Overbooked Book Discussion: A Season with the Witch

Join us at our adult fiction/nonfiction book discussion, newly renamed OVERBOOKED!

Titles are available digitally through Overdrive and/or Hoopla, or a limited number of physical copies may be picked up from the library. Patrons may choose to attend virtually through Zoom or in-person at the library.

A Season with the Witch by J.W. Ocker

This lively chronicle—part travel guide, part history lesson—charts the  peculiar relationship between Haunted Happenings, the  month-long Halloween celebration held annually in Salem, Mass., and the  town’s historic legacy as the  site where 20 people were executed during the  infamous witch  trials of 1692. As depicted by Ocker (Poe-Land), Salem’s embrace of what was once its stigma is a  case of civics tempered by commercialism. Plaques and monuments around town call attention to the  events of the  early 1690s, but many historic sites have been built over—the  site of the  executions, for example, is now behind a  Walgreens—and visitors are instead directed to self-styled museums that offer tours, wax dioramas, and historical reenactments. In the  book’s most fascinating chapter, Ocker notes with  irony that the  Peabody Essex Museum, which possesses the  only true artifacts from the  trials, is endowed as an art museum and distances itself from the  city’s branding for its October festivities. Ocker moves easily among the  archivists, historians, and performers he interviews, and he describes the  carnival atmosphere that descends upon “Witch  City” with  enthusiasm and vividness. (Publisher's Weekly)