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 – all about creativity…how, even if we don’t consider ourselves to be creative, we all absolutely are – every moment of every day. That said, it’s easy to dismiss this quality of being with which we’re born when judgment, trauma, self-doubt, pressure, and fear come calling. I encourage you to play with this idea and find some positive support in our creativity book list and the few I’ve picked out below. May they inspire you to reset your narrative if you find yourself living in the false story that you ‘just aren’t the creative type’.
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.
“You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."
~Maya Angelou
FEATURED LIST – On Creativity as a Path of Discovery + Growth
Writing on Empty: A Guide to Finding Your Voice is the latest gem from the brilliant and beloved writing teacher Natalie Goldberg. Here, she shares her personal journey out of a devastating period of writer’s block and back into a life of growth, creativity, and healing. For anyone struggling to reconnect with their own creative source, this is a gentle and inspiring guidebook back to remembering what truly matters.
The Mother Artist: Portraits of Ambition, Limitation, and Creativity by Catherine Ricketts takes the reader on an insightful inquiry into the questions around experiences of caregiving and whether or not it can exist compatibly with the demands of a creative practice. Part memoir, part biography, and part exploration into the visual, literary, and performing arts, The Mother Artist contends that a challenging world needs art made by those who have cared for the vulnerable. This book is for mothers who aspire to make art, anyone eager to discover the stories of visionary women, and all who long for a revolution of tenderness.
The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry by Stacey D’Erasmo, author of The Art of Intimacy: The Space Between, asks eight legendary artists: What sustained you in the long run? How do we keep doing this – making art? Instead of easy answers or a road map, this book offers one practitioner’s conversations, anecdotes, and observations about sustaining a creative life. Along the way, it radically redefines artistic success, shifting the focus from novelty and output and external recognition toward freedom, fluidity, resistance, community, and survival.
Guided Art Therapy Card Deck: 75 Activities to Explore Your Feelings and Manage Your Emotional Well-Being from Emily Sharp allows you to use art as therapy, focusing on the inherent healing power of art making to manage anxiety and stress, improve self-esteem, and deepen your relationships with others and your inner self.
Meeting the Muse After Midlife: A Journey to Meaning, Creativity, and Joy by Sally Jean Fox is a bright invitation to embark on a quest along a path of creative expression for those of us who have reached their fifth decade of life and find their relationship to their muse feeling a bit worn out. Sally writes, “Our bodies will decline with age, but if we feed our souls, our spirits will be able to soar.” Amen to that, sister!
Life in the Studio: Inspiration and Lessons on Creativity by renowned potter, entrepreneur, gardener, photographer, cook, and beekeeper Frances Palmer is a lovely portrait of a unique artist and a singularly generous manual on how to live a creative life.
To view the entire list click here!
"We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents."
~Bob Ross
New + Newly Discovered
Every Little Thing You Do Is Magic Tarot and An Interactive Guide to Tarot, Ritual, and Personal Growth: A Tarot Workbook from Callie Little and Moorea Seal pulls the centuries-old divination practice into the modern age, focusing on mental health, mindfulness, and personal growth. Included is a special stand that you can use as an altar to display your cards and deepen your practice.
Keila Shaheen, author of The Shadow Work Journal and The Vibrational Poetry Book: A Poetic Pathway to Emotional Freedom brings us her latest offering, The Lucky Girl Journal: How Anyone Can Manifest the Life of Their Dreams invites us to embrace “Lucky Girl Syndrome”, the viral mindset shift that has helped attract new opportunities and once-in-a-lifetime experiences for millions of people of all gender identifications around the world who have integrated the idea that they already have everything they need to make their dreams come true.
Deep Water: The World in the Ocean by James Bradley is a masterful blend of history, science, nature writing, and environmentalism into a deep dive into the unknown to explore the deepest recesses of the natural world – tapping into the essence of our planet and who we are.
