35. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe

For: Adults
Hyperion, 2009
371 pgs.
$25.99
Rating: 4 Liked it a lot
Endpapers: In cursive text, a recipe to end "man's mortal suffering." (understood more after reading the book)

"Just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean it isn't real." This is a quote in the book that I keep thinking of.

Harvard grad student Connie Goodwin is looking for her dissertation topic in American colonial studies. Her advisor, Manning Chilton, a prominent historian, is hounding her to get going. But Connie's hippie mother, Grace, has called from Santa Fe to see if Connie will spend the summer cleaning out her dead grandmother, Sophia's, old house in Marblehead so that it can be sold. Abandoned for over twenty years, the ancient place is overgrown, unelectrified, and fascinating. On her first night in the old house, she finds an old key in an ancient family Bible that contains the name Deliverance Dane. Trying to discover some background on this Puritan name, shy Connie meets a like-minded steeplejack named Sam, and together they start hunting for clues.

The story takes place in 1991 and during the time of the Salem witch trials. I think it was set in 1991 because the author wanted our protagonist to really research, hunting through documents, libraries, churches, graveyards, museums, for information instead of sitting down at a computer. It works. It's a great story that I didn't want to put down. Read it on the plane flight back and forth to PA last weekend, and the time flew.

SPOILER: My only tiny negative comment would be about the character development of Manning Chilton. You know right from the beginning what he's all about, and it would be nice to have had this introduced slowly....I like to not guess the ending or the culprit untilt the story advances a little more. Oh well. This was minor.

A wonderful summer read. Especially after The Lace Reader, which also takes place in the Salem area, an area I'm somewhat familiar with, which adds an extra bit of fun. Now I really want to go check out the older parts of Marblehead!

15. The Lace Reader - Brunonia Barry

AUDIO read by Alyssa Bresnahan (she was great)
For: Adults
Book Pub: 2008
Audio: 10 discs/11.5 hours
400 pgs.
Rating: 4.5
Finished: Mar. 5, 2009
"You have to go back to go forward."

Now this was one interesting story. Confusing. Fascinating. Great setting. You knew there'd be a surprise at the end. There was. I think it was this author's first, which is quite commendable. I did not rate this a 5 because it was a little too depressing, overall, I felt I needed to knock off a half point for that.

There are five parts in this book, and much of it is told in the first person by the protagonist, Towner Whitney. She has returned home from California after 15 years to look into the disappearance of her beloved Aunt, Eva. Eva lives in an old mansion on the shore in the center of Salem, Massachusetts, where she runs a tearoom, keeps a huge garden, speaks in proverbs, and swims most every day, even at 85. Oh yes, she reads lace, telling fortunes to all who ask. Towner is fifth generation "reader", and her sensitivity - along with abuse, force her at age 17 into a mental hospital for drug and shock treatment. She left everything behind for fifteen years, but now comes home and has to confront it all. Witches and covens, Calvinists and modern day Puritans, boating and islands, lace-making and abuse shelters, even red-hat ladies and references to 17th century Salem witches careen through this story at a break-neck pace. There's old love and new love, cops and drunks, tourists and townies. It's a good story, all twisting and turning and keeping you on your toes, wondering what's true and what's not. You know a lot is not true, because Towner begins her tale telling us that she is a liar, that she very rarely tells the truth.

I went on to Brunonia Barry's website, and she says that this is written as a hero's journey for women, which is different than a male's hero journey. Many women are need to help this journey happen.

"Every gift has a price. Every piece of lace has a secret." This read was fascinating and thought-provoking. I knitted like crazy as I listened, sneezed, and blew my nose.