Here are 57 books that Living Magic fans have personally recommended if you like
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I've always been fascinated by experiences that exist on the border of the ordinary. Growing up, my grandmother would tell us, in serious tones, of the fairies and ghosts she had encountered—how closely the natural and the “supernatural” are linked. In my twenties, I would read a lot about shamanism and the kinds of extraordinary experiences they would actively seek. Later, noticing similarities between those experiences and the spontaneous experiences of ordinary people, my interest continued to grow. Near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, but especially crisis apparitions—these experiences spoke strongly to me about how little we still know of the nature of the mind and how much there is yet to discover!
For me personally, this is one of the best works on spontaneous psychical and extrasensory experiences. The accounts are drawn from rural Finland, and the expertise of the late Professor Emerita Leea Virtanen is brought to bear upon the narratives. I love how Virtanen connects the modern accounts to the old beliefs and traditions in her country and makes comparisons between her sample and others much further afield.
This work is a much-needed bridge between psychical research and folklore. It is full of apparitions, visions, dreams, and other supernatural occurrences that happen simultaneously with a distant event—what Virtanen calls “simultaneous informatory experiences.” I absolutely recommend this for any student of psychical research, folklore, or ordinary human experiences in general.
I've always been fascinated by experiences that exist on the border of the ordinary. Growing up, my grandmother would tell us, in serious tones, of the fairies and ghosts she had encountered—how closely the natural and the “supernatural” are linked. In my twenties, I would read a lot about shamanism and the kinds of extraordinary experiences they would actively seek. Later, noticing similarities between those experiences and the spontaneous experiences of ordinary people, my interest continued to grow. Near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, but especially crisis apparitions—these experiences spoke strongly to me about how little we still know of the nature of the mind and how much there is yet to discover!
This one is a real hidden gem for someone like me who is so interested in spontaneous accounts of ESP. Eason offers dozens of extraordinary and fascinating accounts of telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance collected from truly the most “ordinary people.” Concentrating her efforts on quiet housing estates, spooky suburbs, and their anonymous residents, this work shines in its compelling ordinariness.
The accounts, though, are anything but, and I love how the links are made between the stories collected and some of the oldest tales. Something that really came out for me in this work, too, is just how common the strangest experiences are and how the fact we don't share them is really why it can sometimes feel like the opposite is true. Can't recommend enough!
Fascinating psychic happenings and ordinary grass-roots experience, this book relates true stories of phantoms, poltergeists and spirit guides reliably reported from modern terraced homes and shopping streets. Telepathy, near-death experiences and out-of-body journeys are examined. Dedicated ghost hunters welcoming a fresh slant on their favourite topic will be intrigued by this book. But millions of suburb-dwellers everywhere will also be intrigued by the prospect of psychic events among the ordinary semis and settees. This title is an ideal blend of New Age spirituality and suburban common sense.
I've always been fascinated by experiences that exist on the border of the ordinary. Growing up, my grandmother would tell us, in serious tones, of the fairies and ghosts she had encountered—how closely the natural and the “supernatural” are linked. In my twenties, I would read a lot about shamanism and the kinds of extraordinary experiences they would actively seek. Later, noticing similarities between those experiences and the spontaneous experiences of ordinary people, my interest continued to grow. Near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, but especially crisis apparitions—these experiences spoke strongly to me about how little we still know of the nature of the mind and how much there is yet to discover!
I find this to be one of the most overlooked and yet fascinating works dealing with, among other things, spontaneous encounters with the dead. The apparitions and visions in this work, which often coincide with deaths, are primarily drawn from Switzerland.
Each account, in letter form to the author, is as compelling as the last, and Jaffe offers a unique Jungian perspective that I personally found to be at least very novel and intriguing. The accounts themselves, however, are the star of the show, and Jaffe, like Virtanen earlier in this list, makes some interesting connections between her sample and those further afield. I believe anyone interested in experiences of spontaneous encounters with the dead should have this singular work on their bookshelves!
I've always been fascinated by experiences that exist on the border of the ordinary. Growing up, my grandmother would tell us, in serious tones, of the fairies and ghosts she had encountered—how closely the natural and the “supernatural” are linked. In my twenties, I would read a lot about shamanism and the kinds of extraordinary experiences they would actively seek. Later, noticing similarities between those experiences and the spontaneous experiences of ordinary people, my interest continued to grow. Near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, but especially crisis apparitions—these experiences spoke strongly to me about how little we still know of the nature of the mind and how much there is yet to discover!
I have been an admirer of Dr. Robert Crookall ever since I first read this amazing work. While dealing with primarily out-of-body experiences, this book details apparitional encounters, examples of spontaneous telepathy and clairvoyance, and even near-death experiences long before the term even came into general use!
