Coraline by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean

This book tells the story of Coraline, who trades her family for an empty mirror family, and then must decide how to get her real family back. It's a nice story of persistence and the substance of things, but I just didn't like it as well as The Graveyard Book. It's simple, and I appreciate how well it all works together, but it was just missing a certain spark for me.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean

This book is a marvelous story about a young man coming of age. In addition to the bildungsroman at the heart of the story--which is quite well done--there are the brilliant surrounding settings. I really enjoyed the idea of Bod being raised in a graveyard and hearing the stories of all the residents of the graveyard. There was also a healthy dose of mythology and the otherworldly. It all came together for a really wonderful story.

A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett

In this book Tiffany Aching leaves home to train as a witch, but must face the hiven, an enemy which can get inside her head and turn her downright nasty. I liked the second half of this book, which featured Tiffany thinking for herself on how to finally defeat the hiven and what it means to be a witch better than the first, where she was more passive. The second half also has a good appearance by Granny Weatherwax, who is as delightful as always. Like the other young adult Discworld books, I don't think the humor, parody, and satire work as well here as it does in the adult books.

Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman

This collection of fairy tales is selected from the Grimm brothers' final 1857 anthology of fairy tales. Pullman has translated (and in some cases adapted) the stories to tell what he considers to be the best fairy tale. There are a lot of familiar tales and a number of unfamiliar ones too--and all of them are classified and given a place in folklore through helpful end notes. These fairy tales have their own standards--their standards are not those of modern literature, for example--and they rely heavily on a system that rewards and punishes characters for their actions. At times the stories are gruesome, at times unrealistic, and at times they do not take the familiar routes to the stories, but this collection is well-worth a read.

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

This book introduces Tiffany Aching, a nine-year-old witch in training, who must save her inconvenient, sticky brother Wentworth when he is abducted by a fairy queen. Fortunately she has help--in the form of the Wee Free Men, tiny blue pictsies with amazing strength and little patience to help anyone who isn't a hag. This book was funny and heartwarming. I think I prefer the adult Discworld novels, but this one does have charms and an internal logic that works.

Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron edited by Jonathan Strahan

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories about witches. It's worth noting that Neil Gaiman's contribution is a short poem rather than a story. I picked up the collection for the Bigfoot story by Jim Butcher (which didn't disappoint)--but I enjoyed most of the stories in the anthology (usually there's a dud or two). I particularly enjoyed both Jane Yolen's "Andersen's Witch" and Ellen Kushner's "Threefold World" which posit witchcraft as part of the reason for the creations of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales and the Finnish epic, The Kalevala, respectively.

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett

In this book King Verence of Lancre makes the mistake of inviting a family of vampires (or rather vampyres--they're trying very hard to be modern and to train themselves out of weaknesses like their aversions to holy symbols, sunlight, and garlic) to his daughter's christening. To compound the problem, a group of magpies steal Granny Weatherwax's invitation. I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't as laugh-out-loud funny as some of the other entries in the series, but I thought it had a strong plot, I loved reading the witches (especially Granny Weatherwax), and I really liked what Pratchett did with his parody of vampires. All in all a great read.

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

This book picks up where A Gathering of Witches left off: Matthew and Diana travel back in time to Elizabethan England to look for a manuscript known as Ashmole 782 which promises to reveal secrets about witches, vampires, and demons. Matthew was still a bit heavy handed for my tastes, but we did get to see more of Diana's power--and just as importantly--to get some explanation of why she has the powers she does. We also got a number of historical cameos, including Queen Elizabeth I, Kit Marlow (who has been both daemonized and demonized in this retelling), and, all too briefly, William Shakespeare. There was a lot of historical detail (it probably doesn't hurt that Deborah Harkness is an esteemed historian of seventeenth century England in addition to writing novels and blogging about wine), which added to the atmosphere of the piece. At times it felt like obstacles were thrown up and then almost immediately brushed away (for example, when Matthew takes Diana to his family home in France, Matthew's father Philippe insists that Matthew and Diana are not married and should not marry, but by the end of the section, less than a month later, throws them a lavish wedding). The mysteries of the Ashmole 782 only continue to grow; even though we get to see it again, the reader is left with questions instead of answers--but now it seems that the book is more an object or possession than a book. It's all setting things up for the third and final volume of the trilogy.

Heartfire by Orson Scott Card

This book shows Alvin's adventures with the witchers in New England juxtaposed with Peggy's work against slavery in the Crown Colonies. I enjoyed seeing more historical figures appear (including Denmark Vesey, John Adams, Honoré Balzac, and John-Jacques Audubon) and all the thoughtfulness about how to deal with unjust laws. There was a good mixture of humor and determination in the book. I was also intrigued by Adams's reflections on his relationship with Thomas Jefferson (who only appears in other characters' thoughts). I felt like this book gets the series back on track.

