I remember nights when we would talk
for hours, candles burning away to
nothing, words swirling around me
like a symphony of
dusty-winged moths dancing to midnight
sonatas. I didn’t know bliss was found in such simple things.
~Inspired by Jennifer-Marie Montgomery
This was an epic of an adventure taking readers to the days of Britain’s legends. The Wild Hunt rides, kings and princes jockey for power, and queens play politics like a chess game. Lucy Holland’s writing is fantastic; her world-building is authentic, it is clear that she conducted a great deal of research in order to recreate Saxon Britain as historians have written it. The two primary characters, the proud warrior Herla and fierce Queen Aethelburg are brilliantly presented. They are intelligent, strong, dedicated to their people and their causes. Herla and Aethelburg face both the internal scheming of the human Wessex court and the power of the Lord of the Otherworld. Any fantasy fan, historical fiction reader, readers interested in Iron Age Britain, anyone that likes a good adventure, really, will appreciate this book.
This was an interesting book; I requested it out of curiosity as manifestation has been a pretty big topic of discussion on social media sites, so I figured I would take a look. While I enjoyed reading it, I don’t think the subject is anything I can quite relate to. This book is well-written and a good guide for beginners that are willing to take the time to approach manifestation with the attention it requires; I am not that person. I think I will come back to this though. It has definitely piqued my interest.
This book is absolutely priceless! The prompts had me giggling and reaching for my pen before I even finished reading it. Some are thought-provoking, some lighthearted, and others laugh-out-loud funny, so much so that I started reading it out loud to my family and we all began plotting mini stories. I received it as an eBook, but I will be buying a hard copy to add to my writing books. This is a wonderful resource for anyone that writes, is thinking about writing, or for any creative mind, really. The prompts invite you to think about things on the slant, and anyone will benefit from that.
Mexican Bird by Luis Lopez-Maldonado tells a heart-rending, painfully beautiful story. It is a reality I as a white heterosexual woman will never experience; Lopez-Maldonado’s pain, hope, desire, sorrow, and need come through every line, illustrating the life of a beautiful soul, often marginalized and misunderstood, but wholly worthy of reverence.
The masterly Natalie Haynes has gifted us with another incredible work of brilliance. I do not know if this is intended to be a companion book to her 2020 book Pandora’s Jar, but as I own both of them, I’ll continue to read them together. Her examination of female dramatis personae in Greek myth offers valuable insight to the realm of women’s studies and classical studies (and to anyone who just happens to like reading about mythology and women’s literature like yours truly). Haynes presents each chapter almost as an autobiography of the Goddess in question, discussing Her connection and relevance to women both past and present. As a Dianic Pagan, the Goddess of the Greek and Roman pantheon are not mere figures of legend to me but a part of my spiritual practice. The Goddess Hestia figures largely in my devotions, and I was delighted to find Her included in this study as She is often overlooked for more glamorous figures. Haynes gives us a different view of the Goddesses and their mythological actions; she reprises their roles in ancient society and offers them to us in relation to modern women’s issues and challenges. I have been a fan of Natalie Haynes since I first read her novel A Thousand Ships. Her fiction is spectacular, and her nonfiction works are peerless.
Let me begin by saying that I love winter…when I am tucked away under a blanket with a stack of books, a pot of tea, William Ackerman playing on the stereo, and my cat purring by my feet. If I need to leave my cocoon of comfort and brave the eye-searing, nose-pinching cold, I hate winter. Nancy Campbell’s lovely collection is the perfect book to enjoy whether you enjy winter from beneath pounds of blankets (guilty) or out bounding through the exhilarating, invigorating fresh air (my husband’s words).
