Putting the "Janus" in January

Who's Janus? Plus every single book the potions priestess read in 2022, News from the Library re: MADMAN IN THE WOODS, and the debut of THE SENTENCE booktail!

Welcome back to The Cauldron! (Hibbilty bibbilty!)

First post of 2023! I’ve been seeing a lot of comments on social media lately about a lack of “go get ‘em” new year’s energy. The tone is almost always apologetic, as if it’s somehow unusual not to feel invigorated in the dead of winter. Spring is the time for fecundity and renewal—that’s when your energy goes all “ka pow!” Winter is when you stay home and power down. Look at the trees, the ones that appear barren, girding their strength to burst forth in just a few months in an ecstatic display of hope and new life, as if to say, “Gotcha, Death!”

But first, the doldrums of January. Fun fact: the first “January” was Middle English, appearing around the year 1,000. The roots of the word itself are Latin: the ancient Romans knew Janus as the two-faced (literally) god of doorways, beginnings, and the rising and setting of the sun. In Latin, the word “Janus” means “doorway, archway, or arcade.” Janus’s festival took place on January 9. Several important temples were built in his honor and there may have been an early cult devoted to him. (Wonder what their parties were like…)

Another (sort of) fun fact: The Janus Geminus shrine was the most famous janus in Rome. It was composed of bronze double doors that were left open in times of war. When there was peace, they stayed closed. From the 7th to the 1st century the doors were only closed twice. Yikes.

For what (or whom) do you open the doors of your shrine? Maybe that’s the question to carry into the new year.

In the new Pick Your Potions Zodiac recipe deck, I named the Gemini cocktail and mocktail after Janus to represent the two-sided, twinned aspects of Gemini’s character.

Janus the Gemini cocktail

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All My 2022 Reads

Here we go, folks! Every book I read or re-read in 2022, organized into super subjective categories. Ya welcome.

Wonderfully Weird

BUNNY by Mona Awad

THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES by A.K. Blakemore

GRIEVERS by adrienne marie brown

THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by Mikhail Bulgakov (booktail just published today!)

TALES THE DEVIL TOLD ME and MANNEQUIN AND WIFE by Jen Fawkes

WE WERE WITCHES by Ariel Gore

PAUL TAKES THE FORM OF A MORTAL GIRL by Andrea Lawlor

PEACES by Helen Oyeyemi

From the Heart

THE NATURAL MOTHER OF THE CHILD by Krys Malcolm Belc

THE SENTENCE by Louise Erdrich (booktail below!)

ALL THE GIRLS IN TOWN by Staci Greason

TRUTH AND OTHER LIES by Maggie Smith

KNOCKED DOWN by Aileen Weintraub

OUR LITTLE WORLD by Karen Winn

Another World

SUMERIAN MYTHOLOGY by Samuel Noah Kramer

AMONG THIEVES by Mallory Kuhn

WHERE THE WILD LADIES ARE by Aoko Matsuda

AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman

PLUM RAINS by Andromeda Romano-Lax (booktail forthcoming)

ARIADNE by Jennifer Saint

Sexy AF

A PERFECT EQUATION and A LOVE BY DESIGN by Elizabeth Everett

THE BOOK OF THE MOST PRECIOUS SUBSTANCE by Sara Gran

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE by Anne Rice

LITTLE RABBIT by Alyssa Songsiridej

Disquieting

MADMAN IN THE WOODS by Jamie Gehring

ALL THE BEST LIARS by Amelia Kahaney

GOTHIC REVIVAL by Michael Mullin (booktail forthcoming)

Terrifying

THE HANDMAID’S TALE by Margaret Atwood

COME CLOSER by Sara Gran

THREE DAYS IN THE PINK TOWER by EV Knight

Powerful

A WOMAN IN TIME by Bobi Conn

SHE WOULD BE KING by Wayétu Moore (booktail forthcoming)

BELOVED by Toni Morrison

FROM THE CAVES by Thea Prieto

ANIMAL BODIES by Suzanne Roberts

THE DROWNED WOMAN by Abigail Stewart

Delicious

FIRST COURSE by Jenn Bouchard

HUNGRY FOR HOME by Amy Rogers

A TOUCH OF MOONLIGHT by Yaffa S. Santos

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News from the Library

Featuring news and updates on authors and their booktail-ized books!

Jamie Gehring’s memoir MADMAN IN THE WOODS is a Shelf Unbound Notable Indie of 2022! Congrats!

