Part I, Chapters 1-6

[austinWI]

I love this book!!!!! I am on Chapter 4 and can't put it down.  I love the characters.  What personalities they all have.

Patty

[kate23]

kren250 wrote:

It seems odd to me though that Connie and Liz wouldn't notice that things are "off" in the house. If Connie had said to Liz, "Wow, it sure is strange things are blooming in the garden in early June, and we have running water in a non-electrified house that's been abandoned for twenty years!", I totally would've gone with the idea that the house was bewitched. But the fact that the characters don't notice it leaves me reason to believe it is an oversight on the author's and editor's part.

While reading the story, in my mind, the house was magical and I didn't view the details of it literally, other than to question why they'd stay there. I have to agree with kren250 in that it may be more believable if the girls, even in a few phrases, thought things were "off".    

[mv5ocean]

I absolutely agree there is something fishy about that guy. I had a thought after the phone call that maybe will pan out at some point..........

[DSaff]

good catch!

---

pode wrote:
Also, the judge in the trial is Samuel and the love interest is Sam.

---

[fordmg]

Truth in the 1690's:  They did not have the scientific background to understand germs, fever, and how aitlments spread.  They were taken up by mystical "hocus pocus".  Because they could not understand how illness spread, th;e;y turned to what they thought they understood...religion.  They didn't really understand that either.  Many were illiterate.  So only knew what they were told in church.  Some inferences were "lost in the translation".  Ministers of the church had a lot of power over the people.  So gossip was believed, and truth was hard to come by.  The people seemed to be taken in by someone elses grief.  Truth became an emotional issue.

Truth in current times:  I would like to think that we would dig for details and proof of each incident.  However, I know there is a lot of politics in this day as well.  A police force needs to solve a case quickly and doesn't always find all the facts.  Someone who has already been in trouble gets blamed the next time, and a cagey criminal can go free.  People still have religion, but it usually doesn't rule their life, so they have trouble finding a foundation to build their life on.   There are still too many wrong convictions, even today.

MG

[fordmg]

---

biljounc63 wrote:

I did have an issue of the garden around the house though. I can sort of believe that the "herbs/medicinal plants" that granna grew in the garden may have survived the years but I simply could not buy the fact that there were vegetables ,just waiting to be harvested, for dinner. It's Just not possible after a couple of decades of abandonment in MA. It does add to the mysterious atmosphere I guess. 

---

I agree about the garden.  The place was totally overgrown with weeds.  They would have choked out the vegetables.  However, it served to move the story along, so I go along with it.

MG

[deaver]

An oversite in the book that I was troubled with appears on page 35 and on page 44.

Connie tells Liz that the only memory she has of Granna is of her death and being at her Mom's house at the time and her mother crying.

"I think I maybe remember when she died. Mom being sad..." (she was 'three or four.')

Then on page 44 she's chuckling at a memory of her Granna making hand-knitted sweaters for her and her mother. She thinks it's funny because as she remembers it, the  sweaters were made all 'out of proportion.'  ???   She tries to fix this with the phrase, 'just before her death'  but it doesn't work.

The only way I can justify this inconsistency is by saying maybe her memories are developing as she resides in this bewitching house.  

[fordmg]

---

CathyB wrote:

The character I like the least is Professor Chilton. Although Peter is causing considerable pain fo Deliverance, I feel that he is not doing it maliciously - he is overwrought with grief and guilt about losing his only child and is lashing out. Things obviously will spiral out of control. Professor Chilton has a 'slimey' quality about him. Not something I can actually put my finger on but, more of an impression. Based on his comment at the end of the orals and his subsequent meeting with Connie, prompting her to find that 'original' source, I think that he is up to something. As I have the tendency to think the worst of people and since I have been in a similar position in the work environment, I beleive that he will attempt to steal her idea/work.

