Other Voices

All writers are also readers, and I’m happy to share here some wonderful books, essays, and short stories that are related to Clockwise—writings about the seasons, about hauntings, or about the Twin Cities and its events. I hope that you’ll find new authors on this page whose acquaintance you’d like to make. 

OCTOBER, 2022

A Tomb with a View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards by Peter Ross (Headline Publishing, 2020). A book about graveyards might sound grim and depressing, especially during a pandemic that is rounding on its third year. But for me, A Tomb with a View is thought-provoking, humane, and uplifting. Ross visits cemeteries in his native United Kingdom; interviews people who are connected to them through employment, proximity, or grief; and muses on their cultural colors and strands. These graveyards vary from historic Highgate in London, where famous people such as George Eliot and Karl Marx are buried, to a single grave at the edge of the sea, where the body of a Scottish woman convicted of witchcraft in 1704 was interred under a sandstone slab. Ross’s conversations and reflections help us appreciate the bonds that link living humans to each other and to the ones who have gone before.

Ross is such a fine writer that my copy of this book bristles with sticky flags; choosing a quote to include here is difficult. This one expresses a central idea of the book, though, as well as Ross’s way with words:

“Notice everything. Regard each stone as a story waiting to be told. Accept that to walk in a cemetery is both a privilege and a lesson in humility. We are here now to read the memorials and walk on, but one day it may be our names with moss growing in the letters. Will anyone find our tales worth the telling? Will anyone, descendant or stranger, sit on our graves in the sun and think with fondness or curiosity about who we were?” (82-83).

As a stranger who enjoys visiting old graveyards, I’ll remember Ross and this book.

AUGUST, 2022

Lockwood & Co. series by Jonathan Stroud (Little, Brown, 2013-2017). As soon as I began reading the first book in this terrific mystery series, I ordered all five and arranged them on my TBR shelf. The novels’ narrator is Lucy Carlyle, a talented, brave, innovative young woman who has traveled to London to make her way on her own, as so many people have before her. She is an agent at Lockwood & Co.; along with her two partners, she investigates and neutralizes dangerous ghosts. And, against standard procedures, she sympathizes and talks with some of these spirits.

Jonathan Stroud is an excellent writer and world-builder. The London of the series appears as it is today, more or less, except for the alterations and habits that have arisen in response to the Problem—a decades-long influx of ghosts in Great Britain. While each book presents its own mystery, the series as a whole has an overarching enigma: what is the cause of these intense hauntings?

The Screaming Staircase was published in 2013, but I couldn’t stop seeing the parallels between COVID and the “epidemic” of ghosts; the objects and behaviors people use to ward off danger, the insulation that wealth brings, the advantage of youth since children and young people can see the ghosts while adults cannot, the atmosphere of formless menace amid everyday activities, and the relief of reaching home and shutting the door at last. Those parallels are nearly as spooky as the plots themselves (although they are plenty spooky for me).

I should admit that I haven’t yet read the last book in this YA series. I’m saving that one for November, when the days grow short and the shadows, long.

JUNE, 2021

The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle (Tramp Press, 2015). Originally published in 1942, this Irish novel is one of the most engrossing books I’ve read this year. Macardle’s writing style—imaginative, fresh, descriptive—was the initial attraction for me. But the story soon became the stronger current, as I followed a brother and sister who impulsively buy an uninhabited house on the coast of Devon at a suspiciously low price and begin the process of fashioning lives there that are more creative and satisfying than the ones they’ve left behind in London. Cliff End is beautiful, gracious, and troubled. The narrator and his sister quickly grow to love and then fear the house. They will not abandon it before sifting through the layers of history and hauntings to uncover the connections between the ghostly phenomena they experience and their young neighbor, Stella, whose grandfather exerts a powerful control over her. 

The house itself is a vivid character in The Uninvited, both sunny and spooky, and Macardle’s consideration of creativity in the main characters’ and their friends’ choices is fascinating. Come October, I will hunt down this book on my shelves, flip through the sections I’ve marked, and then begin Chapter I again.

Two years after the novel was published in the U.S., Lewis Allen directed a film version of The Uninvited starring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, and a very young Gail Russell. Of course, I prefer the novel, but the film has a lot to recommend it: crystalline cinematography, a sensitive score by Victor Young that includes the song “Stella by Starlight,” a screenplay that captures much of the novel’s complex storytelling, and some genuinely chilling moments involving light and sound. If you like old movies, I think you’ll enjoy The Uninvited, the first Hollywood film to treat the subject of ghosts and hauntings seriously.  

