On a September afternoon in Santa Barbara, a private jet carrying the members of Poor Ghost—one of America’s most storied rock bands—plunges into the backyard of Caleb Crane, a retired insurance salesman. Poor Ghost moves back and forth between the impact of the plane crash on Caleb’s life, and an oral history of Poor Ghost, from its beginnings as a working-class punk band to rock icons.
Drawing on modern field research among elderly women in England and historical research in supernatural traditions, Gillian Bennett offers a clear and thought-provoking discussion of the vigorous survival, nature, and patterns of belief in the supernatural. Focusing on contact with the dead, which was especially emphasized and recounted by her informants, Bennett discusses the role of bereavement in these occurrences, examines how and why narratives are employed to account for personal experiences, and looks at case studies in the history of ghosts and visitations. Book jacket.
Aspiring to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school's track team, gifted runner Ghost finds his goal challenged by a tragic past with a violent father.
When Travis and his sister, Corey, learn that their grandmother's quiet Vermont inn has a history of ghost sightings, they decide to do a little "haunting" of their own. Before long, their supernatural pranks are drawing tourists to the inn. But Travis and Corey soon find out that there are other ghosts at Fox Hill Inn, and their tricks have awakened something dangerous and threatening. It's up to these pranksters to figure out how to lay to rest the ghosts they've stirred. A fresh take on haunted houses, Mary Downing Hahn's entertaining, spooky story pokes gentle fun at charlatan ghost hunters while suggesting that ghosts are not to be trifled with.
At the end of a winter-long journey into manhood, Little Hawk returns to find his village decimated by a white man's plague and soon, despite a fresh start, Little Hawk dies violently but his spirit remains trapped, seeing how his world changes.
A memoir of growing up poor and hungry in 1970s western New York: “Like an American version of Angela’s Ashes.”—Kathleen Norris, New York Times-bestselling author of The Cloister Walk When you eat soup every night, thoughts of bread get you through. One of seven children brought up by a single mother, Sonja Livingston was raised in areas of western New York that remain relatively hidden from the rest of America. From an old farming town to an Indian reservation to a dead-end urban neighborhood, Livingston and her siblings follow their nonconformist mother from one ramshackle house to another on the perpetual search for something better. Along the way, the young Sonja observes the harsh realities her family encounters, as well as small moments of transcendent beauty that somehow keep them going. While struggling to make sense of her world, Livingston perceives the stresses and patterns that keep children—girls in particular—trapped in the cycle of poverty. Informed by cultural experiences such as Livington’s love for Wonder Woman and Nancy Drew and her experiences with the Girl Scouts and Roman Catholicism, this lyrical memoir firmly eschews sentimentality, offering instead a meditation on what it means to hunger and showing that poverty can strengthen the spirit just as surely as it can grind it down. “[A]n absolutely astonishing debut…harrowing and hilarious.”—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times-bestselling author of With or Without You “Livingston reveals the daily challenges poverty-stricken young children face.”—Booklist “Weaves together a child’s experience of not belonging, the perilous ease of slipping into failure, and the deep love that can flow from even a highly troubled parent.”—Dinty W. Moore, author of The Accidental Buddhist
Emerald O'Brien is the owner of the Chintz 'n China Tea Room where guests are served the perfect blend of tea and tarot reading. She never set out to be a detective, but once word gets out that she can communicate with the dead, there's no turning back... When the ghost of Susan Mitchell asks for Emerald's help in convicting her own murderer, Emerald can't refuse. Along with her friends-an ex-supermodel and a cop-and her new love interest, Emerald must search for clues to put the killer behind bars-and this tortured soul to rest.
Women's Ghost Literature in Nineteenth-Century Britain examines the Female Gothic genre and how it expanded to include not only gender concerns but also social critiques of repressed sexuality, economics and imperialism.