---

I don't see the issue of asking for "original source material" is out of line.  I believe when someone is writing a doctorial thieses, it is suppose to be something new that has not been researched or proved before.  I think there is something up with Chilton, but not that he is encouraging his candadate to do well.  A professor gets acolades from his students doing well.  He may know something he is not telling, but original source material is a given in a thesis.

MG

[HannibalCat]

---

pen21 wrote:

---

kate23 wrote:
I forgot to mention that I can't believe, unless I missed something, that Connie didn't even think about the bottles in her granna's kitchen when she reviewed the list for Deliverance Dane in probate.

---

I totally agree with you. It seemed so obvious.

Hopefully Connie will catch up with us in the coming chapters.

---

Me, too. I can't believe she didn't make the connection. Maybe all that prep for her oral exam wiped out some part of her capacity to join past and present with herself. I see in my crystal ball that her brain will repair itself and she will begin to make all kinds of connections.

[biljounc63]

---

PB684 wrote:

---

tabcat wrote:

Any other Harry Potter fans in this group?  All of I could think of when Connie was telling Liz about mandrake was the scene in HP where the students had to put on ear protection to repot their mandrakes and the little roots came out screaming mad...LOL.

Teresa

---

Yes Teresa, I am a BIG Harry Potter fan and that was exactly what I was thinking at the time. As I recall, many of the plants in Sophia's garden were mentioned in Harry Potter.

PB684

---

I thought the same thing. I grow plants for a living so I pick up on the horticultural stuff that are a bit too far fetched for me to believe.  (Mainly the vegetable garden bewitched or not)

I also played a "Music from Harry Potter films" CD I got from the library to help set the mood while I was reading. It worked!

[Adeline79]

 Just a few thoughts about this comment:

"I find her a bit snobbish, with plenty of stereotypical opinions about
everything from New Englanders to people who don't go to Ivy League
schools. I found her to be very close minded." - kren250

I am very new to New England (from Australia) and was very struck by Connie's comments about New Englanders. For one thing I found it enlightening as I am interested to learn what typical New England traits are. Do other readers agree with the stereotypes that Howe writes? Bur on the other hand, It seemed strange that Connie would feel critical of New England ways because she does not seem very modern herself. She exibits those same characteristics that she criticises. She is very set in her ways, orderly, does not embrace change (very hesitant to break out of her routine and have to go to granna's house), and devotes her life to studying the past. She is also presumably thrifty as there is no indication of Connie being indulgent or spending friviously.

[kiakar]

I do not know if this has been figured out yet or not. But when a house has a well, the water will pump out sometimes muddy for awhile but there was no reason why the water wouldnt work, not really.

Yes, I remember the Professor was singling out Connie so very much  in their conversations with others, I feel that he was involved or either knew something developmental  about  Connie's family's history of witches. 

Maybe the reason Connie didn't become frightened at the assumptions of her family being witches or  that her grandmother was  a witch.She had studied them and found that witches didn't just randomly kill poeple even if they did exist.  If you are familiar with something, it is not as frightening as if you just run up on it. So the house did not scare her or it didnt seem that obvious that she was frightened by the house. 

[krenea1]

Okay, do you pronounce physick as fiz sick?

[liisa22]

---

pode wrote:
Also, the judge in the trial is Samuel and the love interest is Sam.

---

I didn't even catch that one!  Good job!

[liisa22]

---

kren250 wrote:

I actually wish now that I hadn't read ahead, and instead had stuck with the schedule. It's harder (and not as much fun!) to participate in the discussion when you already know whta will happen. I guess I'll know next time it works best for me to read the scheduled chapters only!

---

What works for one, doesn't mean it will work for all!  And it's OK that it doesn't. 

[CathyB]

True MG. There is nothing wrong with asking for an original source. I think, for me, it was more of the way I heard his voice requesting it in my head as I read it. At this point in the book, very early I know, I had already developed a dislike of the character. There is something just 'off' for me.

