Grave goods

the long version

"Grave goods - objects placed with the deceased at burial - represent a material and metaphorical bridge between life and afterlife. Grave Goods, the book, walks us across that bridge from the world we comfortably label "real" to what lies beyond: the realm of spirits, psychics, untimely deaths, strange disappearances, and occult phenomena. With wit, wry curiosity, and redemptive irony John P. O'Grady peels back the surface of the seemingly normal to reveal the dubious, the inexplicable, the outlandish." "Grave Goods includes ghost stories, macabre modern legends, and metaphysical investigations, all informed by the natural sciences, history, philosophy, literature, and mythology. From laugh-out-loud funny to eerily thoughtful, these essays reveal the natural world as a place of unnatural surprises and strange beauty."--BOOK JACKET.