{"id":7033,"date":"2012-09-01T01:10:37","date_gmt":"2012-09-01T06:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=7246"},"modified":"2012-08-24T18:18:46","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T23:18:46","slug":"book-review-the-little-book-of-true-ghost-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2012\/09\/01\/book-review-the-little-book-of-true-ghost-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Little Book of True Ghost Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Little Book of True Ghost Stories\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

by\u00a0 Echo Bodine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2011\u00a0 Hampton Roads Publishing (An Imprint of Red Wheel Weiser)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

ISBN:\u00a0 978-1-57174-650-4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

208 pages\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paperback<\/em><\/p>\n

$14.95 (U.S.)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Every once in a while, I enjoy dipping into waters which come dangerously close to purely entertaining without any connection to deep metaphysical topic, and ghost stories certainly seem to fall into that category.\u00a0 While they touch on the paranormal, there are no deep lessons to learn, or wisdom to be imparted.\u00a0 They exist simply to tell the stories, and sometimes that is enough.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although I didn’t recognize the name of the author, my 30-something daughter mentioned that she had heard of her.\u00a0 I can’t count the number of \u201cworld famous\u201d whatever’s that NO ONE has ever heard of, but at least she isn’t one of them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She introduces herself and gives a bit of her background before she gets into relating the stories.\u00a0 My one objection to the stories she tells is that tend to be too simplistic in my estimation \u2013 she finds the ghosts; she tells them to go to the light; the angels come and guide them to the light; end of story.\u00a0 Plus, she seems to rely on her spirit guides to do much of the legwork.\u00a0 They journey to the \u201cother side\u201d and find family members, pets, etc., to help convince the recalcitrant ghosts to make the transition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She seldom encounters any real opposition.\u00a0 Oh, there are stubborn individuals who have their own reasons for not moving on, and there are those who apparently enjoy frightening those who inhabit our own physical universe, but none who actively fight the transition.\u00a0 The way it comes across is that \u201cghostbusting\u201d (her word) is simply a different 9 to 5 occupation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Overall, I was expecting a bit more \u201cmeat\u201d than I got.\u00a0 It was all quite light and, dare I say, \u201cfluffy.\u201d\u00a0 After reading this book I was a little unsure how I felt about it.\u00a0 It was kind of like going to what you thought was going to be a formal sit-down dinner, and finding out that only appetizers were being served.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you simply want some light, entertaining reading, enjoy this book.\u00a0 If you want ghost stories with a\u00a0 bit of substance to them (the average story in this book is told in only a couple of pages), you may want to keep looking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Little Book of True Ghost Stories\u00a0 by\u00a0 Echo Bodine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a9 2011\u00a0 Hampton Roads Publishing (An Imprint of Red Wheel Weiser)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ISBN:\u00a0 978-1-57174-650-4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 208 pages\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paperback $14.95 (U.S.)   Every once in a while, I enjoy dipping into waters which come dangerously close to purely entertaining without any connection to deep metaphysical topic, and ghost stories certainly seem to fall into that category.\u00a0 While they touch on the paranormal, there are no deep lessons to learn, or wisdom to be imparted.\u00a0 They exist simply to tell the stories, and sometimes that is enough.   Although I didn’t recognize the name of the author, my 30-something daughter mentioned that she had heard of her.\u00a0 I can’t count the number of \u201cworld famous\u201d whatever’s that NO ONE has ever heard of, but at least she isn’t one of them.   She introduces herself and gives a bit of her background before she gets into relating the stories.\u00a0 My one objection to the stories she tells is that tend to be too simplistic in my estimation \u2013 she finds the ghosts; she tells them to go to the light; the angels come and guide them to the light; end of story.\u00a0 Plus, she seems to rely on her spirit guides to do much of the legwork.\u00a0 They journey to the \u201cother side\u201d and find family members, pets, etc., to help convince the recalcitrant ghosts to make the transition.   She seldom encounters any real opposition.\u00a0 Oh, there are stubborn individuals who have their own reasons for not moving on, and there are those who apparently enjoy frightening those who inhabit our own physical universe, but none who actively fight the transition.\u00a0 The way it comes across is that \u201cghostbusting\u201d (her word) is simply a different 9 to 5 occupation.   Overall, I was expecting a bit more \u201cmeat\u201d than I got.\u00a0 It was all quite light and, dare I say, \u201cfluffy.\u201d\u00a0 After reading this book I was a little unsure how I felt about it.\u00a0 It was kind of like going to what you thought was going to be a formal sit-down dinner, and finding out that only appetizers were being served.   If you simply want some light, entertaining reading, enjoy this book.\u00a0 If you want ghost stories with a\u00a0 bit of substance to them (the average story in this book is told in only a couple of pages), you may want to keep looking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}