The Witches

The Witches
Author: Stacy Schiff
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 718
Release: 2015-10-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 0316200611

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra, the #1 national bestseller, unpacks the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials. It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an elderly man crushed to death. The panic spread quickly, involving the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, parents and children each other. Aside from suffrage, the Salem Witch Trials represent the only moment when women played the central role in American history. In curious ways, the trials would shape the future republic. As psychologically thrilling as it is historically seminal, The Witches is Stacy Schiff's account of this fantastical story -- the first great American mystery unveiled fully for the first time by one of our most acclaimed historians.

The Once and Future Witches

The Once and Future Witches
Author: Alix E. Harrow
Publisher: Redhook
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2020-10-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316422037

"A gorgeous and thrilling paean to the ferocious power of women. The characters live, bleed, and roar. "―Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR Books • Barnes and Noble • BookPage In the late 1800s, three sisters use witchcraft to change the course of history in this powerful novel of magic, family, and the suffragette movement. In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box. But when the Eastwood sisters―James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna―join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote―and perhaps not even to live―the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive. There's no such thing as witches. But there will be. An homage to the indomitable power and persistence of women, The Once and Future Witches reimagines stories of revolution, motherhood, and women's suffrage—the lost ways are calling. Praise for The Once and Future Witches: "A glorious escape into a world where witchcraft has dwindled to a memory of women's magic, and three wild, sundered sisters hold the key to bring it back...A tale that will sweep you away."―Yangsze Choo, New York Times bestselling author "This book is an amazing bit of spellcraft and resistance so needed in our times, and a reminder that secret words and ways can never be truly and properly lost, as long as there are tongues to speak them and ears to listen."―P. Djèlí Clark, author The Black God's Drum For more from Alix E. Harrow, check out The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

The Witches

The Witches
Author: Roald Dahl
Publisher:
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2008
Genre: Grandmothers
ISBN: 9780141326214

A young boy and his Norwegian grandmother, who is an expert on witches, together foil a witches' plot to destroy the world's children by turning them into mice.

In Defense of Witches

In Defense of Witches
Author: Mona Chollet
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2022-03-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 125027222X

Mona Chollet's In Defense of Witches is a “brilliant, well-documented” celebration (Le Monde) by an acclaimed French feminist of the witch as a symbol of female rebellion and independence in the face of misogyny and persecution. Centuries after the infamous witch hunts that swept through Europe and America, witches continue to hold a unique fascination for many: as fairy tale villains, practitioners of pagan religion, as well as feminist icons. Witches are both the ultimate victim and the stubborn, elusive rebel. But who were the women who were accused and often killed for witchcraft? What types of women have centuries of terror censored, eliminated, and repressed? Celebrated feminist writer Mona Chollet explores three types of women who were accused of witchcraft and persecuted: the independent woman, since widows and celibates were particularly targeted; the childless woman, since the time of the hunts marked the end of tolerance for those who claimed to control their fertility; and the elderly woman, who has always been an object of at best, pity, and at worst, horror. Examining modern society, Chollet concludes that these women continue to be harrassed and oppressed. Rather than being a brief moment in history, the persecution of witches is an example of society’s seemingly eternal misogyny, while women today are direct descendants to those who were hunted down and killed for their thoughts and actions. With fiery prose and arguments that range from the scholarly to the cultural, In Defense of Witches seeks to unite the mythic image of the witch with modern women who live their lives on their own terms.

A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches
Author: Deborah Harkness
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2011-02-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101475692

Book one of the New York Times bestselling All Souls series, from the author of The Black Bird Oracle. “A wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight” (People). Look for the hit series “A Discovery of Witches,” now streaming on AMC+, Sundance Now, and Shudder! Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont. Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar's depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in book two, Shadow of Night, book three, The Book of Life, and the fourth in the series, Time’s Convert.

