Just finished reading this for my Book Group. Some years ago we read some other book about a house, on Cape Cod I think, and although I don't remember the name of that, it was better, or perhaps I just wasn't in the mood to read another book about New England houses! There were parts that were very interesting, and Sarah Messer can write well (example, the section concerning the fire the family survived in the Red House), but generally, I think she was forcing herself to write about the house when lots of the modern personal sections had little or nothing to do with the Red House. She could have written with her own autobiography as the frame and included all the material of the Red House and perhaps had a better book. The "conclusions" linking family fate, modern happenings, and the house were often wishful thinking and not very convincing. The ghosts aren't anything I believe in, so that did not add to the power of the tale for me at all. On the other hand, characters such as Richard Warren Hatch, especially his last years, and the women from the past felt very alive. I believe I was yearning for more history and less personal narrative. A pleasant read that for me simply never quite became captivating. I am sending this as a RABCK to a Bookcrossing friend in Illinois.

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mailing to Bookcrosser friend in Illinois!

Received today. Thanks for the RABCK, MmeClinton!

I agree with MmeClinton. The historical parts were much more interesting than the modern ones about the Messer family. I wonder if the original will stating the house was not to be sold from the Hatch family hadn’t hung on the wall all those years, if the Messers would have felt so guilty living there. It certainly seemed as though they felt at times like the house wasn’t really theirs. But really, how selfish was it of the original owner to dictate how some distant descendants would value the house? I acknowledge that the home you grew up in has a claim on you. I’m just not sure that letting it be an albatross weighing you down is necessary.

For the moment, it will hang around on my available stack, waiting for the next round of the nonfiction virtual bookbox.