Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Non-Spooky Ghost Stories

Who says that Halloween reading needs to be frightening and gory? Here are two former bestsellers narrated by the recently-departed, exploring the often taboo topics of death and the afterlife with curiosity and compassion.

The Lovely Bones (2002) by Alice Sebold

The spirit of fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon describes her murder, her surprise at her new home in heaven, and her witness to her family's grief, efforts to find the killer, and attempts to come to terms with what has happened.

The Peony Pavilion (2007) by Lisa See

Peony, the cloistered daughter of a wealthy scholar in seventeenth-century China, returns after her death as a well-meaning ghost to haunt her former fiancé, who has married another.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Non-Spooky Ghost Stories

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