The Book Report by Rebecca Traver - Our Online Bookshop Curator
Welcome to the Book Report! In late February a beloved soul-sister friend mine passed away. Part of how I am processing that loss while honoring her life is to feature our list Transitions & Turning Points: Navigating Death + Dying, Loss + Grief in this report. She was a mighty warrior of love and service in the world and left behind a rich legacy of activism and education in support of peace. For all her public achievements, what I cherish the most about her are the many ways she was a champion of noticing and making time for “small quiet things” in life – the beauty of Nature, the way light plays on the surface of water, stopping in the middle of a big project to connect with her cat, telling silly jokes, or how savoring a cup of tea made everything better.
May we all find our ways through loss into grace.
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.
“Grief isn’t just an emotion; it’s a human capacity to take in the sorrows of the world and metabolize that into medicine for the community.”
~Francis Weller
FEATURED LIST – TRANSITIONS & TURNING POINTS: NAVIGATING DEATH + DYING, LOSS + GRIEF
One of my favorite books on loss is Notes on Grief from the brilliant Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I first became acquainted with it when I was recovering from a big relationship shift and just couldn’t seem to find enough emotional traction in my life. While Chimamanda’s book is an essay dealing primarily with the death of her father, it was a precious source of solace and validation for my own broken heart.
My Good Friend the Rattlesnake: Lessons of Loss, Truth, and Transformation from Don Jose Ruiz speaks to the dramatic twists and turns of experience on his path to personal freedom and inner transformation. The lessons he shares are practical, profound, and accessible, making this book an essential companion for anyone seeking spiritual growth and emotional healing.
How to Grieve What We've Lost: Evidence-Based Skills to Process Grief and Reconnect with What Matters by Sameet M. Kumar, Soili Poijula, Alexandra Kennedy, and Mary Beth Williams explores the journey of loss in many forms. While our experiences of loss are often framed in terms of the loss of a loved one or relationship, there is another kind of loss very much worth noting – the loss of a sense of who you are and how you can live your life in an increasingly uncertain and changing world. Regardless of the cause of your grief, this is a book to help you navigate the experience with humility, honesty, and grace.
From grief quests to altar-making, Renegade Grief: A Guide to the Wild Ride of Life After Loss by Carla Fernandez is a profound and vulnerable exploration of care practices and rituals that empower grievers in a culture that expects us to simply “give it time”.
The Call to the Far Shore: Carrying Our Loved Ones Through Dying, Death, and Beyond by Nancy MacMillan speaks to how we are often disconnected from the natural cycles of life, having lost the fundamental knowing of what death looks and feels like, with fear filling the void. Sharing personal stories, Nancy offers guidance on advance care planning, grieving, and forgiveness as well as green burial. Through her own close encounters with the specter of death, she shows us how to follow the ancient wisdom of “learning to die before you die” and find a seaworthy passage to the far shore.
Return with Elixir: Four Maps for the Soul's Pilgrimage Through Death and Rebirth from Miles Neale, Psy.D. is a step-by-step guide to reclaiming the soul through navigating four maps – the cosmological map, psychological map, alchemical map, and mythopoetic map. Included are in-depth visualization practices base on ancient Tibetan wisdom to support you on your path of self-realization.
“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”
~J.K. Rowling
For browsing through our entire list click here!
“What would shift right now, in this moment, if you let yourself change your perspective?”
~Dr. Thema Bryant
New + Newly Discovered
Matters of the Heart: Healing Your Relationship with Yourself and Those You Love by Thema Bryant, PhD draws on the wisdom of science, sacredness, and lived experience to help readers tend to the garden of their hearts and build their best relational lives.
How to Love Better: The Path to Deeper Connection Through Growth, Kindness, and Compassion from yung pueblo examines all aspects of relationships, from the rose-colored early days when you may be hesitant to show your full self, to the challenges that can arise without clear communication, to dealing with heartbreak and healing as you close a chapter of your life. yung’s unique combination of poetry, personal experience, and thoughtful advice will help you grow and strengthen all your relationships.
Aflame: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer shows us how solitude can be a training in community and companionship. In so doing, he offers a unique view of monastic life – and of a group of selfless souls who have dedicated their days to ensuring there’s a space for quiet and recollection that’s open to us all.
Living with Borrowed Dust: Reflections on Life, Love, and Other Grievances by James Hollis is a new collection of essays exploring life’s challenges and celebrating evolving questions on life’s mysterious journey. Here, we are guided to reflect on a variety of questions about living, including how happiness is attained, how to approach your dreams, the divided soul of America, the fear and fascination with death, and the age-old conflict with good and evil.
Proud Flesh: A Memoir of Motherhood, Intimate Violence, and Reclaiming Pleasure by Catherine Simone Gray offers readers luminous prose and deeply personal narratives, making legible the many ways abuse can imprint on our body and seethe undetected and disguised for years. We can see how the pains of our mothers – and our mothers’ mothers – endure, and can prowl the edges of our own stories. However, even amidst pain, our bodies can teach us new truths about our capacities to heal and experience pleasure.
Stand by Me: A Guide to Navigating Modern, Meaningful Caregiving from Allison J. Applebaum puts the practical tools and transformative support her Caregiver Clinic offers into your hands, empowering you to provide your loved one the best quality of life and care possible, while promoting your own well-being.
On Breathing: Care in a Time of Catastrophe by Jamieson Webster is a rich, expansive piece of narrative non-fiction about care, dependence, and what it means to breathe in an age of environmental catastrophe. Here, we are encouraged to consider our mutual reliance on invisible systems, on one another, and the way many of those in leadership roles have irresponsibly neglected this vital aspect of life.
