
The Book of Alchemy
A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life
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By:
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Suleika Jaouad
About this listen
A guide to the art of journaling—and a meditation on the central questions of life—by the bestselling author of Between Two Kingdoms, with contributions from Hanif Abdurraqib, Jon Batiste, Salman Rushdie, Gloria Steinem, George Saunders, and many more
“The Book of Alchemy proves on every page that a creative response can be found in every moment of life—regardless of what is happening in the world.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love
From the time she was young, Suleika Jaouad has kept a journal. She’s used it to mark life's biggest occasions and to weather its most ferocious storms. Journaling has buoyed her through illness, heartbreak, and the deepest uncertainty. And she is not alone: for so many people, keeping a journal is an essential tool for navigating both the personal peaks and valleys and the collective challenges of modern life. More than ever, we need a space for puzzling through.
In The Book of Alchemy, Suleika explores the art of journaling and shares everything she’s learned about how this life-altering practice can help us tap into that mystical trait that exists in every human: creativity. She has gathered wisdom from one hundred writers, artists, and thinkers in the form of essays and writing prompts. Their insights invite us to inhabit a more inspired life.
A companion through challenging times, The Book of Alchemy is broken into themes ranging from new beginnings to love, loss, and rebuilding. Whether you’re a lifelong journaler or new to the practice, this book gives you the tools, direction, and encouragement to engage with discomfort, ask questions, peel back the layers, dream daringly, uncover your truest self—and in doing so, to learn to hold the unbearably brutal and astonishingly beautiful facts of life in the same palm.
Also includes essays from: Martha Beck • Nadia Bolz-Weber • Alain de Botton • Susan Cheever • Lena Dunham • Melissa Febos • Liana Finck • John Green • Marie Howe • Pico Iyer • Oliver Jeffers • Quintin Jones • Michael Koryta • Hanif Kureishi • Kiese Laymon • Cleyvis Natera • Ann Patchett • Esther Perel • Adrienne Raphel • Jenny Rosenstrach • Sarah Ruhl • Sharon Salzberg • Dani Shapiro • Mavis Staples • Linda Sue Park • Nafissa Thompson-Spires • Jia Tolentino • Lindy West • Lidia Yuknavitch • And many others
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF listing essay contributors.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2025 Suleika Jaouad (P)2025 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“The Book of Alchemy proves on every page that a creative response can be found in every moment of life—regardless of what is happening in the world. It also demonstrates that we can be more creative together than we could ever be alone. This book is not only beautiful but exceedingly helpful. I recommend it to every dreamer, with the highest respect and joy.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love
An extraordinary collection of wisdom from some of the world’s greatest writers—and an inspiring set of prompts for your own writing. The Book of Alchemy is a springboard to new ideas, new insights, and new identities.”—Adam Grant, bestselling author of Think Again and host of the podcast Re:Thinking
“Brilliant. Gentle. Encouraging. If you want to make your life richer, follow her lead. Suleika Jaouad is showing us how to find wisdom in every transition, graduation, and U-turn. The perfect mix of incandescent wisdom and kick-in-the-pants motivation to start your own creative journey.”—Kate Bowler, author of Everything Happens for a Reason
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Story
The Path of Alchemy introduces the history and basic laws of this ancient practice, and explains how it ties into Qabala, tarot, astrology, and the four elements. Safe, modern techniques - based on spagyrics (plant alchemy) - for producing distillations, stones, tinctures, and elixirs are given, along with their uses in physical healing, spiritual growth, psychic experiments, initiation, consecration, spellwork, and more. Each chapter includes meditations, projects, and suggested reading as aids to "inner transformation," an equally important aspect of alchemy.
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Awful narrator
- By Jillsalem C. on 05-01-25
By: Mark Stavish
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We Can Do Hard Things
- Answers to Life's 20 Questions
- By: Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle
- Narrated by: Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The #1 New York Times bestselling authors and award-winning podcasters Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle created We Can Do Hard Things—the guidebook for being alive—to help fellow travelers find their way through life.
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I love Glennon but this was way too hard to follow with all the voices, it may be better as a book
- By Amanda Newton on 05-11-25
By: Glennon Doyle, and others
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The Next Day
- Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward
- By: Melinda French Gates
- Narrated by: Melinda French Gates
- Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In a rare window into some of her life’s pivotal moments, Melinda French Gates draws from previously untold stories to offer a new perspective on encountering transitions. Melinda will reflect on some of the most significant transitions in her own life, including becoming a parent, the death of a dear friend, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. The stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends navigate times of crisis, embracing uncertainty, and more.
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So much wisdom
- By Michelle Hicks on 04-16-25
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Resurface
- A Guide to Navigating Life's Biggest Transitions
- By: Cassidy Krug
- Narrated by: Cassidy Krug
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Life is nothing other than a series of transitions. Whether you’re graduating from college and trying to decide what’s next, coping with divorce, putting the pieces back together after a death or a diagnosis, moving to a new city, or thinking about leaving one career path for another, these transitions—planned or unplanned—are an inevitable part of life.
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Transitions & Change
- By S B on 06-27-25
By: Cassidy Krug
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Inner Alchemy: Energy Work and the Magic of the Body
- How Inner Alchemy Works, Book 1
- By: Taylor Ellwood
- Narrated by: Philip Fairbanks (Books.Audio)
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Your body is a miraculous universe waiting to be explored, and Inner Alchemy opens the path to your microcosmic journey. You will learn the practical magic of the body and how it can help you change your life.
