Reader's Place: October 16, 2023
Witchcraft
When you hear the word “witch,” what image comes to mind? An old, malevolent woman? Or your neighborhood herbalist? These titles explore differing meanings of “witches” and “witchcraft.”
Everyone knows your mother is a witch , by Rivka Galchen, 2021. (Catalog)
Drawing on real historical documents but infused with the intensity of imagination, sly humor, and intellectual fire for which award-winning author Galchen's writing is known, Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch is a tale for our time-the story of how a community becomes implicated in collective aggression and hysterical fear.
Wild witchcraft: Folk herbalism, garden magic, and foraging for spells, rituals, and remedies, by Rebecca Beyer, 2022. (Catalog)
Learn how to cultivate your own magical garden, harness the power of herbalism, and better connect with nature through practical and sustainable tips from an experienced Appalachian witch forager.
Witch king, by Martha Wells, 2023. (Catalog)
After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai's magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well. But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?
The ruin of all witches: Life and death in the New World, by Malcolm Gaskill, 2022. (Catalog)
A gripping story of a family tragedy brought about by witch-hunting in Puritan New England that combines history, anthropology, sociology, politics, theology and psychology. In Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails, property vanishes, and people suffer convulsions as if possessed by demons. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics and the community becomes tangled in a web of distrust, resentment and denunciation. Gaskill vividly evokes a strange past, one where lives were steeped in the divine and the diabolic, in omens, curses and enchantments. The Ruin of All Witches captures an entire society caught in agonized transition between superstition and enlightenment, tradition and innovation.
The witch in the well, by Camilla Bruce, 2022. (Catalog)
Centuries ago, beautiful young Ilsbeth Clark was accused of witchcraft after several children disappeared. Her acquittal did nothing to stop her fellow townsfolk from drowning her in the well where the missing children were last seen. When author and social media influencer Elena returns to the summer paradise of her youth to get her family's manor house ready to sell, the last thing she expected was connecting with - and feeling inspired to write about - Ilsbeth's infamous spirit. The very historical figure that her ex-childhood friend, Cathy, has been diligently researching and writing about for years.
White magic: Essays, by Elissa Washuta, 2021. (Catalog)
Following a decade of abuse, addiction, PTSD, and heavy-duty drug treatment for a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, Elissa Washuta felt drawn to the real spirits and powers her dispossessed and discarded ancestors knew, while she undertook necessary work to find love and meaning. In this collection of intertwined essays, she writes about land, heartbreak, and colonization, about life without the escape hatch of intoxication, and about how she became a powerful witch.
Weyward: A novel, by Emilia Hart, 2023. (Catalog)
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century. Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.
A crown of ivy and glass, by Claire Legrand, 2023. (Catalog)
Every year on St. Walpurga's Eve, Caldella's Witch Queen lures a boy back to her palace: an innocent life to be sacrificed on the full moon to keep the island city from sinking. With the tide rising higher than ever before and the islanders whispering that Queen Eva's magic is failing, she's willing to sacrifice anyone if it means saving herself and her city. When Lina offers herself in exchange for Thomas's freedom, the two girls await the full moon together. Against their will, they find themselves falling for each other. As water floods Caldella's streets and the dark tide demands its sacrifice, they must choose whom to save.
Compiled by Ina Rimpau