Everyday Traditions: Simple Family Rituals for Connection and Comfort [Hardcover]

Nava Atlas (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 096302437X | ISBN-13: 978-0963024374 | Publication Date: September 15, 2005

Topics include daily dinner and other kitchen rituals, preserving family history, creating memories, building family identity, fun and meaningful celebrations, seasonal activities, friendship and leisure for busy mothers, and much more. Lushly illustrated and containing scores of simple ideas, this book also contains pages for the reader to record and develop their own favourite family traditions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Everyday Traditions offers simple but unique suggestions for working quality time into your family's hectic schedule. Herself a busy mother of two, Atlas shares her own experiences in illustrating the importance of creating traditions and building family connections."  —Hudson Valley Parent

"Every chapter is full of ideas for creating special moments with our loved ones, every day of the year. I highly recommend this book for homeschooling families, or for anyone looking for ways to connect with their children and create lifelong memories."  —Cheryl Foley, California Homeschool News

About the Author

Nava Atlas is best known for her vegetarian cookbook classics that focus on healthful, easy cooking, with more than 545,000 copies in print. Her two most recent books are "The Vegetarian Family Cookbook" and "The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet." Nava's web site, "In a Vegetarian Kitchen is among the most widely visited culinary sites. She lives in New York's Hudson Valley region with her husband and two teenage sons.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 158 pages
• Publisher: Amberwood Press (September 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096302437X
• ISBN-13: 978-0963024374
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #997,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nava Atlas is the author and illustrator of many books on vegetarian cooking, most recently Vegan Express, Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, The Vegetarian Family Cookbook, and The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet. The Vegan Holiday Kitchen will be published in the fall of 2011, and a book on leafy greens will be on the shelves in the spring of 2012.

In addition to cookbooks, Nava also produces visual books on family themes, humor, and women's issues, including The Literary Ladies' Guide to the Writing Life (2011), exploring first-person narratives on the writing lives of twelve classic women authors, and commenting on the universal relevance of their experiences to all women who love to write. Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife (2009) is a satiric look at contemporary marriage and motherhood through the lens of a faux 1950s cookbook.

Nava is also an active fine artist specializing in limited edition artist's books and text-driven objects. Her work is shown and collected by museums and universities across the U.S. You can see her work at navaatlasart.com. Her home is in the Hudson Valley region of New York State, where she lives with her husband and two sons.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Traditions for every day of the year!, October 12, 2005

By 

C. Foley (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everyday Traditions: Simple Family Rituals for Connection and Comfort (Hardcover)

I originally looked to this book to help me find ways to make the holidays more meaningful and memorable for my children. We live across the country from our extended family, so there really are NO big family get-togethers. I did find ideas for creating holiday traditions for our little family, and so much more.

Each chapter of this book is full of ideas for creating special moments with the special people in your life. There are ideas for bedtime, mealtime, birthdays, seasons, holidays and more. It is really a compilation of ideas from dozens of women who share their personal stories and customs. There are lots of resources suggested if you want to learn more about a specific tradition. The final section of the book is a workbook area for recording your own family traditons.

If you are looking for ideas about how to make every day extraordinary, this book will not disappoint. Buy it, share it, you will love it!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a surprising diversity of ideas to counter the hectic pace of life, November 17, 2005

By 

K. Fort "avidreader" (west coast, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everyday Traditions: Simple Family Rituals for Connection and Comfort (Hardcover)

I am a voracious reader who generally donates books to the library upon their completion, but with "Everyday Traditions" I'm making an exception. It is a book I expect to return to time and again. It is a book of ideas, so many and so good that I know I'll never contain in my brain all that it contains in its pages, so it's earned a slot on my small bookshelf. While many books will enrich your life while you read them, how many will enrich it in the days, weeks, and years that follow, and maybe even into the lives of your children and their children? This book truly offers this if you embrace the simple premise that many of our mundane tasks can be transformed with a minimum of added flourish and a different approach of attitude.
The book is divided into large chapter categories dealing with rituals of memory, season, food, friendship, etc. Though family themes predominate, it is NOT a parenting book, because it deals with relationships which extend in all directions: parents, partners, friends, siblings, and yes, children. Within each chapter is some narrative by the author and examples drawn from her own experience, but also there are numerous and diverse ideas from many contributors. And for the cosmopolitan-minded, approaches to tradition and ritual from other cultures are included. Thanks to the very clean organization of each chapter, if certain ideas simply don't interest you, you can easily skip over them, making this an enjoyable cover-to-cover read if you choose to approach it that way. Alternatively, you could just go to an area of interest and peruse the possibilities in short order.
Finally, as icing to the cake, the author is an accomplished artist who has illustrated the entire book, so it will please your eyes while leading you into new ways of expanding your life and those around you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars practical and inspiring, December 7, 2006

By 

Cathe Fein Olson "Avid reader and writer" (curled up with a book) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Everyday Traditions: Simple Family Rituals for Connection and Comfort (Hardcover)

This is a really cool book full of ideas for traditions and rituals for your family. There are suggestions for daily or weekly rituals like family dinner, reading together, family meetings; seasonal rituals like spring planting, summer relaxation, fall festivities and cozy winter traditions; as well as annual ideas for birthdays, anniversaries, and honoring the departed. Atlas also includes a section on friendship rituals including dates with friends, starting a women's book group, and my favorite - the lost art of letter writing. There are so many little tidbits that you'll be inspired to create your own special traditions that your children will remember and want to carry on.