Book Review - The Wicca Handbook by Eileen Holland

The Wicca Handbook by Eileen Holland. This was the first book on Wicca I had bought (but not the first I had read). Keep in mind that I’m very new to Wicca and come into this with no knowledge what-so-ever.

I really like this book. It’s one I constantly refer to. I have 4 bookmarks in it to mark important things that I go back to. However, I feel that there is too much emphasis on the spells side of things and not enough (actually, very little) information on rituals, casting a circle, and other such information.

The book is divided into three sections.

Part 1: Becoming a Witch

Part 2: The Craft

Part 3: Correspondences

Part 1 deals with the basics, and she does this too briefly. But it is enough to give the beginner an idea of what is what.  However, there are no ritual outlines or suggestions. The Wiccan year is skimmed over with very little information. The elements are described in great detail, but after reading it and looking at all the correspondences, I still had no idea what it all meant.

Part 2 deals with casting spells. There is no information on anything else here but spells and correspondences for various problems. Great if you know how to use them, but if you are just starting out it can be very confusing. Having said that, as I’ve learnt more about Wicca, both online and through books, I have started to understand this section much better. Some basic everyday life issues are looked at, such as health and healing, money and business, and protection. She gives and explanation and then goes through the various correspondences for many of the aspects of the issue, including gods and goddess. Her correspondences are by no means exhaustive, but they are very good and can be supplemented by the readers own research. She does give some spells in this section. For example, there is a very good spell called Blue Justice which is cast when there is a court matter that you want to see come out in a positive way.

Part 3 looks at many of the correspondences in detail. This section at first bewildered me, but now I love browsing through it. She goes through things such as animals, colours, metals, rocks and gemstones, letters and numbers. Overall I like the book. Actually, I think it’s fantastic. It did give me some good information when I was starting and opened my mind to the view that Wicca was much bigger than I first thought. It’s not a book I would give to someone as their first book on Wicca. But it is a great reference book that I know I will refer to again and again.

Out of 10 I give it a 7. If there was more information on rituals than it would get a higher score.

Pancakes and Painted Eggs (Jean Chapman)

Pancakes and Painted Eggs

This book is an old favourite of mine. It may not be in print now (correct me if I’m wrong, and I’d love to be wrong), but still seems to be available from many libraries and you could try finding second-hand copies through Amazon (or perhaps ebay).

Pancakes and Painted Eggs is a book for Lent and the Easter Season. It has stories, poems, songs (even sheet music, arranged by Margaret Moore), explanations of customs and festivals from a variety of cultures, recipes, craft activities, and fun illustrations by Kilmeny Niland. There’s something for everyone!

So get yourself down to your local library!

Just Got Back...

From the Baltimore/D.C. area. I went down there on a band trip on Thursday morning and just got back an hour ago. We went to Cirque de Soleil (however you spell that), the Baltimore Symphony (BORING), Hard Rock Cafe, hung out at the Inner Harbor, the aquarium, and went into D.C. today for the Cherry Blossom parade which kinda sucked due to the fact that we were at the end and people were being obnoxious.

I had a great time, though, and I just wanted to let everyone why I’ve been pretty MIA for the last few days.

Book Review: The Success Principles, By Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield, the award winning and best selling co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, lays out his method for success in the excellent, The Success Principles. Jack compiles lessons learned from a lifetime of success and failures, research of, and conversations with successful people, and his usual style of adding anecdotes and stories to convey a lesson.

He details 64 lessons that will “Get you from where you are to where you want to be.” Some of these lessons include personal responsibility(absolutely critical in today’s world), persistence, goal setting, affirmations, wealth building and spending habits, and much more.

One of the more successful features of the book, is the inclusion of hundreds of inspiring and pertinent quotes throughout the writing. It bridges certain gaps, so the reader knows that this is not simply Jack Canfield coming up with some crazy idea. Rather, it is time tested, and affirmed by many well-known high achievers.

If you are ready to begin a path to a more fullfilling life, please read this book, and then read it again, and then apply what you have learned. Knowledge is only as good as the action that accompanies it. If you would like to purchase a copy, as always, just follow the attached link.

The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

Until next time…

Book review: Barbara Abbey's Knitting Lace

This is plain and simple a great book. In my opinion, anyone who knits lace should have this book in their library. I almost didn’t buy it, the cover image didn’t look all that promising, but I am so glad I did!

This book is very much a classic example of a 1970s fiberarts handbook, but that is not by any means intended as a slap or a criticism. If you look at books on embroidery, or bobbin lace, or knitting, from the 1960s and 1970s, it seems like they all present not only the basics — how best to secure your thread in the fabric, how to wind the bobbin and secure the thread on it, how to cast on, increase, decrease, and cast off — but many different variations on all of those techniques. Here, these techniques are all accompanied by hand-drawn illustrations, step-by-step where necessary, that really do make it clear what the work should look like as you do the technique. Even better, as far as I can tell the words and the illustrations are all on the same page; there is little that is more frustrating than having to flip back and forth between the text and the diagram!

The first 42 pages of the book are taken up with technique, but it’s useful technique and a lot of it is needed for the patterns presented. And oh, the patterns! There are 100 edgings and insertions, largely arranged in increasing level of difficulty and ranging from very simple scallops to naturalistic leaves to more abstract arrangements. Following that come 10 “background” stitch patterns, mostly meshes or “field of flowers” patterns.

