#Green Book review

[bibliocharlie]

the perfect afternoon

[literatureaesthetic]

my most recent read — jade war by fonda lee

i've been really struggling with fantasy this past year (i blame wheel of time for putting me into a slump😵‍💫), but i finally feel my sff mood returning and picking up jade war was the perfect re-entry into the genre.

i surprisingly LOVED this book. the characters are absolute perfection, the slow and intricate politics worked so well for me, and this series is so propelling. there's never a dull moment. everyone always pitches this series as 'the godfather but asian and fantasy', and i absolutely agree. beyond excited to continue!!

[maryhale1]

I love this bookshelf 🥰

Me as an author and booknerd loves this aesthetic so much. I know it’s not real but imagine if 🥰

[fxnfiction]

presenting: my 2023 year of reading queer literature (part 1).

next few months focus will be on sapphic books, so swing over some recommendations!

enjoy my funky commentary, im in a weird mood. all my opinions!

[bookishfreedom]

I’ll never get tired of bus reading time

[franticvampirereads]

Why did I wait so long to read this series?? It’s so fucking good!! This last book has been an absolutely amazing reading experience. All the puzzle pieces are finally falling into place, everything is on fire and Damen and Laurent are the ones who’re burning it all down. I love that everyone in the book is absolutely gobsmacked at how quickly things are turned on their heads. It had me giggling, because everyone completely underestimates Laurent in every possible way. And I loved that Damen was down for all of it. Kings Rising was such a fantastic read and it’s getting a solid five stars!

[midwestbramble]

Thirteen Pathways of Occult Herbalism Book Review

This is a book that I’ve noticed often cited or recommended recently in traditional witchcraft spaces, among other books by this author. I wanted to see what all the hubbub was about

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

Content:

Synopsis

What I Liked

What I Didn’t Like

Overall Thoughts

Conclusion

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

Published in 2017

“The discipline of Occult Herbalism encompasses the knowledge and use of the magical, spiritual, and folkloric dimensions of plants. This perennial wisdom animates many global spiritual traditions, especially those which have maintained their integrity of transmission when in the face of industrial development and cultural destruction. Often concealed within the deepest strata of the Western Esoteric Traditions, the green strand of wisdom, though obscured, is a potent legacy of all magic, sorcery, and occult science. In addition to the hard sciences of botany, ethnology, agriculture, and ethnopharmacology, a number of pathways can assist the magical herbalist in furthering the depth of understanding and integrity of personal approach. Thirteen Pathways of Occult Herbalism circumscribes the metaparadigm of herbal magical practice, providing useful examples of its manifestation, as well as demonstrating its time-honored routes of inquiry.”

—from the back of the book

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

What I Liked

This book clearly reveres and respects plants. Schulke talks about the affinities of plants and looking at what natural bonds you have between them, so basically what attracts you to specific ones. Possibly having that bond can create a strong spirit ally. He also talks about the importance of paying attention to the life cycles of plants and how that can give you more information on the best way to work with them, this plus his discussion of the importance of the location the plant is found in (which can change the way in which it grows) is connected to an older belief about identifying plant medicines.

The first half of the book he talks about different paths to learning about plants and their affinities. I was impressed that he included what he calls "The Pathway of the Steward." This is basically growing the plant yourself. Being able to care for it and learn it's little idiosyncrasies can teach you a lot about what the plants talents are, as I like to call them. He also suggests a Hieros-Gamos for a year with a plant to really learn about it and foster relationship with it. I generally spend a month learning about a plant and then watching it out for it for the rest of the year and looking for it again the next season. But this is an entire year with JUST that plant.

Near the end he has a section called Praxis, talking about the importance of respect and why following plant taboos is a good idea. Another section talks about spirit marriage and how this is not something that happens overnight but takes having a relationship with the spirit over time, and just like flesh marriages (as he called it), it takes work and understanding. What he had to say was very educational.

Lastly the author discusses his experience actually ingesting Belladonna (do not do this! He had years of experience with the plant before attempting) which was very eye opening. I'd like to get to the point where I'm experienced enough to attempt but I just know I am no where near ready for ingestion of such highly toxic plants as Atropa belladonna. That said, stay safe kids. Don't ingest toxic plants.

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

What I Didn't Like

Schulke uses very academic language. I thought I had a large vocabulary until I read this book. I had to look up so many words. At first I thought he had gone to school for botany and that would account for his language choices, however rereading his biography on the book (and what I can find online) he has a "working background" in ethnobotany. Anyway, if you have ADHD or are dyslexic this may be a hard book for you to get through in a timely manner.

There are a few times in which Schulke refers to the work of Aleister Crowley. I'm just not a fan of this man. He was demonized for all the wrong reasons in the Victorian era, and not the ones he should have been. But this shouldn't be surprising as the book mixes a lot of Hellenism, Jewish folklore and non-canonical works (such as the Book of Enoch), and Christianity while also showing disdain for the god of the last two. He is an initiate of the Cultus Sabbati which accounts for some of this, however I feel like if you're going to take from something you should at least respect the cultural practices and beliefs. Which he even says at another point in the book when talking about plant taboos and yet... anyway.