CathyB

---

fordmg wrote:

---

CathyB wrote:

The character I like the least is Professor Chilton. Although Peter is causing considerable pain fo Deliverance, I feel that he is not doing it maliciously - he is overwrought with grief and guilt about losing his only child and is lashing out. Things obviously will spiral out of control. Professor Chilton has a 'slimey' quality about him. Not something I can actually put my finger on but, more of an impression. Based on his comment at the end of the orals and his subsequent meeting with Connie, prompting her to find that 'original' source, I think that he is up to something. As I have the tendency to think the worst of people and since I have been in a similar position in the work environment, I beleive that he will attempt to steal her idea/work.

---

I don't see the issue of asking for "original source material" is out of line.  I believe when someone is writing a doctorial thieses, it is suppose to be something new that has not been researched or proved before.  I think there is something up with Chilton, but not that he is encouraging his candadate to do well.  A professor gets acolades from his students doing well.  He may know something he is not telling, but original source material is a given in a thesis.

MG

---

 

[Bonnie824]

---

cocospals wrote:
Love the book, love the stiff binding, especially love the cover. As far as the relationships: I think Liz is the perfect friend for Connie,  supportive yet much more optimistic than Connie. I think Arlo, like any dog, is the one trusted, true friend of Connies. He listens and doesn't comment (that's why we love our dogs). I think her friendship with Sam could develop into something more, or maybe he is just enjoying having some one with some intellect to spend some time with. Remember, he is in a "solitude" type of field, not too many people to talk to when you are restoring a cupula. The professor I definitely do not trust but not for the reasons some have mentioned. I don't think he is out to steal Connie's research, I think he is, in his own subtle way, pushing her towards doing her dissertation on the Salem Witch Trials. I still don't trust him but I would have to respect him if that is what his purpose is.

---

ITA about the cover. But I have no problems bending paperback spines, especially on books I plan to keep- like this one.

[Melissa_W Moderator]

I agree, MG.  Connie seems like a more-than-capable, driven graduate student and those who show more promise have more expected of them.  Chilton also strikes me as an amalgam of any number of professors and advisors I've had over the years.  Some were quite nice, some were terribly self-serving. 

---

fordmg wrote:

---

CathyB wrote:

The character I like the least is Professor Chilton. Although Peter is causing considerable pain fo Deliverance, I feel that he is not doing it maliciously - he is overwrought with grief and guilt about losing his only child and is lashing out. Things obviously will spiral out of control. Professor Chilton has a 'slimey' quality about him. Not something I can actually put my finger on but, more of an impression. Based on his comment at the end of the orals and his subsequent meeting with Connie, prompting her to find that 'original' source, I think that he is up to something. As I have the tendency to think the worst of people and since I have been in a similar position in the work environment, I beleive that he will attempt to steal her idea/work.

---

I don't see the issue of asking for "original source material" is out of line.  I believe when someone is writing a doctorial thieses, it is suppose to be something new that has not been researched or proved before.  I think there is something up with Chilton, but not that he is encouraging his candadate to do well.  A professor gets acolades from his students doing well.  He may know something he is not telling, but original source material is a given in a thesis.

MG

---

[fordmg]

---

krenea1 wrote:

Not too be too critiqey but I have to mention it and I don't know why I guess it just bugs me.

Are the books already printed and ready to sell by now or do they go back through the editor before hitting the shelf? I found a typo on pg 46 in the beginning of the last paragraph. I don't think that I have see anything else so far.

---

The story line is complete and will not be changed.  But the printers will check for typo's and other technical errors.

MG

[Melissa_W Moderator]

I would like to add, briefly, to the other comments that the author is right on the money with Chapter One and Connie's orals.  Having been through a thesis defense and nursed many other friends through orals and defenses, it is spot on with that nauseating feeling where you just might fail despite all the hours (days, months, years) of preparation.

(I spent my time between the last questions and determination of my fate banging my head against the wall in the hallway for being so stupid as to blank on the actual theory behind the statistical work I did.  My committee did let me pass, thank God.)

I do also appreciate the small changes in language structure the author uses; it helps with the contrast between situations.