Could Have Been More Excited

How to Hang a Witch was good.  I just thought it wasn't AS good as a lot of the reviewers did.  I mean, this book got really, really good reviews.  I liked the author's note and what she did to show how what happened in Salem during the witch trials and what happens in this book, set today are similar to bullying, but I just didn't LOVE this book.
I also wondered about Danvers and how that all fits into this book.  Oh wait, wait, wait!  I see that Danvers was where the hunt began, but the actual trials and hangings took place in Salem.  Okay!
Adriana Mather reads the book and she did a really great job.  She is actually a Mather-Mather.  And also, there is a W. Cotton Mather here in the North Hills of Pittsburgh who is related to the Cotton Mather who figures prominently in this book.  My friend used to babysit for his kids!  Maybe I was just a little burnt out on Salem or maybe I just thought the love story between Samantha and the ghost guy was a little too much, but I did like the book, and I can recommend it for sure, I just didn't love it!  A lot of people did, though. There is another one coming next year.

Converted

On goodreads one will find some reviews for Conversion that are really good and one will find some that are very critical.  While I didn't give this book a 5, I did give it a 4.  I thought it was really good!  I thought the main characters were real.  And I learned stuff, too!

Like the real Salem Witch Trials didn't happen in present day Salem, MA. They happened in current-day Danvers, then Salem Village.  The book also points out that The Crucible is not really about the witch trials, but rather about social life in the 1950s and McCarthyism.
This book is set in both the 1690s in Salem Village and also in the 2010s in Danvers.  Back and forth it goes, the Salem story dealing with the witch trials and the contemporary story dealing with accusations and love and heartache and stress of the senior years of highly competitive girls at a highly competitive Roman Catholic school.
Good stuff.  I really did like this one.  It was an original take on a topic that has had a lot of play.
I also learned what Conversion Disorder is!

Rain on the Scarecrow, Blood on the Plow

Bleed was an interesting book.  Set in Salem, MA and told from the POV of a bunch of different characters, it could have been longer, or maybe told from the POV of less characters, giving the POVs that remain, more detail.
All of the characters are related, some are dating each other, some are best friends, some can't stand each other.  The common element in each of the stories is blood.
Its not really a book I can explain well, since I'm not good doing that with simple plots, and this one runs all over the place, but it is worth a read.  And I wonder if the author, Laurie Faria Stolarz will write more stories with some of these characters.  I hope so.  I'd like to hear more about Kelly and Robby and Mearl as well.  Maria, too.  And so yeah, I think this book is definitely worth the read.