If this is your first time checking out The Magical Buffet’s Favorite Things list, welcome! I started doing the list as a response to the overwhelming popularity of Oprah’s Favorite Things that she does each year. I started with the argument that I’m far more relatable than Oprah, with the whole me being broke as opposed to a multi-millionaire. That evolved into The List as you see it today, which is 10 things that have been featured on The Magical Buffet website since the previous year’s list was published. So, although many of these items were published this year, you’ll find slightly older ones too.
Every year the list gets harder to make because each year I seem to gain access to more publishers, authors, and publicists, and all of them keep getting better at curating wonderful works. As I typed up last year’s list, I was already dreading the 2022 list, and this time is no different. I already have books in my “to read” pile that I feel certain are Favorite Things worthy.
With no further explainers or excuses, I present to you (in no particular order) The Magical Buffet’s Favorite Things 2022.
1. Lights, Camera, Witchcraft: A Critical History of Witches in American Film and Television by Heather Greene.
I started the year with a fun interview with Heather Greene about this book. The intersection of popular culture with witchcraft has always been a subject of interest to me and her work definitely did the work. It’s one part academic study, one part witchy media guide. Almost anyone would enjoy this book. You can read the interview here.
2. Qabalah for Wiccans: Ceremonial Magic on the Pagan Path by Jack Chanek. I cannot stress how envious I am of Chanek. His intelligence, his insights, and his ability to just explain things in a way that I can understand are all what makes him one of my new favorite authors. Not only does Qabalah for Wiccans show pagans ways to incorporate ceremonial magic traditions into their spirituality, but it also finally explained Qabalah in a way that I fully understood. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that I also reviewed and loved his next book, Tarot for Real Life: Use the Cards to Find Answers to Everyday Questions, that was also featured on my site this year. You can see my review of Qabalah for Wiccans here and Tarot for Real Life here.
3. King Solomon the Magus: Master of the Djinns and Occult Traditions of East & West by Claude Lecouteux. Anyone who has read The Magical Buffet for any length of time knows that I love Lecouteux, and when I found out he wrote about Solomon, I may have actually yelped out loud. You can read my review here.
4. The Weiser Tarot. Weiser took on the challenge of updating the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, keeping it as true to its original form while attempting to update the representation. It could have been a lazy cash grab, but instead Weiser created the new traditional tarot deck. Read my review here.
5. Secrets of Santa Muerte: A Guide to the Prayers, Spells, Rituals, and Hexes” by Cressida Stone. Stone discusses a frequently misrepresented deity that is experiencing rapid growth. Her book does an excellent job highlighting the diversity and versatility of the goddess and the ways She is worshipped. You can read my review here.
6. The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being by Brad Warner. Magical Buffet readers know that Warner is one of my favorite authors on the subject of Zen Buddhism. The Other Side of Nothing is the book I had been waiting for, where Warner takes his informal voice to explain the formal intricacies of Zen Buddhist ethics. It just might overtake Sit Down and Shut Up as the most essential Zen Buddhist text. You can read my review here.
7. The Bavarian Illuminati: The Rise and Fall of the World’s Most Secret Society by Rene Le Forestier and translated by Jon E. Graham. From my review, “This is 912 pages of pulse pounding intrigue and yawn inducing bureaucracy that was originally published in 1915 and hasn’t been available in English until now.” Yes, it is a pricey spend, but if you’re interested in occult societies, this is an interesting look at the OG of societies. You can read my full review here.
8. Paganism for Prisoners: Connecting to the Magic Within by Awyn Dawn. This is an important work that is well past due. Frequently, Pagan authors tell me that inmates reach out to them for resources and they don’t know what to say or do. Awyn Dawn’s book is an excellent resource. If I had the funds, I’d try to get a copy into every prison in the United States. Until then, get a copy and examine Pagan practice from a new perspective. You can read the review here.
9. Goddess Magic: A Handbook of Spells, Charms, and Rituals Divine in Origin by Aurora Kane. I like goddesses. This book has goddesses. Honestly, sometimes it doesn’t take more than that for me to get excited about a book, however, Kane’s curation of goddesses and the litany of ideas offered to work with them makes this a stand out in the collection of goddesses genre. You can read my review here.
10. The Watkins Tarot Handbook: A Practical System of Self-Discovery” by Naomi Ozaniec. I’m no stranger to books about tarot, but I’ll be damned if this one did not exceed all expectations. As I said in my review, “I was expecting a vaguely new age, self-help book that utilized tarot. What I got was a jaw dropping, initiatory experience.” This book is not to be missed. You can read my review here.
