title: The Penguin Book of Witches
author:  Katherine Howe 
description: <b>New Atlantic Indie bestseller</b><br /><br />Haunting . . . Erudite, insightful, and resonant . . . There are unsettling, inescapable parallels to the recent police violence in Ferguson, Mo. . . . <i>The Penguin Book of Witches</i>. . . provides invaluable historical context, and makes fascinating reading about a past that all too well illuminates the present. <b><i>NPR.org</i></b><br /><br /> Katherine Howes new book recalls a time when witchcraft wasnt just a crime, it was enough to get you killed. <b>NPRs <i>Weekend Edition Sunday</i></b><br /><br /> A fascinating selection of historical accounts. <b><i>The Washington Post</i></b><br /><br /> People have never been as interested to hear about a book I was reading as they were when I spent a few weeks in October carrying around <i>The Penguin Book of Witches.</i> . . . Ben Franklin was alive and you could still be publicly stoned to death in Philly for being a witch. Crazy. This book is a good gift to give to single women you know. <b>Caity Weaver, <i>Gawker, </i>The Best Things We Read in 2014</b><br /><br /> I am just glad there is now, in this world, a book with the title<i>The Penguin Book of Witches</i>, because, really, how cool is that. <b>John Scalzi, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling and Hugo Awardwinning author</b><br /><br /> Invaluable . . . A fine compendium. <b><i>The Independent</i></b><br /><br /> An excellent read . . . Fascinating and completely different from [other] books on witchcraft . . . A sobering look at what fear and instability can do to communities through the demonization of anyone thought of as different. You will close the book with a broader understanding of what we are capable of doing to each other. <b><i>Nerdist</i></b><br /> <br /> A cornucopia of fascinating and often unsettling texts . . . Deftly curated and exhaustively annotated . . . [Along with] Howes engaging, thorough, and thoughtful annotations . . . the excerpts . . . are fascinating windows into early ideas about gender, class, and social roles. <b><i>Refinery 29</i></b><br /><br /> Fascinating and insightful. With her usual skill, Katherine Howe navigates the winding path leading to Salems hysteria and beyond. A must-read for anyone who wants to know not only what happened but also how and why. <b>Brunonia Barry, <i>New York Times </i>bestselling author of <i>The Lace Reader</i></b><br /><br /> This comprehensive collection of carefully selected documents and published primary materials, coupled with judicious and informative introductions, will help modern readers understand the seemingly inexplicable and persistent popular phenomenon of belief in witchcraft from the seventeenth century into more modern times. <b>Mary Beth Norton, author of <i>In the Devils Snare</i></b><br /><br /> An informative and engaging series of texts that Katherine Howe introduces in a crisp and well-informed manner. The chronological breadth is unusual, but it allows us to grasp more fully the continuities that mark the history of witch-hunting on both sides of the Atlantic. <b><b>David D. Hall, Harvard Divinity School</b></b><br /><br /> With insightful notations . . . this superbly edited and annotated work provides in-depth material for those interested in the origins of witchcraft persecution in America. <b><i>Library Journal</i></b>
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  Contents
  
  Title Page
  
  Copyright Notice
  
   **Begin Reading**
  
  Chapter One
  
  Chapter Two
  
  Chapter Three
  
  Chapter Four
  
  Chapter Five
  
  Teaser
  
  Series card
  
  Back Ad for 12 stories
  
  About the Author
  
  Copyright
  
  CHAPTER ONE
  
  “Happy Sol--crap!” Pru Daniels said after opening the front door of her friend
  and fellow witch Zoe Adams’ house. Seeing who was standing on the front porch
  this Winter Solstice made Pru’s heart and her fists clench.
  
  Out of all the vampires in the world, _he_ had to walk back into her life.
  Simon Howell. As a witch, she should have known better than to hook up