Book Review: Weird PA Reveals Pennsylvania Oddities

PA- the postal abbreviation could be mean other things, and still be fitting.

PA- Paranormal activity?
PA- Physics absent?
PA- People abnormal?

As a life-long resident of Pennsylvania (minus a three-year stint in Oklahoma), things like a ghostly handprint on the cell wall of an abandoned county jail, a hill that defies the laws of gravity, piles of rocks that have withstood thousands of years of winter winds and a serpent lurking the waters of Lake Erie all seem pretty darned normal to me. But they are some of the oddities that are nestled between the covers of Weird PA, a new release from Sterling Publishing who brought us Weird US and other weird state books.

This book comes to the delight of the daughter of former traveling show-biz duo. During weekend trips to gigs across the state, we'd always sightsee the roadside attractions and museums. This book brought back fond memories of a childhood full of exploring the Keystone State but still, I learned a lot from this bright and fun title.

The book itself is beautiful - certainly coffee table caliber. The 263 colorful pages are divided into 11 sections: Local Legends and Lore, Ancient Mysteries, Fabled People and Places, Unexplained Phenomena, Local Heroes and Villains, Personalized Properties, Roadside Oddities, Roads Less Traveled, Quaker State Ghosts, Cemetery Safari and Abandoned Places. Each of the sections reveals the oddities, tall tales and myths of Pennsylvania through colorful pictures and testimonies from actual eyewitnesses and personal accounts from the editors who visited most of the included sites. Most of the entries are short snippets, making this a good breeze-through book for those not interested in heavy reading.