Rating: 
Summary: Is there a higher rating than 10??
Review: A perfect picture of rural Vermont and the battlelines drawn between the ski industry/developers and environmentalists. Bohjalian tells it like is with characters we wish we could sit across the kitchen table with. This book MOVED me and, ironically, I could see and feel both sides of the development issue which we face here in Vermont daily.
I didn't want this book to end...even though I stayed up till 2:30 a.m. to finish it. The final chapter gave me goosebumps and I felt sad and happy at the same time.
Don't miss this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Flavorless fiction
Review: After reading ( and enjoying ) "Midwives", I too decided to try more Bohjalian. Unfortunately, I really struggled with this one. Written in a dry observational manner that never engages the reader emotionally, this story felt pedantic and obvious. Almost preachy. I originally was drawn to it because of the subjectmatter: dowsing, and witches. Alas, yet again we have a portrayal of women/witches that is shallow, and flavorless. No real insight into the characters. Too bad, because he had a good idea here. One previous reviewer/reader was right: it was if Bohjalian was merely filling in his outline.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating look at an unusual family
Review: After reading Midwives, Bohjalian's recent book, I went to see what other works of his were around. I was glad to find Water Witches. Its portrait of family, storyline, and setting were all wonderful. It showed a Vermont that I had never imagined and made this Southern Californian all the more aware of the mystical qualities of water.
Rating:
Summary: A loving portrayal of Vermont life
Review: Chris Bohjalian is a truly amazing storyteller. Once again, he has created a book of wonderfully quirky characters, lovingly (and with humor) portraying life in his adopted home of Vermont. In this book, the reader is forced to explore his/her views on the environment, nature, and "progress."
Rating:
Summary: Dowsing for a great read?
Review: Chris Bohjalian's book, Water Witches, is a fascinating study of one Vermont family. Laura and her daughter Miranda are "water witches" - they are able to use rods, and their intuition, to advise people where to place wells so as to have clear, drinkable water in their homes. Laura's sister is also a dowser - however her power extends beyond water, and she is able to find lost items and people. Scottie is married to Laura. After moving to Vermont, he took the highest-paid job he could find, as a lobbyist for the ski industry. While he has built a name for himself, this job has pitted him against environmental activists. However, Scottie finds himself in a bind when his current employer, Powder Peak, wants to build new trails and tap a depleted river for water to make snow. Scottie, however, becomes a reluctant convert to the environmentalists' point of view when he spies a catamount, an endangered Vermont mountain, where the ski resort was planning on placing the trails. He must wrestle with himself and his commitments to do the right thing. The ending of the story is incredibly powerful, and winds these two tales together with astonishing grace. Overall, this book is highly recommended for fans of Bohjalian's other books, including Midwives, and readers who are interested in the often delicate balance between environmental preservation and economic growth.
Rating:
Summary: Dowsing for a great read?
Review: Chris Bohjalian's book, Water Witches, is a fascinating study of one Vermont family. Laura and her daughter Miranda are "water witches" - they are able to use rods, and their intuition, to advise people where to place wells so as to have clear, drinkable water in their homes. Laura's sister is also a dowser - however her power extends beyond water, and she is able to find lost items and people. Scottie is married to Laura. After moving to Vermont, he took the highest-paid job he could find, as a lobbyist for the ski industry. While he has built a name for himself, this job has pitted him against environmental activists. However, Scottie finds himself in a bind when his current employer, Powder Peak, wants to build new trails and tap a depleted river for water to make snow. Scottie, however, becomes a reluctant convert to the environmentalists' point of view when he spies a catamount, an endangered Vermont mountain, where the ski resort was planning on placing the trails. He must wrestle with himself and his commitments to do the right thing. The ending of the story is incredibly powerful, and winds these two tales together with astonishing grace. Overall, this book is highly recommended for fans of Bohjalian's other books, including Midwives, and readers who are interested in the often delicate balance between environmental preservation and economic growth.
Rating:
Summary: Dowsing for a great read?