Ending Unnecessary Suffering: How to Create a Powerful, Complete, and Peaceful Life from Peter Ralston reveals how to free yourself from mentally created suffering. The author shares contemplative practices and exercises to help you end your inner turmoil and foster growth, awareness, and freedom.
The Life Brief: A Playbook for No-Regrets Living by Bonnie Wan offers a simple, yet effective model for navigating life’s decisions, curveballs, and crossroads.
Your Brain on Altruism: The Power of Connection and Community During Times of Crisis from Nicole Karlis brings us interviews with innovators creating infrastructures for social connection – from a former entrepreneur leading a social prescribing movement, to doctors prescribing volunteer work and acts of kindness – Karliss shows how we can all contribute to cultivating kindness. By viewing ourselves as stewards of kindness, we can effectively address the epidemic of loneliness and build a more compassionate and resilient society.
Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths for Our Complex Lives from Gretchen Rubin is for anyone undergoing a major life transition, such as graduation, career switch, marriage, or moving, or for those encountering everyday dilemmas.
The Body Is a Doorway: A Memoir from Sophie Strand offers readers a window onto her own winding journey through the maze of chronic illness – a web not unlike those created by the mycorrizhal fungi whose networks she begins to see as a metaphor for the profound connections between all species and the earth.
Another memoir I love is Raising Hare from Chloe Dalton which tells the story of how she finds a newborn hare that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how impossible it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. We witness first-hand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them.
Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes & Other Animals Heal Themselves from Jaap de Roode takes readers into a realm, often thought to be the exclusive domain of humans, exploring how scientists are turning to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new treatments for humans.
Tarot Unveiled: An Occultist's Perspective on the Cards by Gordon Strong offers insights on a journey through the cards, bringing fresh points of view and unique ideas.
Oracle of the Phoenix from Christine Arana Fader with illustrations by Elena Dudina is full of wisdom, inspiration, healing, love, and peace to support you as you endure the fires of purification, find the courage to grow and face your inner demons, and rise again, strengthened by the ashes of your old patterns.
Witch Blood Rising: Awaken Your Magic in a Modern World by Asa West explores the art of living a witch’s life in all its magical aspects. This book is a celebration of witchcraft and how it has stubbornly kept itself alive in Western culture – and a call to action for all seekers who yearn for a witch’s life.
Naturally Modern Magic: The Essential Compendium of Spells and Rituals for Health, Happiness, and Prosperity by Lacey Burbage is a compendium of spells and rituals for health, happiness, and prosperity. Immerse yourself in these offering and they will become your spiritual companions, magnifying the power that already resides within you.
Co-Creating with Nature: Healing the Wound of Separation by Pam Montgomery reveals how to restore our relationship with the living Earth and come home not only to Nature, but to ourselves.
The Prenatal Shadow: Healing the Traumas Experienced Before and at Birth by Cherionna Menzam-Sills shows how babies, even before birth, are exquisitely sensitive with remarkable potential. Here we learn how babies remember the intensely formative experiences from this primal period as implicit memory and how prenates are deeply influenced by their mother’s perception of safety or threat, including during labor and birth, which affects their developing nervous systems.
Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World from Jaquie Lewis is inspired by the tenets of ubuntu – the Zulu philosophy that we are each impacted by the circumstances that impact those around us, and that the world won’t get better until we all get better. With the goal of mending our inextricable human connection, Fierce Love is a manifesto for all generations – a bighearted, healing antidote to our rancorous culture.
Plant Spirit Herbalism: Discover the Power of Herbs for Inner Transformation is a sweet invitation into the world of licensed medical herbalist Wendy Dooner. Each chapter focuses on a specific herb, exploring its history, healing properties, and role as a spiritual ally.
“There is only one active ingredient in plant medicine: friendship. A plant spirit heals a patient as a favor to its friend-in-dreaming, the doctor.”
~Eliot Cowan
For the entire list of new discoveries, click here!
Books for Young Readers + the People Who Love Them
Dear Bookstore by Emily Arrow with illustrations by Geneviève Godbout is a picture book love letter to bookstores, the people who support them, and the books that fill them with magic.
Scamp by Anden Wilder is a playful story about a little girl and her best cat friend, offering a unique exploration of the changes children go through as they grow from toddler to big kid.
Let's Be Bees from Caldecott Honor winner Shawn Harris is enhanced with bright, bold crayon illustrations, lilting, rhythmic words, and endless fodder for playing along. This is a read aloud guaranteed to bring on the giggles and requests to do it all over again.
A Song for You & I is a middle grade graphic novel by K. O’Neill and tells the story of Rowan and Leone and their unlikely friendship based on shared interests, the power of support, and possibly more than a friendship.
“Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.”
~Maya Angelou
For more books for young readers click here!
Para libros para lectores jóvenes en Español haga clic aqui!
Just Because + Just for Fun
No Less Strange or Wonderful: Essays in Curiosity from A. Kendra Greene is a brilliant and generous meditation on the complex wonder of being alive, on how to pay attention to even the tiniest (sometimes strangest) details that glitter with insight, whimsy, and deep humanity, if we’d only really look.
Little Mysteries: Nine Miniature Puzzles to Confuse, Enthrall, and Delight by Sara Gran is a collection of short stories for lovers of mysteries of all kinds.
“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to be solved, but a reality to experience; a process that cannot be understood by stopping it. “
~Frank Herbert
Please visit our online Bookshop to see our full selection of lists and titles.
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