Helpful Score: 19
This book was so wonderful! The concept of a bigtime corporate lawyer who turns on his client in order to save local endangered wildlife is probably ludicrous, but it makes for a moving and life-affirming story that will have you cheering on the main character and his family. Despite the title, which refers to the fact that the main character has married into a family of dowsers, the dowsers are really the sub-plot and the main focus of the story is one man's decision between his high paid job and his personal beliefs and love of his family.
Helpful Score: 17
This book is full of strong women who live their lives true to themselves, not what society 'expects' of them: two sisters and one daughter who are dowers, able to find water. The battle between greed and development vs. the environment is age old. The author shows a compromise can be reached. And he shows that a father's love for his daughter (and her mother) is worth more than his high-paying job as lawyer to the developer. Well written, believable story.
Helpful Score: 14
Another interesting story from this author. Moves slowly, but very absorbing and deeply felt.
Helpful Score: 5
fascinating. great mix of country lore, new age witches. philosophical but a great read
Helpful Score: 4
From the NPR review: "I was charmed by the mixture of country lore and planning boards, new age witches and old fashioned family duties. For anyone interested in the way we live with the land, on the land, today, this novel makes for a thoughtful evening or two of entertaining reading." And from the Washington Post, "Anyone whose family is divided between conservatives and liberals will squirm with recognition..."
Helpful Score: 4
fantastic! a fun great read....
Helpful Score: 3
this is the tale of the clash betwween progress and tradition,science and magic
Helpful Score: 3
Unusual book, but a great read!! Set in Vermont.
Helpful Score: 3
good book: rural vermont where earthy female dowsers and concerned citizens foil a large-scale ski resort company's plans to build a mega-complex. not as cliche as i've reviewed here.
Helpful Score: 2
I loved this book, it was hard to put down, you just fall in love with the water dowsers!
Helpful Score: 2
I throughly enjoyed this off beat novel.
Helpful Score: 1
Bohjalian manages to create captivating story lines that include both the legal profession and alternative health professions. This novel took a different twist to include environmental issues and delve into a different type of alternative profession.
Helpful Score: 1
I loved this book. It is the first one I have read by Chris Bohjalian and I will definitely be reading more.
Helpful Score: 1
This book convinced me we all have a little bit of a dowser gene. It's not often a book makes me cry with joy. This one gets a supersmile!
Helpful Score: 1
We were going through somewhat of a drought as were the people in this book. Progress wanted by some, with no thought to what it does to the mountains and towns and people, is what this story is about.
Everyone needs to read about "progress" before it comes to your neighborhood. If you've never read about "water witches", this is another reason to read this good. I highly recommend "Water Witches".
Everyone needs to read about "progress" before it comes to your neighborhood. If you've never read about "water witches", this is another reason to read this good. I highly recommend "Water Witches".
Helpful Score: 1
After a slow start, the novel starts moving and begins to engage, but I could put it down often and not feel I was,missing much. The lawyer husband and father of gifted water dowsers faces a difficult moral decision when the ski resort he is a lobbyist for wants to increase ski trails and snowmaking capacity in the midst of a severe Vermont drought. The conflicting issues of jobs and development versus environmental concerns are presented in more detail than the way the characters are drawn. The ending seemed a bit too pat for my liking. Not one of his best as far as this reader is concerned.
Really loved this book. Fabulous!
Yes,indeed,I enjoyed this book.I will read anything by Chris Bohjalian,he has a way with people and situations,and Vermont. He deals with a different subject in every one of his books.This book dealing with the old way of finding water was great,we may forget that "back in the day" many things were figured out in what we think are strange ways.So,I say ,pick up any of Chris B.'s books,they are a good read.
I have read several of Bohjalian's books, but liked this one best of all. Being a Vermonter is a big factor in my good review - so is Bohjalian, and this book is set in Montpelier VT. It's really a rather sweet story about how a father's love for his little daughter completely transforms him from being a hard-boiled lawyer who represents unpopular clients in the state's capital city. The transformation unfolds alongside the theme of traditional dowsing (water witching, with loads of detail about that phenomena. A good read.
I was quite disappointed with this book. I chose it because I have enjoyed every other book written by Bohjalian, but this story wasn't much of one. It was dry throughout and the "climax" of the story was a big hearing for a ski resort in which nothing much was determined.
I say, skip this one.
I say, skip this one.
An enjoyable story about a family of dowsers.
In the midstof a nightmarish New England drought, ski industry lobbyist Scottie Winston is trying to get a large ski resort the permits it needs to tap already beleaguered rivers for snow. His wife, daughter & sister-in-law (dowsers or"water witches") all hope to stop him, however, in this gentle, comic, life-affirming novel.
Excellent!
my cover is different than pix shown
