Some books I’ve
read recently have given me insight into a time and place that parallels
my New England genealogy research:
- Tess Gerritsen, The Bone Garden (fiction;
1830s Boston medical school and present-day mystery; warning: graphic
medical descriptions)
- Kathleen Kent, The Heretic’s Daughter (historical fiction that weaves family lore and detailed research into the story of Martha Carrier and her daughter Sarah, both accused witches in 1692; author is a descendant of Martha Carrier)
- Eve LaPlante, Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall (biography; Sewall was one of the
great diarists, so the author had much material to mine, as she delves
into small-town Boston and its environs; author is a descendant of Samuel
Sewall)
- William Martin, Harvard Yard (fiction;
a mystery about a Shakespearean manuscript and the story of Harvard
University from its founding to the present)
- William Martin, Back Bay (fiction; set
against the changing landscape of Boston, a mystery about a lost Paul
Revere tea set)
- Adele Crockett Robertson, The Orchard: A Memoir (memoir;
one woman single-handedly tries to save the family farm in Ipswich,
Massachusetts, during the Great Depression)
- Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (history;
from how
historians figured out the name of the Pilgrims’ ship to what led to King Philip’s War of 1675)
