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January's Book of the Month
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To start the year off, I will share with you a New Year's wish posted by our Book of the Month author Katrina Kenison on her Facebook page, written by Neil Gaiman:
"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art--write or draw or live or sing as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."
January's Book of the Month is a memoir which has spoken quietly but profoundly to many women, including author and bookseller Ann Patchett, who says, "Katrina shows us a path into the future that is generous, brave and open-hearted. I've given Magical Journey to so many people and the response has been unanimous--love."
Katrina has shared with us a menu, recipes and music to accompany you and your club on your own journey. Happy 2014.
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Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment
by Katrina Kenison
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"Facing an empty nest, a friend's death, and changes at work, Kenison resists her usual antidote to unwanted change: keeping busy. Instead, she stops and takes stock of her life. It was so beautifully written, I wore out a yellow marker highlighting my favorite lines." -- People magazine
"This luminous memoir is a gift to any reader searching for meaning, clarity, and perhaps a bit of hard-won joy."--author Dani Shapiro
Book Description
"No longer indispensable, no longer assured of our old carefully crafted identities, no longer beautiful in the way we were at twenty or thirty or forty, we are hungry and searching nonetheless."
From the author of The Gift of an Ordinary Day, this intimate memoir of loss, self-discovery, and growth will resonate deeply with any woman who has ever mourned the passage of time, questioned her own purpose, or wondered, "Do I have what it takes to create something new in my life?"
With the candor and warmth that have endeared her to readers, Kenison reflects on the inevitable changes wrought by time: the death of a dear friend, children leaving home, recognition of her own physical vulnerability, and surprising shifts in her marriage. She finds solace in the notion that midlife is also a time of unprecedented opportunity for growth as old roles and responsibilities fall away, and unanticipated possibilities appear on the horizon. More a spiritual journey than a physical one, Kenison's beautifully crafted exploration begins and ends with a home, a life, a marriage. But this metamorphosis proves as demanding as any trek or pilgrimage to distant lands-it will guide and inspire every woman who finds herself asking "What now?"
Read an Excerpt>
Over 2 million people have viewed author Katrina Kenison's video about the gift of ordinary days:
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OUR EDITORIAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
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Chai Tea
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Katrina prepares this sweet, aromatic and strong tea from a recipe she received from her yogi. I discovered this tea at a small teahouse in Northwest Connecticut called Chaiwalla. Whether you follow a yogi's recipe, or order a grande chai latte from Starbucks, it is still a drink that is both magically uplifting and comforting at the same time.
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Glazed Lemon Cake
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(Simple. Dense. Lemony. Sturdy. Good.)
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar (I use half a cup less)
3 eggs slightly beaten
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 heaping tsp. grated lemon rind
3 tblsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
Set your oven to 325. Grease a ten-inch tube pan, line the bottom with piece of waxed paper cut to fit exactly, grease the paper, and then lightly flour the pan. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one tablespoonful at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt, and add to to dry ingredients with mixer on its lowest speed, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat in lemon rind and juice.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake on middle rack of oven for 65 minutes, until the cake begins to pull away from sides of pan. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and glaze (optional) while still warm.
For the glaze: In a mixer cream together 2 cups confectioners sugar and 3 T. butter. Add 3 heaping T. grated lemon rind and 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice.
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"Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac & A Magical Journey Playlist
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"Landslide" by Stevie Nicks Listen>
"One day, near the beginning of my work on “Magical Journey,” I was out taking a walk, listening to some random Pandora station on my earbuds. I happened to hear Stevie Nicks’s re-recording of her pop hit “Landslide,” a song I’d loved as a teenager. Her new version is sung live with the Melbourne Symphony. Stevie’s voice is older, scratchier, deeper. The lyrics went straight to my heart and broke it wide open."--Katrina Kenison
Katrina's Magical Journey Playlist:
“Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce
“Circle Game” by Joni Mitchell
“Our House” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash
“These Days” by Jackson Browne
“The Painter” by Neil Young
“Days Like This" by Van Morrison
“The Long and Winding Road” by the Beatles
“When I’m 64” by the Beatles
“Anthem” by Leonard Cohen
“Still Crazy After All These Years” by Paul Simon
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Write to Katrina...or to yourself
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This intimate book has spoken to so many women, many of whom have contacted Katrina and told her what her book meant to them, including this book club member:
The overriding feeling was: "How wonderful that it is not just me feeling this way, how wonderful there is this stranger who felt it and wrote about it and now her book has brought us all together to laugh and cry and support each other on our own journeys.”
Contact Info
Email Katrina or contact her via her web site
Above is a picture of author Katrina Kenison with her own book club and Ann Patchett at Ann's bookstore, Parnassus Books in Nashville. After reading the book, Ann asked Katrina if she would come do a reading. Ann explains in her blog post>
Katrina's suggestion? Write a letter to yourself, like the one she wrote in this video>
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