đź“ť Spells8 Book Club XXXXIII - Readers' Reviews!

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Feel free to share your finished thoughts and reviews from your book last session (Oct. 25 - Dec. 13) here. For the current book club post, please visit the new session post: Coming Soon!

A warm welcome to all of the Witchy Readers! :open_book:

The latest reading period for Book Club XXXXIII has now ended - thank you to everyone who joined in!

Members & Their Books This Reading Period:

  • Chronically Magickal by Danielle Dionne @Amethyst

  • The Volsung Saga and the Yarn of Norna Gest. Saga 1
    @tracyS

  • Yemaya by Raven Morgaine
    @Kiara_Astra

  • The Way of Fire and Ice: The Living Tradition of Norse Paganism by Ryan Smith
    @Jewitch

  • Shadow Work for Hot Messes by Mandi Em
    @MeganB

  • Practical Magic for Beginners - Exercises, Rituals, and Spells for the New Mystic by Maggie Haseman
    @Celestiowl

  • Pagan Portals: Persephone: Pracing the art of personal power
    By Robin Corak @celinelise

Even if you are not listed above but you read a book during this reading period/ you decided to read a different book than listed- you are very welcome to share and discuss here too!

Time to share your thoughts with your coven! :star_struck:

This discussion post will serve as a place to share your thoughts and opinions on the book you chose.

  • :heart_eyes: If you loved your book and think everyone should read it- awesome! Talk about your favorite points or something you learned.
  • :woman_shrugging: If you didn’t connect with the book- consider explaining why it wasn’t for you.
  • :angry: Absolutely hated your book of choice? Warn others to stay away!

This is a great place to share your love for books and find recommendations for new books to read :+1:

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Your book review can be as simple or elaborate as you’d like :writing_hand:

If you’re not sure what to talk about, here is a suggested format you can use. Feel free to write as little or as much as you’d like!

Book Title and Author:

Status? : Finished / Still Reading

My overall rating of the book : ???/10

How does this book relate to my magickal practice?:

My personal thoughts/opinions:

An interesting quote from the book: " "

All in all, would I recommend this book?: Yes / No

Remember that your review is uniquely yours- this is a chance to let your opinions and voice be heard :raised_hands:

Please keep in mind that others may have opinions that differ from yours- when responding to the thoughts of others please always show respect! Remember that 100 people will read 1 book and have 100 different experiences. That’s what makes sharing interesting :heart:

What if I didn’t finish my book / joined late? :raised_hand:

No worries!

You are welcome to share your thoughts about the part you have read so far. If you joined the session late and have just started, feel free to talk about your expectations for your book. You can continue reading it into the next reading period.

And whether you read a book or not - you are very welcome to jump in and discuss what others share about their books! :handshake:

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Deadlines and Dates :spiral_calendar:

You have plenty of time to share your thoughts and discuss (until the next Readers’ Review Post appears in the forum!)

Deadline for Reviews for this Session: January 31, 2025

While you have plenty of time for reviews, know that the next reading period will begin in one week:

The Next Reading Session will Begin: January 1, 2025

On this day a post will appear where you can announce your next book (or continue with your current reading!).

Until then, you can find more info about the club in the Book Club FAQ.

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Picture from Canva

It can be hard to find the time and motivation to read on your own- hopefully book club helped provide a bit of motivation and that it led to some wonderful new knowledge and discoveries in your Craft :books:

I hope you enjoyed your books this session, and that you’ve got another fun one in line to read this coming month.

Happy reading and blessed be! :sparkles:

:books: :heart: :infinite_roots:

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7 posts were merged into an existing topic: Spells8 Book Club Reviews Masterlist - Sessions XXVI - L

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Oh wow, that’s such a wonderful review! :clap: I will for sure add this to my list of books to read - I may not be disabled myself, but it’s always great to have books to recommend to others!

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I’m still reading, head in lots of books none finished all started, it’s chaos :person_facepalming::crazy_face::rofl:

I love all your reviews. More books to add to my list :laughing:

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No worries at all, Tracy :heart: I’m still reading, too :laughing:

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It’s good for people with depression and anxiety as well! And just if you’re busy and need to slow down. It’s really good.

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This sounds amazing! I have added it to my wishlist so when I get caught up on reading the books I have now I can remember to get this one!

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I hear ya! My wish list is miles long. It seems like for every book I read, I find five more interesting ones to put on my list!

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Very interested in reading this one at some point

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It was really good! I hope you like it!

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Oh wow, this is a very well-written review for a book that doesn’t match the quality at all :grimacing: I’m sorry the book wasn’t up to your expectations, but thank you for your review! Now I know (and others!) not to pick up this book because while it does contain some good nuggets of information, the benefit does not outweigh the negatives.

