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Staff Pick

Nourish: Simple Recipes to Empower Your Body and Feed Your Soul: A Healthy Lifestyle Cookbook

Nourish: Simple Recipes to Empower Your Body and Feed Your Soul: A Healthy Lifestyle Cookbook

Bündchen, Gisele
$35.00
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - World-renowned model and wellness advocate Gisele Bündchen presents 100 delicious and approachable recipes based on everyday ingredients. The cookbook focuses on kickstarting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle while finding balance and intention.

Superstar model and philanthropist Gisele Bündchen believes wellness begins with food. At home she chooses lean, healthy proteins and nutrient-rich vegetables; she also believes in eating with flexibility (pizza night with the kids!). This means recipes that are gluten free and rely on body-fueling ingredients like almond flour, avocado oil, and dates.

In her cookbook, Gisele provides thoughtful guidance on how to create a routine filled with positive intention, nourishing food, and gratitude to support a healthy lifestyle. The first part of her cookbook walks readers through adjusting to this new mindset and offers practical guidance. Many of the recipes include suggestions for light and hearty pairings, as well as tips for making meals "kid friendly"

- Everyday Fruits: Papaya-Almond Smoothie; Acai Bowls; Banana Ice Cream
- Breakfast + Breads: Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pão de Queijo); Veggie Frittata; Coconut Milk Two Ways
- Salads: Steak Salad; Beet and Arugula Salad with Herby Goat Cheese
- Soups: Sneeze-Be-Gone Soup; Ramen-Style Soup with Vegetables
- Everyday Vegetables: Summer Rolls with Ginger-Cashew Dipping Sauce; Pizza Night; Pesto Chicken Wrap
- Favorite Proteins: Grilled Ribeye with Chimichurri; Sheet Pan Squash and Chickpeas; Chicken Meatballs
- Crunchies + Condiments: Maple-Harissa Cashews; Tamari Dressing 3 Ways
- Sweets: Pecan Bars; Banana Dream Pie; Carrot Muffins

From breaking cycles to journaling and setting intentions, minimizing waste, meal planning, and preparing healthful meals for your kids, Nourish is as much about living with mindfulness as it is about cooking.

Melanie says: Yes, this is by supermodel, Gisele, and I don't expect to be able to look like her if I use her cookbook! If you want to improve your diet and eat in a healthier way, this beautiful cookbook will help you. Recipes are simple and many ingredients are readily available. Everything I have made has been easy and yummy.

Four Thousand Weeks

Four Thousand Weeks

Burkeman, Oliver
$19.00

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

*Includes an interview with James Hollis*

"Provocative and appealing . . . Well worth your extremely limited time." --Barbara Spindel, The Wall Street Journal

There's a good reason why everyone has been talking about Oliver Burkeman's New York Times bestseller, Four Thousand Weeks. Nobody needs to be told there isn't enough time. Whether we're starting our own business, or trying to write a novel during our lunch break, or staring down a pile of deadlines as we're planning a vacation, we're obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and ceaseless struggle against distraction. We're deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient and life hacks to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and yet the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks, the average length of a human life.

Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with "getting everything done," Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing that many of the unhelpful ways we've come to think about time aren't inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we've made as individuals and as a society--and that we can do things differently.

Four Thousand Weeks

Four Thousand Weeks

Burkeman, Oliver
$28.00

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"Provocative and appealing . . . well worth your extremely limited time." --Barbara Spindel, The Wall Street Journal

The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks.

Nobody needs telling there isn't enough time. We're obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we're deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and "life hacks" to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks.

Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on "getting everything done," Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we've come to think about time aren't inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we've made as individuals and as a society--and that we could do things differently.

Roxanne says: Burkeman’s title emphasizes that if we make it to 80 years of age, we live roughly four thousand weeks.  That intro alone sounds pretty sobering, but Burkeman takes us through philosophers’ and scientists’ wisdom across centuries with conclusions that are very optimistic.  Burke reassures us with stories such as the American who in 1969 went through a brutal orientation to become a Zen Buddhist with secrets to feeling at peace by merely stopping avoidance to the obvious, diving in to reclaim control of our lives.

Molly

Molly

Butler, Blake
$17.95
A gripping, unforgettable memoir from one of the best, most original writers of the 21st century. Blake Butler has changed the world of language with his mind-melting literary thrillers, and now he brings his abilities to bear on the emotional world.

