Welcome to Litsy!

Journalist Mira Ptacin spent a summer learning and getting to know the residents and history of Camp Etna, a colony of Spiritualists in Maine that has been around since the late 1800s. This book grabbed my attention from the very beginning and kept it. I loved the way that Mira went into this with an open mind and open heart and how she grew over the course of her experiences. Great read!

So slow. Way too dense. Maybe it was poor timing. I am having trouble focusing with all the craziness in the world, but I just couldn‘t get into this one.

Back when the Spiritualism movement began, there were permanent camping grounds where Spiritualists and people interested in it would gather in the Summer to hear lectures, attend classes and practice their occult gifts. Few of these places still exist, but Camp Etna is one of them. This book is about the people of Etna and how the author met and was inspired by them. If you are curious about psychic abilities, this book is instructive.

I enjoyed this book but it was also SOUNDLY in my wheelhouse: ghosts, religion, & feminism? Check, check, & check. I‘ll almost certainly be visiting this strange little camp in Maine this Summer (maybe with my mother-in-law in-tow; will I win the award for Weirdest Family Vacation Ever?). But I‘d be hesitant to recommend it to...well, anyone who isn‘t me. 😅👇🏻

“Each time the Fox sisters addressed a crowd, they were also shedding their Victorian sensibilities and their assigned gender roles, breaking the ossified boundaries between classes, ages, sexes. Each time they stepped into the stage, they were inspiring a silent but large segment of the nation that was hungry for change and someone to start it.”

Loving these connections between the women‘s suffrage movement, feminism, & Spiritualism.
👻🌸💪🏻

While interesting, this book felt shallow to me. The author didn't dig deeply enough into the history of Spiritualism, the lives of the mediums of Camp Etna, or her own thoughts to be satisfying enough for this reader.