In addition, there are 12 projects for which full instructions are given. These include a shawl, two collars, and two luncheon sets. The shawl is intriguing, as the center is knitted, then single crochets are worked around the outside of the center, and finally the edging is knitted on with short-row miters to turn the corners neatly. Fascinating!

The only drawbacks? The stitch patterns are not charted, but instead are typeset using mostly letters and numbers, and only a few symbols. I have yet to decide whether I am going to try to knit directly from the words, or whether I will try to chart things first, then knit from the chart. The index, while extensive, is not as user-friendly as it could be. If, for example, I want to see if there’s an edging that uses daisies, looking under “daisy” won’t help, as it’s listed under W for “wide daisy and leaf edging”. But, then again, with “only” 53 pages of patterns to look through, it’s almost more fun to just flip through looking at all the pretty patterns to find the daisy edging.

There were a couple errors in the original printing from 1973, but those have been corrected in the 1993 edition that I have.

Overall, as I said at the start, in my opinion this is a must-have. I bought mine direct from Schoolhouse Press, but Amazon put it in my “you might like” area the other day, so it’s widely available. If you get it, I hope you’re as happy as I am!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

The blurb on the back of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies brazenly declares that Seth Grahame-Smith’s addition of zombie-fighting action to Austen’s classic “transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.” Perhaps the blurb’s brag is just a bit of cheeky fun; after all, Austen’s staid survey of manners and mores is a perennial favorite, coming in second to only The Lord of the Rings in a recent BBC poll of British readers, as well as topping a similar poll in Australia. Clearly, people not only want to read it, they actually do, and in large numbers each year. There’s even been enough interest in it for a not-that-bad movie update just a few years ago. So it’s hardly as if Pride and Prejudice is a corpse in need of resuscitation. This begs the question: What nuances and comments does Grahame-Smith have to add? Not much, we’re afraid.

The most interesting aspect of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is its concept, a promise for weird laughs and sick kicks neatly summed up in its fantastically morbid cover. Grahame-Smith doesn’t so much re-imagine Pride, but simply stuff a murderous host of zombies into Austen’s romance. These “unmentionables,” as the polite Regency society folks call them, wage a war on good stolid Englishmen. Fortunately Mr. Bennet has trained his daughters, led by feisty Elizabeth, in the ways of the ninja. Between matchmaking, letter-writing, polite dances, and furtive glances at Mr. Darcy, the Bennet sisters slice up zombies left and right with their katanas. The press-release for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies claims that the book retains 85% of Austen’s original, and no major plot points are changed or missing. Instead, the reader is subjected to seemingly purposeless bouts of zombie fighting after every scene. Of course, to decry these fights as purposeless seems silly; after all, when you pick up a book called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, you expect zombies, don’t you?

Grahame-Smith’s premise sounds like great good fun in theory, but it turns out that adding zombies and ninjas to a classic beloved romance is neither terribly engaging or interesting. We love zombies at Biblioklept, but the most effective zombie tales–28 Days Later, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead–work beyond horror and serve also as a form of social commentary or even satire. Grahame-Smith seems to miss, or even ignore, any opportunity to comment on, criticize, or otherwise inform the novel he’s cannibalizing. Instead, his additions convey the energy, wit, and sophistication of a one-note SNL sketch. The premise gets old fast, and it becomes increasingly confusing who this novel is for. It’s unlikely to appeal to most Austen fans, as it provides no real comment on her methods, plotting, or characterization, and as far as a zombies-and-ninjas riff goes, it’s pretty standard fare. Ultimately, it seems like more of a conversation piece than something you’d actually read for enjoyment, a little coffee table book that might evoke some interest. Flick through the amusing illustrations, chuckle, and move on.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is available soon from Quirk Books.

Vintage Style

By Dubin and Berman

I am not content merely to wax opinionated on topics related to needles and thread.  I can be opinionated about books that deal with questions of style too.  Vintage Style is another of my library finds, and to be quick in the review, I like it.  

Here is why.  It is written for grownups who aren’t stuffy, and it seems to be a reasonable resource for identifying the shapes and fabrics that are associated with a decade, as well as for ideas on how to mix and match in a way that suits your personality.  Finally, not such a bad place to start when you are looking for ideas that you wish to copy.  

On the down side, there are some items that I’d like to see off the body, just for an idea of how they are constructed.  The Bodysuit, for instance.  And a newly-discovered pet-peeve: no page numbers.  Who’s dumb idea was that?  Oh, wait.  They’ve stuck them in the inner binding at the top.  Still, not helpful.  The bodysuit is on page 24, and is a good example of what wrapping can do for a body (perfect for breasts of all sizes and shapes, makes the waist look small).  

And while we are on the topic of demonstrating what clothing can and can’t do for a body, check out how boxy the slender girl in the yellow miniskirt looks on page 30.  It points out something that I’ll harp on later: girls need clothes that demonstrate a waist.  Even skinny girls.  

There are ideas here for items that are relatively easily made - the princess skirt, for example (p 32) and what to wear them with for different occasions. More good things: they identify details that make the clothes stand out and name the silhouettes, all very helpful for someone wishing to become well-versed in the language of clothing.  

Basically, I’d buy it.  Though I would have liked it better if they had shown the vintage items just as they are in detail so the reader could get a better sense of the essence of each item - the shape, the construction, and how it hangs in the closet.