Shopping List: Books on the Salem Witch Trials
Well, it’s that time of year again. The time when all we readers sit crossing our fingers, legs, toes, arms, and wearing our hair in braids in hopes that our families will ignore our staggering tbr piles and give us books for the holidays. As to what we will give everyone else – anyone who knows us knows the only stores we’ll deign to enter are those glorious establishments where we can trade those coins and bills for beautiful, magical, wonderful books.
What should you get your loved ones this year? One subject you can always find more good books about is the Salem witch trials. This is also a good reminder for them that they should be careful and get you what you want next year… OR ELSE (you could always get the books for yourself and learn to curse them).
The Salem Witch Trials in the North Eastern US colonies had a wide impact outside of the one trial. There are numerous books of all kinds being written about them up to the present day, some that focus on current events, some historical, some written in prose, some theoretical analyses. Whatever your loved ones are in to (History? Psychology? Strong female leads? Poetry? Plays?), you can be sure they will be covered.
First, my favorite, the non-fiction:
• The Devil in Massachusetts, A Modern Inquiry into the Salem Witch Trials by Marion L Starkey: using documents available, Starkey has created a gripping narrative that tells of the time. It gives an explanation (using psychiatric analysis and historical documents together) of the events that unfolded.
• Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft by Paul Boyer: in this book Boyer looks at historical documents from not only the trial but the time around it to show how tensions were mounting in Salem and why and how things erupted like they did. A purely historical and people based explanation to what happened.
• The Devil in the Shape of a Woman by Carol F. Karlsen: I have this one now to read, it looks at the events through the lens of gender relations.
• Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England by John Putnam Demos: this one is on my wish list, actually! It looks at the historical views of witchcraft and how they still matter today
• In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton: another one that is on my wish list. This is less for those looking for a good story, and more a book for historians. It looks at the bigger historical picture including the history of wars in the region.
• Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 by Richard Godbeer: this gives a better overview of witchcraft in the area in general, as it portrays another trial in the same year that saw radically different events unfold than Salem did.
• The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell: this one isn’t really about the witch trials, but it does give more of a background on the puritans so I thought I would add it to the list for those who want even more background as to how this could happen.
Next, some adult fiction:
• The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent: this book tells the story of Martha Carrier, the first woman to be accused and hung. The book is told through the eyes of her daughter, Sarah. Ultimately a story about convictions, courage, and hope.
• The Wolves of Andover by Kathleen Kent (companion to The Heretic’s Daughter): this book takes us back to Martha and Thomas and tells more about them, their meeting, and their pasts. Thomas’ past includes more than he is at first willing to admit, but slowly he starts to open up bringing two narrative threads (that of Martha’s and one that began in England) together.
• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherin Howe: in this book a young woman is working on her master’s thesis for university and handling the sale of her grandmother’s house in Salem. As she unravels secrets about the house she finds that she may have been descended from a line of Salem witches. The narrative jumps back and forth between current and past events.
• I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Conde: I haven’t read this but have heard a lot about it. It tells the story of Tituba, one we often don’t hear much about.
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller: I have yet to read this, though everyone says it is a classic and how wonderful it is (or maybe only teachers said that?). The play is based on the witch hunts in Salem but is also an indictment of the McCarthy red scare in 1950s USA.
Last but not least, there are also a few young adult fiction books as well:
• Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials by Stephanie Hemphill: this is a novel told all in prose about the young girls themselves who started the whole thing.
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare: not set during the Salem trials, but the story of a young girl who moves to live with her aunt and uncle in New England and her struggles there. A Newberry Medal winner and truly wonderful book.
This list certainly isn’t exhaustive, there are so many titles out there to choose from, but I do hope it gives you a place to start!’
Make sure you check out our archive of shopping lists to help you solve any book buying conundrums you might be having.