In this volume Campbell has collected excerpts from the works of Sei Shonagon, Charlotte Bronte and Walt Whitman, US Poet Laurate Joy Harjo, the letters of Vincent van Gogh, diarist Dorothy Wordsworth, Darwin’s journals, the Quran, and Kenneth Grahame, to name just a handful. I am reluctant to refer to this collection as cozy; that implies it is something light, somewhat frivolous. Instead, this is a collection of literary works that expand your mind and steep your senses in the sensations of the season. However, it is imbued with the feeling of tranquility; it makes you want to pour a mug of something warm and settle in to enjoy a quiet winter’s evening. (I followed Campbell’s book with Isak Dinesen’s Winter Tales; I highly recommend reading the two together)
Nancy Campbell’s Nature Tales for Winter Nights is a book I will keep in rotation for seasonal reading. It is a perfect winter book, or summer book if you find yourself wilting in the heat longing for the winds of winter.
Editor Shilo Niziolek has curated a collection of poetry, prose, and artwork that is a choir of voices. Each piece is as carefully selected as a soloist in an opera, showing readers a look into each contributor’s imagination. Readers walk through realms of experience and vision. Each piece made me think of wandering a house of many doors, stepping into a new world of thought with the turn of a knob. This is Scavengers 1.2; I am looking forward to 1.3.
This book explodes into your psyche. Wytovich takes her readers by storm, pulling them into a maelstrom of emotion and language and sensation. “My name is werewolf, death-cup, noise,” she screams charging through hordes of grinning demons.
Ghost girls watch from garden shadows as you daintily sip poisoned tea; we dine with witches on thornapple, mushrooms, wild strawberries, and boiled spiders. “Three times I came to tea,” the mystical triad, three wishes, click your heels three times, and you too can read the omens. Wytovich illustrates with words, creating fantastical paintings: “She stood inside the four corners / securely in sunlight–smiling / a fairy princess against / my unwelcoming face / precious, with a quiet respect.”
Wytovich’s writing brings to mind the work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Mary Oliver, but her voice is uniquely, angrily, her own. She questions suffering and disturbance and gives us an illusion of genteel femininity shielding ferocious womanhood. Yet there is beauty glowing behind her ferocity: “Awakened, a trailing mist / hugs my morning tea / an early love, shining.”
in “On the Subject of Blackberries” Stephanie Wytovich has created a universe of thought. You cannot read her writing and be unaffected. It forces you to consider what is real and what we are told is false, though only the reader knows for sure.
Poet Katheryn Louise gifted me a special prelaunch copy of her beautiful collection Yet Still, She Shines. The anticipated release date is January 24, 2024, and I urge you to secure yourself a copy of this beautiful collection. Kathryn Louise’s Yet Still, She Shines is a masterpiece of imagery and emotion. She opens with a brilliant burst of summer, showering readers with color and heat. Dragonflies carry messages of hope to those willing to listen, love’s heat sears the heart as a midnight breeze caresses the cheeks, lovers find wholeness in each other’s strength. She contemplates forever, “Let’s read this next chapter slowly,” she suggests, so as not to waste a single honey-drenched moment. She reminds us that “without sorrow, nothing tastes sweet.” She leads her readers into the liminal spaces, “The space between what was / and what will be: / a beautiful place of calm, / of leaning in and listening, / of imagination and planning, / of surrendering/ and allowing.” Kathryn Louise brings light into “the darkest of places, the tiniest of spaces;” helping us to see that true love exists, and comes when we least expect it.
Kathryn Louise invites readers to recall the unfettered joy of childhood nonsense; she asks them to feel the rhythm of the waves, and reminds us all to cherish each fleeting moment of our lives, the winter sunsets, coffee drunk on the porch overlooking spring blossoms, to stay present and live now. Her words illustrate life, togetherness, the highs and hurts of love, and the pain of loss. You look into shadows and see the light on the other side, and you are awakened. She crafts such exquisite lines: “Just walk by my side / as we tackle / each little pain / from the past, / for we are but / mirrors for each other–“
Yet Still, She Shines is a truly beautiful collection of poetry, elegant in its simplicity and expression. I feel certain that this volume will be a meaningful addition to people’s poetry shelves.
This is the Mask 