Nonfiction Book Club

Since childhood, Hilarie Burton Morgan has felt the call to record, keep and catalogue life in all its strange wonder. It was a whimsical habit, with no clear goal. And then, when she became a mother, the importance of all that collecting snapped into focus.

What inheritance can I give these children that is true and loving and lasting? What will stay with them, long after I am gone?

In an effort to patchwork together an anthology of traditions, curiosity, and magical thinking that she could pass down, Burton realized she was crafting a grimoire.

Perhaps the word brings to mind witches harboring secrets… and that's not far off. A grimoire was the tangible collection of a lifetime of learning. At great risk, a woman recorded what she'd been taught as a child and added to it over the years. In its purest form, a grimoire was a guide to…