Review: Chris Bohjalian's book, Water Witches, is a fascinating study of one Vermont family. Laura and her daughter Miranda are "water witches" - they are able to use rods, and their intuition, to advise people where to place wells so as to have clear, drinkable water in their homes. Laura's sister is also a dowser - however her power extends beyond water, and she is able to find lost items and people. Scottie is married to Laura. After moving to Vermont, he took the highest-paid job he could find, as a lobbyist for the ski industry. While he has built a name for himself, this job has pitted him against environmental activists. However, Scottie finds himself in a bind when his current employer, Powder Peak, wants to build new trails and tap a depleted river for water to make snow. Scottie, however, becomes a reluctant convert to the environmentalists' point of view when he spies a catamount, an endangered Vermont mountain, where the ski resort was planning on placing the trails. He must wrestle with himself and his commitments to do the right thing. The ending of the story is incredibly powerful, and winds these two tales together with astonishing grace. Overall, this book is highly recommended for fans of Bohjalian's other books, including Midwives, and readers who are interested in the often delicate balance between environmental preservation and economic growth.
Rating: 
Summary: "I Want To Believe"
Review: Having just read Robert L. Park's Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud, Chris Bohjalian's Water Witches came to my attention. The two books take completely different approaches. Voodoo Science is a non-fiction examination of extraordinary claims from a purely rational viewpoint; Water Witches is a fictional account of humanity's deep need to believe in the mystical. Read together, the two complement one another in a remarkable fashion (although surely Park would cringe to hear me say so), for after all, even if the rational mind ever is able to explain everything, it surely still will not satisfy our desire for the divine. Divination or dowsing, not just hunting for water but seeking contact with an outer force, is the root of the mystical in Bohjalian's book, which pits this extraordinary force against not the rationality of science but the economic force of the modern businessman. Bohjalian is fair to both sides for the most part but certainly loads things in favor of the supernatural at the end. This I found to be the greatest flaw of the book--the dowser's power was so strong, so consistent and so universally recognized throughout the area that what should have been a matter of faith became instead matter-of-fact, and the vision that came with such difficulty to the main character will seem obvious to most readers well in advance. But the gentle story is attractive and the characters well drawn. The protagonist's journey from rationalist to believer was convincing within the context Bohjalian creates. Robert Park most likely wouldn't enjoy this book, and neither will real estate developers, action fans or seekers of the dark occult arts. But the rest of us are likely to find a lovely insight into what we hope is true.
Rating:
Summary: Realistic Fiction Finds a Niche
Review: I can understand how some view Bohjalian's characters as shallow and yet I felt they reflected the narrator's perceptions. As he grew emotionally, the characters evolved. At the end it is a spiritual awakening that allows Scottie to grow and to me, his conversion is believable. This read like a modern day morality tale and I could well imagine people I know on both sides of the aisle. The book was highly readable, entertaining, and thought-provoking. The subject matter was fascinating and yet not melodramatic or violent and so it was a refreshing read.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written - a REAL story!!!
Review: I found this book much more "realistic" than "Midwives" I could relate to it! In fact, I was caught between reality and the book while I was reading it on a recent June visit to my daughter's in VT!! I actually kept forgetting that VT was NOT experiencing a drought while I was visiting!! Caught myself turning off the water while brushing my teeth, looking at the Winooski River for low levels, and observing the countryside in general for signs of "drought"!! Chris Bohjalian is a master story teller in a "kinder and gentler" way!! His beautiful descriptions of the VT countryside, the numerous SMALL towns, and the life these people lead are exactly what I have encountered on my numerous visits to the state! But the really compelling story he tells is of the encroachment of business, homes, development on our beatiful and old New England towns. I live in one of these in CT. We have no beautiful catamounts as in Bohjalian's story, but the deer and bear in our area are being squeezed out by development! This is the case in a lot of New England. I could certainly relate to this story, but even people in inner-cities would certainly hate to see what little is left of our beautiful "country" destroyed! Where would they go on weekends to get OUT of the city? Bravo, Chris, for a beautiful story!!!!
| 