"Terrifyingly intense and eerily spiritual ...The best book I've read this year."
--LOS ANGELES TIMES

"These pages have a midnight sort of impact many novelists would kill to smuggle into their fiction."
--NEW YORK TIMES

"With Molly, Butler has created a towering tribute to Brodak, in all her complexities, and a harrowing document of unanswerable grief."
--VANITY FAIR

"[5 stars] ... Extraordinary and raw ... the triumph of his book lies in its compassion."
--THE TELEGRAPH

"Molly is a dark, gorgeously crafted read. It contains a tremendous amount of pain, and the loss of life, loss of potential, loss of what could have been weighs heavy. That Butler makes it out the other side whole enough to tell this story is the glimmer of hope that sustains the reader in the end."
--ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

"Molly is so vital, so full of force ... [it] guts the cliché description of someone with mental illness ... [a] gorgeous, sad memoir."
--SLATE

"A powerfully sad book ... Writers are often praised as 'fearless, ' but Butler is not. In Molly, he makes fear his companion. That is the only way to write, and to live."
--THE NEW YORKER

"Shattering ... The result is a brutal yet beautiful look at the ravages of mental illness and the complexities of grief."
--PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

"I'm not sure I've ever been so totally consumed by any book--the way I was by Molly."
--INTERVIEW

"As the story of a marriage, Molly sees that desire, like love, can be both ignited and fractured by the unknowability of the other."
--BOOKFORUM

"The most immediate feeling of life I've ever had reading a book--a life lived at the desk and out in the world, a life of openness and secrets. "Make art for me," Molly wrote to Blake. "I will read it all." I breathed along with every word."
--PATRICIA LOCKWOOD

"How to praise a book of such wounded beauty as Blake Butler's phenomenal Molly? The same way one would a life lost early: with love and sincerity and anger and wonder and lithely elegant and observant insights that remind us and inspire us, as Butler precisely does, to live and to love ourselves."
--JOHN D'AGATA

"Molly is a brilliant and brutal book. Blake Butler fearlessly takes on love and grief and the mysteries of this world and the next."
--EMMA CLINE

"A dark miracle--actual evidence that what we can never know, what we could never imagine about the one we love, is what binds us to them, beyond death."
--MICHAEL W. CLUNE

"I was gripped from the start by this memoir's urgent honesty. Blake Butler turned a story that was almost unspeakable into a narrative at once brutal and loving, broken and solid."
--CATHERINE LACEY

Blake Butler and Molly Brodak instantly connected, fell in love, married and built a life together. Both writers with deep roots in contemporary American literature, their union was an iconic joining of forces between two major and beloved talents.

Nearly three years into their marriage, grappling with mental illness and a lifetime of trauma, Molly took her own life. In the days and weeks after Molly's death, Blake discovered shocking secrets she had held back from the world, fundamentally altering his view of their relationship and who she was.

A masterpiece of autobiography, Molly is a riveting journey into the darkest and most unthinkable parts of the human heart, emerging with a hard-won, unsurpassedly beautiful understanding that expands the possibilities of language to comprehend and express true love.

Unrelentingly clear, honest and concise, Molly approaches the impossible directly, with a total empathy that has no parallel or precedent. A supremely important work that will be taught, loved, relied on and passed around for years to come, Blake Butler affirms now beyond question his position at the very top rank of writers.

Ben says: Written in the wake of his wife's suicide, Butler's memoir perfectly captures the truly infinite depth of love, despite the fact that one mind can never truly touch another. The most beautiful book I have ever read.

Void Corporation

Void Corporation

Butler, Blake
$17.95
Following up the 2023 publication of Blake Butler's smash hit memoir Molly, Archway Editions is proud to bring you Void Corporation, the revised and definitive paperback of his masterful 2020 novel Alice Knott, now with a new foreword from the author. The perfect introduction to Butler's hypnotic and wildly inventive fictional world for his many new fans.

"There's an exceptional amount of intention and control on display in the telling of this story ... Don't expect a conventional reading experience. [Void Corporation] is a meditation on art and perception whose form seems to serve as both a meta-comment on the function of the novel, and a challenge to the expectations that a reader should bring to one. It's rare for me to enjoy and value a book on those terms, but this one worked for me. And even more to the point, I respected it for insisting that I rise to its challenge." --The New York Times Book Review

"[Void Corporation] signals Blake Butler as our most imaginative writer." --The Believer

