Ghost Hunting

Title: Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from The Atlantic Paranormal Society
Author: Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, Michael Jan Friedman
Original Publishing Date: 2007
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: B


While you have to take most ghost stories or ghost hunting books with a grain of salt, this one is completely different. Not only is it written by the founder of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) and therefore carries more credibility with that fact alone, but it is not written with the intent to thrill or scare the reader like so many other ghost related books. Instead, it presents the facts of each case, the homeowners' complaints, the research conducted by the TAPS crew, and the findings. Each case is presented in a well constructed scientific manner (with a little of the group's antics thrown in for entertainment value).

Jason and Grant, whom you may know from the Scifi Channel's Ghost Hunters, founded TAPS on the premise of trying to debunk the bogus claims of ghosts and other paranormal activity, while documenting and analyzing legitimately unexplainable phenomena. As Jason explains in the first couple of chapters, they do not buy into the theories that doors opening by themselves or bumps in the night automatically mean that a place is haunted. They go in to an investigation armed with common sense, sophisticated equipment and intuitive problem solving skills and try to figure out what natural forces could be causing the unusual activity. Many times they are able to point to an unanchored pipe or a loose door frame as a possible cause for the so-called ghostly activity and therefore dismiss it away with an alternative explanation. Other times, after testing every possible theory they can think of, they are left with no explanation for what could be causing the activity. Even then, they are reluctant to label the activity as "paranormal."

The book opens with Jason giving a brief synopsis of the personal experiences that eventually led him to found The Atlantic Paranormal Society, or TAPS as it is more commonly known. For anyone who is a fan of Ghost Hunters, this is particularly interesting considering Jason and Grant have both been very tight lipped about their experiences before TAPS. Whether or not Jason gives us the whole story is still unknown, but he certainly has opened up more in the book than he ever has on the show. He then goes into describing how he met Grant and how and why the decided to found TAPS. The next chapter is devoted to explaining the TAPS bylaws, their crew, theories, and equipment. Once the reader has an understanding of what they are trying to do (in case they didn't already know), the book dives into a chronology of cases that the TAPS crew investigated both on and off the screen.

I found most of these cases interesting and well written. There were a couple that left me wanting to know more, however. Jason is the primary "voice" in the retelling of these fascinating cases, but Grant throws his take in at the end of every case, just so we get an idea of what was going on in both of their heads. One of the things that I found exciting was that not only were we able to see cases that TAPS had investigated pre-Ghost Hunters, but Jason was able to tell the readers a little bit about what took place off-camera on the cases that were aired on Ghost Hunters.

I scored the book a B, because even though I would probably read it again and still enjoy it, I did feel like there could have been a bit more written about each case. Jason seems to rush through a lot of them. I would have liked to learn more about the clients, the histories of the buildings and homes they were investigating, the evidence itself, etc. Maybe there wasn't more to each case and anything that could have been added would have just been boring filler, I don't know. I just got a feeling like some of them were rushed. Other than that though, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the show and is a fan of TAPS.

I only hope that they decide to write a sequel, including a lot of their more recent cases! How fun would that be!

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Title: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Author: Zora Neale Hurston
Original Publishing Date: 1937
Genre: African-American Literature, Classics
Rating: A


My husband, Jerry, recommended this book to me. He, like so many others, had read it in high school and remembered it to be pretty good. Since I have embarked on this mission to read the classics, he thought it would be a good addition to my internal library.

I began the book without any real expectations. Jerry warned me that the dialog was written phonetically in rural Southern black dialect and therefore might be difficult to read, so at least I was prepared for that. I also had limited knowledge that it was written by one of the premier writers of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s and 40s, Zora Neale Hurston (**Note: visit Zora Neale Hurston's official site to listen to Ruby Dee read the fist couple of pages of the book! Its awesome!).

So, I began reading the book a few months ago and while its been slow going because of my busy lifestyle and because I was ambitions enough to start two books at once, I did find it to be a very enjoyable read. The story flowed remarkably well and kept my interest piqued from the very beginning.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is the story of Janie Crawford, a beautiful, middle-aged woman of African-American and Caucasian decent. The book begins on the porches of several of Janie's neighbors in her all-black community of Eatonville, Florida. Her neighbors watch (and gossip) as Janie returns home from a long hiatus, under "mysterious" circumstances dressed in a pair of overalls as opposed to the fancy satin dress she left town in. Janie's self-appointed best friend, Phoeby Watson, is elected to go find out what happened to Janie during her absence and report back to the neighbors. They are also quite curious as to the whereabouts of the the young man, Tea Cake, that Janie had left town with. Knowing her neighbors like she does and how they would speculate until her name was dragged through the mud and back, Janie decides to tell Phoeby her story from the beginning.

Janie was raised by her grandmother, Nanny, who was born a slave and was freed at the end of the Civil War, shortly after her only daughter was born (the progeny of one of those master-slave mistress affairs). Nanny loved her daughter dearly and vowed to give her a fabulous life after she was freed from the bonds of slavery. Unfortunately it was not to be and when her daughter turned up pregnant after being raped by a white man herself, Nanny had to rethink her views on free life. When Janie was born, her mother more or less took off, leaving the baby girl to be raised by her grandmother. This time, Nanny's plan was to have Janie married off to a man of prosperity and substantial social status, ensuring the girl's security, at the first inclination of her maturity, which in Janie's case was at the tender age of 16. The man that Nanny chose was Logan Killicks, a much older farmer and landowner. But Janie longed for love and to find her own identity and she certainly did not love Logan and he certainly wouldn't allow her to be herself. Finally, after several months of mediocre married life, Janie finds the opportunity to escape and pursue her chances to fine love and her sense of self.

Janie's story takes us through her trials and tribulations and the events that lead to her return to Eatonville, alone and under a cloud of neighborhood gossip. It was beautifully told. Hurston had an almost poetic way of writing and often used powerful metaphors to drive her descriptions home. The dialog really was not an issue for me because I have read several books with that type of writing before, particularly my all time favorite, Gone With the Wind, so I was used to it. There were some instances when slang terms that have long since died were used and I had trouble understanding that she was referring to, but in most cases, I was able to discern what the author was talking about through the context.

I do plan to read this book again in the future and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in African-American literature, or who, like me, is interested in the classics. This one definitely falls under that category. Next time I read it, though, I will be sure not to read any other books at the same time, and will spend much more time absorbing the story and the writing style.