September 27, 2016 SPIRIT IN THE SKY

I have always loved Halloween--the decorating, trick-or-treating with friends--especially the sorting of candy into piles based on which I loved and those I would trade. It's great fun to be a kid-- I'm lucky because I get to relive the thrill of Halloween through my kids. Anyways, running around Halloween is fun too because it's eery---it gets darker earlier and with the crunching of  leaves underfoot--you never know who may be following you. BOO. It's also equally scarey to run by the Lighthouse Inn because it is haunted by a ghost--a bride who fell down the winding staircase and broke her neck in 1930. I've heard that she still haunts the hallways--and cries out with lonely longing for  lodgers to haunt. Some also believe the Inn is haunted by two children who died in the Hurricane of 1938 too. Who Knows??  An equally creepy site I see on my runs is the haunted lighthouse--Ledge Light.

Mare Liberum by Pat Regan

Rumor has it, an old keeper of the lighthouse named Ernie jumped off the roof of the lighthouse after his wife ran off with a Block Island Ferry captain. Witnesses, including a Coast Guardsmen who lived at the lighthouse, confirmed its haunting as Ernie opened and slammed doors, turned the foghorns on and off and caused general chaos during his time there. Speaking of lighthouses, there is great book I read about six months ago called The Light Between the Oceans, that is set at a lighthouse--but I don't think it's haunted.
M. L. Stedman, the author of this little gem, gives us the story of a love gone tragically wrong. After spending time on the Western Front, Tom Steadman and his wife Isabel  agree to become the keepers of a lighthouse on Janus Rock in Australia. The lighthouse is on a very isolated island and  supplies are only brought out to the lighthouse once a season. Isabel is a sad, lonely soul, having had  a few miscarriages and a stillborn, she desperately wants a baby. One day a boat washes up--its contents include a dead man and a live baby. Tom wants to notify officials, but Isabel talks him into keep the baby as their own. This decision later becomes their downfall as they return to shore a few years later and eventually face the consequences of that decision. Although this is a sad story, I enjoyed the writing and the characters. I also felt great empathy for all those involved. At 345 pages--an easy 5 mile run--you too will become engrossed in their lives. It was hard to put down until the bitter end. Enjoy.