This sixteen-month calendar includes candle lighting times for Shabbat, Jewish holidays, and biblical quotes.
Wild Wisdom Wall Calendar: Connect to the Mystical Rhythms of the Natural World from the amazing Maia Toll supports us in cultivating the sacred and celebrating the power of the natural world with a year of wonder and insight from Maia Toll with gorgeous artwork by Kate O’Hara.
You know I couldn’t feature a calendar list without including one just for bibliophiles like us. Take a look at A Calendars for Book Lovers which is full of beautiful bookish spaces accompanied by quotes that celebrate books and the reading life. Huzzah!!
Those who know me well, know of my fondness for gnomes. If you are cut from that same cloth, I offer the Gnome Life Wall Calendar, giving us a year of charming color illustrations of trendy gnomes, mushrooms, and woodland creatures – paired with inspiring life lessons.
For fans of day-to-day calendars, here’s a sweet one called Worry Lines: Mildly Uplifting Oddly Comforting Daily Drawings full of wobbly, relatable, hopeful drawings to help you get through even your wobbliest, most worrisome days.
To view our entire list, click here!
“We all have our own path, but what I've seen work for many people has basically been a practice of allowing.”
~Henry Shukman
New + Newly Discovered
Original Love: The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening by renowned mindfulness teacher Henry Shukman is the essential meditation guide for the twenty-first century – replacing the concept of original sin with original love, teaching us to tap into the love that shapes our world and can transform who we are.
A Meditator's Guide to Buddhism: The Path of Awareness, Compassion, and Wisdom by Cortland Dahl with a foreword by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche teaches us that amid stress, anxiety, and life’s challenges, Buddhism offers a path that can meet them fearlessly with awareness, compassion, and wisdom. This core resource for Buddhist practice is well-suited for beginners or for anyone ready to explore meditation more deeply.
The Dreaming Way: Courting the Wisdom of Dreams from one of my most favorite inspirational authors Toko-pa Turner assures us that we don’t need an expert to tell us what our dreams mean. Here, we are invited to employ her dreamwork method for “Courting the Dream”, which reverses the idea that we should try to acquire something from our dreams and attempt instead to discover what the dream longs for.
The Inward Trilogy: Yung Pueblo Box Set from award-winning poet yung pueblo is a gorgeous, hardcover box set collecting bestselling author yung pueblo’s poetic trilogy on developing self-knowledge, healing old wounds, and cultivating harmonious relationships.
By Your Side: How to Find Soulful Allies and Become One to Others by David Richo draws from history, Jungian psychology, Buddhism, nature, and other spiritual traditions to illuminate our connection to the “helpers” we call upon to navigate life with inspired intention and support from assisting forces – some seen and some from the invisible realms.
Upworthy - Good People: Stories from the Best of Humanity from Gabriel Reilich and Lucia Knell presents a collection of narratives on the transformative power of kindness from more that one hundred people with life-affirming stories told straight from the heart.
Sage Warrior: Wake to Oneness, Practice Pleasure, Choose Courage, Become Victory by Valarie Kaur with illustrations by Keerat Kaur asks us to contemplate such questions as how can we find the wisdom to envision a new world and the courage to fight for it, how can we survive seemingly apocalyptic times, and how do we find love and joy in a world on fire? These are inquiries for anyone – from any faith or spiritual practice or none at all – who hungers for a better world and is ready to discover the depth of their own power.
Follow the Magic: A Workbook to Find Your Purpose is a beautiful 128-page illustrated workbook from award-winning author and intuitive guide Johanna Wright, offering creative guidance to help you develop a practice of self-discovery and free yourself from the blocks holding you back from your divine purpose.
Chronically Magickal: Navigating Chronic Illness with Witchcraft by Danielle Dionne with a foreword by Amy Blackthorn presents techniques to help boost your energy, mood, and vision for your future. While it can’t cure your illness, this book teaches you how to accept help from others, grow around grief, pace yourself according to the ‘spoon theory’, and more.
The Aquarian Shaman: Walking the Spiral Path of Transformation from Linda Star Wolf is a step-by-step guide to awakening to shamanic consciousness. Here, we find shamanic practices, rituals, ceremonies, and wisdom to help reintroduce magic into everyday life and awaken the Aquarian Shaman within.
The Enneagram is one of the best ways and means I’ve found to help make sense of human life and The Enneagram Map to Your Deeper Self: Living Beyond Your Type from Sandra C. Smith is a wonderful addition to my ever-evolving understandings of the process. With clarity and consistently, this book shows how to understand your Enneagram type without reinforcing the patterns of your type.
Animal Power Deck: 75 Animals to Awaken Your Personal Magic from Alyson Charles, illustrated by William Santiago, and its companion Animal Power: 100 Animals to Energize Your Life and Awaken Your Soul offer a beautiful guide to connecting with magnificent animals and their energetic, healing properties.
The Stained Glass Tarot: An Illuminated Journey Through the Cards from James Edward is an inspired deck examining the intricate symbols and colors of the stained glass windows of cathedrals and other sacred places that draw the eye and calm and focus the mind for an authentic divinatory experience.
How to Heal Yourself Oracle Deck: A Guided Journey to Release Emotional Baggage and Become Your Healthiest, Happiest Self from Amy B. Scher is a transformational 50-card deck helping us to craft our own powerful self-healing sessions in minutes. If you’re struggling in any area of your life, this tried-and-true approach can help you to release stuck emotions and clear energetic blockages that are holding you back.
For the entire list, click here!
“What I learned in my own healing journey is that the ‘fighting energy’ against an illness or a condition or an emotion or whatever you’re struggling with only perpetuates it.”
~Amy B. Scher
Books for Young Readers + the People Who Love Them
Ash's Cabin by Jen Wang brings us the story of young Ash who has always felt alone. Other kids Ash’s age are more interested in pop stars and popularity contests than in fighting for change. Even Ash’s family seem to be sleepwalking through life. Thus prompts Ash to journey into the wilds in order to make a fresh start.
One Small Spark: A Tikkun Olam Story by Ruth Spiro with illustrations by Victoria Tentle-Krylov tells the tale of a young girl who is inspired to make a difference in this thoughtful and lyrical exploration of the Jewish philosophy tikkun olam or repair the world.
I'm Sorry You Got Mad from Kyle Lukoff, illustrated by Julie Kwon, explores the importance of learning to apologize – the kind of apology that goes deeper than just words.
The Faerie Apothecary by Andrea Stein with illustrations by Gaby Verdooren introduces the reader to the healing benefits of herbs and plants like Chamomile, St. John’s Wort, Pine, Elder, and more in a charming tale lightly weaving knowledge into a story that will enchant both children and adults.
For more books for young readers click here!
Para libros para lectores jóvenes en Español haga clic aqui!
“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
~John Muir
Just Because + Just for Fun
We'll Prescribe You a Cat, a novel by Syou Ishida, translated from the original Japanese into English by E. Madison Shimoda, is an utterly charming, vibrant celebration of the healing power of cats.
The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again from Catherine Price is a somewhat serious look at what she calls “True Fun” – which she defines as the magical confluence of playfulness, connection, and flow – which gives us the fulfillment we so desperately seek, but do not truly find in our attachments and addictions to what she refers to as “Fake Fun”…television, doomscrolling the news, or immersing ourselves in social media.
“Having fun is not a diversion from a successful life; it is the pathway to it.”
~Martha Beck
Please visit our online Bookshop to see our full selection of lists and titles.
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May you be inspired, supported, and enriched by what you find here.
