Review: A Demon-Haunted Land, by Monica Black (Bookshop.org) To understand something about how one type of society began the process of becoming a very different one, this book looks at two distinctive but related forms of postwar haunting. One plagued individuals, beleaguered souls who sought spiritual respite -- who wanted to be healed, transformed, or... Continue Reading →
A Former Evangelical on American Christianity, the Midwest, and Mike Pence
Book review: Interior States, by Meghan O'Gieblyn (Amazon / Book Depository) ... It’s difficult to avoid sensing something perverse in the fact that I have returned so obsessively to the religion I spent my early adulthood trying to escape. And while I have written so much about the Midwest, the truth is that I’ve often... Continue Reading →
The Epicenter of Silly: Light Looks at Modern Magic and Magical Thinking
Book review: Not in Kansas Anymore, by Christine Wicker (Amazon / Book Depository) Forty years ago, when the current occult revival was beginning to gain strength, the wisest thinkers in the land predicted that faith in the supernatural was shriveling and would soon die back to insignificance. The scientific worldview demanded such a shift. Who could... Continue Reading →
Weird, Wonderful Observations on Mysteries of Scandal, Fraud, Psychics, and Other Curiosities
Book review: Lost at Sea, by Jon Ronson Amazon So You've Been Publicly Shamed is one of those books that I haven't been able to decide if I should read. But I knew as soon as I heard comedian Karen Kilgariff describe another of British journalist Jon Ronson's books, Lost at Sea, that I had to read... Continue Reading →
Conversations About the Other Side
Book review: Psychics, Healers & Mediums, by Jenniffer Weigel It's Halloween! Time for a ghosty post! I haven't read much recently that's Halloween-applicable, but as a favorite spooky read, I recommend Colin Dickey's scary but skeptical Ghostland. Now for the less skeptical... Jenniffer Weigel is a Chicago Tribune columnist, radio host, and reporter who's already written about her... Continue Reading →