"Timely and bold ... [Butler's] fiction exhibits an alarmingly masterful grasp of language that effectively haunts readers ... The writing is challenging and transgressive, but it is also dripping with perfectly rendered imagery of the macabre ...[Void Corporation] uses language to carve through the darkness. Here, like with his earlier work[, ] Butler has proven himself to be a cartographer of the psyche. A camera pointed on masked individuals drenching a painting with kerosene before setting a match to it; the modern American home, idyllic and clandestine on its exterior while inside, familiar spaces like bedrooms become war zones, morphing and shifting like a body flexing and contorting: These are the sorts of images that Butler leaves behind in your mind, never to be erased." --The New York Observer

"[A] tangle of cosmic pandemonium ... For all its sleek neo-Gothicism and terrifying speculation on and remote past and near future of the human mind, [Void Corporation] carries within it the old-style haunting and paranormal shenanigans of a Poe-like captivity tale." --The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A remarkable accomplishment ... [Butler's] constant worrying at what's genuinely personal, struggling to detach it from the endless play of light across wall and screen, strikes me as an undeniably contemporary project." --John Domini, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Read this beautifully unsettling novel and prepare to be ravished--and ravaged--as it winds its way inside your psyche, snake-like and persistent ... Blake Butler's latest is a meditation on trauma and art, creation and destruction ... It's a profound, exuberant disturbance, just what you want all art to be." --Refinery29

"Stunning and impressive ... With the novel's humor, arresting voice, and pastiche of conspiracy, art, and paranoia, Butler brings to mind the work of Pynchon and DeLillo as he explores the complexity of artistic achievement and the unreliability of our own minds." --ZYZZYVA

"A masterpiece ... I keep trying to come up with my favorite bits in the book ... the precision of descriptions ... the grainy-video feel of the atmosphere .. the way it feels like you might be losing your mind when you read it, the small bits of emotion and feeling that made me feel deeply sad, the hauntology of the whole thing, or maybe the end, where I said out loud 'don't do it' and then he did it. I loved it all." --World Literature Today

"Butler is a master of the American dystopic, language-driven novel, and here returns with his penchant for mining the unsettling national psyche, delving so deeply into its unconscious that the resulting delirium is uncannily close to truth." --The Millions

"Heartbreaking and heady ... [Butler's] manipulation of language is a thing of wonder, and the emotions it inspires are more akin to what a person feels while listening to an intricate piece of music as opposed to reading a book." --LitReactor

"A bold and innovative existential mystery that moves us not towards resolution but deeper into the powerfully strange oceans of fractured memories, damaged love, and lost histories. This book is a thrill, a terror, a heartbreak." --Laura van den Berg

"A strange and beguiling masterpiece, an immersive experience of psychic disorder that becomes ever more profound as you read on." --Alexandra Kleeman

"A beautifully constructed maze full of trick mirrors that reminds us of how we find ways to exist inside our realities even as they change." --Ilana Masad

"Devastatingly beautiful ... [Void Corporation] challenges us to remember how we might yet devote ourselves to life--and each other--differently." --Lidia Yuknavitch

"[Void Corporation] is a thrilling, subversive novel, part fever dream, part high-culture acid trip, part dystopian masterpiece. A dazzling, dangerous book." --Christopher Bollen

"Blake Butler is one of our most fearless insurgents against the numbing flow of contemporary life. With [Void Corporation] he's created a Lynchian fever dream about the voracious march of capitalism and the vulnerable place of art in our society, with vividly crisp sentences and syntax that could cut diamonds." --Catherine Lacey

"This book is an incantation--to read it is to be put under its spell. [Void Corporation] is ferocious, masterful, and truly unforgettable." --Chelsea Hodson

Praise for Blake Butler:

"A mastermind and visionary." --Ben Marcus

"Our premier literary shaman." --Alissa Nutting

"[Butler's work is] wild but elegant and smart." --Roxane Gay

"An endlessly surprising, funny, and subversive writer." --Publishers Weekly

"A powerful force in contemporary literature." --3: AM Magazine

"[An] inventive and deeply promising young author."--Time Out New York

"Try Blake on. Lace him up. Wear him around your neck in wreaths." --Vice

From Blake Butler, the genius author of Archway Editions' smash hit memoir Molly, comes Void Corporation--the crowning achievement of his fictional oeuvre. Initially published as Alice Knott in 2020 by Riverhead Books, it now appears for the first time in paperback with its originally intended title, a brand new foreword by the author, and an unsettling, iconic cover painting by Seymour Rosofsky. The most accomplished and accessible entrypoint into Butler's hypnotic, hallucinatory aesthetic, Void Corporation is the ideal next purchase for anyone who loved Molly.

