Review: Practical Solitary Magic by Nancy B. Watson

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Practical Solitary Magic by Nancy B. Watson

Published: 1st November 1996 | Publisher: Weiser Books | Source: Bought

Many students don't want to be tied to a particular group or spiritual tradition, but prefer to search, experiment, and grow on their own. This book is perfect for these people. Watson discusses the principles that underlie magical practice in a very easy to understand manner. She includes information on affirmations, visualization, spiritual practices, folk magic, and ritual. Safety measures and ethical considerations are stressed throughout. From Goodreads.

Book Depository | Goodreads
Trigger Warnings: This book features ableism: mental illness discrimination, fatphobia, sexism and exclusion of trans and nonbinary genders.

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Review: All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

Published: 1st August 2019 | Publisher: Penguin | Cover Designer: Charlotte Day | Source: Bought
Moïra Fowley-Doyle's Website

The day after the funeral all our mourning clothes hung out on the line like sleeping bats. 'This will be really embarrassing,' I kept saying to my family, 'when she shows up at the door in a week or two.'

When Deena's wild and mysterious sister Mandy disappears - presumed dead - her family are heartbroken. But Mandy has always been troubled. It's just another bad thing to happen to Deena's family. Only Deena refuses to believe it's true.

And then the letters start arriving. Letters from Mandy, claiming that their family's blighted history is not just bad luck or bad decisions - but a curse, handed down through the generations. Mandy has gone in search of the curse's roots, and now Deena must find her. What they find will heal their family's rotten past - or rip it apart forever. From Goodreads.

Book Depository | Wordery | Goodreads

Rep: Lesbian protagonist. Biracial (Black and white), bisexual secondary character. Lesbian secondary character. In the stories of ancestors, there's a bisexual character and a lesbian character, though no labels are used. Two f/f relationships, one just at the very beginning of a relationship.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features sex shaming, pregnancy, unwanted pregnancy, birth, abortion, pro-life manipulation - including a traumatic video of an abortion, animal cruelty, violent bullying, homophobia, homophobic murder, paeddophilia, forced inebriation by predator, rape/incest, rape culture, a Magdalene laundry - featuring abuse, illegal adoption, sold babies, neglect of children, and infant death, suicide, and an industrial school - featuring child abuse, both violent and sexual.

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Review: Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Published: 9th July 2019 | Publisher: Delecorte Press | Cover Designer: Regina Flath | Cover Art: Aykut Aydoğdu| Source: Won in a giveaway.
Rory Power's Website

It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true. From Goodreads.

Book Depository | Wordery | Goodreads

Rep: Lesbian protagonist/narrator, lesbian main character, secondary black character.

Trigger Warnings: This book features blood, vomit, death, mutations, graphic and gorey violence, descriptions of wounds, self-defense killing, experiments on people, self-harm, suicide ideation, suicide, gassing. Also, see Power's own list of trigger and content warnings.

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13 Facts About Me

In order to help you guys get to know me a little better, here are some random facts about me!

1. My favourite film is The Notebook. Part of me finds this really annoying, because it makes me feel like a cliché, but it's so beautiful. When I first saw it, I really hoped it was based on a true story. I cry every time I see it.

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Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash.

On Being More Intentional with My Time

As I've mentioned before, the recent changes in my lifestyle have led me to slowing right down. In turn, this has given me space that's allowed me to reflect and re-evaluate my life, and what I spend my time on.

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Review: Craft by Gabriela Herstik

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Craft by Gabriela Herstik

Published: 15th March 2018 | Publisher: Ebury Press | Cover Designer: | Source: Bought
Gabriela Herstik's Website

Infuse a drop of magick into your everyday life.

Writer, fashion alchemist and modern witch, Gabriela Herstik, unlocks the ancient art of witchcraft so that you can find a brand of magick that works for you.

From working with crystals, tarot and astrology, to understanding sex magick, solstices and full moons; learn how to harness energy, unleash your inner psychic and connect with the natural world.

Full of spells and rituals for self-care, new opportunities and keeping away toxic energy, Craft is the essential lifestyle guide for the modern woman who wants to take control and reconnect with herself.

After all, empowered women run the world (and they’re probably witches). From Goodreads.

Book Depository | Wordery | Goodreads

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Lady Lilith by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1866-1873

Lady Lilith and Me: How a Painting Gave Me Body Confidence

Trigger/Content Warning: This post features mentions of rape, infertility, miscarriage, and infanticide.

Lilith - the woman who, according to Jewish mythology, was Adam's first wife, who refused to be subservient to him and lie beneath him during sex, before running off to the Red Sea and becoming a she-demon - holds a special place in my heart. Not because she is considered a feminist icon, though that is pretty awesome. Not because she murdered men, mothers, new born babies, which I try to ignore. No, I love Lilith, specifically Lady Lilith above, because she's a redhead.

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