The Agency Model. Not a bad idea, only illegal (in Australia)
by Darryl Adams
With Random House entering the Agency Price Model with the rest of the 5 big publishers (Hatchet, Harper Collins, Random House, McMillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster), there has been a lot of discussion about the practice.
Firstly, to be clear, Agency Pricing is illegal in Australia. As a form of Price Maintenance, the practice is specifically barred under the Consumer and Competition Act of 2010.As per the ACCC: http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/322982
Suppliers may try to impose a resale price to maintain brand positioning or to give resellers attractive profit margins.
Any arrangement between a supplier and a reseller that means the reseller will not advertise, display or sell the goods the supplier supplies below a specified price is illegal.
It is also illegal for a supplier to cut off, or threaten to cut off, supply to a reseller (wholesale or retail) because they have been discounting goods or advertising discounts below prices set by the supplier.
A supplier may recommend an appropriate price for particular goods but may not stop retailers charging or advertising below that price. In most cases, a supplier may specify a maximum price for resale.
Suppliers may withhold supplies of goods to a company that engages in ‘loss leader selling’. That is, purchasing goods with the intention of selling the goods below their cost so that:
- the company can promote their business
- attract customers who are likely to purchase other goods or services.
This exemption does not apply to genuine clearances, or to when a supplier has agreed to supply goods to a company for the purpose of loss leader selling.
In Australia, a price can only be recommended hence the term Recommended Retail Price or the acronym RRP.
Part of the problem was that Amazon was setting a price (generally US or lower), in order to promote e-books generally and specifically promoting the Kindle. Suppliers thought that the price was too low, hence when Apple entered the book market, Publishers pushed the Agency model where they set the price to the retailers.
A publisher in Australia can withhold supply if they believe if the retailer is using the goods as a loss leader, so there is some protection available under Australian law against dodgy selling tactics. Ironically enough, this could have been used in Australia if Amazon had a presence here instead of the Agency Model.
Now personally, I have no issues with Publishers setting a price. What I object to is that the price is set in a way where companies are not allowed to vary it.
Retailers should be allowed to compete on price. However there are issues with this as well.
Part of the problem is that with DRM, retailers can create strong vertical markets as they control the software, platform and the marketplace. A book with Apple Fairplay DRM can not be used on non iDevices, and Kindle books can not be read on non Kindle hardware or software. While it can be argued that the Kindle software is available on most platforms, users can not convert the books with programs like Calibre, or read it on Linux devices without breaking the DRM.
Another issue is that Publishers become content providers, and compete in a wider market which they do not control. It can be argued that they already compete with other entertainment formats like music, games, sport and movies, but with the rise of portable devices with the power and connectivity like iPads, iPhones, smartphones in general and the new Android/Blackberry tablets, almost all the entertainment content is competing on the one device.
So publishers need to price their books not only to compete with music and video, but against games and apps in general. Added to this web content also competes on these devices, and most web content is free.
Piracy is another issue, but not the way the publishers think. A lot (but not all) of piracy is consumers frustrated that they can not get the content they want in the format they want. This is a market failure in its starkest form.
Publishers are setting prices partly to preserve another product, printed books. E-books seriously compromise the old profit system, and many organisations have difficulty changing their business model (look at the movie and music industry). Some book retailers and distributers are adjusting (with Indigo in Canada forming Kobo, Barnes and Nobel releasing the nook, and Baker and Taylor with Blio). Publishers, especially Australian (that is British) ones, are being dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty first century. And they don’t like it.
I don’t like retailers setting price for books because a) they will set a price that suits them, and not concider the production costs and royalties to authors b) generally they will set a price that promotes the sale of unrelated products, like for example, Kindles and iPads.
In the perfect world, publishers set the price for their content, but lets the market do what it does best, set a retail price where supply meets demand in the most efficient manner. Both publishers and retailers are doing their bit to prevent this.
And of cause the authors are the one who gets screwed by both parties.
image via Flickr
By: Enrico
Really looking forward to try it.