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And now, a Minnesota ghost story

THE SENTENCE

In Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louise Erdrich’s novel THE SENTENCE, Tookie is a bookseller with strong hands, a hearty appetite, and more feelings than her mortal body can contain. “I didn’t choose to be organized into a Tookie,” she thinks, “What, or who, made that happen? Why? What will happen if I do not accept this outrage?” When an irritating customer named Flora—a “wannabe” indigenous woman—suddenly dies, her ghost lingers in the bookstore. Soon Flora’s loitering spirit pursues Tookie with escalating aggression. Already haunted by past hurts and grave mistakes, Tookie becomes isolated: “To be haunted is worse than one can imagine. Although I was alone, I was never alone.”  The key to figuring out what the ghost wants—and how to set her free—may be the book Flora was reading when she died, a primary source narrative written by an indigenous woman held captive by colonizing whites. But Tookie senses the book itself is a terrible force, with its “own volition” she’ll have to reckon with, “just like history.” Meanwhile, there are changes in her small family and wider community to contend with, as Minneapolis experiences turmoil following acts of violence and injustice. And then comes Covid. 

THE SENTENCE is at turns warm, inviting, heart wrenching, and hilarious. A meta story of haunted pasts and ghosts of the present (there are many possible, powerful meanings of “sentence” and the book examines each one), this novel inverts the trope of the vengeful Indian spirit: “Many books and movies had in their plots some echoes of my secret experiences with Flora. Places haunted by unquiet Indians were standard. Hotels were disturbed by Indians whose bones lay underneath the basements and floors [...] What about unquiet settlers? Unquiet wannabes?”

This booktail puts a creative spin on horchata. Bourbon serves as the base of the drink, as it’s warm, strong, good for fall and winter, and pairs well with the herbaceous, earthy taste of the rice syrup. Made with Minnesota wild rice cultivated by local tribe members, the syrup is the key ingredient in this cocktail, a nod to the importance of food as a symbol of nourishment, culture, history, and identity, as mentioned during a heated discussion about which rice is “best.” The syrup is mixed with rosemary—for the “rose-fleshed” trout Tookie prepares for herself and her husband–and mint for the various types found in Evening Missoula tea. A dash of cinnamon references all the oatmeal cookies prepared in this book and Flora’s satchels full of rose petals and cinnamon sticks. Finally, the smooth heavy cream brings the bourbon and syrup together, adding viscosity. Heavy cream is a nod to scorched corn soup, the recipe for which includes fresh-cut sweetcorn, carrots, cannellini beans, fresh dill, parsley, and cayenne. 

Presented against a shining rose gold backdrop with a white geometric pattern that complements the novel’s cover, this booktail appears against an arrangement of books, including Lorrie Moore’s BIRDS OF AMERICA; Ta-Nehisi Coates’ BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME; THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by Coleson Whitehead; HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES; MRS DALLOWAY, and a first edition copy of BELOVED. All of these books are mentioned on Tookie’s (extensive) reading list included at the end of the novel. The books are framed by a geode bookend, a jar of dried rose petals, and a bundle of sage—symbols of both the lingering spirits, and those set free. 

THE SENTENCE

Ingredients
6 oz bourbon
½ c cold water
3 oz wild rice syrup (see recipe)
3 oz heavy cream
Pinch cinnamon
Pinch nutmeg
Yields: 3-4 servings

Instructions
First prepare the syrup. Once cool, mix the bourbon, syrup, water, and cream in a pitcher or tall jar. Set in the fridge to chill, then pour over ice. Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg on top.

To prepare just one serving, add 2 oz bourbon, 1 oz syrup, and 1 oz heavy cream to a mixing glass filled halfway with ice. Stir then strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice. Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg on top. 

Wild Rice Syrup

Ingredients
2 c water
1 c sugar
1 c cooked Minnesota-grown wild rice
1 sprig fresh rosemary, de-stemmed
1 sprig fresh mint, de-stemmed
Pinch salt
Pinch cinnamon

Instructions
Prepare the rice according to the instructions that come with it. The rice should be chewy when finished. Then blend a cup of the cooked rice with the water, sugar, rosemary, mint, salt, and cinnamon. Blend on high until liquid. Strain and discard sediment. Pour the mixture into a nut bag and milk, straining again. The resulting liquid should be smooth, with no grains or clumps.