Tag Archives: paranormal

Literary Travel: Haunts of New Orleans

6 Oct

New Orleans’ dark underbelly, supernatural superstition and witching practices are well documented, so in preparation for spooky season and perhaps as you choose something to read, perhaps with a beignet and chicory coffee, you might consider opening one of these titles that explore the city’s devilish dark history – from fires to fever mistreatment, and spiritual tradition mixed with paranormal presences. 

Beyond the French Quarter, Bourbon Street, Frenchman Street, the swamp lands surrounding, Café du Monde, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, and even a cemetery tour by day, New Orleans offers another bloodline to explore, one that continues to haunt and inspire today.

Once you venture off the touristy paths, you realize that New Orleans has much more intrigue behind hidden doors, windows shut and bolted from the outside, secret messages, and taboo rituals. So, if you find yourself there, these books could help you understand what ghoul is walking among you, what legend is pulling you in, or what spirit or occult practice is summoning your energy.  

Non-Fiction

Haunted New Orleans by Bonnye Stuart: A tour through the city’s most reputedly haunted addresses, from Garden District mansions to French Quarter courtyards – told through ghost stories from locals. In BCCLS catalog

Haunted New Orleans by Troy Taylor: ghost-lore historian Troy Taylor walks us through the fires, plagues, and violence behind the city’s most famous haunted sites, including the French Quarter, the cemeteries or “Cities of the Dead” History weaves with ghost story. Audiobook on Hoopla.

New Orleans Vampires by Marita Crandle: Written by the owner of the French Quarter’s Boutique du Vampyre, this traces how New Orleans became America’s vampire capital, from fiction works to folklore and real historical studies. It’s the origin story behind the city’s most successful piece of self-mythologizing. In BCCLS catalog. Ebook in Hoopla.

The Magic of Marie Laveau by Denise Alvarado: A hands-on spiritual guide built around the real Marie Laveau’s legacy, offering prayers, rituals, and practices drawn from the Voodoo Queen’s tradition rather than just her legend. Written for practitioners, not tourists. In BCCLS catalog. Ebook in Hoopla. Audiobook in Hoopla.

Witch Queens, Voodoo Spirits, and Hoodoo Saints by Denise Alvarado: A broader guidebook to New Orleans’ occult landscape, including its Voodoo queens, Hoodoo saints, and resident spirits. The title maps the city’s magical practices back to their cultural roots and tradition. In BCCLS catalog. Ebook in Hoopla. Audiobook in Hoopla

The Axeman of New Orleans by Miriam C. Davis: The true story of the early 1900’s axe murderer who terrorized the city’s Italian immigrant community and mailed a letter to the newspaper claiming to be the devil himself. This is a true-crime account of a case that was never solved. In BCCLS catalog.  

Fiction:

The Originals (TV): The Original vampire family – Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah Mikaelson – return to New Orleans to reclaim their faction of the city they built centuries ago, but witches, werewolves, rival vampires await along with an unborn child prophecy. The Originals is a spinoff of The Vampire Diaries. In BCCLS catalog

Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice: Louis de Pointe du Lac recounts two centuries of his life to a modern-day reporter, starting with his transformation into a vampire on a Louisiana plantation by the seductive, Lestat. Their toxic bond results in their vampire-child Claudia. This novel begins Rice’s fictional landscape of New Orleans as the birthplace of American vampire fiction. In the BCCLS catalog.

(Movie and AMC series also available in the BCCLS catalog and Hoopla.)

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice: Neurosurgeon Rowan Mayfair discovers she’s the latest in a centuries-long line of New Orleans witches bound to Lasher, a spirit who has shaped her family since the 1600s. In BCCLS catalog.

(AMC series also available on Hoopla.)

Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson: Told as one long letter from Constanta to the ancient vampire, Dracula, who saved and then possessively remade her. It’s a gothic retelling that follows her from a peasant girl to an immortal realizing her “savior” is also her captor. In BCCLS catalog. Audiobook on Hoopla.

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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Dewey Decimal Challenge: Book 6: Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory by Stacy Horn (the 100s)

22 Feb

Well, I’m a week late, but we’ve finally made it to the 100s–a favorite nonfiction section of mine. The main classification is Philosophy & Psychology, which can be broken down into the following ten divisions:

  • 100 Philosophy & psychology
  • 110 Metaphysics
  • 120 Epistemology, causation, humankind
  • 130 Paranormal phenomena
  • 140 Specific philosophical schools
  • 150 Psychology
  • 160 Logic
  • 170 Ethics (moral philosophy)
  • 180 Ancient, medieval, oriental philosophy
  • 190 Modern western philosophy

Metaphysics! Humankind! Paranormal phenomena! Ethics! Yeehaw!  The 100s are for the thinkers, the dreamers, the skeptics, and the believers.

Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory by Stacy Horn (130 HOR)

unbelievable

The book that I have chosen this week deals in the paranormal and is written by Stacy Horn who is a frequent contributor to NPR, which I listen to regularly. I was very much looking forward to reading this book, and I was not disappointed. It has everything from data-driven extrasensory perception research to first-person accounts of poltergeists to the investigation of reincarnation through hypnosis. There is a lot to mull over here.

The story of the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory is really the story of J.B. Rhine, a man who devoted his life to the scientific study of ESP (extrasensory perception) and related phenomena. Rhine’s single-minded approach to studying the paranormal was often different from his colleagues. While other scientists were eager to take on cases of hauntings and chaos-creating poltergeists, Rhine would only study phenomenon that he felt could be most easily replicated and tested in his laboratory. Hence, the lab’s four main areas of study: telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis. You might balk at the idea of this phenomena being easily replicated, but you’d be surprised to learn that Rhine did have indisputable successes in his study of ESP particularly statistics that confirmed telepathy, however weak.

One of the more heartbreaking chapters in this book highlights the letters from everyday people that were received by the scientists at the Duke laboratory throughout the decades. These letters were often from people desperate to communicate with lost loved ones as well as from the mentally ill who were desperate for respite from unknown forces.

I would recommend this book though I believe that Mary Roach does this subject matter better in her book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. Fortunately, you can read both without any detriment!

Happy reading!

-Written by Sharlene Edwards, Senior Children’s Librarian

Click here to read past posts about Sharlene’s Dewey Decimal Challenge!

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