![]() These chapters follow a formula in which each chapter begins with a poetic recitation of the aspects of Hekate that are relied upon in order to explore the chapter´s particular topic. ![]() This book is titled as a devotional and, in truth, the first half of it reads like a love letter. Vivienne Moss is a Cottage Witch who is dedicated to the goddess Hekate. ![]() This is where matching the neophyte me with this book to review may not have had the desired result, but more on this toward the end. But for newbies, it should be noted that the Pagan Portal books, in addressing the topic in some depth, presume the reader will have a certain familiarity with the subject. It is an inspired idea as it enables those of us who are searchers to explore a particular topic more deeply, without committing a lot of money or time. These books are designed to be short affordable introductions to very specific topics of pagan thought. ![]() In 2012 Moon Books ( ) began publishing a line of books under the heading Pagan Portals. As someone who has come to goddess worship late in my life, this assignment was an opportunity for me to learn more about this goddess as well as providing some visibility for the book and author. Recently I was given the opportunity by Moon Books to review Vivenne Moss´ latest book, written under the Pagan Portals imprint, for and about her goddess Hekate. ![]()
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![]() ![]() In one continuous song from nature’s firstĪnd indeed Ovid’s tale takes us up to the point where Julius Caeser was deified in 42 BC after his assassination. You Gods, who have yourself wrought every change. The poem starts off explicitly outlining Ovid’s intention: It is also a story about the tension between good and ‘the despicable’ (either godly or human.) It’s always there bubbling underneath the surface as a life force. ![]() ![]() Metamorphoses, as Ted Hughes points out in his introduction of his fantastic reworking of the tale Tales From Ovid, i s a poem about ‘passion’ (ix), passion in its extreme- where passion ‘combusts, or levitates or mutates into the experience of the supernatural’ and each myth is reinvigorated and explored through that sense of passion. With great beauty and vigour the text flings you into the ‘overworld and underworld’ (vii) of all creation and explores both Greek and Roman myth reinvigorating the old tales with humour, pathos and cheer and all through the notion of metamorphoses. It forms a vaste canvas where mortals intertwine with Gods and are transformed. Completed in 8 AD by Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid to you and me) Metamorphoses is first and foremost an extended narrative poem about change change of all kinds: historical, religious (from the Roman multi-God form of worship to the birth of Christ within the Roman Empire) from human to inanimate object from human to animate object from the mythic to the Christian. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Because a queen is destined to rise and lead the battle to reclaim the crown. ![]() With war brewing, Brienna must choose which side she will remain loyal to - passion or blood. And others are involved, some closer to Brienna than she realizes. But there is much more to his story, for there is a dangerous plot to overthrow the king of Maevana - the rival kingdom of Valenia - and restore the rightful queen, and her magic, to the northern throne. Suspicious of his intent, she reluctantly accepts. Months later, her life takes an unexpected turn when a disgraced lord offers her patronage. However, despite all her preparations, Brienna's greatest fear comes true: she is left without a patron. While some are born with a talent for one of the five passions - art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge - Brienna struggled to find hers until she chose knowledge. Growing up in the southern kingdom of Valenia at the renowned Magnalia House should have prepared her. After eight years, Evadne will finally be reunited with her older sister, Halcyon, who has been serving in the queens army. Perfect for fans of Ember in the Ashes, Sky In the Deep, and Court of Fives. When her seventeenth summer solstice arrives, Brienna desires only two things: to master her passion and to be chosen by a patron. Rebecca Ross, acclaimed author of The Queens Rising duology, delivers a thrilling new fantasy about the lengths two sisters will go for each other. ![]() ![]() Besides his seminal horror work The Rising, Keene has written stories with a wide variety of themes, along with non-fiction and essays. Old school black metal vocalist Gaahl of Gorgoroth is also a vocalist for Wardruna, a group that plays traditional Scandinavian music. Martin has also written the children’s book The Ice Dragon. ![]() For example, besides A Game of Thrones, George R. To be fair, it shouldn’t be-most virtuosic artists possess depth and range. There are moments when we want to give disclaimers about expectations, when we want to say, “you may assume, it’s like this, but really it’s like this.” We hear lines like, “Oh, sure he’s a heavyweight champion who smashed a guy’s skull to splinters, but really he’s a teddy bear, no really…” I’ve heard Stephen King’s writing described this way when folks say things like, “Did you know he wrote The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me? It’s not all about blood and gore.” ![]() ![]() There are a few spoilers, so if you’re like me and prefer to read reviews after reading the book, please be advised. It is part of my Is That an Old Book? review series. ![]() Please enjoy this review of The Complex, by Brian Keene. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This is partly due to her novel Death Comes for the Archbishop, which dwells on Catholic themes in a Catholic context. I know many who mistakenly believe Willa Cather was Catholic. Cather does not criticize those who lose their culture, but the reader can almost hear her sigh at the inevitable homogeneity that evens out the richness of the various cultures. Having just finished Kristin Lavransdatter, a modern novel of 14 th century Norway, it is hard to believe that O Pioneers! takes place five centuries later on the other side of the world. ![]() The more charming characters are those who keep something of the old country, whether it is the old grandmother who only speaks Swedish and is afraid to use the bath tub, or the barefoot horse doctor who has vision and spells but is perfectly harmless. As the novel goes on, some of the character become more “American”: only speaking English at home, leaving customs aside that attract the neighbors’ attention, and always seeking out the latest must-have invention or fad. She portrays not just Swedish people and customs, but also the neighboring Bohemian, French and Germans immigrants. It centers on a Swedish family migrating to Nebraska at the turn of the century, and their struggles and triumphs, with the land and with the neighbors that surround them. O Pioneers! is the first volume of the Great Plains trilogy by Willa Cather. I believe there is a good deal of the cow in most Swedish girls.” “Now that I think of it, most of my girls have married men they were afraid of. