In Defense of Witches by Mona Chollet

THURSDAY, JULY 16
5:00-7:00PM
ACORN BOOKSTORE (St. Anthony Neighborhood)

We are excited to host our second witchy bookclub in partnership with Hannah (The Mystic Cryptic on Social - @_Midwesterncryptid_). Hannah is a long time practicing witch. Also a bookish witch, Hannah often talks a lot about witchy literature and practical guides and co-facilitates our witchy book club events! If you don’t already, you should give Hannah a follow on socials for tarot pop-ups, witchy content, and withcy book recommendations and support for local indie bookstores in the Twin Cities.

As part of this book club, we are asking members to donate to Keystone Food Shelf (St. Paul) or Joyce Uptown Food Shelf (Minneapolis). The cost of groceries has only gone up and access and benefits under SNAP have seen reductions during this admin. If you donate, shoot us an email confirmation to softcoverbookclubmn@gmail.com!

This is an exciting new territory for Soft Cover - We are going to read non-fiction! Witchy non-fiction! It’s about witches. It’s about feminism. It’s about drawing parallels from the past to understand today. We will be reading In Defense of Witches by Mona Chollet (and translated by Sophie R. Lewis)

Synopsis

“Mona Chollet's In Defense of Witches is a “brilliant, well-documented” celebration (Le Monde) by an acclaimed French feminist of the witch as a symbol of female rebellion and independence in the face of misogyny and persecution.

Centuries after the infamous witch hunts that swept through Europe and America, witches continue to hold a unique fascination for many: as fairy tale villains, practitioners of pagan religion, as well as feminist icons. Witches are both the ultimate victim and the stubborn, elusive rebel. But who were the women who were accused and often killed for witchcraft? What types of women have centuries of terror censored, eliminated, and repressed?

Celebrated feminist writer Mona Chollet explores three types of women who were accused of witchcraft and persecuted: the independent woman, since widows and celibates were particularly targeted; the childless woman, since the time of the hunts marked the end of tolerance for those who claimed to control their fertility; and the elderly woman, who has always been an object of at best, pity, and at worst, horror. Examining modern society, Chollet concludes that these women continue to be harrassed and oppressed. Rather than being a brief moment in history, the persecution of witches is an example of society’s seemingly eternal misogyny, while women today are direct descendants to those who were hunted down and killed for their thoughts and actions.

With fiery prose and arguments that range from the scholarly to the cultural, In Defense of Witches seeks to unite the mythic image of the witch with modern women who live their lives on their own terms.”

We are excited to host at the newest bookstore in the Twin Cities, Acorn, a Bookstore! Soft Cover hosts small group book club events and therefore we have limited spots available, please register soon! If this is sold out and you really want to attend, please email Softcoverbookmn@gmail.com and we can reach out if any spots open due to cancellations!