He uses the word shaman a lot, taking it from what would now be considered older historical works on witchcraft such as Emma Wilby's. He also talks about "Native American shamans." I've talked about in other book reviews how there are no Native American shamans. Shamans are a part of a specific culture, the Tungus, and has been appropriated by academics and lay people. Native Americans have their own words for the people who fill a sort of similar role in their culture. The two are not the same however.

There's also some odd sexualizing of the paths with words like "virgin" and "whore" to describe two of them. I just don't find these words necessary to describe beginners and those with experience. The general sex talk kind of confuses me anyway, but I'm on the ace spectrum so maybe that's where my hang up is. It doesn't make sense to me.

Lastly, he goes on a tangent about fallen angel lore specifically from the Book of Enoch. He's talking about the different ways plant knowledge can be transferred and the Jewish lore around it with the fallen angels, and then just goes off into the origins of them and how people see them a denigrating the earth. He also gets who's in the garden with Eve wrong. It was never said it was Samael, it's just a snake.

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

Overall Thoughts

I probably wouldn't necessarily recommend this book, but I also wouldn't stop someone from reading it. It's hard to understand at some points due to the language use and talking in circles. I don't think it actually teaches you anything about working with plants. It's more of a book about the theory of teaching occult plant knowledge than it is actually teaching. This also seems to be a book for a specific kind of traditional practitioner as well.

EDIT: I will say that this book DOES make me want to read more of Schulkes work. I think he has some unique experiences to share and practices we don’t hear about a lot in the overall witchcraft community.

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

Conclusion

Sometimes we find books we love, sometimes they're just ok. If this one sounded interesting to you it can be found on Amazon, Lake Forest Book Store, Microcosm Publishing, Barns and Nobles, Penguin Bookshop, Half Price Books, RitualCravt, and it's publisher Three Hands Press.

[tealeavesand-roses]

Status: read Rating: 5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

Simply in awe. Weyward by Emilia Hart has stolen my heart and is easily my favorite read of the year. Weyward is a beautiful historical fiction tale with themes of witchcraft, nature, womanhood, and gothic horror, this story delves into the lives of three women throughout scattered periods of time. Altha's story takes place in 1619, Violet's takes place in 1942, and Kate's takes place in 2019. Each woman's story is as captivating as the next.

As I was finishing Violet's chapter regarding her mother and her family's history, I began to tear up, I flipped the page to the next chapter and I stumbled upon a beautiful white feather. I began to sob. My boyfriend had gotten me this book from a second-hand online shop and the previous owner must have left it in there. I felt like the feather was fantastically symbolic of what I was feeling and I felt so connected in that moment to myself, to nature, and spiritually to those in my life who have passed.

Could not recommend this book enough 🪶🌿🪲🐦‍⬛

[littlewitchygreen]

Book Review

Title: Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs

Author: Scott Cunningham

Genre/Type: Herbal Magic, Reference

My Personal Thoughts: This book is more of a reference book than a usual book on witchcraft, however I think it is a very good book for beginners and have been using my own copy as a reference for years. The information is a little outdated, and there are places where it is outright incorrect, but I have found in my own experience that correcting those small bits of misinformation with other resources is easier to do than finding another reference book that is as detailed as this one is. The book has sketches of most of the plants discussed, and goes over a variety of correspondences as well as a few examples of what they can be used for.

Technical: Based on Cunningham's own background as a Wiccan, the book does cater to that tradition, though he seems to have made an effort for the book itself to be fairly neutral even if some of that influence shines through in places. The book is well organized by the common name of plants, and it has multiple indexes in the back that group plants by their uses, elemental correspondences, etc for easy reference when planning to use the book more practically. It has an extensive bibliography and was well-researched, and I genuinely think it's one of the best reference books out there for using plants in witchcraft.

Overall Rating: 4/5

[inafieldofstarflowers]

When John Green said

It has taken me all my life up to now to fall in love with the world, but I've started to feel it the last couple of years. To fall in love with the world isn't to ignore or overlook suffering, both human and otherwise.

For me anyway, to fall in love with the world is to look up at the night sky and feel your mind swim before the beauty and the distance of the stars. It is to hold your children while they cry, to watch as the sycamore trees leaf out in June. When my breastbone starts to hurt, and my throat tightens, and tears well in my eyes, I want to look away from feeling. I want to deflect with irony, or anything else that will keep me from feeling directly. We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.

and when George Steiner said

Great works of art pass through us like storm-winds, flinging open the doors of perception, pressing upon the architecture of our beliefs with their transforming powers.

We seek to record their impact, to put our shaken house in its new order.

Through some primary instinct of communion we seek to convey to others the quality and force of our experience. We would persuade them to lay themselves open to it. In this attempt at persuasion originate the truest insights criticism can afford.

and when Mary Oliver said

believe us, they say, / it is a serious thing / just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world.

[bibliocharlie]

there are two distinct types of book hangovers:

I just finished a really GOOD book and now I don’t know what to read next

I just finished a really BAD book and now I don’t know what to read next

[andreai04]

It’s delightful when your imaginations come true, isn’t it?

