Friday, September 30, 2022

Book Review: Backyard Witchcraft

Happy spooky season! Are you tuning in to watch Hocus Pocus 2 tonight? I will not, it is actually homecoming for our high school, the big kids are playing in the band, so I'm pulling mom duty and sitting at a football game. I can't wait because at lunch time I decided to go put a couple of yard decorations up, and as I stepped on one to push the stake into the ground, I literally threw my back out. Just shooting pain, hurts to breath, hurts to sit or stand, I'm just real excited to sit on metal bleachers for 3+ hours. YAY ME. At least it's nice and not raining, it could be worse, I suppose. 

Backyard Witchcraft - Cecilia Lattari

Embark on an exploration of modern-day witchcraft, embracing the green path, which connects us to nature. Herbalist Cecilia Lattari guides readers to reawaken their inner witch by tuning in to the magic and sacred energies of their everyday lives, using the hidden powers of nature to foster positive connections between mind, body, and spirit and living spaces. Filled with colorful, compelling illustrations, this handbook introduces green, hedge, and kitchen witches. Readers will learn how to create their own witch’s tool kits, purify their homes, work with the four natural elements, build magic laboratories, and discover the path that encourages a harmonious transformation.
One of my favorite things to read and learn about is witches, witch history, witch lore, just all things witch. I immediately jumped on this tour because it sounded fascinating. It actually was incredibly fascinating, but I also learned quite a bit about things in my own backyard. I learned I actually have a whole bunch of yarrow in a back corner and I had no idea what it was. None of my plant identifying apps figured it out (yay for free apps!), but it's pretty cool that the mystery is solved. 

The book is broken down into really small sections and while you could read it cover to cover, this works best as a reference book. The book is separated into seven main chapters, there is a planner included at the end, a test to see if you were paying attention (but also to see what kind of witch you are), a few "magical stories" of witches, and a great bibliography at the end which is just interesting for the nerdy witches out there. 

I actually also really appreciated the information about plants in general and their roots/root systems, because I struggled big time with this. I am trying to become a semi-decent gardener (I'd like to ideally not kill everything), and oddly, indoor plants is where I struggle the most, so this gave me some information I had no idea about (and honestly never would have thought about). 

Overall, this was a pretty cool book. It has a great layout, it is written well and for a topic that could be intimidating and overwhelming, the author did a fantastic job organizing it and breaking down into laymans terms. I also want to mention the illustrations. Betti Greco did these throughout the book and they are just so pretty and go with the general aesthetic of the book, well done. 

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Dover Publications for having me on this tour. Matt says I can't turn into a witch but... he's not the boss of me. Right? 

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