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Merissa (12051 KP) created a post

Mar 14, 2023  
"From bestselling author, MJ Porter comes the tale of the mighty pagan king, Penda of Mercia."

Tour: Pagan Warrior (Of Gods and Kings #1) by M.J. Porter - #TheCoffeePotBookClub, #BlogTour, #PaganWarrior, #TalesofMercia, #TheSeventhCentury, #HistoricalFiction, #ActionAdventure,

https://archaeolibrarian.wixsite.com/website/post/paganwarrior-ofgodsandkings-1-bym-j-porter
     
AW
A Witch Like Me
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Not bad...an interesting collection of stories...

If you always wanted to know more about your favorite Pagan authors...this is the book for you!
  
The Everyday Witch
The Everyday Witch
Liz Martinez | 2009 | Children
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Perfect for Pagan parents (2 more)
Great illustrations
Uplifting story
Wonderful book for a Pagan mother to read to her kids, it's a lovely rhyme, I especially loved
"She believes love can heal with a power that's divine,
So she kisses you better to make you feel fine.
Her magic is ancient, her wisdoms not new;
It was used by her mother and grandmother too"

And the illustrations fit it perfectly. My son grinned all through it!
  
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Merissa (12051 KP) created a post

Nov 5, 2020  
"This is a warm and low-angst story that will melt your heart on a cold winter's night."

TOUR, REVIEW & #GIVEAWAY - A Very Witchy Yuletide by D. Lieber - @GoddessFish, @Archaeolibrary, #Contemporary, #Pagan, #Holiday, #Romance, 4 out of 5 (very good)

https://archaeolibrarian.wixsite.com/website/post/a-very-witchy-yuletide-by-d-lieber
     
Lungs (Deluxe Edition) by Florence + The Machine
Lungs (Deluxe Edition) by Florence + The Machine
2011 | Alternative
Pagan Fantasy
Love Love Love. Not only has Florence Welch grown and moved with the times, shes always stuck with her roots. I have always thought that she sounds like a female Morrisey, with less man and more fun. This album is classic Florence & the Machine and will always be rated highly by me.
  
Lady Danger
Lady Danger
Glynnis Campbell | 2012 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Romance
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Genre: Historical

Page Count: 368 pages

Average Goodreads Rating: 3.88/5 stars

My rating: 3.5/5 stars

When the Norman king gives Pagan the Rivenloch keep and a daughter of the current laird for a wife, he knows it’s too good to be true. Not only is Rivenloch’s laird suffering from dementia, but the two oldest daughters are not content to take on house-making duties like most women. Instead they are skilled fighters who command Rivenloch’s army. It isn’t long before Pagan realizes why the king chose him for Rivenloch. Only the strongest, most hardened men could conquer the Warrior Maids of Rivenloch.


Deidre isn’t about to give up her power to some Norman, even if he is supposed to be their ally. She’ll marry him to spare her sisters, but that doesn’t mean she’ll make it easy for him. She’ll conquer the Norman before he realizes it.

This book took awhile to get good, but I have to admit, both Pagan and Deidre have very realistic reactions and feelings considering the situation. Pagan comes from a very misogynistic society, so female warriors are unnatural to him. And Deidre sees Pagan as another enemy invading her territory and taking control. But their irrationality them makes them unlikeable at times.

I liked them, then I didn’t. Then I liked them again. Pagan’s devout honor and chivalry is admirable. Although he thinks in terms like “taming” and “conquering” Deidre, he would never actually force her or hurt her in any way. Nor does he want women to fear him. Seeing Miriel, the youngest sister, scared of him made him feel sick. Despite his flawed yet historically accurate upbringing, he does see the value in Deidre and Helena knowing how to fight after learning about the dangers they faced. But there’s so much misogyny in him. He actually thought Deidre would prefer having a man protect her than protecting herself, and he forbid her from sparring.

Of course, Deidre resents all the changes Pagan makes to Rivenloch, even though they were changes that desperately needed to be made. She also has deeply misguided views about sex and men. She planned to control Pagan through his lust by withholding sex, even denying her own desires. During this time, she considered him beating her and forcing her, but the idea that he would commit adultery never occurred to her, even though she repeatedly told him that she would never want him. However, I did enjoy watching Pagan’s massive ego get checked.

