Reviews

American Ghost: A Family's Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest by Hannah Nordhaus

mwgerard's review

4.0

I am very lucky to have a grandmother and a father who are very into genealogy and ancestry. She held on to family quilts and dug up photos of relatives long since gone. I have the strange privilege of looking back on this people, 150 years ago, knowing that although we never met, we are connected. There are few images from my father’s side, but he has managed to trace our roots to the 14th century.

But as far as I know, none of them is a famous ghost.

Please read my full review here: http://mwgerard.com/accent-american-ghost-by-hannah-nordhaus/

jenostrum's review

2.0

I hate to abandon a book, but this one feels like torture to read. I find that I'm forcing myself to read a few pages, and then I get to read something I like. With so many books on my To Read list, ain't no one got time for that.

If you like genealogy and the Southwest, this might be for you. I happen to like neither, so it goes back to it's library home tomorrow.

maishaimani's review

3.0

I love history but I could've used more ghosts and less history. I felt like the whole book was leading up to the author spending the night in the haunted room and it was a bit underwhelming. The historical bits were very interesting but I was hoping I'd get more freaked out than I did.

misajane79's review

4.0

There are a lot of books out there in which someone (rarely a historian) discovers an interesting ancestor and turns it into a book. Sometimes these books turn into a great exploration of American history through the lens of one family, and sometimes these books just kind of fizzle. This book is the former.
Nordhaus' ancestor is rumored to be one of Santa Fe's most famous ghosts. But why is she haunting her former home? Extensive research and interviews with family don't lead to a lot of answers, but do provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives of early Jewish pioneers. Highly recommended.

shirlev's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Doesn't go much of anywhere, but atmospheric and emotionally affecting nonetheless. People complaining that it goes into too much detail about Julia's social context do not understand the point of writing a biography about a marginal figure who left little to no archival trace!

real_life_reading's review

1.0

You would think that the story of a German Jewish family trying to make it in frontier Santa Fe, New Mexico would be a very interesting story, but it was not. I don't know if it was the way the narrator told it, but I have a suspicion it was the way the author wrote it. She mixes both the story of her research efforts regarding her ancestor, Julia, with the history of Germany, Jews, New Mexico, Catholicism, Spaniards, and just about everything else that was possibly happening in Santa Fe around the late 1800s. It gets confusing and I had a very difficult time following the story. I also have to admit that the narrator's voice started to really get to me and the story just wasn't interesting enough to keep going.

stacybethi's review

3.0

Interesting story about the author's great great grandmother who lived in Santa Fe in the 1800's and is reported to haunt her family home, now a hotel. A lot heavier on the family history than I expected, including a lot of info about distant family members going to concentration camps and other distant family. Well written though.

meferguson75's review

3.0

2.5 stars. I expected more answers about the author's ancestor. I understand that uncovering details of a woman's life in the late 19th century is difficult but when a 300 page book is based upon that premise I hoped for some long lost documentation. The focus of this book is not on her ancestor's true life experience but on the author's experience in searching for it. Unfortunately that story wasn't as interesting to me.

shannonleelikestoread's review against another edition

I was bored 

klew's review

4.0

It was fun to read this book while visiting Santa Fe