The Witching Hour

The Witching Hour
Author: Anne Rice
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 1058
Release: 2010-11-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307575950

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the beloved author of the Vampire Chronicles, the first installation of her spellbinding Mayfair Chronicles—the inspiration for the hit television series! “Extraordinary . . . Anne Rice offers more than just a story; she creates myth.”—The Washington Post Book World Rowan Mayfair, a beautiful woman, a brilliant practitioner of neurosurgery—aware that she has special powers but unaware that she comes from an ancient line of witches—finds the drowned body of a man off the coast of California and brings him to life. He is Michael Curry, who was born in New Orleans and orphaned in childhood by fire on Christmas Eve, who pulled himself up from poverty, and who now, in his brief interval of death, has acquired a sensory power that mystifies and frightens him. As these two, fiercely drawn to each other, fall in love and—in passionate alliance—set out to solve the mystery of her past and his unwelcome gift, an intricate tale of evil unfolds. Moving through time from today’s New Orleans and San Francisco to long-ago Amsterdam and a château in the Louis XIV’s France, and from the coffee plantations of Port au Prince, where the great Mayfair fortune is made and the legacy of their dark power is almost destroyed, to Civil War New Orleans, The Witching Hour is a luminous, deeply enchanting novel. The magic of the Mayfairs continues: THE WITCHING HOUR • LASHER • TALTOS

Buried Magic

Buried Magic
Author: TJ Green
Publisher: Mountolive Publishing
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2018-11-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0995131333

Witchcraft, dark secrets, and demons. No one is safe in White Haven. Avery, one of the five White Haven witches, practices her magic alone and spends her days working in her bookshop, refusing to join the coven. However, days away from Litha, the summer solstice, a deceased customer bequeaths her a rune covered box and an intriguing letter that reveals the witches are missing a vital part of their history. The news shatters her organised life completely. Five ancient family grimoires are hidden in the town, and within their pages lies a secret. Unable to resist a mystery, Avery is determined to find them. However, the tarot cards predict danger, and when another witch—the sexy, but annoying Alex Bonneville—shares the same premonition, they know that an unknown enemy is determined to stop them using any means necessary. Avery never backs down from a fight, and Alex refuses to let her fight alone. When White Haven turns into a battleground of magic and demons, the witches’ lives will never be the same again. Buried Magic is perfect for fans of paranormal mysteries who love authentic witchcraft and magic, a slow-burn romance, English humour, a gorgeous Cornish setting with lots of myths, and plenty of action. Join the coven and buy Buried Magic now! ***This story completes in book 2, Magic Unbound. All subsequent stories are complete. Keywords: Witchy fiction, witch mysteries, witch urban fantasy, paranormal fiction, paranormal fantasy series, paranormal mystery, supernatural suspense, occult fiction, magic, action and adventure, spirits, ghosts, mild romance, paranormal cozy mystery, mystery books, Cornish village mysteries, occult fiction, demons, contemporary fantasy, urban fantasy, humour, friendship, magic, spells, intrigue, English myths, legends and folklore, witchcraft, Wiccan fiction, grimoires and spell books.

The God of the Witches

The God of the Witches
Author: Margaret Alice Murray
Publisher:
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1970
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195012705

This celebrated study of witchcraft in Europe traces the worship of the pre-Christian and prehistoric Horned God from paleolithic times to the medieval period. Murray, the first to turn a scholarly eye on the mysteries of witchcraft, enables us to see its existence in the Middle Ages not as an isolated and terrifying phenomenon, but as the survival of a religion nearly as old as humankind itself, whose devotees held passionately to a view of life threatened by an alien creed. The findings she sets forth, once thought of as provocative and implausible, are now regarded as irrefutable by folklorists and scholars in related fields. Exploring the rites and ceremonies associated with witchcraft, Murray establishes the concept of the "dying god"--the priest-king who was ritually killed to ensure the country and its people a continuity of fertility and strength. In this light, she considers such figures as Thomas a Becket, Joan of Arc, and Gilles de Rais as spiritual leaders whose deaths were ritually imposed. Truly a classic work of anthropology, and written in a clear, accessible style that anyone can enjoy, The God of the Witches forces us to reevaluate our thoughts about an ancient and vital religion.

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca
Author: Rosemary Guiley
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2010-05-12
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1438126840

Praise for the previous editions:"Clearly the best reference work on the subject now available."