Published right as the world changed in early 2020, Butler's riffs on art, technology, inequality and the conspiratorial impenetrability of our bureaucratic world are more prescient than ever. The recent spate of protest action involving art even seems inspired by the book--people have said as much online--and the resonances keep coming. Reclusive heiress Alice Knott's self-imposed quarantine is reminiscent of our own, and the mystery deepens after she discovers her family's world-class artwork collection destroyed and videotaped.

Void Corporation features Butler's stimulating, immersive linguistic acrobatics, but in following Alice's journey through a world of memory and conspiracy, he brings a looming clarity. After the artwork is destroyed, copycat incidents proliferate around the world, and she becomes the chief suspect in what may be an international conspiracy. With essential questions raised about the meaning of art and the ramifications of trauma, this definitive edition is a must-have for anyone who has read Molly or wants to discover the exceptional written universe of Blake Butler.

Ben says: The skeleton key to the literary universe of one of America's greatest living writers. A novel about art terrorism, the inconsistency of memory, and the seemingly infinite darkness that waits for us when we close our eyes.

Few Rules for Predicting the Future

Few Rules for Predicting the Future

Butler, Octavia E.
$14.95
The wise words of science fiction icon Octavia E. Butler live on in this beautiful and giftable little volume.

"There's no single answer that will solve all our future problems. There's no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers--at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be."

Originally published in Essence magazine in the year 2000, Octavia E. Butler's essay "A Few Rules for Predicting the Future" offers an honest look into the inspiration behind her science fiction novels and the importance of studying history and taking responsibility for our actions if we are to move forward.

Organized into four main rules, this short essay reminds readers to learn from the past, respect the law of consequences, be aware of their perspectives, and count on the surprises. Citing the warning signs of fascism, the illusive effects of fear and wishful thinking, and the unpredictable nature of what is yet to come, Butler shares realistic but hopeful suggestions to shape our future into something good. An inspiring and motivational gift for students and recent graduates, fans of Butler's work, and anyone seeking a brighter day tomorrow, this exquisite gift book includes stunning Afrofuturist artwork by Manzel Bowman alongside the full text of the original essay.

LITERARY ICON: Octavia E. Butler was a pioneering science fiction writer whose novels, written decades ago, remain eerily relevant, reflecting on themes of racial injustice, women's rights, environmental collapse, and political corruption. In 1995, she became the first science fiction author to win a MacArthur Genius grant, and her books are taught in over 200 colleges and universities nationwide. This book shares Butler's timely but lesser-known essay and is a must-read for fans of her classic sci-fi works.

CELEBRATE BLACK CREATORS: This book spotlights one of the greatest authors of Afrofuturism, a genre and philosophy that explores and reimagines Black culture, creativity, and liberation through fiction, art, music, film, and other media. Octavia E. Butler's forward-thinking essay is paired with contemporary illustrations by Manzel Bowman, whose evocative images are also inspired by Afrofuturist visions.

INSPIRING GIFT: A unique gift for students, recent graduates, and anyone celebrating life milestones or looking forward in life, this beautifully designed hardcover book is sure to inspire. Octavia E. Butler's essay is also an important, evergreen reminder for writers, creatives, dreamers, and activists who want to envision and work toward a brighter future.

Perfect for:

  • Fans of Octavia Butler and her novels, including Kindred and Parable of the Sower
  • People interested in nonfiction and essays by Black women writers
  • Afrofuturism lovers and social justice-minded sci-fi readers
  • Literary bibliophiles looking for a stunning new addition to their bookshelf
  • Gift-giving to graduating high school and college students
  • Activists and community leaders
  • Inspirational essay readers
  • Fans of Manzel Bowman and Afrofuturist art
  • James says: Wisdom, insight, and creativity all come together in a book that is a template for limitless thinking and possibilities.

    Also a Poet

    Also a Poet

    Calhoun, Ada
    $18.00

    A staggering memoir from New York Times-bestselling author Ada Calhoun tracing her fraught relationship with her father and their shared obsession with a great poet

     

    When Ada Calhoun stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews her father, celebrated art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had conducted for his never-completed biography of poet Frank O'Hara, she set out to finish the book her father had started forty years earlier.

    As a lifelong O'Hara fan who grew up amid his bohemian cohort in the East Village, Calhoun thought the project would be easy, even fun, but the deeper she dove, the more she had to face not just O'Hara's past, but also her father's, and her own.

