Book of the Day Roundup: May 1-4, 2023
Heal the Witch Wound
Reclaim Your Magic and Step into Your Power
Celeste Larsen
Weiser Books
Softcover $16.95 (208pp)
978-1-57863-798-0
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Celeste Larsen’s book encourages witches to embrace their magic and reject the stigmas associated with practicing their craft.
The book begins with an exploration of the Burning Times, a period spanning more than three centuries that resulted in the deaths of an estimated fifty thousand people. It looks at who the victims and the persecutors were, examining the environmental, economic, and religious conditions that lead to witch trials. It then draws a compelling parallel to modern conditions and the continued persecution of witches in parts of the world, including in Africa, where executions still happen, and in Western society, where role-playing games and books are banned and burned for fear that they are linked to satanism and witchcraft.
Larsen follows this history with a discussion of the ways in which it continues to affect people. This can be seen when practitioners hide their magic or limit themselves and their ambitions in order to appear ordinary. It may manifest through feelings of shame or distrust in regards to women’s energy. It may even show up as past-life memories. The book makes it clear that anyone might feel this pain and benefit from working to heal it. Replete with activities to help witches begin their healing process, the book’s later portions include journal prompts for self-reflection, advice for setting up magical and mundane boundaries, and simple, evocative rituals to connect with the wounded self, the divine feminine, and the natural world to reclaim one’s personal power.
Larsen is careful to state that the book’s recommended activities are not intended to replace professional therapy; she does not claim any easy fixes. Still, her book is full of opportunities for profound healing and growth—an illuminating, gentle, and thought-provoking self-help text for those experiencing many levels of hurt.
CATHERINE THURESON (April 27, 2023)
City of Last Chances
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Head of Zeus
Hardcover $29.95 (496pp)
978-1-80110-842-3
Buy: Amazon
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s The City of Lost Chances is a gritty adventure fantasy of uncommon breadth, fashioning a universe brimming with magic and treachery.
Illmar was recently conquered by Pallesand, an authoritarian nation. The shocking murder of a Pallesandian official and the theft of his magic wards sets off a wild chain of events that leads the city toward an uprising. Through multiple perspectives, the novel takes a kaleidoscopic look at the diverse levels of Illmar’s society, including laborers who enslave demons from alternate dimensions to do their work; rabble-rousing thieves looking to create chaos; scholars and students struggling to preserve Illmar’s past even as they come under fire in the present; and foreigners from the wild territories just outside of city boundaries with their own powers and secrets.
Events spin out of control. There’s both irony and drama in the situation: every person—from the highest-ranking Pallesandian official to lowly tavern owners—has a key role to play in the incipient rebellion. The cast of dozens and numerous crisscrossing plots demand close attention, but Tchaikovsky’s muscular prose propels the story forward even as he sketches in each character with deft strokes.
While violence erupts often, there are plenty of humorous eccentricities as well, including a magical “god” who moves from person to person and prevents his companions from committing hurtful action—a quirk that leads to some sticky situations. The worldbuilding is equally immersive, covering intriguing historical backstories, political intrigue, and idiosyncratic uses of magic, especially in the most riveting passage: a nightmarish visit to a cursed section of town called “The Reproach” in which almost all who enter are driven mad.
A satisfying self-contained tale that also suggests a multitude of possible future stories, The City of Lost Chances is an accomplished, imaginative fantasy novel.
HO LIN (April 27, 2023)
Occulted
Amy Rose
Ryan Estrada
Jeongmin Lee, illustrator
Iron Circus Comics
Softcover $15.00 (168pp)
978-1-63899-109-0
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Amy Rose shares her experiences with growing up in a cult in her graphic memoir Occulted.
In 1997, at the age of nine, Amy Rose saw the Hale-Bopp comet in the sky. It corresponded with a tragedy: the members of the nearby Heaven’s Gate cult committed mass suicide that night. Hearing news reports that mentioned the cult, Rose became intrigued about the group that she lived with.
Flashbacks reveal that Rose’s family was enticed into a cult with promises of yoga, meditation, and community; her father left it soon after joining, but Rose and her mother remained. Kept from school, Rose explored the cult leader’s secret library and learned that what she’d been told about aliens and the impending end of the world might not be true. Considered a troublesome distraction, Rose was sent to live with other cult member families, gaining access to a public library that further clarified the nature of her circumstances. At twelve, she was kicked out of the cult and reunited with her father, who guided her when it came to rejoining society.
A saga of manipulation, lies, and greed, the book shows how people are lured into groups that claim their attention, finances, and identities. It’s striking that, even with Rose’s appealing curiosity and inner strength, it took several fortunate, unpredictable turns for her to free herself from the cult’s grip.
With engaging, manga-influenced art that gives a child’s-eye perspective to its events, the graphic memoir Occulted is a tense, thrilling account of escaping a cult.
PETER DABBENE (April 27, 2023)
Lady Caroline Lamb
A Free Spirit
Antonia Fraser
Pegasus Books
Hardcover $28.95 (336pp)
978-1-63936-405-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Antonia Fraser’s biography of Caroline Lamb reassesses the English noblewoman’s life—too often defined and confined by her notorious affair with Lord Byron.
Born in 1785, Caroline was a bright, charming, and rather high-strung child. At nineteen, she married handsome, “protective” William Lamb, an aspiring politician and England’s future Prime Minister. She later gave birth to her only surviving baby, Augustus, who suffered from what appeared to be epilepsy and autism.
Though Caroline and her husband had a contented relationship, in 1812, she became captivated by charismatic Lord Byron. After Byron tried to end their brief yet passionate romance, Caroline’s obsessive, even violent behavior caused a social scandal.
While the book explores Lamb’s involvement with Byron, it moves beyond this frequented episode to develop a complex, engaging portrait of Caroline as a mother, wife, and friend. She was devoted to her son, and was known for her compassion, wit, and generosity. She was also skilled at sketching and spoke multiple languages. And Caroline’s fictional account of her Byronic affair, written as a literary catharsis, became a bestselling novel.
Fraser details Caroline’s “fierce” temperament and love of excitement and drama. She used laudanum as a sedative and later developed a fondness for alcohol. Contemporary psychiatrists might diagnose her as having bipolar or addictive tendencies, exacerbated by the repression of her “unusual, intelligent and independent” personality. Furthermore, her penchant for disguises (and particular fondness for dressing like a male page) is noted as more likely inspired by a need for freedom and anonymity than a desire to change genders.
Set against a fascinating historical backdrop that includes the harrowing battle of Waterloo and the complacent moral hypocrisies and political climate of Britain’s Whig-era society, Lady Caroline Lamb is an engrossing, immersive biography that captures the troubled spirit of a vibrant, intense society woman.
MEG NOLA (April 27, 2023)
Frank and Bert
Chris Naylor-Ballesteros
Nosy Crow
Hardcover $17.99 (32pp)
979-888777000-0
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Frank and Bert love to play hide-and-seek, but Bert is terrible at hiding—not that Frank would ever tell him that. To give Bert a better chance, Frank counts to 100 this time, but it will take more than just more time for Bert to win this round. The two best friends are vibrant within the muted, simple scenes that make deft use of negative space, with Bert’s neon-pink scarf and Frank’s bright-blue hat impossible to hide.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (April 27, 2023)
Barbara Hodge