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Dodola is nine years older than the baby Zam, so she mothers him, nurtures him and teaches him. The story tracks the lives of Dodola and Zam, two orphans who escape the slave trade and create a home for themselves in a boat they discover, stuck in the middle of a desert. Beautiful, thought provoking, both timeless and of its time, it’s barely possible to even begin to describe it (but don’t worry, I’ll give it a go). This is no ordinary comic, it is a complete work of art. It’s a modern literary triumph, a book so broad and magical in its scope, only a master could pull it off. However, Craig Thompson is back with a new book, and no matter how hard you wished for it, the 672-page epic that is Habibi can’t fail to delight. ![]() Seven years is a long, long time to disappear from the public eye, especially after such enormous critical acclaim. Over the last seven years it could have been all too easy to mourn the loss of Craig Thompson, the writer and illustrator of the brilliant Good-bye, Chunky Rice and Blankets. ![]() ![]() Yet despite the fact that he doesn’t actually experience any of his “escape,” this illusion still fills the totality of his experience in the moment before his own death. Reality differs from Farquhar’s perceptions, and the reader ultimately can’t rely on what Farquhar sees to reflect the truth. ![]() This seems to suggest that humanity’s experience of reality is a construct of the mind, and that people can’t always trust what they see regardless of how real it feels. The last half of the story is an illusion, which eventually gives way to the ironic twist that Farquhar has, in fact, been hanged after all. Of course, that perception proves to be solely within the protagonist’s mind. But his journey is strange and surreal, reflecting both a series of hyper-intense observations about the world around him and details which suggest he might not even be on Earth anymore, but rather in some strange alternate dimension. In the moments before his death, Farquhar believes he is escaping from his Union captors-that the rope intended to hang him breaks-and that he takes a long and desperate journey home. ![]() ![]() ![]() A variation of the Universal Monster Law applies here: because Door is constantly on the run from these assassins, she’s always on the back foot and is often in a very reactive position. The plot is set in motion when her family is murdered and mysterious assassins try and hunt her down. Does the character shape her own destiny? Does she actively try to change her situation and if not, why not?ĭoor is only in control of her own destiny to a certain extent.Door herself is at the centre of all this, and is one of Gaiman’s most famous female characters.īut does she measure up to the hype? Let’s find out – but watch out for spoilers! ![]() The story has proven to be one of Gaiman’s most popular and enduring books, remaining a feature of Waterstones everywhere, and was adapted as a BBC radio play not too long ago – and that had Benedict Cumberbatch in, so you know it’s good. Originally a TV series made in the 90s (complete with awful haircuts), the story centres around Richard Mayhew, a young man who gets drawn into a magical subterranean world called London Below when he rescues a young woman – Door. For those of you that don’t know, Door is the leading lady of Neil Gaiman’s wildly successful novel, Neverwhere. ![]() ![]() ![]() Loos' lighthearted book became the second-best selling title of 1926 in the United States and a runaway international bestseller. Edith Wharton hailed Loos' satirical work as "the great American novel" as the character of Lorelei Lee embodied the avarice and self-indulgence that characterized 1920s America during the presidencies of Warren G. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, William Faulkner, and H. ![]() ![]() Although dismissed by literary critics as "too light in texture to be very enduring," the book garnered the praise of many writers including F. Originally serialized as a series of short sketches in Harper's Bazaar magazine during the spring and summer of 1925, Loos' sketches were republished in book form by Boni & Liveright in November 1925. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Carl Van Vechten's Firecrackers, the work is one of several famous 1925 American novels which focus upon the insouciant hedonism of the Jazz Age. The story follows the dalliances of a young blonde gold-digger named Lorelei Lee "in the bathtub-gin era of American history." Published the same year as F. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady (1925) is a comic novel written by American author Anita Loos. ![]() ![]() ![]() The government decides to give him an improvementtherapy. In jail he works himself to the bone for reduction of punishment.Īlex gets into trouble when a big fight turns into a killing and he gets the blame of it. He is thrown into prison and sentenced to for fourteen years. The love for classic music from Alex fortifies his feeling of violence.Īfter a fight within the gang Alex was betrayed by the other memders. He ‘s cruel and he commits his crimes with pleasure older people have to be punched,books have to be damaged and women have to be raped. He is fifteen and has to go to school but most of the day he lays in bed watching television.Īnd when the evening falls he terrorizes the town after drugging himself with hallucinogenic drinks.Alex is an intelligent boy but violent. The story is about Alex who’s a leader of a gang. The society is very socialistic and that’s why everybody has to work if they are not sick or pregnant and all the gangsters have to be replaced in the society as soon as possible because the jails are crowded. The whole population is careless and bored and the people are living in growly cities. The book is about a society that is taken over by violent youthgangs. ![]() |