    The result is a groundbreaking and kaleidoscopic memoir that weaves compelling literary history with a moving, honest, and tender story of a complicated father-daughter bond. Also a Poet explores what happens when we want to do better than our parents, yet fear what that might cost us; when we seek their approval, yet mistrust it.

    In reckoning with her unique heritage, as well as providing new insights into the life of one of our most important poets, Calhoun offers a brave and hopeful meditation on parents and children, artistic ambition, and the complexities of what we leave behind.

    Nora says: A fascinating exploration of the bohemian world Calhoun grew up in as the only child of the poet and art critic Peter Schjeldahl. Schjeldahl’s circle included many famous names: Frank O’Hara, William deKooning, John Ashbery, Helen Frankenthaler, among them.  This intelligent and sensitive memoir  examines artistic ambition, the accompanying rivalries, and the personal and professional currents and tensions between herself and her father.

    Secret Book of Flora Lea

    Secret Book of Flora Lea

    Callahan Henry, Patti
    $17.99
    When a woman discovers a rare book with connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood in the English countryside during World War II are revealed in this "beguiling blend of hope, mystery, and true familial love" (Sadeqa Johnson, New York Times bestselling author).

    In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone--a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

    But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister's disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

    Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby's. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel's future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora's disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

    As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. Spellbinding and atmospheric, "this heartrending, captivating tale of family, first love, and fate will sweep you away" (Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author).

    Secret Book of Flora Lea

    Secret Book of Flora Lea

    Callahan Henry, Patti
    $28.99
    INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

    When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.

    In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone--a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

    But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister's disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

    Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby's. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel's future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora's disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

    As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.

    Melanie says: Inspired by Operation Pied Piper, this dual timeline book is the tale of two sisters who were orphaned and separated during the war. Years later the older sister comes upon a children’s book that is suspiciously like a story she used to tell her sister. A story no one else would know.  Like "Becoming Mrs. Lewis" and "Once Upon a Wardrobe," the author continues to enchant readers with magical prose, the hope of fairy tales, and the power of stories.

    Once Upon a Wardrobe

    Once Upon a Wardrobe

    Callahan, Patti
    $16.99

    Now available in trade paper with an eye-catching new cover! From the New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Book of Flora Lea and Becoming Mrs. Lewis comes a fascinating look into the bond between siblings and the life-changing magic of stories.

    1950: Margaret Devonshire (Megs) is a seventeen-year-old student of mathematics and physics at Oxford University. When her beloved eight-year-old brother asks Megs if Narnia is real, logical Megs tells him it's just a book for children, and certainly not true. Homebound due to his illness, and remaining fixated on his favorite books, George presses her to ask the author of the recently released novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a question: "Where did Narnia come from?"

    Despite her fear about approaching the famous author, who is a professor at her school, Megs soon finds herself taking tea with C. S. Lewis and his own brother Warnie, begging them for answers.

    Rather than directly telling her where Narnia came from, Lewis encourages Megs to form her own conclusion as he shares the little-known stories from his own life that led to his inspiration. As she takes these stories home to George, the little boy travels farther in his imagination than he ever could in real life.

    After holding so tightly to logic and reason, her brother's request leads Megs to absorb a more profound truth: "The way stories change us can't be explained. It can only be felt. Like love."

    Once Upon a Wardrobe is a captivating historical novel that deftly combines fact and fiction. It's an emotional journey into the books and stories that make us who we are. It's perfect for book clubs, for anyone who has ever longed to know more about Narnia, and for anyone whose life has ever been impacted by a story.

    "It's a love letter to books and stories . . ." --THE WASHINGTON POST ". . . a tender, enchanting tribute to the power of story and the myriad ways it can both break and heal our hearts." --ARIEL LAWHON "Patti Callahan's beautiful, life-affirming novel is a reminder that literature lives inside us, and that when we read someone else's story, we understand so much more about our own. A gorgeous, compelling book." --JANET SKESLIEN CHARLES ". . . the kind of real magic that is only possible when we open our hearts and let the lamplight in." --KRISTIN HARMEL ". . . discovering the way in which stories--and myths--weave through our existences, subtly transforming us in immeasurable ways. Stunning." --MARIE BENEDICT

    Melanie says: 8 year old, sickly George begs his sister Meg, a student at Oxford, to find and ask C.S. Lewis where the idea of Narnia came from. This charming novel is a testament to the power of stories. Those who enjoy "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" will feel like they are wrapped in a warm blanket before a lovely fire as they are transported to the magical world of Narnia.