DECEMBER, 2020

I’m doing something a bit different this month; rather than recommending books that I’ve already read, I’m sharing a list of books that I’ve gathered for the wintry season but have not yet read myself. If you know of some seasonal books that look inviting, please drop me a line. Maybe we’ll discover some new favorites together. 

Midwinter Murder: Fireside Tales from the Queen of Mystery by Agatha Christie (HarperCollins, 2020). These stories aren’t new, of course, but how delightful to have them collected in one volume, with snowy cover art, no less! The stories feature Christie’s star detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, along with the lesser-known Harley Quin (say it fast), Parker Pyne, and the husband-and-wife team of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. I’m saving these stories for the nights when Minnesota’s deepest, darkest cold descends on our house, but I did dip into the introduction, “Christmas at Abney Hall,” which comes from Christie’s An Autobiography. What a delight! If you’ve ever wished to experience an over-the-top, pure-joy, indulgent-in-all-ways Christmas, this description will convince you that dreams really do come true. 

Christmas: A Biography by Judith Flanders (St. Martin’s Press, 2017). Flanders is a historian who specializes in the Victorian period, my area of study in long-ago grad school. I love books about people’s everyday lives and activities, and the more these lives differ from mine, the more interested I am in them. I was fascinated by Flanders’ Inside the Victorian Home, and I’m eager to dive into this book, which promises to be both informative and mighty entertaining. How could I resist a book whose flyleaf states, “Nearly everything you know about Christmas is wrong,” and whose pages are decorated with drawings of presents, horns, and puddings so that a reader can easily find references to gift-giving, music, food, and so on? Plus, the cover art has all the starry delight of an Advent calendar. I’m looking forward to settling in with this book and a pristine packet of sticky arrow tabs. 

A Lot Like Christmas by Connie Willis (Del Ray Books, 2017). Willis is a brand-new author to me, but that only shows up my reading deficiencies; she’s won seven Nebula and eleven Hugo awards during a long and productive career. Speculative fiction about Christmas? A cover that shows a blown-glass rocket ship ornament on a Christmas tree? I’m there! This volume includes twelve short stories; lists of recommended Yuletide movies, t.v. shows, stories, and poems; and an introduction in which Willis explains why she dislikes It’s a Wonderful Life. I thought I was the only person who doesn’t like that movie! I can’t wait to get to know her better; she’s clearly a kindred spirit of mine.

The Apple Tree by Daphne du Maurier, illustrations by Seth (Biblioasis, 2019). This little book is part of Seth’s series, “A Ghost Story for Christmas.” In creating his collection, Seth is reinvigorating a centuries-old British tradition of telling or reading ghost stories around the fire on Christmas Eve. The most famous Christmas ghost story of all, A Christmas Carol, arose out of the Victorian love of this chilling, yet cozy, pastime. Not all of these ghost stories are set during the Yule season, and to be honest, I’m not sure whether The Apple Tree is or not. I had a difficult time deciding among the titles and chose Daphne du Maurier’s story because I love the evocative descriptions of Cornwall in her novel Frenchman’s Creek and feel that a strong sense of place is an essential part of any good ghost story. There are at least seventeen titles available in Seth’s series, and each volume is the perfect size for a stocking. His stated aim is “to revive a charming custom for the long, dark nights we all know so well here at Christmastime.” I plan to savor this spooky little book by some December fireside. 

NOVEMBER, 2020

The Days of Rondo by Evelyn Fairbanks (Minnesota Historical Society, 1990). As long as I’ve lived in the Twin Cities, more than thirty years now, I’ve heard about Rondo, the St. Paul neighborhood that was split in two and largely destroyed by the building of Interstate 94 in the early 1960s. Evelyn Fairbanks has written an affectionate, detailed memoir of Rondo, describing her childhood relationships, experiences, and impressions as an African-American Minnesotan in the thirties and forties. Fairbanks writes about twilight summer games; Sunday church picnics; weeks of freedom at camp; and complicated connections to neighbors, playmates, business owners, activists, and teachers, giving me a sense of just how much was broken by the decision to run the freeway right through Rondo. Though not a mournful book, The Days of Rondo has led me to mourn the loss of a vibrant neighborhood that was considered dispensable because most of the people who lived there were Black. When Rondo was chosen as the site of I-94, five hundred families lost their homes, and St. Paul lost an irreplaceable piece of itself. Fairbanks’ engaging book helps keep this vital Black community from fading away altogether. 