White Night by Jim Butcher

I thought this book was one of the better Harry Dresden books I've read. I really enjoyed seeing Elaine appear, I loved watching Harry teach Molly, and I especially liked Harry's moral quandries. I think that the Denarian plot was wrapped up really nicely here. I also thought the vampire court machinations were a real treat to watch unfold. This series has been moving along at an excellent pace. I'm looking forward to the next entry.

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon

This book shares its virtues and faults with many of the previous books in the series. I felt like the plot arcs weren't clearly defined and worked towards cliffhangers rather than resolution.

Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

In this book Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat travel to Genua, where Magrat has been sent by the witch who left Magrat her wand and her position as fairy godmother. With moments that spoof The Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz, and countless fairy tales (but most of all Cinderella), this story is hilarious. There's also a lot of travel humor. I can't get over how smart these books are in their parody. All of which is to say, this book is another one smashed out of the park for Pratchett.

Hobomok and Other Writings on Indians by Lydia Maria Child

This book collects both Child's romance, Hobomok, and a variety of short stories and other pieces on Native Americans. Hobomok is really intriguing; the plot is straight forward sentimental (the heroine's father opposes a love match with an Episcopalian. After a ship wreck, the heroine marries Hobomok [a Native American] and has a child, but when the Episcopalian comes back, Hobomok retreats into the wilderness for his wife to marry her first love). Despite the conventional plot, I was really interested in several aspects of the story: Mary Conant (the heroine) uses witchcraft to discover who her husband will be early in the story, there's doubling going on between the Episcopalian and Hobomok, and there's an intriguing and unsettled frame narrative that gives the novel an historical air. The other stories were fairly well-done; and some of them were quite moving.

Tituba of Salem Village by Ann Petry

This young adult book also deals with Tituba's story. Certain parts are clearly repeated (again, Tituba is bought from Susanna Endicott in Barbados), but her relationships with various characters has changed and it ends almost immediately after the trials. I liked the idea of Tituba being a good weaver--the word "text" has Latin roots related to weaving fabric (so text and textile are related words)--and her weaving seems to compliment her story telling. I also liked the addition of Pim, the stowaway who is sold into indentured slavery. This book was both intriguing and entertaining.

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé

In this book Tituba tells her own story, which deconstructs the book's title--Salem's only a part of the tale, and not the most important part in Tituba's own mind. The story has a sly sense of humor--it introduces anachronistic concepts like feminism and racism and even brings Hester Prynne to a Salem Jail cell at the same time as Tituba. Although I found the book's tone disconcerting at first, I grew to like it more and more as I thought about it. It's definitely a book you have to accept on its own terms.

Memorable Providences by Cotton Mather

In this book, which Rev. Samuel Parris possessed during the time of the witchcraft trials in Salem, Cotton Mather gives the account of a bewitching in Boston. A woman named Glover is accused, confesses to, and hangs for being a witch and tormenting a family and its children. I'm interested in the particular interest Mather pays the particularities of the witchcraft--apparently exposing the children to any form of the Bible (whether written in English, Latin, Hebrew, or Greek) can cause the witch/devil to torment them. Also, the torments apparently stop at night. This book adds an interesting perspective to the events in Salem (which happen just three years after this book is published).

The Wonders of the Invisible World by Cotton Mather

I found this account of the Salem Witch Trials fascinating. Mather's position (as one of the religious elite at the time, and strongly in favor of the trials, but not actively involved in them himself) is quite interesting because by the time he writes this account public (and official) opinion, which initially supported the investigations has started to sour. Mather gives a very careful justification of the trials in his introduction, and then proceeds to make cases against five people accused of witchcraft. You can easily see (if you choose to read the trials in this manner) what the community and accusers stand to gain politically and socially through these accusations, and this text also does a great job of supporting the idea that the witch trials are the interior, psychological twin of the religious fight for the community's soul that manifests externally as the Maine wars with the Native Americans.

The Last Witch of Langenburg: Murder in a German Village by Thomas Robisheaux

This book recounts the trial of Anna Schmeig, the last woman tried and executed for witchcraft in Langenburg, now part of Germany. This book does an excellent job of taking an historic incident (this particular witch trial) and, using the techniques of microhistory, showing how that incident reflects larger regional insecurities. Robisheaux does an excellent job contextualizing the political, social, and religious lives of the people in Langenburg at this particular time. I also thought the book did a particularly fine job in its handling of witchcraft. Instead of rushing to condemn the courts, the book took the period's assumptions and procedures about witchcraft at face value, and demonstrated the presence of the rule of law, and showed how the players accepted (and in one case ignored) the law's specific requirements. The part that was missing, however, was a modern assessment of the crime. Was Anna Fessler really poisoned by arsenic? Did Anna Schmeig really commit the murder? Was she trying to murder her son-in-law and daughter instead? I wanted more information (perhaps even speculation) from the author.