Spooky California: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore

I bought this book and the Spooky campfire tales when we took the kids camping up the California coast. The stories are pretty tame but when read to the kids around a camp fire in the woods they're perfect. Just enough to get the imagination going without causing nightmares!

Not too many that are original. Many are re-told popular stories that are told in so many books. WOrth a read, if you don't already own lots of Cal. haunting books (which I do) but not worth it if you already have anextensive collection.

Another great read from S.E. Schlosser. There is quite a mix of stories in this collection. My favorite was a scary ghost story called "Vengeance" (from San Francisco), in which a Japanese woman named Ishi is murdered by her husband and her ghost returns to torment him. There is also a really funny story about Bigfoot, a sad and haunting tale about a little girl from San Diego called "The Bells", and a spine-chilling story that takes place in the Sierra Nevada called "The Corpse Walker" (I'd tell you about it, but I don't want to spoil the story for potential readers.) Oh -- I almost forgot to mention Jake and his camels! Jake is a miner who buys three ornery camels named Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego to help him work his claim. The camels take an unholy delight in tormenting everyone around them, especially Jake, who has a blind spot regarding them and thinks they are wonderful. Then Jake discovers a wealthy new vein of gold and is murdered before he can stake his new claim. A great book!

I enjoyed reading the 30 folklore stories very much. I especially appreciated the story called Tommy Knocker's, a story about hard rock gold mining. I also liked reading about Tisayac in the story titled The Guardian, a story about Yosemite National Park. There are 2 wonderful stories about ghost, gold mining, called The Spook of Misery Hill and Jake's Camels. I also enjoyed reading the Ghost Ship, a story about the Mojave Desert. S E Schlosser has done a wonderfull job of assembling and presenting folklore unique to California .