...ghostly presence and books...

Necklace designed by Dark Fawn Jewelry

Ghosts have been on my mind lately.  

I wore this necklace the other day. Three sets of three- three candles on each side; three ghosts (one on the back of the necklace), and the loveliest labradorite. I try to match my jewelry with my mood or with what's going on in my teaching or in my head.

Women and Ghosts (1994) by Alison Lurie is a collection of nine ghost stories about women being haunted. I started reading the book this week after a recommendation from a favorite writer’s blog post. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down although I did. I tried to pace myself by reading just one chapter, or one story in each sitting.

I admit that I have not read any of Lurie’s pieces before even though she is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author of fiction and nonfiction. Lurie also was an English professor at Cornell University where she taught children’s literature. Looking over some of her non-fiction selections, since I find myself reading more of that these days, she published Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: The Subversive Power of Children's Literature in 1998. The book includes essays where she explores children’s literature and argues that many of the traditional favorites do not uphold our cultural values. I’ll have to give that a look because now I’m curious.

Her bestseller, which also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985 is Foreign Affairs: A Novel, which focuses on two American university professors in England. Being a professor, I’m a sucker for reading books about professors, writers, and books. That’s right, books about books. I eat it up.

Today I finished Women and Ghosts with the ninth chapter, "The Double Poet" having me laughing nervously to myself since it felt a bit too uncanny. It’s somewhat of a traditional doppelgänger story. I don’t want to ruin it for you in case you decide to read the collection. I’ll just note that the narrator is a visiting professor at a university and at one point when I was already feeling like there were a few too many similarities between the main character and myself, she mentions that there are only two weeks of school left in the semester. Well, there are only two weeks left in this semester. 

And, the narrator talks about an upcoming book reading and signing. Again, a bit uncanny because tomorrow I have my first book signing locally for Women Writers Buried in Virginia. I cannot share more of the story without taking away another reader’s joy but I will note that I absolutely adored the ending, which is rare. I usually get huffy about bad endings.

While one of the most hectic semesters if not the most hectic semester in my teaching career winds down, I’m already thinking about next semester and the courses that I’m teaching. I’m ending up with two sections of Ghost Stories and Haunted History and a section of Dark Tourism. Looks like 2022 is going to be extra spooky!

After finishing Lurie’s book, I have The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton and my Big Book of Christmas Mysteries ready.