Thank you Simon Element, partner for the finished copy of The Witching Year and Doubleday Books, partner for the finished copy of Say Nothing in exchange for my honest reviews. I borrowed the audiobooks for each book from the library.
I love finding a good nonfiction book I can sink my teeth into…& I usually gravitate towards either a memoir or something I want to know more about…which leads me to these 2 books:
THE WITCHING YEAR: A Memoir of Earnest Fumbling Through Modern Witchcraft by Diana Helmuth
Published: September 17, 2024 (Originally Published 2023) / Simon Element / Simon & Schuster Audio
Summary:
A skeptic’s year-long quest to find spiritual fulfillment through modern Witchcraft, perfect for fans of A.J. Jacobs and Mary Roach.
Diana Helmuth, thirty-three, is skeptical of organized religion. She is also skeptical of disorganized religion. But, more than anything, she is tired of God being dead. So, she decides to try on the fastest growing, self-directed faith in America: Witchcraft.
The result is 366 days of observation, trial, error, wit, and back spasms. Witches today are often presented as confident and finished, proud and powerful. Diana is eager to join them. She wants to follow all the rules, memorize all the incantations, and read all the liturgy. But there’s one glaring problem: no Witch can agree on what the right rules, liturgy, and incantations are.
As with life, Diana will have to define the craft for herself, looking past the fashionable and figuring out how to define the real. Along the way, she travels to Salem and Edinburgh (two very Crafty hubs) and attends a week-long (clothing optional) Witch camp in Northern California. Whether she’s trying to perform a full moon ritual on a cardboard box, summon an ancient demon with scotch tape and a kitchen trivet, or just trying to become a calmer, happier person, her biggest question remains: Will any of this really work?
The Witching Year follows in the footsteps of celebrated memoirs by journalists like A.J. Jacobs, Mary Roach, and Caitlin Doughty, who knit humor and reportage together in search of something worth believing.
My thoughts:
This memoir takes us through the author’s journey of learning about and taking on the practice of witchcraft. I liked the candidness of her writing and how upfront she is with everything she experiences, from all the baggage she brings into this experiment to the problems to encounters. There were some great takeaways and some interesting points made throughout – for instance, many people acknowledge what got them into witchcraft was Sabrina the Teenage Witch or Harry Potter. Never would have guessed that!
Audio thoughts:
This is narrated by the author and of course I felt she was the perfect one to tell her story!
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SAY NOTHING: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Island by Patrick Radden Keefe
Published: February 26, 2019 / Doubleday / Random House Audio
Summary:
In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville’s children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress–with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.
Patrick Radden Keefe’s mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders.
Patrick Radden Keefe writes an intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.
My thoughts:
I’ve had this sitting on my shelf for quite a while but when I saw it was being released on Hulu as a limited series, it was just the push I needed to finally pick it up. This is one of those cases where I’ve wanted to read this because some fiction books have mentioned the Troubles and I’ve always wanted to read more about it.
This book is nonfiction with a true crime bent and while it covers a dark period in Northern Ireland’s history, it is very readable. I found it to be such a fascinating, yet horrifying read and I found myself completely immersed in the book. There is a lot packed in here and I feel like this would greatly benefit from multiple readings, but that’s probably just me.
Audio thoughts:
I alternated between the print and audio. The narrator, Matthew Blaney, did a great job with this one.
Have you read any nonfiction this month? Have you read either of these two books?
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