Into the Forest discussion

Witch won as the March 15-May 14 Group Read theme.
Each group member can nominate 3 books:
-One Young Adult Novel or Collection of Short Stories
-One Adult Novel or Collection of Short Stories
-One longer Traditional Tale or a Collection of Shorter Tradtional tales or a Nonfiction book about the theme

All books nominated should contain or be inspired by myths folk or fairy tales

If you nominate a book that is part of a series, only the first book in a series can be nominated unless each book is a standalone

You have one week to nominate then the Polls will go up!

Please highlight/ include the links for the books you nominate!

So nominate away!

A note to longtime members! We had a "Witchy" Themed Group Read a few months ago. This is my bad! I just copied all the themes from the 2021 challenge and did not think to remove Witch or Trickster until it was too late. I apologize although I suspect many of us don't mind reading about witches again!

I probably won't nominate for the fiction (adult or YA), but I might need direction on the nonfiction.

For this, latter, option, I'd like to nominate If Women Rose Rooted: The Power of the Celtic Woman.

Not having read it, I really don't know whether this fits 'witch' specifically, but I do believe all women's studies encompass the witch in some form or another. Here, we're talking about women and landscape, 'drawing inspiration from the wise and powerful females in native mythology'.

For adult novel, I want to nominate The Once and Future Witches.

For YA novel, I want to nominate Akata Witch.

I can't think of any books for the nonfiction nomination.

If either or both books have been read already, then please let me know and I will nominate other ones.

For adult novel, We Ride Upon Sticks.

New here, so let me know if these have already been done.

YA: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Adult: I second the Once and Future Witches

I don't know a lot of witch tales but I loved The House with Chicken Legs for YA.

I second We Ride Upon Sticks for adult fiction

For YA: Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon

For non fiction, you might want to consider Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich.

I'd like to nominate:

Adult - A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Nonfiction - American Witches: A Broomstick Tour Through Four Centuries by Susan Fair

Hi! I'd like to nominate:

YA: by Naomi Novik
Adult: by Madeline Miller
Non-fiction: by Lindy West

YA: by Danielle L. Jensen

Fiction: The Sea Priestess by Dion Fortune


YA: The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson


Nonfiction: Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women by Silvia Federici

Hmm, I think I'm going to repeat my YA nomination from the last time: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett ;)

Y'all are recommending some really excellent books.

Jamie, technically The Year of the Witching is adult, but I'm going to leave it because I recently found out the author originally wrote it as a YA novel, but the publisher asked her to age the character up to make it adult. It's incredibly dark and doesn't read YA to me, but I also respect that it could go either way. It's a fantastic book. :)

I'm going to hold off on recommendations until next week so I can see where we stand on nominations first. I will post the poll on Thursday the 4th, in the evening.

Does anyone know if The Beautiful Ones is YA or Adult?
I'd like to nominate it, but don't know what category it is.

Jalilah wrote: "Does anyone know if The Beautiful Ones is YA or Adult?
I'd like to nominate it, but don't know what category it is."

I responded to this in my review, but I'll respond here too. :)

It's adult! One of the main characters is called a witch as a bad name a few times, but there aren't really any witches in this or a discussion of witchcraft.

My nominations

YA: The Witches by Roald Dahl

Adult: A Secret History of Witches by Louisa Morgan

Traditional: The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure Tales by Charles W. Chesnutt

I'm going to go ahead and nominate The Bell Witch: An American Haunting by Brent Monahan for Traditional/Nonfiction. I'll admit, this is because I'm from Tennessee and grew up playing Bell Witch games with my friends. I'm really curious to learn more. I can't even tell if this book is fiction or nonfiction though. If anyone has read it, let me know!

Margaret wrote: "Jalilah wrote: "Does anyone know if The Beautiful Ones is YA or Adult?
I'd like to nominate it, but don't know what category it is."

I responded to this in my review, but I'll resp..."

Oh okay! Thanks for letting me know!

If anyone is struggling to find a book to nominate, I wrote this list for BuzzFeed last year: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/...

Here's what we have so far. I'll set up polls tomorrow night:

Adult:
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Sea Priestess by Dion Fortune
A Secret History of Witches by Louisa Morgan
Witchmark by C.L. Polk

YA:
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson
Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon
Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Margaret note: This is technically not YA but has a lot of crossover appeal so I'm leaving it. Feel free to disagree!)
Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen
The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson (Same note as Uprooted)
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
The Witches by Roald Dahl

Traditional/Nonfiction:
Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich
American Witches: A Broomstick Tour Through Four Centuries by Susan Fair
The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West
Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women by Silvia Federici
The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure Tales by Charles W. Chesnutt
The Bell Witch: An American Haunting by Brent Monahan

This is a big list! It's been a long time since we had so many nonfiction/traditional nominations.

Margaret wrote: "This is a big list! It's been a long time since we had so many nonfiction/traditional nominations."

Are you looking to reduce the list?

Having looked in more detail at my nonfiction nomination, If Women Rose Rooted: The Power of the Celtic Woman, I'm not convinced it really fits in this list. It looks fascinating, I'll definitely read it at some point, but it does not focus on witches (although they might be mentioned in passing, along with enchantment).

Amanda wrote: "Are you looking to reduce the list?

Having looked in more detail at my nonfiction nomination, If Women Rose Rooted: The Power of the Celtic Woman, I'm not convinced it really fits in this list. It looks fascinating, I'll definitely read it at some point, but it does not focus on witches (although they might be mentioned in passing, along with enchantment)."

A long list is fine, but looking at the book, I agree with your second thoughts. It doesn't look like it discusses witches. I'm not seeing any reviews that mention witchcraft. So I'll take it off. It does look good!

I'm adding an adult nomination for myself: Witchmark by C.L. Polk

The polls are up! https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/3...

Pick the books you'd like to read for our March-May group read. There are so many good ones to choose from!

The winners are:

Adult: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
YA: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Traditional/Nonfiction: The Bell Witch: An American Haunting by Brent Monahan

I'll set up folders today! It will be this afternoon before I have a chance.

I've read both the Adult and YA picks and they're 5-star reads for me. :)