Mythmaking: Self-Discovery and the Timeless Art of Memoir by Maureen Murdock is an invitation to readers to explore their personal story within the rich tapestry of human experience by examining the craft of memoir alongside fresh writing advice and prompts.
Psychedelic Revival: Toward a New Paradigm of Healing from therapist and writer Sean P. Lawlor takes us on a deep inquiry into the science, spirituality, and practice of psychedelic healing – a revival of both the first wave of pre-1960s research and ancient healing traditions with plant medicines. In order to make positive, sustainable choices, we need quality information about the prospects and potential pitfalls of these emerging therapeutic tools. This book is an invaluable resource for navigating this exciting frontier in Western healing.
A Book of Balance: Kogi Wisdom for a Good Life and Thriving Earth by Lucas Buchholz shares the teachings of the Kogi people – a remote and ancient tribe in the mountains of Columbia. In this slim volume of spiritual introspection, they ask us to share in their practice, posing nine questions that focus our minds and hearts on who we are and who we can become.
Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World from natural history filmmaker of the of the Academy Award winning documentary My Octopus Teacher Craig Foster reveals how we can attend to the earthly beauty and bounty around us and deepen our love for all living things, whether we make our homes in the country, the city, or anywhere in between.
Sovereign Love: A Guide to Healing Relationships by Reclaiming the Masculine and Feminine Within from couples therapist Dené Logan brings a new perspective on understanding our inner masculine and feminine energetics as the key to experiencing fulfillment in our partnerships. Logan shares revelations and techniques to support you in cultivating and experiencing the wholehearted, satiating kind of love that is rooted in self-awareness and interdependence.
The Way of the Wild Soul Woman: 5 Earth Archetypes to Unleash Your Full Feminine Power by Mary Reynolds Thompson takes us on a groundbreaking journey, teaching us how to realize and use our full feminine energies as you discover and learn from Desert Woman, Forest Woman, Ocean and River Woman, Mountain Woman, and Grassland Woman.
You Will Get Through This: A Mental Health First-Aid Kit from practicing therapists Julia Radico, Charity O’Reilly, and Nicole Helversen is your comprehensive guide to a holistic understanding of more than twenty all-too-common life challenges, plus compassionate, evidence-based strategies to support you when you’re struggling.
Zen in the Vernacular: Things As It Is by Peter Coyote helps us peer beneath the Japanese gift-wrapping of Zen teachings to reveal the fundamental teachings of the Buddha and show how they can be applied to contemporary daily life. Here, we are offered the practicality within the practice of how Zen presents a creative problem-solving mechanism and moral guide ideal for the stresses and problems of everyday life.
The Power of Solitude: Embracing Alone Time for Self-Discovery and Fulfillment by Sergio Rijo guides you on a journey of self-reflection, introspection, and personal growth. You will discover how to create a healthy balance between solitude and social interaction, and how to find fulfillment in both.
Pretty: A Memoir by prize-winning, young Black trans writer KB Brookins sheds a bright light on the marginalization of a unique American constituency, presenting both a tender love letter and a fierce call for change.
Motherland Herbal: The Story of African Holistic Health by Stephanie Rose Bird is a powerful and comprehensive guide celebrating ancient and modern African holistic healing. The author teaches us how to garden and harvest in unison with the seasons, and how to use herbalism and magic derived from ancestral and spiritual helpers to heal.
The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur is the latest novel from the brilliant Lev Grossman, author of The Magician's Trilogy, telling the story of a gifted young knight named Collum who arrives at Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table, only to find that he’s too late – the king died in battle two weeks prior, leaving no heir and only a handful of the realm’s knights alive. As you may imagine, adventure ensues!
Tarot for You and Me: A Queer Deck and Guidebook from Gary D’Andre is a wonderful deck that is as inclusive and emboldened as it is fun and full of joy. Pairing an updated vision of an inclusive tarot with positive, dynamic art, you will truly see yourself – your life, your body, your vocabulary, your experiences – reflected in the cards and the future you can create from it.
