The Creepy, the Quirky, and the Occult: A Reading List from Open Book Night by Nancy Aravecz, Jefferson Market LibraryOctober 27, 2015

October’s Open Book Night began with a 19th-century slasher story. We discussed Lizzie Borden and the fascinating tale of how she murdered her mother and father, and got away with it. Our patron gave us the famous rhyme:

“Lizzie Borden took an ax
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.” —popular skip rope rhyme

Although Borden was accused of killing her father and  stepmother with an ax, and evidence and motive tied her directly to the crime, she was found not guilty.The gruesome murders remain unsolved to this day—though she still remains the prime suspect. The Lizzie Borden case has captured the American popular imagination, having been made into books, dance performances, movies, even operas!

Soon after hearing about Miss Borden, we began to discuss magical realism in fiction. One patron brought Martin Dressler: The Tale of An American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser, the story of the entrepreneur at the heart of  a mysterious hotel in New York City. As its main character (and his business) become larger than life, Millhauser’s novel begins to explore the supernatural elements inherent in the American dream. 

On a related note, another reader shared one of her favorite books, Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, which explores the background of Bertha, the madwoman in the attic in the novel Jane Eyre. This book is fascinating because it acts as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's famous novel—and both books have plenty of curious supernatural elements that push and pull on the plot. We can see how the mysterious voices and violence that plague Rochester trace back to his first wife, a Creole heiress in Martinique, who in a moment of desperation consults an Obeah woman and unwittingly dooms her marriage and her sanity in one fell swoop. Witchcraft came up more than once during our discussion.  In addition to Rhys’s use of Obeah in her plot, one patron reminisced about Roald Dahl’s The Witches. A quirky, fun, and yet very scary  series of stories about child-hating crones. She said she loved reading the story as a child so much that she was inspired to dress up as a witch for a month! 

Our next book lover brought The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo, a heartfelt mixture of historical fiction and supernatural intrigue. Based on the ancient Malaysian practice of marrying a young woman to a deceased first son, “The Ghost Bride” is the story of Li Lan who explores the shadowy world of the afterlife to save herself from marrying a dead guy, and learn about truth and desire. Though Li Yan, the ghost bride in question, is meant to placate the spirit of her deceased fiancé, she winds up learning a whole lot about herself. This book is great for readers looking for a story of personal growth and discovery—with a shadowy twist.

If you think that sounds grim, one reader was eager to share William Peter Blatty’s classic horror story; The Exorcist. For the uninitiated, the book is all about the demonic possession of a twelve year old girl and the subsequent exorcism of the demon by an elderly priest. It will make your head spin!

You don’t always need a priest to help us with the supernatural, as our patrons helpfully explained. One patron shared with us his knowledge of Edgar Cayce, known as the father of the New Age. Thomas Sugrue’s biography of Cayce, There is a River outlines the journey he took to become a prominent medical clairvoyant, psychic, Christian mystic, and household name. A prominent public figure in the earlier part of the 20th century, Cayce would make prophecies about topics as wide-ranging as aliens, Atlantis, the Civil War, and the afterlife. Our reader believes he had an influence over prominent people like George Washington Carver, Woodrow Wilson, and Nikola Tesla.

Likewise, we learned about the book, Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives by Michael Newton. Newton’s work explores reincarnation and the secrets of consciousness. This book was particularly exciting to our reader because it is filled with first-person accounts of memories from past lives, and provides an authoritative take on some of the details of the process of reincarnation.

Speaking of self-help, we also had a patron come equipped with her own self-published guide to prevent being hexed or otherwise victimized by the supernatural. Impressive! If you'd like to learn how to self publish, check out Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual,  and The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Marlyn Ross and Sue Collier.

Please join us for our next Open Book Night on November 13 when our theme will be Thanksgiving. We’d love to hear about your favorite Thanksgiving books, be they stories, history, even your favorite cookbooks!

Past Open Book Nights

Click to see the list of books discussed.

Upcoming Open Book Nights

This post was co-authored with Miriam Gianni, Mid-Manhattan Library.

View all posts by Nancy Aravecz