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Monday, December 12, 2016

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #129


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It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week.  It's a great post to organise yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog   and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!


 Read Last Week:

The Shepherd's Life: A People's History of the Lake District

Currently Reading:

Occult Paris: The Lost Magic of the Belle Époque

Summary:

How fin-de-siècle Paris became the locus for the most intense revival of magical practices and doctrines since the Renaissance 
• Examines the remarkable lives of occult practitioners Joséphin Peladan, Papus, Stanislas de Guaïta, Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, Jules Doinel, and others 
• Reveals how occult activity deeply influenced many well-known cultural movements, such as Symbolism, the Decadents, modern music, and the “psychedelic 60s” 
During Paris’s Belle Époque (1871-1914), many cultural movements and artistic styles flourished--Symbolism, Impressionism, Art Nouveau, the Decadents--all of which profoundly shaped modern culture. Inseparable from this cultural advancement was the explosion of occult activity taking place in the City of Light at the same time. 
Exploring the magical, artistic, and intellectual world of the Belle Époque, Tobias Churton shows how a wide variety of Theosophists, Rosicrucians, Martinists, Freemasons, Gnostics, and neo-Cathars called fin-de-siècle Paris home. He examines the precise interplay of occultists Joséphin Peladan, Papus, Stanislas de Guaïta, and founder of the modern Gnostic Church Jules Doinel, along with lesser known figures such as Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, Paul Sédir, Charles Barlet, Edmond Bailly, Albert Jounet, Abbé Lacuria, and Lady Caithness. He reveals how the work of many masters of modern culture such as composers Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, writers Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire, and painters Georges Seurat and Alphonse Osbert bear signs of immersion in the esoteric circles that were thriving in Paris at the time. The author demonstrates how the creative hermetic ferment that animated the City of Light in the decades leading up to World War I remains an enduring presence and powerful influence today. Where, he asks, would Aleister Crowley and all the magicians of today be without the Parisian source of so much creativity in this field? 

Conveying the living energy of Paris in this richly artistic period of history, Churton brings into full perspective the characters, personalities, and forces that made Paris a global magnet and which allowed later cultural movements, such as the “psychedelic 60s,” to rise from the ashes of post-war Europe.
Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com
Length: 528 pages (Hardcover)
Genre: Non-fiction
Publication Date: October 30th 2016 by Inner Traditions

Why I'm Reading It:

I love books set in France and have always had a thing for the Occult so when I saw an opening on the tour for this book I had to sign up.

Up Next: 

The Christmas Angel ProjectBetrayals (Cainsville, #4)IQYou're the Cream in My Coffee

What Are You Reading? What was your favourite book last week? Least Favourite? Tell me!

25 comments:

  1. Betrayals looks interesting! I hope you enjoy your books. I quite liked Occult Paris, but not as much as I hoped I would like it.

    My It's Monday! What Are You Reading? post.

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    1. Berayals is one I'm really looking forward to! I love Kelley Armstrong, I highly recommend the first book in the series Deceptions a try!

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  2. Enjoy those books, I love the cover of The Christmas Angel Project :)

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  3. Oh that looks really interesting! Happy reading this week!

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    1. It sure is interesting. Different than my usual read but really cool.

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  4. OOh nice! Lots of new to me ones here! Except for Betrayals! I love Kelley Armstrong so that one was definitely a win for me! Hope you enjoy all the reads this week!

    Here's my Monday Wrap-up

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower :)

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    1. Yay for another Kelley Armstrong fan! Isn't this series fantastic? Thanks for stopping by.

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  5. A lovely selection of books to choose from, enjoy and have a lovely week!

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  6. I don't read much non-fiction but the Occult Paris book looks really interesting. I see you have Betrayals coming up soon. Awesome book and I really love that series. Hope you enjoy it as well!

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    1. I've been dying to read Betrayals, unfortunately the only thing I'm waiting on now is for my brother to finish it first.

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  7. I love books set in France, too! I'm very curious about IQ.

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    1. IQ sounds great, I actually had my dad read it when I first borrowed it and he said it was different but good.

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  8. Novels set in France always spark my interest! Here is my IMWAYR: http://shoshireads.weebly.com/home/musing-its-monday-what-are-you-reading

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    1. I love novels set in France and non-fiction set there too. Thanks for stopping by.

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  9. Curious to see what you think of IQ. I have had my eye on it.

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  10. I liked both Betrayals and IQ. I hope you do too. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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  11. The Shepherd's Life looks interesting. I grew up with herding dogs and while they weren't actually working dogs I spent most of my childhood having to fight them off as they tried to herd me! Occult Paris looks good too. Love the vintage-y cover look. Enjoy your reading!

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    1. YEah.....herding dogs sure do take to their purpose don't they? We have a border collie/husky mix and both dogs are herders so its interesting lol.

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  12. As I mentioned before Occult Paris looks interesting. I love the cover.Betrayals and I.q look also like good reads.

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