They drove me crazy, even though their emotions were realistic. However, after they put their absurdities aside and started working together, the story immediately improved. I loved them working in harmony and the fight scenes at the end were fantastic. Lady Danger is lame at first, but is worth the wait. Medieval romance fans will enjoy this book.
  
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Brett Anderson recommended Spirit Of Eden by Talk Talk in Music (curated)

 
Spirit Of Eden by Talk Talk
Spirit Of Eden by Talk Talk
1988 | Jazz, Rock
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"It's a funny one, this record, because I think of it almost as an instrumental record. I don't listen to the lyrics, I don't know what they are. I listen to Mark Hollis's voice and it sounds like a trumpet. Words as sounds. I don't know what any of the songs are called. I listen to this almost like I listen to Music For Airports, it's a mood piece. It's interesting where it came in their career path: they started off as this pop band and then ended up as a very obscure avant-garde group with Laughing Stock. Spirit Of Eden was the interesting bridge between the two. Slow Attack, the album I did with lots of woodwind, was massively inspired by Spirit Of Eden and the sense of drama in it. It's very mellow in places but again never easy listening. It's pagan folk. Folk music isn't about men in silly jumpers with fingers in their ears and all that clichéd nonsense. There's something really earthy and pagan and Wicker Man-ish about it."

Source
  
ST
Stalking the Goddess
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Stalking The Goddess by Mark Carter is not a book to be taken lightly or to be read as a fill-in. This book deserves your attention as Mark Carter has tried to do the near-impossible and unravel a book that has long been thought of as a Pagan Must-Have. The White Goddess by Robert Graves has long been considered as one of the ultimate books for a Pagan to own, with links to the Welsh Celtic path and showing how, through poetry, that paganism lived on through the ages.

Stalking The Goddess is written like a thesis or dissertation from a university so will appeal to any academically-minded out there. This did make it quite hard going at times and I would read some and then take a break to digest what I had read.

Mark Carter has “untangled the woods” of The White Goddess and made it more accessible to the Pagan who would like to know more about it and where Robert Graves got his sources. Mark Carter has made it possible to see who has influenced Robert Graves, both in a positive and also a negative way, by showing whose work was used and which was not.

One of the things that I found most interesting was that although The White Goddess boasts a Welsh Celtic basis, Robert Graves had actually pulled on stories from the whole of Europe, as well as from the Bible, the Jews and used stories from the Saracens to compile his book and it somehow all seemed to fit which is where Mark Carter has excelled. Star Wars even makes an appearance!

In no way is Mark Carter dismissing The White Goddess and even states in the Epilogue that without The White Goddess it is unlikely that paganism would have developed as it did.

Overall, I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the history of The White Goddess, or for someone who has an academic “twist”. Thought provoking and a very interesting read.
  
This book has a specific audience, and it can be hard to tell if you're a part of it. From the perspective of the confused Christian, it's a great resource. Sanders does an excellent job of describing why people are leaving Christianity for Neo-Pagan religions. She turns a critical eye on her own faith and holds it up to Wicca to figure out the appeal. Where she fails, though, is in thinking she's going to convert anyone. Her proselytizing takes up only so much of the book. I would definitely recommend it for the bewildered Christian, but it certainly isn't an "Occult/Witchcraft" book, as the back claims.
  
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David McK (3422 KP) rated Blood of the Bear (Fire Born volume 5) in Books

Oct 18, 2024 (Updated Oct 18, 2024)  
Blood of the Bear (Fire Born volume 5)
Blood of the Bear (Fire Born volume 5)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is the final(?) entry in Angus Donald's 'Fire Born' series about the Viking berserker Bjarki Bloodhand in the time of Charlemagne, a series which - will enjoyable enough - has never *quite* managed to hit the heights of his Robin Hood 'Outlaw Chronicles' series of novels.

Here, we have Bjarki living a quiet life at the start of the novel, before events transpire to drag him - and his sister Tor - back into the conflict between the Christian Franks and the pagan Danes/Saxons, events that culminate in one of the few Frankish (temporary) defeats.

Worth a read? Yes.
As good as the Outlaw Chronicles series? No.