{"id":3460,"date":"2026-05-28T21:44:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/?p=3460"},"modified":"2026-05-28T21:44:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:44:39","slug":"what-the-witch-is-reading-may-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/what-the-witch-is-reading-may-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Witch Is Reading — May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This section of my blog is dedicated to spreading the love of reading and books and the people who make them happen. I would not be the Witch I am today without books. I owe an obscene amount of gratitude to all the makers of books out there. This is my way of giving back. I hope that something I pick up and review will guide you to acquire the next tome on your To Be Read stack.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This month has been busy with spirit-work seminars, kin-keeping, garden-building, and the affects of Jupiter return energy (more on that later), so book reading time has been at a premium. Regardless, still have three titles to share with you. What have you been reading? Tell me, please in the comments!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Making It: How Love, Kindness and Community Helped Me Repair My Life<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jay Blades<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I once had a friend who told me that the one thing he appreciated about me was that I made his life look good. Yeah, it wasn\u2019t a compliment, but I felt that sentiment while reading Making It. Gratitude. Yet, hope has seemingly always powered Mr. Blades through his life. And it gave me gratitude and hope reading this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also have a whole new perspective on the person many of us may have first met through the cozy show The Repair Shop. As a couple, my partner and I love treasure hunting in thrift stores, garage sales, and curb-side garbage picking.  So I deeply appreciate Blades and by default also The Repair Shop for saving what was important to the last generation. To me, this feels dutiful and appreciative for the those who came before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But like the layers of dirt and slapshod paint that Blades has removed from countless pieces of furniture, there\u2019s more to this man than what one tv show portrays. I respect him even more having read this memoir, especially given all the bullshit he\u2019s been through \u2013 As an American, to hear that Britain is just as bad as the United States in regards to young black men is bitter. Why did I think the UK was more progressive? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, the memoir is certainly inspiring and the call for anti-racism, expressing emotion from men, especially in interpersonal relationships, as well as de-stigmatizing mental illness and behavioral health treatment, is threaded throughout his personal story. By the last chapter, I was left with the reassurance that if you just keep trying, keep showing up, the Universe makes sure the opportunities come forward. You just have to keep trying. You can\u2019t give up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well worth the read, or a listen if you\u2019re into audio books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gathering Moss: A Natural & Cultural History of Mosses<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robin Wall Kimmerer<\/p>\n\n\n

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Up front, I need to tell you that I love listening to Professor Kimmerer while working the Land. So this book was definitely an audio listen. But, like all her books, I\u2019ll listen, and then I\u2019ll get the book for reference for my shelves. Each essay in Gathering Moss<\/em> is peppered with wisdom inspired by the author\u2019s indigenous worldview and of different types of mosses. They break down the science into stories and that\u2019s some of my favorite reading. Kimmerer looks at mosses in this book not just scientifically but shows us the spirit within the moss, too. The fact that a PNW university helped publish this book is just a bonus for the collective culture of the Land where I reside as well. I\u2019m shoving this book into my insurance companies face when they say I need to remove moss from my roof. It\u2019s a capitalistic lie. I think I\u2019ll take an Environmental and Forest Biology professor\u2019s word for it and not yours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Grief Cure: Looking for the End of Loss<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Cody Delistraty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Checked this one out of the library, because I\u2019ve been doing a personal exploration of loss and grief, especially in the context of the culture of the United States. This book fit the bill, since the writer of this book explored an array of perspectives, actions, and events to deal with their grief, from trying to figure out if they had a disorder over their grief to trying to expand neural pathways with psychedelics. It\u2019s clear this book was born of deep feelings. And reading it you will likely have lots of feelings about the author\u2019s journey. I certainly did. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The author was desperate to find the end of the feelings of loss they endured after their mother\u2019s death. All of us have endured some sort of loss that produced grief, and the author\u2019s situation is clearly relatable. They tried therapy, talked to AI, did mushroom therapy, laughter therapy (which made him have to force laugh in a very public place), visited shamans, did bibliotherapy (which I didn\u2019t\u00a0 know was a thing, but might check into it), etc. They wrote, \u201cThere is a difference, too, between closure on the one hand and memorials and rituals on the other. Memorials and rituals, I think, are healthy and helpful. It is the belief, however, that they signal the end to grief and reflection that can prove shortsighted.\u201d As a person who has always side-eyed western funerals, this comparison between closure and grief\u2019s end made so much sense. Portions of the book feel a bit too self-centered on the author, but moments like that kept me reading.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much that hampered the author\u2019s journey with the grief over the loss of his mother, is our own society. Our own hang-ups, societies dictation, or even how loss and death presented itself in our lives. They write: \u201cWhat a society chooses to grieve is ultimately its way of \u201cposing the question of who \u2018we\u2019 are,\u201d writes the philosopher Juidth Butler. \u201cBy asking whose lives are considered valuable, whose lives are mourned, and whose lives are considered ungrievable.\u201d Yet Delistraty concludes quickly through half of the actions, therapies, and coping mechanisms, that: \u201cIn death and grief, there may be no singular truth at all, only what we tell ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the interesting things is that the author themselves recommended text within the prose about other books on death and grief we should read. This includes: Mrs. Death Misses Death <\/em>by poet Salena Godden; R.K. Narayan\u2019s The Guide<\/em>, which sound like more fodder for this Scorpio Stellium\u2019s relationship with loss and death. Like the author of this grief exploration, it\u2019s not how grief affects us, but what we do with it. \u201cHow easy it is to be engulfed by grief, drowned in it. To retain the positive memories is to be its master. To some extent that is the great experiment of life: to not become your loss, to alchemize it into wisdom.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month has been busy with spirit-work seminars, kin-keeping, garden-building, and the affects of Jupiter return energy (more on that later), so book reading time has been at a premium. Regardless, still have three titles to share with you. What have you been reading? Tell me, please in the comments! Making It: How Love, Kindness…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,421],"tags":[555,623,624,613,614,621,519,622,436],"class_list":["post-3460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post","category-what-the-witch-is-reading","tag-a-bookish-witch","tag-cody-delistraty","tag-gathering-moss","tag-jay-blades","tag-making-it","tag-may-2026","tag-robin-wall-kimmerer","tag-the-grief-cure","tag-what-the-witch-is-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3464,"href":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460\/revisions\/3464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runatroy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}