So many detailed accounts fill these pages, and there is a certain sincerity here that I enjoy. The letters to the author detailing the strange and fascinating experiences of ordinary people and the author's careful consideration were a dynamic I really enjoyed and kept me turning page after page!
In my opinion, this influential book needs to be on the shelf of anyone interested in spontaneous and mysterious human experiences.
Robert Crockall's classic study in the art and practice of astral projection. First hand accounts, over 100 cases and experiences from those who nearly died, very ill, well people and other conditions. This book was the major source of astral projection information. First edition 1966.
I love sport. I played my last game of cricket when I was 69 and, as I approach my eightieth year, I continue to play golf, confusing my partners by switching from right to left hand when chipping and putting. I like watching sport but prefer to spectate via television rather than being there. I confess I do not fully understand American sports: I cannot fathom why a hit over the fence in baseball can score 1, 2, 3, or 4 rather than the undisputed 6 of cricket; and, while I admire the strategies of American football, I wonder why a ‘touchdown’ does not actually involve touching down.
Indigenous populations too have had a raw deal: from settlers who took their land and from those who felt they knew what was best for them. Although among the lesser sinners, sports historians have disregarded their traditional sports and focussed on their participation in sports imposed on them by invading powers. In contrast, Australian Aborigines feature in Roy Hay’s book as sportspersons in their own right. Hay shows that they were human beings who performed a constructive role in Australia’s sporting history. He does this not as a woke, bleeding heart academic but as a historian determined to unearth the ‘true’ story of Aboriginal participation in Australian Rules Football. As an Australian citizen I wanted to read this story.
This book will revolutionise the history of Indigenous involvement in Australian football in the second half of the nineteenth century. It collects new evidence to show how Aboriginal people saw the cricket and football played by those who had taken their land and resources and forced their way into them in the missions and stations around the peripheries of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. They learned the game and brought their own skills to it, eventually winning local leagues and earning the respect of their contemporaries. They were prevented from reaching higher levels by the gatekeepers of the domestic…
From a young age, I've been engrossed by the complexities of identity, a theme I explore as an Australian speculative fiction writer. My own identity comes with its quirks—I hold a Bachelor of Music in Composition, spent a decade in admin roles, and the better part of another decade teaching English to adult migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. This eclectic background enriches my narratives, which blend supernatural elements with grounded realism and diverse representation. Whether it's exploring loneliness or delving into the lives of victims of bullying, my unique lens makes me well-suited to recommend books that tackle intricate themes of identity.
Ghost Bird by Aboriginal Australian author Lisa Fuller is a YA horror/mystery with a compelling narrative that delves into the internal conflict of identity on multiple fronts—scientific rationality versus traditional beliefs, being an Aboriginal person in a colonised land, and the weight of being the 'responsible' sibling to your more reckless twin.
The book's atmosphere is eerie, and I found the mystery compelling. It had me guessing as to what was really going on (a kidnapping or something supernatural?) until right before the climax. The descriptions of the unfairness and difficulties of attending high school resonated strongly with me (even though I have never been an Aboriginal woman, the school experiences were so realistic that they spoke to me and my memory of school).
A thrilling, multi award-winning, teen ghost story, from a First Nations Australian author, drawing on the culture and beliefs of her close-knit community. Stacey and Laney are twins and mirror images of each other but as different as the sun and the moon. Stacey wants to go places, do things and be someone different while Laney just wants to skip school and sneak out of the house to meet her boyfriend Troy. When Laney doesn't come home one night, the town assumes she's just doing her normal run-off but Stacey's gut tells her different. Stacey knows her twin isn't dead…
I come from the Dusun hilltribes of Indigenous Borneo. My mountain is Kinabalu, and my river is Kiulu. My upbringing gives me a new way to talk about the world. I have participated in ongoing rituals, witnessed the loss of once-abundant wilderness, and shared in stories that are filled with ancient wisdom. My Elders’ knowledge about the land, sea, and sky is etched in my memory, grounding me to cultural roots and prompting reflection on life’s essential questions. In my travels, I have found that these universal questions intersect with the stories and experiences of Indigenous communities worldwide. This worldview urges me to not let these stories fade.
Poetry like this is crucial to telling the other side of the story. It’s a counternarrative, and that’s why Oodgeroo’s work has shaped my thinking and experiences in life-affirming ways.
Oodgeroo sees her work as an extension of the songkeeping and oral storytelling so intrinsic to Indigenous social life and survival. Her poems are not simply about a bygone past, as every line is relevant today (but hush, you mustn’t say so, Oodgeroo teases). That’s why I treasure her wit and writing – they give me life, a lifeline to a reality often denied us in Western thought.
