About this title: Twenty-one-year-old Brida meets a magician and asks to become a witch. Headstrong and the personification of the Divine Feminine, she learns love is the only bridge to the spiritual world.
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Collins
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781607515388ISBN:1607515385
Description: Good. Good clean condition. All pages are clean. Cover/book edges have some wear. Book Club edition. Your satisfaction is guaranteed! read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Harper
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780061578939ISBN:0061578932
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Harper
Date Published: 2008-07-01
ISBN-13:9780061578939ISBN:0061578932
Description: New. New-Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts. May have slight edge wear from being on the shelf. May have remainder mark. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Portuguese Language Version
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Rayo
Date Published: 2008-04-01
ISBN-13:9780061626371ISBN:0061626376
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Edition: Unabridged
Binding: Audiobook CD
Publisher: HarperAudio
Date Published: 6/24/2008
ISBN-13:9780061672552ISBN:0061672556
Description: New. 0061672556 Brand New Book With Remainder Mark. May Have Slight Shelf Wear. In-Stock Now For Immediate Secure Packaging & Delivery. read more
Description: New. 0061578959 New & Unread Book that Have Remainder Mark/ May Have Slight Handling Wear From Bookstore Shelf. IN-STOCK Now For Immediate Secure Packaging & Delivery. read more
Description: Fine. 0061578959 Ships next business day. NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black ink mark on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
"Another Coelho book I picked up at the Library. Her name is so similar to mine I had to give it a go. Started reading yesterday and I'm already half way through the book. Coelho is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.
Following Day
Okay, so I finished this book up last night and I have to agree with the general consensus that The Witch of Portobello was a better book, but I enjoyed Brida as well. My favorite character however, was Brida's mentor, Wicca (even though I think that is a TERRIBLE name for a witch).
What I enjoy most about Coelho's books thus far is his snippets of wisdom interspersed throughout his stories. Here's one I particularly liked:
Right now, ninety-nine percent of the people on this planet are, in their own way struggling with the question, Why are we here? Many think they've found the answer in religion or in materialism. Others despair and spend their lives and their money trying to grasp the meaning of it all. A few let the question go unanswered and live for the moment, regardless of the results or the consequences.
Only the brave and those who understand the Traditions of the Sun and the Moon are aware that the only possible answer to the question is I DON'T KNOW.
This might, at first, seem frightening, leaving us terribly vulnerable in our dealings with the world, with the things of the world, and with our own sense of existence. Once we've got over that initial fear, however, we gradually become accustomed to the only possible solution: follow our dreams. Having the courage to take the steps we always wanted to take is the only way of showing that we trust in God.
We don't look for answers, we accept and then life becomes much more intense, much more brilliant, because we understand that each minute, each step we take, has a meaning that goes far beyond us as individuals.
We plunge into the Dark Night with faith, we fulfill what the ancients used to call our Personal Legend, and we surrender ourselves fully to each moment, knowing that there is always a hand to guide us, and whether we accept it or not is entirely up to us."
"This is a sweet little story. In some ways, it reminds me of the kinds of stories one finds in the Bible and the Zohar. Such stories aren't stories in terms of the classic ideas of plots, but serve to illustrate spiritual points. I see Brida in that way. The plot is a very thin scaffold on which to hang a series of philosophical and spiritual ideas. From the point of view of fiction, this is less than satisfactory. From the point of view of philosophy, the style is certainly one that's tried and true. I read the book more as a spiritual essay than as a novel."
"Brida wants to learn magic. She's read all the books, taken all the classes, and talked to all the right people, except the Magus of Folk. The Magus is an old Teacher of the Tradition, respected and well known at one point in his life, but now lives an exile of loneliness in the forests of Ireland, atoning for a crucial mistake made in his youth. It's in the forest that Brida finds him, eager to learn more of the Tradition of the Sun with its powers of creation and of the Tradition of the Moon, the transformative power. The Magus leaves her alone in the forest to experience the Dark Night (a time where her faith is tested). Brida is confronted by her fears and relies on her faith to help her make it through the evening. After she reawakens, she makes herself a promise: to go back to the Magus only when she understands more about magic. The Magus does not know this. He does not know that Brida has walked into an occult bookstore and has received information that will lead her to another teacher, Wicca, a woman he once thought he might love. Even if he did, the Magus would not worry. Through the Tradition of the Sun, he has learned to be confident in the knowledge that Brida is his Soul Mate. With the help of both Wicca and the Magus, Brida learns to unleash her Gift of discerning the spirits. She visits other worlds on the ethereal plain, travels back in time to another life, and discovers the true nature of sex. Brida is an odd combination of spirituality where witches are Christians and true spirituality lies in the balance between the two. Mistakes lead to change, not regret, and powerful traditions shape the world Brida discovers. This is a book about the faith that opens the door to Brida's femininity and the spirituality that helps navigate her through a stale patch in her life. At twenty one, Brida is frustrated and lost, but learns to use magic to be more confident in the decisions she makes and to learn that doubt is important to moving forward. Paulo Coelho's writing is relaxed and inviting, but Brida, with its repetitions and reliance on the spiritual essence of practices and rites of passage that through anything other than suspended belief would appear confusing, made this book too ethereal for me. I think Coelho made it all a bit too metaphorical for a story about self-discovery, love, the empowerment of free will, and the mysteries of life. Books about spirituality and religion always come across as preachy. Magic and Christianity are the tools Brida uses to validate her life choices and help visualize her dreams. I can't help but thinking, if I wasn't already familiar with Christianity, I might be offended at the methods Coelho promotes, but I keep reminding myself that I think the most important part of this book is walking away knowing that you don't need Christianity to feel right with the world and with the self. All that's required is the faith in our convictions, the trust in our "instincts," and the courage to move forward, despite our doubts, that Coelho collectively calls magic."
"Paulo Coelho is clearly a genius--and not a literary one. The fact that he can write something this unfathomably dull and make millions of people buy it is a feat of marketing brilliance.
This book relies on a series of vagueries that one would imagine the author might at some point explain. I suppose Coehlo thinks the mysteriousness of arcane-sounding phrases like "Tradition of the Moon" and "Dark Night" are substantial enough to keep a reader captivated with neither qualification nor tact. Perhaps he feels that capitalizing such phrases will provide sufficient proof of their worldliness.
A boggling aspect which I can't quite get past is the fact that there is not a single real conversation in this book. Everyone speaks to each other in brief, billowy ambiguities and somehow knows, with no indication other than the author's repeated assurance, what everyone else is thinking at all times.
I would not recommend this book to anyone with an I.Q. higher than a tomato's. A more soul-stirring story about witches can be found in the Wizard of Oz."
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