Shop my Favorite Things 2022 Here! (This is an affiliate link to my Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores throughout the United States. If you use this link to purchase the book, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you.)
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It’s happening, the holiday shopping season. Don’t worry, I’ll soon be publishing my Favorite Things list to help you select the best of the best for yourself or others, but today I want to highlight Small Business Saturday. I feel like it’s a tradition that was started by American Express Small Business, but for whatever reason, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is highlighted as a good time to hopefully support smaller businesses in your community. However, what if the small businesses in your area don’t carry that much in the way of witchy magical products? Don’t despair because I happen to spend some time on Etsy, and I have a handful of great Etsy shops for you to consider.
If you follow The Magical Buffet on social media, you might have saw that I attended the event, Celebrate Samhain in Nashua, NH at the end of October. Not only did I attend, I got to moderate a panel discussion about Witchcraft in the Age of Social Media. If you’re a Patron, you got to read about my experience moderating the panel. Due to the event’s change of day of the weekend and covid, it has been far too long since I’ve been able to attend, so I figure I should bring you all up to speed on what the event is like in 2022.
The vendor room and its overflow booths were amazing! I nearly wept from the warm nostalgia of seeing Jeena Greene. Her beautiful harp and voice have been at every Celebrate Samhain that I’ve attended and it did my heart good to see her, and hear her again. I got to meet the owner of The Robin’s Nest who kindly posed next to their display of Cucina Aurora products. Kyri’s Magickal Creations had these adorable poppets! I bought a Marie Laveau one that I’m still trying to decide where it’s going to live. Mystic Arcana’s booth was right across from mine. The owner Gee-Gee sells crystals so yes, your girl bought another crystal. I also got to purchase a signed copy of “New Hampshire Book of the Dead” by Roxie Zwicker (who was on my panel and so much fun) and a signed copy of “Reading the Leaves” by Sandra Mariah Wright and Leanne Marrama. Author Deborah Blake was my booth buddy and road trip companion. It was fun to see so many of her fans. It was also fun to have many attendees ask if I was Deborah Blake (tempting to say yes). When I said no, they would immediately ask if I was Elisabeth Alba (again, tempting to say yes).
There was a full slate of workshop/talks, as usual. There was Sancista Brujo Luis teaching a class on Candle Magick (he also took part in my panel). Danielle Dionne gave a talk on Ancestral Living. Ellen Evert Hopman discussed Working with Baneful Plants for Magick and Healing. Sandra Mariah Wright and Leanne Marrama taught a class on Awakening the Crystals. And finally, booth buddy and panel participant Deborah Blake discussed Everyday Witchcraft.
This October marks 20 years of 
How Capitalism Encourages Profiteering from Breast Cancer
Arrrr Mateys! It’s that magical holiday that once again celebrates silly pirate talk and provides me with an excuse to drink rum! Well, more rum. The holiday was 
However, although I love gin, it is more my husband’s spirit of choice, and as most of you know, I’m more of a rum lover. Where is my simple yet classy rum cocktail? Then it struck me, why not just flip the script on the French 75? And it works perfectly.
It’s that magical time of year again, when all of us book nerds join together to celebrate Banned Books Week, an annual event to draw attention to the constant threat of censorship that schools, libraries, universities, comics publishers, and more face. It’s a large coalition, featuring the efforts of American Booksellers for Free Expression, American Library Association, Amnesty International, Association of University Presses, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, National Book Foundation, National Council of Teachers of English, and more that help put together the event.
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
As most of you know, one of my favorite activist/charity groups is 
The financial industry’s continued support of fossil fuel projects proliferates a legacy of climate destruction, environmental racism, and public health negligence. The Pink Ribbon Banking Program’s pink ribbon cards not only distract from the catastrophic devastation that is being caused; the program also exploits breast cancer for good publicity. But as always, we see right through it!
As you may or not know, yesterday was the start of Banned Books Week! We always celebrate here at The Magical Buffet. The American Library Association, along with assorted schools, stores, authors, and more, come together for one week to bring attention to continued attempts to limit what people can read.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Start your preparations and consider yourself warned, this Sunday is INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY! A day sacred to rum drinkers, Pastafarians, and lovers of annoying accents! 
Did you know that tomorrow is National Unicorn Day? Well, it is. One year it was brought to my attention that April 9th is National Unicorn Day and since I like unicorns, I made note of it on my calendar. However, a cursory internet search could not tell me WHY April 9th became National Unicorn Day, just that it is. And that concludes the historical portion of this article.
I personally own a very worn-out copy of