The air feels a little bit different this time of year.
Cooler, for sure, but also darker. Heavier, like someone hanging over your shoulder, breathing right in your left ear. Like maybe it’s Halloween, and you need to get in the mood with these four great books…
Have you ever seen a ghost? Do you even believe they exist? If the answer is “not yet,” then you’ll want to read Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking by Alice Vernon (Bloomsbury Sigma, $28).
For centuries — particularly the last two — humans have been fascinated with the idea that spirits exist and sometimes visit those of us who are on this side of the spectral plane. The Victorians were obsessed with them. There are lots of videos and TV shows you can watch tonight, if you want to see ghost hunters in action. What do skeptics say? And why do we keep looking for spirits of the dead? Read this book and find out.
Then reach for American Spirits: The Famous Fox Sisters and the Mysterious Fad That Haunted a Nation by Barb Rosenstock (Calkins Creek, $24.99). If you find the history in the Vernon tome fascinating, this one takes things to the next level, with a long, deep look back nearly two hundred years at what is arguably the beginning of the Victorian fixation with ghosts. It’s a solid book with photos and reprinted documents that just add to the creep factor.
Ghosts, of course, don’t just appear. They haunt, too, and America’s Most Gothic: Haunted History Stranger Than Fiction by Leanna Renee Hieber and Andrea Janes (Kensington, $29) shows you the many ways that ghosts can spook you.
Broken up into several segments, it is wide and comprehensive as it takes you on a voyage through historic buildings and everyday homes, into rooms and wide-open spaces, through family lineages and into family crypts — and of course there are curses. This is a fun volume filled with stories that practically beg to be retold around a campfire next summer.
And finally, if you’re planning on spending time on the water this winter, you may think again after you’ve read The Book of Sea Monsters: Leviathans of Literature by Prema Arasu (Bloomsbury / Adland Coles, $35). It’s a gorgeous coffee-table publication full of photos, poems, legends, and tales of what’s beneath the waves that you can’t see. Some of the creatures in here are real. Others, well, you’ll need to read more to find out. This is a great choice for amateur cryptozoologists who love literature.
Now, if these four don’t satisfy your craving for ghosts and monsters this fall, then head to your favorite library or bookstore and ask the staff to scare you with something good. They’ll have all kinds of books to suggest for you — about spirits, sea serpents, cryptid creatures, and real monsters. Stories with photos, stories that are obviously not true and some that — well, decide for yourself by finding something with an air of total spookiness.
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