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It’s surprisingly not the worst witchy book I’ve read :sweat_smile: I’m sure it’s great for some people, especially those interested in learning about Hoodoo workings, and overall the information was decent, but I definitely recommend that anyone who reads it takes it (as well as everything else they read in general!) with a grain of salt and recommend that readers maybe double-check recommendations for specifics on ingredients and procedures for making things :sweat_smile:

I suppose this is the TLDR version of what I was trying to get at in my review: This isn’t a book for people who are expecting to get every bit of information they need about something from one book. It will definitely require additional research – I’m just someone who believes that a book should contain all basic information and details you need to perform all the rites in the book and create all the recipes included without having to try to figure out the correct page to find something else on :sweat_smile:

I wouldn’t say avoid it like the plague, but rather that one should approach it knowing that it could definitley use some work :sweat_smile: lol

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That always got me, too! Ugh!

Or better yet, put the reference closer to the mention! I found that a lack of organization confuses me as a writer just as much as it confuses the reader!

Good catch. I missed that part. Rubbing alcohol is the only kind of alcohol I have in my apartment. After all, benzoin tincture isn’t meant to be consumed, so I naturally assumed medical stuff would have worked. Good to know even that isn’t enough! He really did need to try out his potions before publishing them!

Honey, I read this book back in the 1990’s, and I still remember it as being one of the poorest quality works I ever wasted time and brain power upon! I don’t trust the author with anything else, either, which is sad because he may have been spending his time researching something of value instead of editing his own work.

Sadly, publishers used to do in house editing which would ruin an author’s work just because they thought it would make it more saleable: ghost writers would add without the writer’s permission sex, drugs,or drama for no other purpose than to entice people to spend their hard earned cash on it. I’m not sure this ghost writing would apply, here, but I felt the value of the “rag” was heavily influenced by someone with no background in the information.

Thank you for this review. I hoped I wasn’t the only one who’s intelligence was insulted by this book. When I saw your eagerness to review it, I really wanted to hear your opinions, and you did not disappoint.

I would. Don’t waste your money, time, or brain power. There are many better books on the subject to choose from. However everyone has their own choice to make.

I’d give it a 1/10 as well. The one point is for writers who want to learn what NOT to do with their own work.

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I’m glad I’m not the only one who felt this way about this book! :sweat_smile: I think the reason I’m so heated (? I can’t really think of any better words haha) about Marlborough’s book is because I really, really, really, really, REALLY want writers on occult topics (and any other niche topic to be honest) to be successful because lesser-talked-about stuff needs to be passed down to future generations and spread to others who may not have normally been exposed to it – as long as the information isn’t harmful and doesn’t inspire hatred or division in any way, of course!

I’m someone who enjoys reading things that I don’t know much about and that I don’t necessarily 100% resonate with (in this case, Hoodoo), and it always disappoints me when I’m reading low quality or poorly written texts on those topics because I’m like “Come on! You could have potentially won me or someone else over, but now I can’t take you seriously!” >.< lol

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I used to be easy to win over. After a few like Marlborough (the time period was rife with them or I was susceptible to finding them all at that time in my life), I have lost interest in many things I could have enjoyed more fully for a longer period of time. I feel jaded and leery of trying something new, when I used to spend hundreds of dollars on books every month. Book publishers ought to take note that low quality books like this hurt the whole industry, not just one company or author.

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If you like Hoodoo you may want to try:
Hoodoo for Life by Angelie Belard The Complete Guide to Rootwork and Conjure with 125 Authentic Hoodoo Magic Spells

I haven’t started it, but it’s had good reviews. I have the paperback but it’s on kindle. I don’t know about Hoodoo much, just a little from my mum, Norse is more my thing (loved your review of Fire & Ice, book 2 is good too) :grin:

Occult stuff is hard to find but if you want recommended books Ivy on YouTube is an Occultist who reviews books, here’s her latest:

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Preach!! I’ve been hearing that the younger generations are starting to spend more time in libraries than the older generations and that the younger generations are starting to prefer books again, so hopefully (fingers crossed!!) that increase in patronage will lead to more time investment in vetting works before they’re published (although – being jaded also – I’m guessing that the quality of published works are going to continue going down since it’s so easy for anyone to publish anything they want thanks to the internet and self-publishing on Kindle, etc. :confused: )

Dawww thanks :slight_smile: I’ve been wanting to check out the second book also! I loved Ryan Smith’s writing style :smiley:

I don’t know much about Hoodoo either, but I’ve also been wanting to learn more about it! Thank you for the recommendation and the YouTube recommendation as well – You’re the second or third person to recommend her to me recently, so I guess it’s a sign! :slight_smile: haha

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Woo! Sounds like you had a wonderful time reading this book and learned quite a bit! :tada:

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It’s time for a friendly reminder!

:books: This current review session will end on January 31st! :books:

The next reading review session will open on February 1st.

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Just today and tomorrow are left to get your reviews in for the 43rd reading session before a new review period begins! :books:

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