The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home by John Philip Newell tells the story of Adam and Eve’s fall from innocence in the Garden of Eden in a mythical account of humanity’s broken relationship with the divine, with Earth, and with themselves. This life-affirming, nourishing book contemplate the issues at the heart of a great spiritual awakening, an era characterized by religious exile on a vast scale. Here, we are shown a sense of home spiritually, deeply rooted within ourselves and in our shared journey with each other and our planet.
Astrology of the Shadow Self: Working with Oppositions in Your Natal Chart by Maja D’Aoust explains how to determine your shadow planets and zodiac signs through the oppositions of your birth chart. We discover the meaning and challenges of each shadow counterpart for every astrological sign and planet that appears in a traditional astrological chart. In addition to chart interpretation, the author explores the history of this astrological method, including its roots in ancient Egypt and Greece, and the Western magic tradition.
The William Blake Tarot of the Creative Imagination from Ed Buryn presents Blake’s astounding ideas and images in a manner that is approachable and entertaining. It contains 23 archetypal cards called Triumphs, together with a set of 56 Creative Process cards in four suits named Painting, Science, Music, and Poetry – which are Blake’s four primal expressions of Diving Imagination. This is a wonderful deck!
Celtic Goddesses, Witches, and Queens Oracle by Danu Forest with illustrations by Dan Goodfellow draws upon the deep well of wisdom from Celtic goddesses and other powerful women in Celtic myth, filled with authentic and ancient sources of pre-Christian Celtic religion to provide guidance based on traditions going back thousands of years.
Never Leave the Dogs Behind: A Memoir from Brianna Madia tells her story of a woman walking the line between independence and isolation when she moves to the Southwest desert with nothing and no one but her four dogs. At its core, this is a story of finding the courage to start over when the dream life you thought you were living collapses at your feet.
Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication by Arik Kershenbaum is a groundbreaking and delightful exploration of animal communication and its true meaning. From the majestic howls of wolves and the enchanting chatter of parrots to the melodic clicks of dolphins and the spirited grunts of chimpanzees, we see that these often strange expressions are far from mere noise. In fact, they hold secrets that we are just beginning to decipher.
“It is quite possible that an animal has spoken to me and that I didn’t catch the remark because I wasn’t paying attention"
~E.B. White, Charlotte's Web
Books for Young Readers + the People Who Love Them
Ban This Book by Alex Gratz brings us the story of shy young fourth-grader Amy Anne as she battles against those who would remove some of her most cherished books from the shelves of her beloved school library.
The Blue Canoe by Sheryl McFarlane with illustrations by Laurel Aylesworth is an enchanting picture book adventure filled with love, reassurance, and treasured connections, discovering the wonders of nature while embracing the arrival of a new baby in the family.
The Dictionary Story from Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston is about how Dictionary wishes she could tell a story like other books. One day, she decides to bring her words to life, but becomes frustrated in her attempts. Luckily her friend Alphabet knows exactly what to do and sings a song that brings order to Dictionary’s pages once again.
Penelope's Balloons by Brooke Bourgeois is a sweet picture book about a young elephant’s quest for acceptance. Here is a beautiful exploration of childhood passions, identity, and anxiety in a timeless story about the power of friends, family, and community.
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship."
~Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
For more books for young readers click here!
Para libros para lectores jóvenes en Español haga clic aqui!
Just Because + Just for Fun
Teamwork Game: Exercises to Build Better Team Dynamics from The School of Life folks teaches us that in order to work well together, people need more than just technical skills; they need to get to know and understand each other. Included are 100 questions that playfully and sensitively introduce us to our colleagues by setting up the best kinds of conversations about everything from our childhoods to our values.
Busy Ideas for Bored Kids: Outdoor Edition is a great resource for finding ways to keep the boredom at bay as kids make the most of outside play. With the end of Summer coming up, this can help to make the most of what’s left of vacation before school starts.
“Never underestimate the importance of having fun.”
~Randy Pausch
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.