Nantucket Ghosts by Blue Balliett (Down East Books, 2006). This is the book that my protagonist, Claire, reads late into the night in Chapter 14 of Clockwise. Nantucket Ghosts is a series of personal accounts of islanders’ encounters with the paranormal, told mostly in their own words. According to Balliett, many of the people interviewed are embarrassed or reluctant witnesses to hauntings rather than attention-seekers, and the stories support that. Some of them are about malevolent ghosts, certainly, and other tales are quite creepy, such as “A Little Girl” and “George Cushman.” However, many phantoms appear to be harmless, even friendly, while others seem oblivious to the living. “Sixteen Men,” one of the latter types, is a terrifically memorable story that no one could possibly make up, in my opinion. The somber black-and-white photographs by Lucy Bixby add to the solitary, windswept island atmosphere that Balliett creates in Nantucket Ghosts. If you want to be intrigued and educated by “everyday” apparitions, give this book a try. It’s perfect for November evenings. 

OCTOBER, 2020

Autumn: An Anthology for the Changing Seasons edited by Melissa Harrison. (Elliott and Thompson, 2016). This anthology of British nature writings is a book to ramble rather than sprint though. I’ve been reading one short essay, poem, or memoir excerpt every couple of days, and that pace seems about right. Some of the authors are well known (Percy Bysshe Shelly, George Eliot, Gerard Manley Hopkins), but many of the authors are new to me; I am relishing the contemporary pieces especially. The book offers a long look into the culture of the British as they pick blackberries, search for rare birds, and walk their dogs through fog-enshrouded woods. I’ve already purchased the anthology dedicated to writings about winter; can spring and summer be far behind? 

The Nearly Departed: Minnesota Ghost Stories and Legends by Michael Norman (Minnesota Historical Society, 2009). Minnesota is not a state known for generating terrifying ghost stories, and that’s fine by me. Author Michael Norman relates stories that are quirky, personal, touching, and spooky—seldom truly frightening. Having familiarity with some of the haunted Twin Cities locations described (the Fitzgerald Theater, Forepaugh’s Restaurant, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art), I was all set to venture further afield this fall and have a meal or stay the night at the Palmer House Hotel in Sauk Centre and Thayer’s Bed and Breakfast in Annandale, both of which are the reputed home to flocks of ghosts. COVID has put these plans on hold, but I haven’t abandoned them altogether. I don’t want to see the little boy ghost who plays in the hallways of the Palmer House, though—that would be too creepy.

Ghosts: Mysterious Tales from the National Trust by Siân Evans. (Anoval, 2006). After visiting several properties owned by the National Trust in Great Britain in years past, I was delighted to find this book, which relates stories of “things that go bump in the afternoon.” The haunted properties under discussion are illustrated by atmospheric black-and-white photos, and for each location, Evans provides a historical context as well as accounts of past and present ghostly manifestations. Many of these latter accounts come from National Trust staff and employees who know the eccentricities of these centuries-old buildings well and who aren’t spooked by the creaking and groaning of elderly timbers. A dramatic haunting in the Treasurer’s House, located in York, England, and experienced by a young apprentice who was installing central heating in the cellars at the time of the event, is one of the most compelling “true” ghost stories that I have ever come across. I read this book every October to set the mood for Halloween and the change-over from the long days of green and yellow to the short days of gold and black. It’s a mellow charmer of a book. 

“Seeding a Family Tradition” by John Moe. (Star Tribune Magazine, June 24, 2020). The Clockwise chapter that I had the most fun writing is the one about the Minnesota State Fair, partly because it allowed me to give a shout-out to crop art, which is made by the artist gluing down an array of seeds in order to represent Prince, the Pillsbury Doughboy, or a lion on the savannah. Crop art is such a Minnesotan activity, both subversive and creative in a zany, low-key way, and I thoroughly enjoyed writer and radio personality John Moe’s essay about his family involvement in this unusual art form. Enjoy. 

https://www.startribune.com/seed-art-a-family-tradition-for-author-john-moe/571463992/