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so. so. bad.
- By KC on 06-28-19
By: Taylor Ellwood
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Gold
- By: Rumi
- Narrated by: Haleh Liza Gafori
- Length: 1 hr and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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A vibrant selection of poems by the great Persian mystic with groundbreaking translations by Haleh Liza Gafori, an American poet of Persian descent. Rumi’s poems were meant to induce a sense of ecstatic illumination and liberation in his audience, bringing its members to a condition of serenity, compassion, and oneness with the divine. They remain masterpieces of world literature to which readers in many languages continually return for inspiration and succor, as well as aesthetic delight.
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The performance was inspires, but the translations were even better!
- By Jose Casiano on 07-09-25
By: Rumi
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Pilgrims
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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When Elizabeth Gilbert's story collection Pilgrims first appeared in 1997, it immediately announced her compelling voice, her comic touch, and her amazing ear for dialogue. Brave and unforgettable, the heroes of Pilgrims are sure to strike a chord with fans old and new.
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Elizabeth Gilbert is amazing !!!!
- By Nancy Costello on 06-09-17
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Notes to John
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Julianne Moore
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had “a rough few years.” She described the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne. For several months, Didion recorded conversations with the psychiatrist in meticulous detail. The initial sessions focused on alcoholism, adoption, depression, anxiety, guilt, and the heartbreaking complexities of her relationship with her daughter, Quintana. The subjects evolved to include her work, which she was finding difficult to maintain for sustained periods.
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This autobiography discusses notes from therapy regarding Joan’s daughter’s addiction. Very insightful!
- By Laura Borealis on 04-24-25
By: Joan Didion
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Hello, Cruel World!
- Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times
- By: Melinda Wenner Moyer
- Narrated by: Melinda Wenner Moyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In the blink of an eye, our kids will be adults facing countless serious threats—climate change, gun violence, political polarization, and disinformation, to name but a few. We’re not going to be able to solve all these intractable problems before our kids grow up—so how are we to prepare them for an impossibly complex and scary future? Plagued by this question, award-winning science journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer interviewed parenting experts and researchers across multiple fields—psychology, education, information literacy, technology, business, and even addiction.
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Ordinary Time
- Lessons Learned While Staying Put
- By: Annie B. Jones
- Narrated by: Annie B. Jones, Emily P. Freeman
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Annie Jones always assumed adulthood would mean adventure: a high-powered career; life in a big, bustling city; and travels to far-flung places she’d longed to see. But her reality turned out differently. As the years passed, Annie was still in the same small town running an independent bookstore—the kind of life Nora Ephron dreamed.
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Annie's love for here life.
- By Janelle Hvidsten on 06-21-25
By: Annie B. Jones
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Four Days a Week
- The Life-Changing Solution for Reducing Employee Stress, Improving Well-Being, and Working Smarter
- By: Juliet Schor
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Bestselling author, leading sociologist and economist Juliet Schor makes the case for a four-day work week, persuasively showing how this model can address major challenges such as burnout, AI and the climate crisis, and how employees, companies, and governments can work together to make it a reality.
By: Juliet Schor
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The Original Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Jemimah Wei
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Before Arin, Genevieve Yang was an only child. Living with her parents and grandmother in a single-room flat inworking-class Singapore, Genevieve is saddled with an unexpected sibling when Arin appears, the shameful legacy of a grandfather long believed to be dead. As the girls grow closer, they must navigate the intensity of life in a brutally competitive place where the insistence on achievement demands constant sacrifice.
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not worth it
- By joy P on 06-04-25
By: Jemimah Wei
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Awake
- A Memoir
- By: Jen Hatmaker
- Narrated by: Jen Hatmaker
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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An Avid Reader Press book. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every listener.At 2:30 a.m. on July 11th, 2020, Jen Hatmaker woke up to her husband of twenty-six years whispering in his phone to another woman from their bed. It was the end of life as she knew it. In the months that followed, she went from being a shiny, funny, popular leader, to a divorced wreck on antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds parenting five kids alone with no clue about her own bank accounts.
By: Jen Hatmaker
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A Big Storm Knocked It Over
- A Novel
- By: Laurie Colwin
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In her late thirties, Jane Louise Parker has just married a man whose native decency leaves her almost breathless at her good fortune. After the wedding, she returns to work at a small and tony publishing house whose finances are in disarray. Alongside her best friend, Edie, Jane Louise patiently waits to become pregnant, wondering if a baby will provide a sense of rootedness that still seems to elude her. When that longed-for child arrives, it transforms the Parkers’ lives in a way that is as unexpected as it is rapturous.
By: Laurie Colwin
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Walk Yourself Well
- Step into a Healthier, Happier You
- By: Nina Barough
- Narrated by: Nina Barough
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In Walk Yourself Well, walking expert Nina Barough will teach you how to make the most out of every step–from mastering your technique and setting your pace to walking in different climates and terrains. Go that extra mile, and get inspired, with step-by-step walking techniques, tips to make your experience more mindful and fun, plus motivational training programmes for every level.
By: Nina Barough
loved all the stories and prompts
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So powerful!
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unlock creativity
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I’m so grateful for this book
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Suleika is a gift
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