American Ghost by Hannah Nordhaus
The award-winning journalist and author of The Beekeeper’s Lament attempts to uncover the truth about her great-great-grandmother, Julia–whose ghost is said to haunt an elegant hotel in Santa Fe in this spellbinding exploration of myth, family history, and the American West. The dark-eyed woman in the long black gown was first seen in the 1970s, standing near a fireplace. She was sad and translucent, present and absent at once. Strange things began to happen in the Santa Fe hotel where she was seen. Gas fireplaces turned off and on without anyone touching a switch. Vases of flowers appeared in new locations. Glasses flew off shelves. And in one second-floor suite with a canopy bed and arched windows looking out to the mountains, guests reported alarming events: blankets ripped off while they slept, the room temperature plummeting, disembodied breathing, dancing balls of light. La Posada – “place of rest” had been a grand Santa Fe home before it was converted to a hotel. The room with the canopy bed had belonged to Julia Schuster Staab, the wife of the home’s original owner. She died in 1896, nearly a century before the hauntings were first reported. In American Ghost, Hannah Nordhaus traces the life, death, and unsettled afterlife of her great-great-grandmother Julia, from her childhood in Germany to her years in the American West with her Jewish merchant husband. American Ghost is a story of pioneer women and immigrants, ghost hunters and psychics, frontier fortitude and mental illness, imagination and lore. As she traces the strands of Julia’s life, Nordhaus uncovers a larger tale of how a true-life story becomes a ghost story and how difficult it can sometimes be to separate history and myth.
ISBN 9780062249203, Paperback
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This book would definitely be outside of my typical genre! It sounds intriguing!
Thank you for these contests, the book sounds interesting!
This sounds like a very good read.
Include me!!!
I have been able to see spirits since I was a child, so this sounds fascinating to me!
I’ve only read a few good good stories and this sounds very interesting.
This one sounds interesting.
This book sounds interesting.
oh my favorite subject
This book looks like one both myself and my daughter would enjoy reading.
Sounds like a great book!
Sounds really interest!
I love free books.
Count me in, please!
I can’t wait to read this!! I love historical fiction and ghost stories! Right up mine, and my grandkids alleys!
This book sounds very interesting!
I have been looking for something good to read….
I’d be down to read that book.
Love me some historical fiction and free books!
This sounds unusual. My mom would like to read this – she’s interested in angels & psychic powers, frontier life, and genealogy. I love good writing & would be fascinated with the mental illness aspect of the story. Count me in!
I love ghost stories and historical fiction! Sounds like a perfect combination!
Sounds like a perfect combination of ghost story and historical fiction!
Sounds very interesting!
Sounds good! Thank you for the chance!
Definitely sounds interesting!!!!
Hi!