The Haunting of Alma Fielding

by Kate Summerscale (Penguin, $28) Kate Summerscale’s latest nonfiction tale “reads like a novel you don’t want to put down,” said Ilana Masad in NPR.org. In 1938, a reallife housewife in suburban London claimed her home had been invaded by a poltergeist, attracting the attention of a Hungarian-born ghost hunter. But this book isn’t just about supernatural spirits. “It’s also a narrative about women and power, about the fear of looming war, about the choices people make in order to escape certain aspects of their lives.”