The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe

Connie Goodwin is a PhD candidate in American History at Harvard. Her ambition is to become a professor. For her dissertation, she starts to research a new source of material related to the Salem Witch trials. Her mother requested Connie to attend to the mess that her grandmother's house had become. Cleaning it out, packing up the things inside, getting it ready to be sold to pay off the tax lien.

Connie reluctantly goes to Marblehead, MA and moves into the house. While she's there, she starts having visions of the past and blinding headaches which she can't explain. At first.

There is a dual storyline in which we go back to the times of the Salem witch trials. Deliverance Dane is a "cunning" woman, which means that she tends to her patients with herbs and such. She has true power though and, more often than not, utilizes it to help those under her care. She was caught in the furor over the witches and did not survive.

It is a power that is passed on through the women in her family. From mother to daughter to granddaughter and so on.

I think the book was very well written. I could see the images in my head that Ms. Howe painted with words. I'm obviously not going to give the ending away but, if you're like me and fascinated with that time, it's worth the read.

The Innocent Man - John Grisham

In 1982, a woman in Ada, OK was murdered in her apartment. This is the catalyst for one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice I've ever read about. The Ada Police Department set about to solve the crime. Rather than letting the evidence lead them to the killer, the police officers started with suspects and built the case around them.

Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were accused of murder. Being innocent, they felt that the legal system would vindicate them. Instead, they were convicted based on manufactured evidence and spent 12 years searching for ways to overturn their convictions. And death sentences.

In Ron's case, he had the additional problem of having mental health issues. He should have never been put on trial in the first place as his competency was called into question.

I've always been a proponent of the death penalty. If someone took another human being's life, they should pay the price with their own. This book really has me reconsidering my stance. In most cases, I still think it would be warranted but it has me reconsidering if everyone on Death Row is guilt. But now it's tempered with "What if ..."

Online community

OK ... seriously? The online community I visit which houses my favorite online book club hasn't been working for at least the last 24 hours. For me. Other people can post but I can't for some reason.

So how am I supposed to talk about books, the biggest love of my life outside my husband?

I know that most of you are from the book club so tell everyone that I'm locked out until the PTBs (Powers That Be) figure out what's going on. I've set up an alter ego but can't use it yet.

In the meantime, I've finished listening to another audiobook in celebration of National Audiobook Month. I'll post about it later in a separate post.