Wonder More this month!

Our Book Club reads Here Is Real Magic: A Magician's Search for Wonder in the Modern World by Nate Staniforth.

Nate Staniforth has spent most of his life and all of his professional career trying to understand wonder--what it is, where to find it, and how to share it with others. He became a magician because he learned at a young age that magic tricks don't have to be frivolous. Magic doesn't have to be about sequins and smoke machines--rather, it can create a moment of genuine astonishment.

But after years on the road as a professional magician, crisscrossing the country and performing four or five nights a week, every week, Nate was disillusioned, burned out, and ready to quit. Instead, he went to India in search of magic. Here Is Real Magic follows Nate Staniforth's evolution from an obsessed young magician to a broken wanderer and back again. It tells the story of his rediscovery of astonishment--and the importance of wonder in everyday life--during his trip to the slums of India, where he infiltrated a three-thousand-year-old clan of street magicians. Here Is Real Magic is a call to all of us--to welcome awe back into our lives, to marvel in the everyday, and to seek magic all around us.

Discussion will be hosted by Jeff in East Hollywood. Since the weather seems like it should be okay, tomorrow let’s have a book club picnic at Barndsall Park. The entrance is at 4800 Hollywood Boulevard. You can park at the bottom or sometimes find parking up the hill. I’ll bring a blanket and some snacks. Fins me either in the shady area in front of the Gallery or the sunnier area behind Hollyhock House.

We have no theme or topic for what we read. This month our host picked the book, but normally attendees each nominate a book for next month, and the final selection is made by a poll on our SALA Facebook group. We meet the 1st Sunday of each month.