A few of my wishes for the next version (I guess it is too late for the coming one…):
-larger scroll jump in the browser (as of now, each increment moves scroll by I’d say 15%, which makes scrolling really slow)
-support for RTL languages
-bluetooth activable, as rumored in early announcements
-network connection not lost when returning to the home page (intending to continue to another url)
-option for the user to change the entries of the Home/Internet subscreen, and their order
-option for the user to choose and change images displayed in sleep mode
-documentation of tricks – for example that fonts can be added in the Fonts directory.
Thanks!
Comments on: Coming soon to the Cybook Orizon
Filed under Cybrook Orizon | Tags: Enrico | Comment (0)Re: Private: Why I Love the Kindle
Don’t beat yourself up for the font-fiddling; you’ve only had it a month! It takes a while to figure out what setting you’re most comfortable with – I’ve had my ebook reader for over two years, and just recently I opted for a smaller font size. But it’ll become something you only do every six months, instead of every six minutes…
I have recently started using Instapaper to save the longer articles I find on the web, and then download and convert them with Calibre into ebook files (it sounds involved, I know, but it actually basically all happens automatically) – I load them onto my reader and… it’s a revelation. Reading a long article on my laptop is a horrible chore – it feels exhausting, constantly resisting the urge to open a new tab and look something up, or check Facebook, or whatever. But when that option is taken away… reading actually becomes a pleasure again.
Thought Catalog – Latest Comments in Private: Why I Love the Kindle
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Not Harry Potter-Related
Well, not much anyway. Everyone has talked about it so much now (Colleen had some great posts and comments on her blog), I don’t need to repeat it. It was a wonderful book, a perfect end to the story; I read it all in one 10-hour sitting on Saturday. And though I was sad it’s over, I’m looking forward to reading all the books again sometime soon.
In other reading news, I just had another bout of my Mafia obsession. Finished Wiseguy and The Last Mafioso, which I picked up at a recent garage sale. Wiseguy was great; it’s the book on which the movie GoodFellas is based. The Last Mafioso was only okay — I was a bit dubious as to how someone could so distinctly remember word-for-word conversations that were 30 or more years old.
I’ve moved on to the delightful Sex with the Queen. It’s such a guilty pleasure — a little bit of history along with some very scandalous details.
Hope to have some crafting news soon; I’m back to knitting and have another new craft I’m working on.
The Town (2010)
It was not a fluke folks, because it seems that Ben Affleck has some real talent after all. His directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, was a very strong effort from behind the camera, but this time around he holds his own in front of it as well. It’s not a great performance, but it’s probably his personal best. Jeremy Renner, fresh off his Oscar nomination for The Hurt Locker, is the standout for me, but Mad Men’s Jon Hamm is equally enjoyable in a different way. Blake Lively, of Gossip Girl fame (come on, I’ve never seen it), shows some real promise as an actress, but she didn’t get as much screen time as the hype behind her performance would suggest. Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite are basically give extended cameos, but they both make the most of it and leave a strong impression. Rebecca Hall was okay as the love interest of Ben Affleck’s character, even though her role and acting seemed slightly flat at times.
The city of Boston has been depicted well in movies like The Departed and Mystic River, but it comes to life and shines even more bright through Affleck’s vision. I even had a little trouble understanding parts of conversations because the accents were that accurate. The story is pretty basic. Kind of like a mini version of Heat, but the locations and acting from just about everyone really draws you in. I can’t forget about the action scenes. The bank heists are gritty, realistic, and at times, pretty darn suspenseful. Oh, how effective were those masks? I thought the skeletons were fairly scary enough, but those deformed nun ones freaked me out.
The Town is just as good if not better than Gone Baby Gone. Inception may top my best of 2010 list, but Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Toy Story 3 better watch their backs, because the more I think about The Town, the higher on my list it aims to climb.
Filed under Movies | Tags: 2010, Town | Comment (0)Michaels Coupons
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