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Now that we’re officially half way into October and the leaves are falling off the trees, are you ready to talk about scary things, like horror books? Yeah, me either, but I’ll be ready by 7:30 p.m. CST on Friday, October 30 to talk about The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. Whether you’d like to read this with us or just join in the conversation about vampires, southern book clubs, and a book wherein they meet, we’d love to have you at Virtual Book Club, but only if you register here.
In an alternate reality very similar to our own, this blog doesn’t exist. I don’t mean to frighten you, dear readers, but if we travel back in time to the summer of 2001 you will find me on a family trip to Boston and the surrounding areas. This might not seem out of the ordinary to you, but the primary purpose of this trip was to tour the Boston University campus – with a side trip to Harvard for a tee-shirt! BU was my first choice school until late 2002 when I realized I could probably go to school for free if I stayed in state. Imagine then had I not attended UTC with Nikki, both of our lives would have been so changed. Bonus tidbit: this trip is where I collected my first Presidential Library, the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, thanks mom! Back in the days of 2002, I wanted to study medieval history… thank the lord I got over that…
However, my point here is that maybe I didn’t really get over it and in 2009 when The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane was published I found myself doing mental gymnastics over applying for graduate school – specifically in museum studies or historic preservation as I had been wanting to do since I did an internship in undergrad with the Chattanooga Regional History Museum – which is now defunct. I found out at the time that Middle Tennessee State University has one of the premier Historic Preservation programs in the country, so the possibility is still on the table for the future. I have digressed long enough from my possible past in academia to bring you the story of Connie, and ABD (all but dissertation) American History PhD candidate at Harvard who is tasked by her mother to clean out her grandmother’s cottage near Salem – with no electricity or telephone! – during the summer of 1991. She finds a key hidden in the family bible with the name of Deliverance Dane scrawled on a piece of paper and in her search for the person attached to the name, meets Sam in the local church. He’s a preservationist with his masters from BU and he helps her search the church archives. These two characters bring together things I have always wanted to do – preserve the stories and buildings of the past for the future. Obviously at the time of my first read these trappings of academia and preservation and symbology and romance drew me into the book more than the possibilities of witches – even though witches is what has predicated this re-read. Sitting here in my mid-thirties instead of the mid-twenties of my first read, my feelings are much the same: a solid 4 stars and I would read it again. I might just wait until my mid-forties to see what differences another decade makes. 😉
Author Katherine Howe says many thanks in her author’s notes, but my absolute favorite is to Bostonian author Matthew Pearl, her “sensei, without whose guidance, cheerleading, and mentorship this book would never have come into being.” And, TBH, his praise on the cover of the book is probably what drew me to the title in the first place. I read his The Dante Club the summer before college and loved it. Being reminded of his works makes me want to visit his backlist in the near future, but how can I decide between his and the rest of Howe’s work? Including The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs ($2.99 on kindle as of publication of this post!) that continues Connie’s story in the year 2000! Difficult decisions abound! Physick debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2009 and Howe has both other adult and young adult fiction on her backlist. Most notably for our discussion here she was the editor of The Penguin Book of Witches for Penguin Classics, a primary source reader on the history of witchcraft in England and North America – a title this armchair academic must needs read!
~Ashley
Dear readers, sometimes knowing nothing but your reading buddy adores a title enough to reread it is the best thing! I knew that and WITCHES going into The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe, and I REGRET NOTHING. (You know that’s not true, and you may have already predicted there wasn’t enough epilogue for me. But Ashley found more epilogue and I’m so excited!) I want to tell you all about this book, but then I don’t, so instead I’m going to tell you a story.
Last weekend, I took my little people on their regular trip to the library and had a delightful conversation with the librarians while I was there (as usual). The librarian who checked out our books for us shared that she’s reading spooky tales this month, so we chatted about which titles she was reading and I mentioned that Ashley and I were reading witchy books this month. Naturally, like any good lover of books she was interested in what titles and what we were enjoying (*hint* we adore them all). I mentioned the list of titles we’re bringing to you this month and she started taking notes. She inquired as to Practical Magic (“I didn’t know it was a book.” “Oh yes, and there are two additional books as well, one brand new last week”) and The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane as well. I mentioned it was set in the 1990s and focused on a Harvard graduate student who’s asked by her mom to clean out her grandmother’s house just outside of Salem. I also added that Howe’s ancestor was killed during the Salem witch trials (y’all, don’t sleep on the author’s notes!), which made it even more interesting to me. This particular librarian was born in the late 1990s, so I did share with her that I adored how there were no cell phones and even computers were limited. The other librarian on duty (who probably remembers the 1990s better than I do) was also listening to our conversation, had looked up the book, and was also interested in it. She mentioned she likes reading about the days before technology because she started working as a librarian back when card catalogues were a piece of furniture rather than a web application. Oh how I too miss those days! There’s something about paper that draws me in, even though I do most of my reading on kindle.
The younger than me librarian also shared that she’s been debating if she’s too old for YA titles. Since she and I chatted in August about all the fun titles coming out on September 1, I knew we had some shared reading interests and promptly told her that I am over a decade older than her (per her age she shared, I assumed nothing) and was very excited to start Blood and Honey by Shelby Mahurin on Monday, with my reading buddy, who is about my age (we’re both over half way through and SO excited to bring you more on this title soon!). I also shared that I enjoy a good middle grade book now and again. Sometimes because I’m previewing it for, or buddy reading it with, my 8 year old. Sometimes because I feel like it. Here’s the thing, you do you darling readers. Life is too short to read books that aren’t for you or aren’t for you right now, so don’t do it. Also, don’t skip a title just because it’s in the “wrong section” of your library or bookstore.
What did I think of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe? Great question and thank you for bringing me back around. I give this title 4 enthusiastic stars and will reread it, and will be adding Howe’s backlist to my TBR (and The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs is already awaiting me on my kindle thanks to Ashley). The descriptions were thorough, but not over done, and the writing was beautiful. Also, I loved the story. Even with a bit of mystery in the story, this title is a quieter, calm tale that feels realistic, assuming one is inclined to believe in witches. (Am I the only one who once spent a summer cleaning out a deceased relative’s house that was stuck in decades past? Yes, well, perhaps that is a part of it then, but at least my mother and grandparents were along for the adventure. There was electricity, but no A/C, and the windows were painted shut, in the South, in the summer.) The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane also includes real struggles of power, gender, and family included in the delightful glimpse of New England architecture, which is something this Southern girl hasn’t gotten to experience in real life, much (I too got to spend a glorious weekend in Boston, but it was spring 2002). I also wanted to go down two rabbit holes that I have, as of yet, refrained from exploring – steeplejacks and the University of Virginia’s Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project.
What rabbit holes has a book inspired you to go down adventuring lately?
~Nikki
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