[rlbookreviews]

Paper Towns by John Green My rating: 5 of 5 stars I really enjoyed this young adult novel when I was in school. I definitely will read this book again since I rediscovered it again while I was going through my old books. I love the friendship Quin and Margo has in the book. If I had to pick a favorite quote from the book it would be this one, "The town was paper, but the memories were not." Chapter 19, page 227 I recommend all young adults and adults to read this book View all my reviews

[catis15]

My Opinions/Reviews on Saphic Books:

- Bright Falls Trilogy

- All of them are cute and heartwarming and giggle worthy and shit

- It's cool seeing each of the friend groups POVs and they're all pretty relatable in my opinion

- Pretty good representation of various family relationships especially with mothers

- the various relationships are actually really well written but the stories are still very much focused on the romance, they're not sidelined persey but they're not the main focus of that's what your looking for it's very much about the couple

- I like the variety in body types through the series, there's different heights, weights, yada yada and it's nice to see and they're all appreciated

- There aren't any POC MCs but there are side characters, also lots of gender and lgbtqia+ identity representation NB characters, ace characters, lots of queer couples, I think there may be a polycule mentioned but I'm not entirely sure

- Smut? Yes there is, how much varies between book but I'd argue there's more every book with Iris's book having the most; Id also argue it gets intenser as the series continues but it's all pretty mid (not in the it's bad writing way in the I've read far worse but I've also read some relatively pg 13)

DELILAH GREEN

- I love Delilah sm she can fucking step on me and Id ask her to do it again

- It's a sorta an asshole to everyone but you between her and Claire but not in the typical way? Like it's there but it's not written the way a lot of that trope usually is, idk I just really like how these books are written I think the author does a fantastic job

- Delilah seeing Claire for who she is and like just how much emotion she has is just yes, and also Claire seeing Delilah as like a sweet person and not just an asshole is nice too

- Because I know it bothers some people, Claire is a mother and the kid is talked about, I don't mind parent tropes but ik some people just don't enjoy reading them, I thought Ruby was sweet though and Claire seeing how Delilah interacts with her is also really cute

- Delilah also providing that safe and comforting space for artwork for Ruby is also really sweet and seeing Delilah kinda give Ruby what she herself didn't have is wholesome ASF and Claire just appreciates it and shit idk it's cute

- Hating On The Straight White Man TM (because he is gross to Astrid)

- Delilah is a photographer and Claire runs a bookstore

ASTRID PARKER

- It's cool getting to see Astrid's POV compared to how Delilah (her sister) views her

- Mommy Issues TM and in my opinion it catches some of the subtleties of growing up with a toxic parent really well

- Jordans ex comes along so warning for that, ok some people don't really like that

- Also handles like not missing your ex but feeling like YOU failed because the relationship failed

- again the subtleties of so much is just so well written

- Jordan is very stereotypical lesbian and I'm here for it

- her truck is named adora, her cat is named catra (if I'm remembering correctly), she wears random button ups, got that half saved short hair going (funnily enough I myself had both Astrid and Jordans haircuts at various points in my life lmao), she's a carpenter sorta, she's got an attitude, is into taro, like I love her sm 😂 she's so me fr 😭

- enemies to lovers

- Astrid's a bitch and Jordan pretends not to be into it

- they fuck in a pantry

- it's funny

IRIS KELLY

- iris doesn't do kids and marriages and her more or less traditional family is giving her shit for it

- Stevie has anxiety and handles it the same way I handle mine so that was relatable

- handles the shit that goes along with having anxiety really well so props to the author once again

- fake dating tm

- They're basically giving each other 'classes' because they think they're bad at things; but in reality it's just them being comfortable with stuff they're actually pretty good at; Stevie helps Iris be more comfortable with everyday romance and Iris helps Stevie be more comfortable with adult fun time intimacy outside of committed long term relationships

- but at the same time in queer Shakespeare and it's beautiful

- Home Field Advantage

- will add later

- The Song of the Huntress

- Just bought it and haven't read it yet

- The Priory of the Orange Tree

- Just bought it haven't read it

- Late Bloomer

- a few chapters in

- th author notes are funny and enjoyable

- good representation of things like people pleasing, autism, trust issues due to family trauma, bad relationships that you stay in for the comfort, toxic friends

- They're some pretty heavy themes but their handled in an easy to swallow way

- while these are very present themes the main focus is still the romance, but they're handled a bit more in depth than say the Bright Falls Trilogy

[twicedailyquotes]

One of the strange things about adulthood is that you are your current self, but you are also all the selves you used to be, the ones you grew out of but can’t ever quite get rid of.

John Green The Anthropocene Reviewed

[achilles22hector]

— The 33 Strategies of War, Robert Greene

The 33 Strategies of War is a military history and personal development book. It was written by American author Robert Greene in 2006. It is composed of discussions and examples of offensive and defensive strategies from a wide variety of people and conditions, applying them to social conflicts such as family quarrels and business negotiations. The 33 Strategies of War quote / quotes.