It is written with so much beauty, elegance, and hope. Full of love for her people and full of grace, passion, and rage. Because there is so much to rage about (but that is another story)…
Oodgeroo’s writing has a unique place in Australian literature. When her poetry was first published in the 1960s, Kath Walker, as she was known then, provided a brave new voice for marginalised Aboriginal Australians. For the first time, an Aboriginal Australian was analysing and judging white Australians as well as her own people. She often made provocative and passionate pleas for justice:
We want hope, not racialism, Brotherhood, not ostracism, Black advance, not white ascendance: Make us equals, not dependants.
This collection of poetry and prose is a reminder of Oodgeroo’s contribution to Indigenous culture and the journey…
I am a doctor who is lucky enough to have worked in many countries with many people. I wanted to do this ever since I read Albert Sweitzer’s biography when I was about thirteen. I enrolled in medicine as a single parent in my thirties, then built up experience in emergency departments, pediatrics, obstetrics, remote area locum work, and a year in a hospice before beginning my career overseas. Being a doctor was, at one and the same time, exhilarating and terrifying, heartbreaking and absolutely filled with joy. The more I was able to connect to my patients, the more I loved every moment of my work. I hope the books on this list will give that same gift to you.
I think the librarian at Alice Springs Hospital in the Australian Northern Territory ordered this by mistake. It is about Canadian First Nations, not Australian ones. I read it when I was working there as an intern back in the 1990s and bought my own copy to keep forever.
Any modern doctor will be either working in a colonized land or meeting patients who have known oppression and/or dispossession and are, therefore, suffering from the effects of that trauma, often passed down the generations. This book opened my eyes to a totally different way of seeing right and wrong, of judging—or not judging—community sexual, alcohol, or drug abuse.
I worked with remote area Aboriginal people in Australia and with many tribes in African countries, and the perspective this book gave me allowed me to be effective in ways I would otherwise have missed.
In his bestselling book Dancing with a Ghost, Rupert Ross began his exploration of Aboriginal approaches to justice and the visions of life that shape them. Returning to the Teachings takes this exploration further still.
During a three-year secondment with Justice Canada, Ross travelled from the Yukon to Cape Breton Island, examining—and experiencing—the widespread Aboriginal preference for “peacemaker justice.” In this remarkable book, he invites us to accompany him as he moves past the pain and suffering that grip so many communities and into the exceptional promise of individual, family and community healing that traditional teachings are now restoring to…
I’m a fantasy author and mythologist who studies myth’s place in culture, history, and heritage conservation. To finish my doctorate, I moved from Seattle to Galway, Ireland and never left. Myth and folklore permeate the landscape around me as well as my day-to-day life. After grad school I returned to my first love, fiction, with all the knowledge and passion that came from the better part of a decade spent studying mythology. When I’m not writing, I spend my time exploring 5000-year-old tombs or practicing Fiore (14th century Italian sword fighting) with my husband. The Serpent and the Swan is the debut fairy tale in a much larger series.
Folklore and nature conservation is a subjects close to my heart. When I met my husband, an ecologist, many of our first conversations were on the importance of narrative to get people interested in conservation efforts. Folklore is the perfect tool.
This book does that job beautifully. As a piece of narrative nonfiction, it collects fairy tales, personal memoirs, and natural history in a lyrical journey through the forests of England. Maitland centers each chapter on an English woodland and the stories associated with it, be they fairy tales or history. More importantly, she discusses not only how myth shapes culture, but how landscape shapes myth. I reference it time and again not only as an academic, but as an author who creates worlds rich in landscape and folklore.
Fairytales are one of our earliest and most vital cultural forms, and forests one of our most ancient landscapes. Both evoke a similar sensation in us - we find them beautiful and magical, but also spooky, sometimes horrifying.
In this fascinating book, Maitland argues that the two forms are intimately connected: the mysterious secrets and silences, gifts and perils of the forests were both the background and the source of the fairytales made famous by the Grimms and Hans Christian Andersen. Yet both forests and fairy stories are at risk and their loss deprives us of our cultural lifeblood. Maitland…
I’m an accidental historian, one that stumbled over a love of history in spite of myself. In school, history was all just dates and places—not the kind of thing to inspire a kid that loved stories about people, not dusty old battles. But then a funny thing happened on the way to an English degree. A few history electives suddenly seemed way more appealing than another round of Austen, and led me to a BA History with Distinction. The first half of the twentieth century is a favorite period, but I say bring on the Renaissance and Viking ships too!
The story sounds like legend: three young girls flee their captors and survive a thousand-mile trek across the Australian desert. Sadly, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fenceis all too true. It traces the real-life journey of Molly, Gracie, and Daisy, three Aboriginal Australian children forcibly removed from their families in 1930, part of a racist government strategy to wipe out Aboriginal culture. It’s an amazing tale of survival, but what really inspires me is Molly’s story after that fateful journey: her refusal to give in to a system bent on crushing her. Remarkably, almost a hundred years later, her fight for human rights still echoes in the headlines of today.
