Thistlefoot

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott, 435 pages

So I first read this book in 2022, and loved it and blogged about it then, particulary noting that I could see using this Baba Yaga story of generational trauma and magical powers for Orcs & Aliens. And whaddaya know, that's just what we did this month! It was a great book discussion, and one of the more even-keeled Baba Yaga tales around.

(Also, I would LOVE to see this author live, as she apparently brings puppets, which is a vital part of the story, to all of her author visits.)

Thistlefoot

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott, 435 pages

Woodworker Bellatine and her nomadic brother Isaac are minding their own business when they get word that they have inherited something from their long-gone ancestor: her house. But their ancestor was Baba Yaga, and her house, well, it has chicken legs and runs around. Despite their trepidation about the semi-sentient house, they take it on the road, traveling from town to town, presenting a puppet show that their parents used to do. However,  neither Bellatine nor Isaac can shake off their own demons, and there's a creepy...man?...stalking them across the country.

This was a wonderful and weird story about history, the power of stories, generational trauma, self-doubt, and so much more. I absolutely loved it, and I can definitely see reading this in Orcs & Aliens some day (I don't think we've done a Baba Yaga story yet...?).

Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History

Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History by Steven Zipperstein, 261 pages.
The 1903 pogrom in a not-so-remote Russian town became a much larger story than other racially charged massacres of that time and place. Communications had sped up, and Kishinev was close enough to Europe that reporters could make their way there.  The stories that came out of the violent episode varied wildly. The town's newspaper publisher, apparently one of the main authors of the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and, obviously, a raving anti-semite, helped fan the flames of local rage by spreading rumors of blood-libel. Michael Davitt and Hayyim Nahman Bialik were sent in to cover the pogrom by Jewish newspapers, but Bialik ended up composing a poem that became one of the most enduring accounts with his poem, "In the City of Killing.",
Zipperstein debunks the long-held myth that the Jews of the town were too passive to fight back and tells the story of 250 people who gathered and fought off their neighbors over the course of the three-day pogrom.